All I could do was stare.

His golden-brown back glistened with sweat in the hot noon-day sun. I shouldn't have been looking. I knew that. Somehow, I'm sure he knew that as well.

I was surprised that he couldn't feel how my eyes were boring into him, scorching his back with their forbidden caress.

I could see the muscles working under his flesh as he lifted shovel after shovel of dirt and tossed it to the side, making a small pile that was growing larger all the while. His body was quite sculpted for his age.

I could see his chest rise and fall with each breath, taking in the thick, muggy air, and then using the minor amount of oxygen in it to feed those demanding muscles.

As the hostess, I should have offered him something to drink on a day as hot as this. I knew it was my duty. Unfortunately, I did not trust myself to get any closer, to leave the barrier of the porch and walk across that soft, lush grass that separated us. I had to deal with the fact that I was now married, that I now belonged to someone else, that my reality was exactly where I sat at that moment, on the porch sipping iced tea. I knew he symbolized something bad, something horrible and wrong and completely against all standards of society. But he was so god damn tempting!

With shaking hands, I poured another glass of the cool tan liquid and stood. I took a deep breath and hoped the pink flush of girlish excitement did not come to my cheeks as it had in my adolescence.

I opened the screen door of the porch and walked blinking out into the sunlight. I put a hand up to shield my eyes and enjoyed the feel of the grass beneath my toes. As I got close to the beautiful creature working in my garden, I breathed in his scent. It was not offensive, but soft and seductive. He turned to face me before I reached him.

A boyish smile crossed his face as he took in my features, those of a typical housewife, accentuated by a youthful flourish and the stylish bob of my hair.

"Care for a glass of iced tea?" I asked, offering it to him.

The smile remained on his features.

"That's very kind of you, Mrs. Adrian," he said, accepting the glass and draining it, then returning it with another smile.

"You're welcome," I said softly as he gazed up at me intently with his deep blue eyes. My legs nearly gave out beneath me. Lust overcame me as he gazed at me with those eyes and smiled at me with that smile.

Somehow, I made it back to the porch, back to my chair, and took a sip of my iced tea. I decided that I'd never again hire a neighborhood boy to do the gardening.

It was just too dangerous…