He let his grin show and gave her ass a squeeze. “And when I call you tonight, are you gonna answer the phone?”
She bit her kiss-swollen lower lip, and he had to fight not to say fuck it and finish what they’d started. “Yeah.”
“That’s good, baby.” Still holding her ass, he let her slide to her feet, then ran his thumb along her jaw. “You know what I noticed about you the first time I saw you?” She stiffened at his question, just a little, but enough to tell him what he said next was extremely important to her, could either help his cause or shut it down before they got started. “You know what makes me hard every time I see you, talk to you?”
Her gaze stuttered, and she glanced away, crossing her arms, creating distance. “What?”
“That fire behind your eyes, the attitude, that smart fucking mouth. You have no idea how much that shit turns me on.”
Her gaze shot up to his. “Fire? My smart mouth?”
He could tell she was expecting him to say her tits, her ass, her legs. Yeah, all those things turned him on as well, but it was what she kept hidden that twisted him in knots, had him going after her with everything he had. “I want that fire, Foxy. I want all of it.”
She just stared at him. He’d rendered her mute, apparently. Pulling her forward, he opened the door behind her. “Go back to your girls, and I’ll call you tonight?”
She gave him a jerky nod, then with one last look his way, hustled her sweet ass out of there.
And all he could think was, the next few hours better fly by, because he had a phone call to make.
Shit.
Chapter Six
Rusty pulled her favorite stretched-out tank over her head, then after towel drying her long hair, tied it up in a messy bun.
Dragging back the covers, she climbed into bed. It wasn’t that late, but Pipe was reading her latest romance novel and there was nothing on TV. She stacked the pillows behind her, then grabbed her phone from the nightstand to check her email. She was waiting on shipping confirmation for a parts order she needed ASAP and hadn’t had a chance to look all afternoon.
As she scrolled through her unread mail her phone started ringing. Nervous, fluttery excitement hit her low in the belly when she saw Reid’s name flash on the screen.
He’d called the night before, after the car show like he said he would. They’d talked for quite a while, about a lot of different things, but nothing in particular. It’d been nice. Really nice.
She didn’t know what the hell she was doing with him, what it meant, what it was leading to, she just knew she didn’t want to stop doing it.
She hit the call button. “Hey.”
“Hey, baby.”
Gah! Just the sound of his deep, raspy voice, the rough way he said baby, all low and sexy, lifted goose bumps over her skin. “Well, this is a surprise.”
“Yeah? It shouldn’t be.”
A delicious shiver moved through her. Okay, she had no idea what to say to that. “Right.” She sucked in a steadying breath. “So how was your day?” She cringed. Really? That’s all she could come up with?
“Busy, but I didn’t get everything done I needed to. I’ll be playing catch-up tomorrow.” She heard a noise in the background, like a door shutting. “Got you to thank for that.”
“What did I do?”
“Had you in my head all day, thinking about that kiss in the break room. All your fault, woman.”
Oh wow. That gave her another happy shiver. “Nope. That’s all on you. And frankly I’m more amazed you have any work to do at R.I.P., since all your customers are dumping your ass for West’s.”
He chuckled. “Smart ass. And your concern over my current state of mind, which I’ll repeat, is all your fault, warms my heart.”
She laughed, and it sounded kind of breathless.
“What about you?” he asked. “Busy day?”
“Had a Mustang come in today. Needs a bit of work. The guy wants to keep it all original.”
“What year?”
“Sixty-five.”
“Nice. You a Ford girl, Rusty?”
“Sure am.” He must have picked up the excitement in her voice. Well, she couldn’t exactly hide it. With the job she had, she felt like a kid in a candy store every damn day. “I took it for a run. Drives pretty sweet for an old girl in need of some TLC.”
He was quiet for several seconds, and when he spoke again, his voice was deeper, rougher. “I’m a Cadillac man myself.”
She snorted. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
“If we start a Ford versus Cadillac debate, we’ll be here all night.”
She kind of liked the idea of that.
“You love what you do, huh?” he said into the surprisingly comfortable silence.
“Yep. More than anything. I love going to work every day.”
“I know that feeling.”
She could hear what sounded like wind whistling in the background. “Where are you?”
“Out on my deck, watching the whitecaps roll in.”
“You have an ocean view?” Duh, Rusty. Of course he does. Though for some reason, knowing he was loaded, more than likely came from money, didn’t make her as uncomfortable as it might have a week ago.
“Maybe I’ll show you sometime?”
Her belly did another happy flutter. Goddammit, he was getting to her, big time. “Maybe.” She got more comfortable. “When did you start messing around with cars?”
“When I was a kid. Guy next door let me help him. He had a couple old cars he was doing up. Taught me the basics. I discovered I had a passion for fixin’ cars. Because of him, I was ahead of the rest when I went for an apprenticeship. The rest is history.”
“So your dad wasn’t into cars like mine?”
He cleared his throat. “My old man wasn’t into much of anything.”
The way he said it, she knew there was more to that story, but she didn’t want to pry. “My mom wasn’t too thrilled that both her daughters would rather hang around a dirty garage than go shopping and crap like that. In the end, she gave up trying.”
“Good thing,” he said softly. “You got talent, baby. You’re doing what you were born to do.”
Okay. That was really nice—and set off a whole new batch of happy flutters. “Thanks.”
“It’s the truth. What are you up to tonight?”
“I thought I’d have an early one.”
“You tucked up in bed?” he said all deep and growly.
The lightness in his voice had vanished, and she felt it. A low pulse started between her legs. “Mmm-hmm.”
She’d thought his voice was rough before, but when he spoke again, it was nothing but gravel. “You a nighty girl, Rusty? Or are you the kind of girl who wears one of her ex’s old T-shirts to bed?”
Maybe that was his not so subtle way of asking about an ex-boyfriend? And had he really just asked her what she was wearing? Was she really going to tell him? “Definitely no ex-boyfriend’s T-shirt for me.” No ex at all. “I’m…I’m a panties and old tank kind of girl.” Apparently she was going to tell him.
“Fuck.” The word was nothing but a whispered rasp, she wasn’t even sure he meant for her to hear it, but she was glad she did.
He was quiet after that, for several seconds, long enough, if she hadn’t still been able to hear wind whistling in the background, she’d think they’d been disconnected. “You still there?”
He cleared his throat. “Yeah, I’m here.” She heard the sound of the door again. “I gotta go, babe, but I’ll call you tomorrow?”
“I’d like that.” The words were out before she knew what she was saying, before she could overthink it.
“Bye, baby.”
“Bye, Reid.”