Bidding the guys good-bye during a rare moment of silence, Micah ducked out the sliding rear door and sprinted to the guesthouse, the cold wind whipping around him as he covered the short distance to the smaller house.
Closing the door quickly behind him as he entered to block out the wind, he leaned against it, still in awe of the winter storm they were experiencing.
It should make him feel gloomy or at least a little bit on edge. Instead, it exhilarated him, made the adrenaline pump through his body just a little harder. He was a risk-taker, an adrenaline junkie. Although he’d stopped some of the crazy things he’d done when he was a little younger, he still took calculated risks. For him, there was no better feeling than accomplishing something that had previously been considered impossible.
Pulling the sweatshirt over his head, he moved toward the bathroom, knowing he really needed a shower. He’d popped over to Jared’s house because Hope had asked him to come over for a few minutes so he could join the conversation about Evan. He’d grabbed coffee next door, but he hadn’t had a chance to shower before he went to the big house.
He turned on the water and stripped off the rest of his clothes, wadded them into a bundle, and shot them across the bathroom, raising his arm in victory as they all landed squarely in the hamper. “Two points,” he announced to himself, grinning as he opened the shower door and stepped into the enclosed space.
Tempted to linger because the hot water felt so incredibly good, Micah forced himself to make short work of showering so he could get to work. Punching the rounded handle that shut off the water completely when he was done, he turned to push the door open, but ended up stopping short before shoving the shower entrance open.
Completely nude, water dripping from his body, Micah stood stock-still as he heard someone singing very close to the shower.
Who in the hell is that?
Listening closer, he noticed the voice was a clear soprano, and that she was slightly off-key. It didn’t seem to matter to the songbird. Her voice got louder and surer of herself as she reached a crescendo in the composition.
What. The. Fuck.
Was somebody crazy trying to rob the house? How many cat burglars struck during a blizzard and sang badly at the tops of their lungs?
More curious than afraid, Micah pushed slowly on the door and slipped silently out of the shower.
She was there, right in front of him, her shapely ass in the air as she cleaned the toilet. He was looking directly at her rear end, as her back was to him.
He grabbed a towel off the bar. “Could you wait until I’m finished?” he rasped, wondering what had possessed her to start cleaning the bathroom with him in the shower. He didn’t know her. Micah never forgot a great ass, and he didn’t remember ever seeing someone with hair that spectacularly blonde. It was made up of several different shades, from honey to platinum.
She didn’t respond, never hesitated at the sound of his voice.
Micah got irritated as he quickly dried his body. “Did you hear me? Jesus, woman. Are you hard of hearing?”
Pissed off at her lack of response, he reached forward and grasped her upper arm and swung her around. “I’ve been trying to talk to you. Don’t ignore me. Are you fucking deaf?” He couldn’t figure out her intentions, but they couldn’t be good.
Strangely, he was disappointed when she stopped singing and started screaming, her eyes focused on his mouth.
“Stop it. I’m not hurting you. You broke into my home.”
She stopped shrieking after the initial shock of seeing him wore off and stared at him from the top of his head to his toes, her eyes growing wide as she perused his nude body thoroughly.
Having no problem with being naked, he let her look her fill before he wrapped the bath towel around his waist. “What in the fuck are you doing here? What do you want?” Women always wanted something from him.
She looked at him for a moment before speaking carefully. “Yes, as a matter of fact, I am fucking deaf.” She signed to him as she spoke, probably out of habit. “I didn’t know you were here. I couldn’t hear you.”
Micah looked at the smoked glass of the shower and realized that she hadn’t been able to detect his presence. Looking at her directly so she could read his lips, feeling like a dick, he answered, “I’m sorry I scared you. Why are you here?” He signed the words as well as spoke them aloud.
One of his best friends was hearing impaired, and although he was a little bit rusty, Micah knew sign language fairly well.
“I clean here. Jared pays me to keep up all of the homes on the Peninsula when they aren’t occupied. My brother and I own a restaurant in town, but it’s slow in the winter. I do this on the side.” She removed her rubber gloves and placed them in a bucket on the floor, and then held out her hand. “I’m Tessa Sullivan.”