Yet all his references to her were food related. Probably his other appetite that needed to be appeased. He’d give anything to feast on her starting at the ear lobes and working his way down every gorgeous inch of her. He jerked his attention back to her words, the voice, the hot molasses-smooth music of her voice. She was flustered, nervous by his presence, he sensed. Did she feel what he felt or was his arousal being this near to her that obvious and that was what was making her nervous. It was going to  make getting any remodeling done—he let the thought go and followed the gentle sway of her hips as she moved toward the back of the shop. She stopped in the gallery room. He pulled his gaze from her cute ass to her lips as she turned and spoke; full, rich, red, moist lips---he wanted to devour them.

“The chill in this room, do you notice it?”

He did, but it didn’t cool the hot desire that set his blood boiling. “Hmm, yeah! Strange—I mean, I never noticed a heat duct or cold air return duct in here. That would explain the source of it.”

“It doesn’t seem to have a direction. It feels to me like it just wraps around you. Like, well, like you’re moving through a crowded room and yet—no bodies—just thick air…” she threw her hands up. “You probably think I’m a bubble off plumb.”

She turned. He took her elbow and turned her back to face him. “No. No, I get what you mean, exactly.” He did notice how the room seemed full. Try explaining that to your shrink he mused staring into her electrically charged hazel eyes. He pulled his gaze from her and allowed himself the cooling down luxury of looking around the room, as though looking for the draft source. There was none. “Doesn’t make sense, unless…” he hesitated, would she think he was nuts if he told her he suspected a hidden room or, at the very least, a space between the walls.

“Or what,” her voice was shaky, a question narrowing her eyes and lining her forehead.

“Just my over active mind. I was thinking these old buildings, remodeled who knows how many times, could have—well—a passage behind the walls.”

“Or a secret room,” Veronica said becoming absorbed in running her hand along the wall. “But that wouldn’t explain the…” she stopped turned toward Jerrod. “Before I finish that and you classify me as certifiably insane, I need you to open my office door.”