Body Work (3 page)

He tipped his head in acknowledgment and took his first sip from the mug. His eyes widened at the taste.
“This coffee’s good.”

It was said so begrudgingly she laughed, and laughed again when his expression turned thunderous at the sound.

The granite hard tension between them shattered with her laughter. “A girl can’t work in a truck stop without learning how to make decent coffee.”

His eyebrow quirked.
“I’d have thought you’d want to forget all that.”

“
Why? Because it doesn’t suit the image of the trophy wife?”

“
Something like that.”

Ticked that even Tyce would make the same assumptions about her that everyone else did, she strolled toward the Jag and opened the driver
’s door. She struck a movie starlet pose, one leg up on the running board, toes pointed, vacuous smile pasted on her lips.

His gaze ran from her pointed toes to the V at the top of her thighs.

“Is this where you expect me to be?” She goaded him and climbed behind the wheel. “Or maybe,” she chirped, “I’m not capable of driving a car. Maybe I need to be chauffeured.” She fluttered her fingers helplessly, and then climbed into the passenger’s seat.

“
Or maybe all I can manage is to sit here,” she said, splaying her legs, one knee crooked on the seat, the other on the floor, deliberately imitating a posture against the passenger’s door Tyce would remember.

She
’d pushed him; she could see it in his heated gaze as it moved up from her knees to her shadowed center, then on to her chest and face. Heat flared into want and she felt her own heat rise in response. Moisture pooled inside her and waited for him.

She was angry, turn
ed on and frustrated with him. “You don’t know anything about me. Don’t make stupid assumptions. You were never a stupid man.”

Quick as a cat, he was inside the car. He leaned over her, crowding her, filling the small space with arousal and hot anger. She pressed her back into the door to get some distance but it did no good. She felt the heat from his chest, read desire in his darkened eyes, up close. She fully expected to be kissed, expected and wanted, but it didn
’t happen.

Instead, Tyce glided his nose along the line of her hair, along her forehead then down to her neck, never quite touching her, scenting her the way an animal would food. She had to bite hard on the inside of her cheek to stop a moan.

Heat flared down low and burned all the way through to make her panties wet. Her nipples engorged so quickly the silk of her bra felt like burlap. His nostrils flared and his pupils gleamed black and made her think hot, hot things. She was awash in desire and, heaven help her, she knew the exact moment he picked up the scent.

She wanted to reach for his head to bring his lips into range for a kiss, but the wary look in his eyes forestalled her.

“No, Lisa, I’ve never been a stupid man,” he said next to her ear before he climbed back out of the car. She rubbed her arms to ward off the chill his words left, and then squeezed her thighs together to stem the heat between them.

She was the stupid one. She
’d underestimated his effect on her and been blinded by her need to make good on her promise to Harris.

She
’d always wanted Tyce to notice her, to like her, to kiss her and to hold her. She’d always just wanted him. One way or the other, this time, she was going to have him. It was just a matter of time.

In order to join this game with any hope of winning, she had to get supplies.

First thing on her list was a large package of batteries. A very large package.

Three

High Octane

Tyce was sick of being watched. It had been two days and Lisa had come to the garage every morning, afternoon
, and evening, ostensibly to check on his progress. But she was just out to torture him.

He was going to have her, no doubt about it. But it would be on his terms, not hers. And it would happen in his sweet time.

She had to be ready, had to be prepared to accept everything he planned to do to her. And he planned on a lot of different things. Wild things, dirty things she might have a problem with. But she needed dirty things. Needed to be brought to a point where anything he demanded was his. When he wanted, where he wanted and how he wanted.

He
’d start on those perky nipples of hers. The only secret part of her he got to see before. He’d suckle them until she screamed at him to move on down her body. He’d stop at her navel and play there awhile, letting his chest hair tickle and tease her inner thighs. Eventually, he’d slide his tongue along each high crease of those thighs. By then, he’d know her woman’s scent, aroused, musky with the salt of her juices.

Oh yeah, she
’d be screaming at him then. Screaming and so wild for it, all he’d have to do is touch the tip of his tongue to her. Once, very lightly. Maybe once more if he hadn’t done his job right and she’d come, gushing and streaming into his mouth.

He was jackhammer hard just thinking about it. He adjusted his jeans to allow for the needed room. The adjustment itself was hell on his control. If he didn
’t keep a tighter rein on his thoughts, he’d be using the shower in the pool house just to keep the edge off. No, he didn’t want his own hand, he wanted Lisa’s. Lisa’s hand, Lisa’s mouth, Lisa’s pussy.

But before he got what he wanted, he
’d make her want him more. Her behavior in the Jag had startled him, and had definitely set the ground rules for the game.

But what she
’d said had surprised him more. She was right. He had made assumptions about her, but with good reason. She’d been high-handed, haughty and demanding about the cars being ready on time.

Not to mention what he
’d been told by Harris Delaney’s sons over the years. They’d complained like whiny kids when their old man remarried. They’d called his new wife trailer trash, made it clear she would never be good enough. That was usually when he retreated from the conversation.

The Delaney boys weren
’t collectors, didn’t even like cars much, but they knew his name and reputation and liked to think they deserved the best.

Occasionally he squeezed in their German imports for detailing. The allure of exclusivity made them crazy and he wasn
’t above exploiting it. Franklin and his dim bulb brother would pay anything if they thought they were part of an elite group of clients.

When they
’d whined about the new wife, he’d hardly paid attention.

As infrequently as he
’d had to deal with the Delaney boys, he knew their type and Lisa had his begrudging sympathy.

But still, she
’d come a long way from the La La Land Trailer Park and she was used to getting her own way now. That much was clear when she’d enticed him into reacting to her.

He chose to ignore the fact she
’d brought out her own coffee maker for him and had even gone so far as to provide an ice chest full of soda for his nephew.

At day
’s end, he was in the back of the garage, putting away his tools when he heard the unmistakable tap tap of Lisa’s high heels. Again.

Bracing himself for another onslaught, he turned to watch her and found himself thunderstruck by the strapless dress that shimmered and slinked its way down to her pink painted toenails. She wore the same stiletto sandals she
’d had on before.

She moved with a sinuous grace that held him, tightened and needy as she approached.

He dropped the wrench he’d been about to put into his toolbox and gripped the wooden workbench behind him. Jesus H. Christ, she was hot.

The sizzle in her walk said she was tired of waiting.

Her eyes gleamed with a heated sexuality he’d only seen in women in heavy heat and the high flush on her neck dipped into the bodice of the gown she wore. Her nipples led the assault as she moved toward him.

Torn briefly between the idea that he didn
’t much like being used and the pounding thrum of desire, he dispatched his ideals as quickly as they’d appeared.

She was hot, she was ready,
and she was his.

He waited for her to close in, but she stopped three feet away.

“You’ve hired the delivery service?” Her voice was as cool as her gaze was hot. The game was on.

“
They’ll start to move some of the cars tomorrow. I’ve got a warehouse lined up.”

“
I’ll be sorry to see them go.” She shifted on her sharp-tipped heels, her toes splaying wide for balance in the rhinestone-studded shoes. Even her toes made him ache.

He grunted, because he was barely able to think let alone speak coherently.

“I don’t know why I’ll miss them,” she said. “I never drove them much beyond a test drive. Harris just loved owning fine pieces of machinery.” She hesitated. “In a way, I suppose it was the same with me.”

“
A fine piece never driven?” He taunted her because he could, because she deserved it, but mostly because he wanted to stop himself from reaching for her. If she got angry enough she’d leave and he wanted her to leave. He needed to control when and where this would happen. Because if he didn’t, he’d be lost.

But she didn
’t get angry. Instead she looked wistful.

“
Something like that.” She leaned against the Jag’s rear fender, her hands behind her hips, elbows bent, in a posture that was both submissive and insolent. “After the first few months, his diabetes and blood pressure got worse.”

She raised her eyes to his and he saw a glimmer of grief she couldn
’t fake. “We had more in common than you’d think. In a lot of ways, we were friends, Harris and I. He was proud of being a self-made man. He grew up dirt poor.”

“
I didn’t know.” He relaxed his grip on the bench. Let her talk. The comment about Delaney’s poor health revealed a lot and set her up for him even more. By the time he got around to touching and tasting that sweet secret heart of her, she’d be more than willing to do whatever he wanted.

“
He was the finest man I’ve ever known. He understood me, wanted me to be happy.”

“
You are happy.” His cock was now even harder, straining and full. His balls pulled up and he realized he was armed with a guided missile. A heat seeker, it was aimed straight for Lisa.

She shook her head, innocently unaware of the dance in his jeans. Something about that idea made him hotter. He scrubbed his fingers though his hair.

“I’m trapped until I get these cars sold,” she said. “After the auction I’m moving to Europe.”

“
You want me to hurry so you can leave?” Damn it, she was going to do it again!

He shifted toward her, couldn
’t help it, pissed that she’d talk about going away as soon as they began a real conversation. She straightened against the fender, finally aware that he was dangerously close to moving on her, against her, into her.

Taut with want, her wariness was all the challenge he needed. He faced her straight on and pressed his hips into hers, so she could feel the throb he suffered. She was soft there, soft and hot. She moved so he fit against her mound in perfect alignment. She gasped in a fragile breath but allowed the contact, as he knew she would. A subtle shift of her hips and he was centered on home.

He ground against her so she’d know his full length, his deep need, both relieved and supremely irritated at the same time. She moaned way back in her throat, tilted her head so that he wanted to bite her giving flesh. Bite and hold on while he plunged against her, inside her.

He kept his hands off her because if he touched, he
’d hoist her onto the Jag and dive in. There was no way in hell he was going to do that. Not when she’d been the one to come out here dressed like this, a princess too pretty for words.

She was not going to be the one to choose the time. No way, not when she
’d told him she couldn’t wait to take off.

He
’d been down that road before.

The timing on this would be his.

“Tyce.” She raised her hands to his shoulders, ran them down his arms and tried to twine his fingers with hers. He resisted and still kept his hands to himself. His cock did the mambo against her mound, but he figured the poor bastard had that much right. She wriggled back, nearly sending him into oblivion.

Her breath came in pants, her lips shone moist and welcoming. Finally she laced her fingers behind his head and tried to pull his face to hers.

Suddenly, a sweep of headlights flashed over them.

He stepped back, painfully aware of how close he
’d come to putting ass dents in the Jag’s fender by ramming into her hard and heavy right there.

“
I’ll be home by eleven,” she said, her voice shaking. She smoothed the gown down her thighs, obviously not wanting anyone to know she was messing with the grease monkey.

“
So will I,” he responded coldly.

She looked startled, but he didn
’t care. He wouldn’t wait around all evening. His time, his way.

A stretch limo pulled up to the front door of the house. She took a stumbling step toward it, then straightened her back, set her shoulders and glided out of the garage as if it were perfectly reasonable to be there dressed in a slinky evening gown.

He watched her cross the cobblestones in her stilettos. The combination made her pick her way across the courtyard with a mince and sway that would have made him laugh if he wasn’t on fire.

A window in the back rolled down and a guy old enough to be her grandfather watched her too.

The lights from the house limned her silhouette, smooth shouldered, long waisted, with a flare at her hips that promised a man a great fit. She had to know she was the meat in a lust sandwich. It made his gut contract to know he wasn’t the only man who wanted her tonight.

On the way back to his hotel, Tyce stopped at a quiet neighborhood bar. He needed a cold beer just to get the want out of his mouth.

Lisa Brady had always affected him this way. She’d lived at the far end of the trailer park he’d grown up in.

At fourteen she had continually pestered him for attention, asking questions about every car he worked on. Eventually, he
’d given up trying to tell her to get lost and started to teach her the little he knew.

Sometimes, he
’d find her waiting in the moonlight filtered night under the scrubby pine next to his mother’s trailer when he got home from a date. He’d sit with her awhile, talk about school, what she was doing out so late. Her mother had a mean temper and he suspected Lisa felt safe with him.

A couple of times he
’d been frustrated by a bout of nearly there sex with a prudish girlfriend and he’d want to take it out on the kid. After the first flash of desire he’d remember how sweet and innocent she was. He’d never been able to stomach the idea of taking advantage of her.

She looked at him with such open longing he knew if he had her it would be for keeps and they were too young. He didn
’t want to repeat his sister’s mistake.

By sixteen Lisa had come around less often, had started work at a burger joint, blossomed. Some of his buddies would comment as she walked past. She
’d hunch her shoulders and turn her face away as if by doing so they’d stop noticing. But Lisa Brady wasn’t the kind of girl who blended into the background.

If he was alone, he
’d wave as she walked by. Mostly they’d just look at each other, but sometimes she’d stop to talk. It was then she mentioned finding a way out, saving all the money she could. He laughed, held up his hands and said they were all he’d ever need.

His hands had been magic even then. That was about the time he
’d begun to enter his cars in competitions. The wins were slow to come at first, but he was focused and picked his shows carefully. His reputation as a body man grew. He hadn’t yet learned enough to do the mechanics.

When she was eighteen and he was twenty-two, he found her walking home
one night, shoes in hand, skirt disheveled, and beer on her breath. It was late and the guy she’d been with had gotten carried away, she said. Then she grinned and explained how she very likely damaged his chances for offspring.

Still made him smile in admiration.

He brushed her hair, gave her a tissue to blow her nose, coffee to chase the beer out of her system and a shoulder to cry on. They parked by the river and watched the streaks of light as day dawned.

Lisa leaned into him and they kissed for the first time. She was warm and tasty and fresh and sweet, sweeter than all the other girls he
’d ever kissed and there’d been plenty.