Super Nova (9 page)

“A second set of eyes is always good.” He smiled. “It’s cool to have someone to talk this stuff over with. It’s been on my mind a lot lately, but most of the other guys aren’t into pie-in-the-sky crap. And Eli’s been…preoccupied.”

“I bet.” She chuckled, a rough yet lyrical sound that had him half-hard in an instant. He’d like to believe it was the lingering effects of the Hot Rod’s recent experimentation affecting him, but he knew as much as those memories riled him, something about Ms. Nola Brown ticked all his boxes. “All right, then. I’d be glad to help. But I will include my assessment in the email summary Eli requested. It wouldn’t be right for me to act like I’m more than an assistant here.”

Kaige’s chest puffed up, despite his best attempts to let her authentic admiration roll off his back. It felt too fucking amazing to think he might have gotten something right for once. “I think we’ve done enough damage in this piece-of-shit office for one day. How about we go for a ride and I’ll show you some of the prototypes I laid out in these documents?”

Mostly he wanted to feel the wind in his hair and share a ride with a pretty lady.

Two of his favorite things in the world.

“Um…” She glanced at the clock then to the heap of notes she’d taken during their session. Sure, if she left now she could write up her report and have it to Eli before the end of the day, but he didn’t think she was averse to long hours. Neither were the Hot Rods.

So what was holding her back?

Maybe she too felt the electricity zipping between them. Otherwise, she wouldn’t hesitate to occupy the same space a little longer, he guessed.

“Chicken, Nola?” He couldn’t help but goad her.

She’d flashed her cutthroat streak several times today when facilitating a way for them to crush the competition. Not through sneaky tactics. Simply by being superior to other outfits in the area. With integrity and hard work, she’d make them winners.

He liked that side of her a hell of a lot.

“Of course not. I assume you actually know how to drive these monsters you make.” She sniffed and stood. “Why don’t you start by showing it to me?”

He took the somewhat-valid excuse of the occasionally slick floor to rest his hand on her lower back. She fit really well in his hold. Nice enough that he imagined what it would be like to wrap his hands around her waist as he sank into her from behind. Her ass would be on prominent display, cushioning him as he plunged into her as deep as possible.

Broken from his daydream when they reached his car, he shook his head, liking the weight of his dreads as they tumbled around his face. Nola didn’t mind his unusual hairstyle either if her fascinated stare was any indication.

She blinked a few times then turned her attention to his ride, as if that were any less mesmerizing. At least to him. He could stare at Nola’s reflection in the flawless finish all day long. Green tint or not, she was gorgeous.

“So why this car for you?” Nola skimmed her fingers along the curve of the side mirror, one of his favorite features in the sculpture of his automobile. He appreciated the reverence in her light touch. If anyone else had marred the perfect shine, he might have gotten pissy.

Watching her admire his ride somehow felt nice.

Like she approved of his selection. Almost as if she touched part of him.

“I got kind of lucky, actually.” He leaned a hip against the front quarter panel, prepared to describe his find of the century. Until something wicked dared him to take a chance. “I’ll tell you the story if you go for that ride with me.”

“Huh? Now?” She looked around the garage, toward the impromptu conference room as if there might be a secret exit she could dart through. “Maybe I should wait until off-hours.”

“It’s already after five.”

“Well, until I finish my write up, I mean. Maybe another time?”

Oh no, she wouldn’t dodge him.

“Your whiteboard will still be there when we get back. Hell, I’ll take pictures for us and email them to you so we can do our homework tonight. I’m not talking a cross-country tour here. Enough for you to see our stuff in action. Let me show her off a bit, would you?” He edged nearer to Nola, though not close enough to invade her privacy or encourage her to bolt.

Maybe she was calculating the lesser of two evils, shunning his invite or caving to a quick spin around the block. In the end, her beautiful smile tipped up one corner of her mouth. The urge to kiss it struck Kaige hard and low in the gut.

“I don’t suppose you’ll let me drive?” She feigned innocence, though he wasn’t fooled for an instant.

“Nope.” He shrugged. It was a deal breaker. No one touched his baby except him.

“Fine.” She twirled out of his reach before he could do something dumb like drag his thumb along her prominent cheekbone or taste those plump, glossy lips. “Let’s hit the road.”

Kaige didn’t realize he grinned like a fool until he slipped on his sunglasses and caught Holden staring at them. Behind the cover of his tool chest, he flashed Kaige a thumbs up.

Damn, he didn’t need the guys speculating. Plus, things were complicated these days. If he pursued a woman, he’d owe it to her to disclose his relationship with the Hot Rods, but what a hell of a way to start down an already tricky path. Option two, he could stop playing with the guys when they got together at night.

Would that hurt them? That was the last thing Kaige wanted to do.

Maybe watching wouldn’t count as cheating?

Things to think about later.

For now, he’d enjoy one of life’s simplest, yet deepest, pleasures—a joy ride.

“We’ll be back in a few,” he called to Holden, who nodded.

A verbal response would have been lost in the din caused by his V8 engine, which roared to life right before they crawled from the garage then peeled out in the driveway.

Tom might give him hell for the maneuver later, but it’d be worth it.

Nola checked her seat belt then clapped. When she lost some of that all-business-no-play veneer, she looked ten years younger. A hundred times hotter too. Kaige peeked at the sleek length of her legs where her pencil skirt rode up. And those black heels just about killed him, especially combined with the seamed stockings she wore.

For once he was glad she thought it necessary to dress up.

“Okay, so I’m here. We’re cruising…” She glanced over at him. Tendrils of hair slipped from her up-do as wind whipped through the open window. He adored that she wasn’t afraid of getting disheveled. “So spill. Why this car? How’d you get lucky in it?”

Kaige wiggled his brows and confessed, “I’ve never scored
in
her. Not yet, anyway. Want to break that streak? I know a really pretty spot. Secluded too.”

She reached over and slapped his thigh. His cock wasn’t picky. It approved of the contact between his body and her long, slender fingers.

“No!” She crossed her arms, which only emphasized her perfect tits and the cleavage between them. He might have told her so if it weren’t for Rule Two. “That’s not what I meant. You know it. I meant, how did you pick this car for your own personal hot rod? I can see how much attention you’ve paid to the details. A lot of hard work and love has gone into this vehicle.”

Again with the stroking! She ran one finger along the door. Her nail delicately traced the handle then the stitching in the leather. Exactly like he had minutes before he’d met her.

“Uh, right.” He cleared his throat and tried to concentrate.

“Did you steal it or something?” She tipped her head, trying to interpret his hesitation.

Little did she know his stall had nothing to do with his ride and everything to do with her.

Shit, this was not how he’d planned today. Or any day, with Ms. Nola Brown.

Then again, some of life’s best bits started out as surprises. Like this car.

“No. You really think I’d do something like that?” He ran one hand through his dreads before planting it on the steering wheel again then increasing their pace. Matching the curves in the road, hugging the dips and bends, he got hold of his focus. Driving always brought him clarity.

“Sorry, it was a joke.” Nola reached out. She stopped short of touching him this time. It didn’t matter, he could feel the heat of her hand from several inches away, or at least he imagined he could.

He nodded then moved on. “Actually, it was
almost
criminal. This car had been in a barn of a stay-at-home wife for years and years. It was pristine. Original parts, low mileage, everything a collector hopes for.”

Nola hummed. “I can tell. It’s so beautiful.”

“Thanks, but actually, it didn’t come to me perfect. I couldn’t have afforded a car like this one. Immaculate. Nah, not back then. I didn’t have an end-buyer’s kind of cash.” He didn’t bother to mention that these days were different. She’d looked at the garage’s profitability with him. She knew how well they did now. Pride curled his smile.

“So how
did
you get it?” She took her gaze from the landscape zipping by as they passed out of Middletown’s limits and into the countryside. The pretty brown of her eyes tempted him to avert his stare from the road longer than was wise.

“Well, the woman who’d taken such good care of my baby gave it to her young college kid.” He shook his head.

“Oh no! He crashed it? Was he okay?” She looked around as if she’d spot bloodstains on the carpet.

“Well, not quite the way you’re thinking.” Kaige chuckled as they flew over long straight roads that led to the fields surrounding their town. Onions flourished in the sun with their tall green stalks reaching toward the sunshine. Shanties and rows of workers tending the crops flashed as they passed by. He thought for a second about the mastodon skeletons they sometimes hauled from the fertile dirt that had once been the bottom of a prehistoric lake. That depression in the earth had doomed this car just as surely. “Do you remember those bad storms about eight years ago? All the farms down here flooded pretty bad.”

Nola angled toward him and nodded. She tucked her knee up onto the seat, giving him one hell of a tempting shadow to try to peer into between her legs, hoping for a glimpse of pretty pink panties. No use with his sunglasses on.

“Well, this kid was coming home from college during the rain. Instead of staying on the highway, he got off and tried to use the back roads to beat the worst of the storm. But he didn’t think about how rainwater pours downhill from town to here. And when he came to a part of the road…” Kaige pulled off onto the shoulder of Pumpkin Swamp Road.

“Why are we stopping?” She looked around then smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. “Here? He tried to drive across flood water?”

“Sure did.” Kaige chuckled. “I’ve never been to school, except what Tom made me finish. But I’m not dumb enough to try a stunt like that. It didn’t take long before the car got swept away, in slow motion. Fortunately the kid, his name is Kris, was able to get out and even managed to grab his computer from the trunk. In those days it was a big clunky tower that he had to carry all the way back to Maple Avenue on the other side of the fields.”

Nola’s jaw hung open. “He must be strong.”

“He is. And book smart. As for common sense… Well, I won’t say he’s stupid, but it’s not a highlight.” Kaige grinned. “Worst part was, he tried to push the Nova the rest of the way across. Instead it got caught in the current, arced off the road and sank into that irrigation ditch right over there.”

Nola boosted herself on strong yet svelte arms. She peered toward the trench. “I can’t even see the bottom. These aren’t your usual side-of-the-road dips.”

“Nah, this one is about eight feet deep. The car dropped like a rock. Right to the bed. And before the water receded enough for them to haul it out of here, it froze.” Kaige winced when he remembered the first time he’d seen the beast. “I came out here with him and we stood on the ice, staring down at this poor baby locked in deep freeze for the winter. He sold it to me for the cost of towing.”

“Sounds like he might have gotten the better end of that deal.” Nola peered around her. “I would never have guessed in a million years this car had been underwater.”

“Yeah. Honestly, we redid every single thing in it.” Kaige ran his hands over the dash. “It took for-fucking-ever. The guys used to joke that I’d never have my own wheels. But everything inside was gutted, the frame itself had to be derusted. Then we had to treat it to keep it from degrading more. It’s built from the ground up. New and classic at the same time.”

“It’s beautiful.” As Nola scanned the car around her, he thought he detected a new appreciation in her stare. It was the hottest thing he’d ever seen. “You guys are very talented. It’s no surprise Hot Rods is the best venture in Middletown these days.”

“Thank you.” He didn’t question his instincts. Instead he unbuckled and scooted toward the center of the bench seat. Easily boxing her within reach, he lifted his hand to cup her cheek and turn her face toward him. Up close, her eyes were even warmer. Like cinnamon flakes swimming in golden apple cider on a brisk autumn day.

Her skin, which reminded him of the rich earth surrounding them, was soft beneath his calloused fingers and she smelled like peaches.

He couldn’t resist temptation a second longer.