That had been wild. She’d never wanted a guy that much that quickly.

In spite of the fact they’d met over the back of an alpaca.

Her friend and veterinarian, Tori, had come back to Iowa to gather her menagerie of special-needs animals she’d been collecting to relocate them to Louisiana with her back in March. Her boyfriend, Josh, and his cousin Mitch had come along to help. It wasn’t a small feat to move cows and pigs and a passel of cats and dogs a thousand miles to a new home.

But it wasn’t until Tori had come back to visit her parents in July—and to take another few goats and another cow back with her—that Paige had met them. She’d simply gone out to Tori’s place to say hi. She hadn’t expected to get the hottest one-night stand of her life out of it. But she’d been more than happy with how the visit had turned out.

And now he was back. To see her. Tori didn’t need his help this time. Yes, she was taking an alpaca back to Louisiana with her, but she and Josh could handle one animal. Mitch was here to see Paige. And that made her belly flutter and her chest feel warmer than it should have.

She shook that off. She needed to just focus. On getting Mitch out of here and up to her apartment before anyone planned a bridal shower and then getting him naked as soon as possible.

“Okay, we’ll go out together and pretend to be talking about the heating system,” she told him.

“Furnace,” he told her with a grin. “It’s called a furnace.”

She swatted his arm. “Yeah. Okay. The furnace.” So he knew that she’d lost her ability to think of the word furnace. It was okay he knew that he affected her. He did. And what would hiding that get her?

“So we’re going to talk about the work I did on your furnace?” he asked, somehow making the question sound dirty.

She laughed. “Yes.”

“Without any tools?” he asked, turning his empty palms up.

She shrugged. “There might not be anyone outside anyway. But I guess we can talk about the work you’re going to do?”

He wiggled his brows. “I definitely have a lot of thoughts about what I’m going to do to your heating system.”

It was the drawl. It had to be. How did that cheesy teasing make her stomach flip and her want to giggle? It was the most obvious line he could have used. Any other guy probably would have said the same thing. But Mitch Landry said it and her libido started dancing to “Single Ladies.” And singing.

NO. No, no, no.

He was not going to put a ring on it.

“Yeah, so…” She cleared her throat. “Say something about…”

“Nuts?” he offered. “Or screws, maybe? I could talk about things I need to bang. Or pound. Or what a tight fit it will be.”

She put her hand over his mouth, shaking her head, telling her libido to knock it off. “How about you make something up about a duct or something?”

She felt him grin behind her hand. His fingers wrapped around her wrist and he pulled her hand back. But not before kissing her palm and sending tiny electric shocks to her belly.

“I can do that,” he said.

“Okay, great.” Her voice was breathless. Maybe even more so than when he’d had her pinned against the door. What was that?

She didn’t want to analyze it.

She took a breath and turned toward the door.

“I really think it’s your blower motor,” Mitch said from behind her.

She started to snort as she stepped out into the lobby.

And into a small crowd of women.

She came up short, surprised. “Uh, hi, ladies.”

There were only three women left over from the earlier class, but the way they’d all swung toward the door and had wide eyes and expectant looks on their faces made them seem more numerous somehow.

Paige felt Mitch stop directly behind her. Not quite bumping into her but not with any real space between them.

Her blower motor. Uh-huh.

“I was hoping you could take a look at my furnace too,” Linda Ritter said.

To Mitch.

Her gaze had slid right past Paige to the man over her shoulder.

“Oh,” he said. “Well… yes.”

Paige frowned and turned to face him. “You don’t have to do that.”

“He’s a repairman, right?” Linda asked.

“He’s just…”

“Passing through,” Mitch supplied.

“But you’re looking at Paige’s blower motor?” Linda asked. “How long will that take?”

Mitch cleared his throat and Paige knew he was not thinking about her furnace. She wanted to elbow him but that would have been very obvious to their little audience here.

“I probably won’t be available for anything else until tomorrow,” he said.

He sounded as if he actually meant to take a look at Linda’s furnace. And Linda was fifty-something, happily married, with four kids, and was a first-grade teacher. Paige thought she actually wanted Mitch to actually look at her actual furnace.

“Tomorrow is fine,” Linda said. “We’ve been at my mom’s for the past two days. One more night will be okay. We’d just be so grateful.”

Paige frowned and focused on Linda. “Your furnace has been out for two days?”

She nodded. “And with the big storm this week, Larry and Mike have been swamped with work on a couple of roofs that had tree branches come down, so they can’t get over to look at furnaces.”

This was not good. Linda didn’t just need her furnace filters cleaned out or something. She actually needed it repaired. And now, because of her lie about who Mitch was, Linda was going to have the hopes that she’d be back in her own warm home tomorrow night.

“Oh wow, if you’re completely without heat, I’ll stop by yet this afternoon,” Mitch said.

Paige turned back to him again. She was going to have whiplash. She frowned at him. He just lifted a brow at her.

Did he actually know how to fix furnaces? Huh. That hadn’t occurred to her.

“Do you know anything about gas fireplaces?” Melanie Carter asked.

Paige tipped her head, curious about the answer too.

He nodded. “I could take a look.”

Paige widened her eyes at him. He widened his eyes back at her.

Damn, he knew about furnaces and fireplaces. That was… lucky. Or something.

Like hot. And not in the those-were-both-ways-people-heated-their-homes way. It was sexy that he knew how to fix things. And that he was willing to go help complete strangers like that.

“Are you in town for a few days?” Carol Lemming asked Mitch.

He nodded. “I am. I’m passing through, meeting up with some friends in a couple of days, but heard there was a great festival here and thought I might stay for a day or two.”

“How did you know he works on furnaces?” Melanie asked Paige.

“Um…” Paige was distracted by the day or two thing. She’d thought this was a one-night thing again, like last time.

She was going to have to hide him for a day or two?

Except now he was going to be going out all over town fixing things.

Okay, he was going to go to two houses and help a couple of people out. But now all of these ladies knew he was here, for a day or two.

Her mom was so going to hear about this.