He had the right tools for the job . . .

As the admissions director for one of Manhattan's finest private schools, Libby Kimmelman is overworked, underpaid — and totally overwhelmed by flowers, chocolates and other bribes from zealous parents determined to enroll their little Einsteins. The one parent who does intrigue her is Ned Donovan. Vermont-rugged, carpenter-sexy, he shows up in her office trying to explain how his ten-year-old genius son applied to the school without his knowledge.

A widower with a lust for her marble fireplace, Ned is the kind of man whose natural earthiness seems so deliciously sexy in the city. His knee-melting offer to strip her floors almost makes her forget her annoying ex, her exasperating teenage daughter and the fact that she is about to lose her magnificent, rent-stabilized New York apartment. But is this building renovator after his son's admission, her old apartment . . . or incredibly, her?