Mustang Sassy (35 page)

“Yes!” she cried.

But he moved away, right at the critical moment. “Come on.” Taking her hand, he pulled her out of the shower, wrapped her in a towel, picked her up, and carried her to the bed.

“Jordan?” Whose voice was that? It couldn’t be hers, so soft, so husky.

“Shh.” He found his wallet on the table and took what he was looking for from inside. By the time he returned to the bed, he had the condom out of the packaging, so he propped one foot on the bed beside her and rolled it down the length of himself.

Nothing was sexier. His skin glistened in the firelight from the moisture, his gorgeous torso taut, his expression stern with concentration.

He turned that fierce concentration on her as he crawled onto the bed. “Do you know how close I came to forgetting to do this?” He unwrapped her from the towel like she was a Christmas present. “Do you have idea how crazy you make me?” His fingers drew a line from collarbone to hip bone and lower. “How I lose my mind around you?” Sliding his hand beneath her knee, he pulled her legs apart so he could move in between.

Carefully, he settled his weight on top of her and Sass reveled in it, his skin damp, his body so hard, so wonderfully masculine, yet so warm and exciting.

“I’ve never felt this way before, Sass.” His hand moved between them as he guided his cock to her entrance. Just as he slid so wonderfully, solidly inside of her he whispered, “Never.”

So this was what making love was. This fusion of two bodies and souls. The natural joining of two people, sharing not just bodies but thoughts, fears, hopes and dreams. She didn’t close her eyes but stared into Jordan’s as he moved slowly and tenderly in and out of her, caressing her face with his gaze.

Now that she was here in this moment, she got it. This was the thing that people wrote songs about and that made them do crazy things like move to Florida. But, how could she have known the difference when she’d never been in love before?

With that thought, she threaded her fingers through Jordan’s hair and pulled his mouth to hers. She desperately needed to complete the connection, from lips to sex, she needed to merge fully and completely with this man. It didn’t matter whether he felt the same way or not. At least, it didn’t matter right now. All that mattered was that Sass loved him and he was here with her. Tomorrow? She couldn’t think about tomorrow.

“Oh, Sass.” He sighed her name into her mouth.

She loved the sound of her name on his lips and she lifted her hips to show him how much. What had started out as slow and tender, quickly accelerated into something else. This time it was Jordan picking up the pace, crying out her name as he plunged in and out of her freely. The fire that had begun in the shower exploded into a bonfire with each thrust.

“Come with me. Please!”

Oh, Sass was more ready than she’d ever been. It wasn’t just her body that ached for release, it was all of her. Threads connecting her sex and her heart and her mind and her soul all snapped in unison, like electric guitar strings playing a chord for a stadium full of people. “Jordan!”

He propped himself up for the last few thrusts and she clutched frantically at his hips amidst the clashing and clattering of cymbals inside her chest and head. Jordan cried out, his voice joining hers in exquisite harmony.

…

“You know what I think?” Jordan asked hours later as they lay ensconced beneath the quilt in the big brass bed, with Sass’s head on his wide shoulder.

“What?”

“I think you and I make quite a team.”

She swallowed and then moved in closer. “You know why that is?”

“Why?”

“Because you’re man enough to do what I tell you.”

His rumbling laugh shook her and she smiled the deep contented smile of a well-loved domestic cat. She would have purred, too, if she was able.

“I mean it, Sass. We make a great team.” He drew lazy circles on her hip as he spoke. “Both in bed and out.”

Sass’s stomach felt weird and rumbly and she wondered if maybe she was hungry. It’d been a long day. And a longer night. Not that she was complaining, but they’d sure as hell expended a lot of energy.

“And I’ve been thinking,” he continued as he shifted beneath her. “Thinking about the future.”

She lay still as she realized that the rumblings in her stomach had nothing to do with hunger. Here was the conversation she’d longed for and feared and now that she was on the verge of it, she panicked. He was going to ask about the merger, ask her to move to Denver. Everything was about to change in her world and as much as she loved Jordan, Sass wasn’t ready. “Do we have to talk about this now?” she asked, forcing a yawn.

Jordan’s hand stopped moving on her hip. “No. We don’t have to talk about this now, if you’re too tired.”

Rolling over in his arms so that her naked body was pressed deliciously along the length of his, she kissed him. One of her newly discovered long and lingering kisses, and then peered into his eyes trying to feign sleepiness. “You know, Carlyle, the whole idea of a sleepover is that there is some
sleep
involved.”

He grinned and kissed her back. “I didn’t hear you complaining earlier.”

“I’m not complaining. I’m just saying.”

“Okay. We’ll sleep. But we’re going to talk about the future tomorrow.”

“Okay,” she whispered and then rolled over again to fall asleep in Jordan’s arms. But sleep took longer than it should have. Although Sass felt more content than ever, she also had never been more terrified.

…

It was while they were driving in to the shop on Tuesday morning that Jordan confronted her again. The wily bastard knew there was no way she could avoid the conversation while she was trapped in his car. But she was prepared. She’d lain awake preparing all her arguments last night. She didn’t want to move to Denver. She couldn’t see herself at Carlyle’s shop. She cared about Jordan, but he had to understand that she was who she was and she wasn’t about to change.

“So, I was thinking that when you talk to Buck about selling Hogan’s to Carlyle’s you need to make sure of one thing.”

Sass opened her mouth to begin her well-rehearsed argument, but City-boy didn’t give her a chance. “You need to tell Buck that Hogan’s shouldn’t be moved. That Hogan’s should become a specialty shop and that you and I will run it.”

Her jaw dropped three inches. “What?”

“Carlyle’s Custom Cars.” He emphasized his words with his hands as if they were blinking lights.

“Are you nuts?”

“I don’t think so. There’s no sense having two restoration shops. And there’s no way I’ll ever get you to move to Denver. So the only sensible solution is for me to move here and for us to open up a shop that specializes in custom-made cars. I’ll do the drawings and you and Manny and Al can do the rest. Carlos can move over to the main shop in Denver if he wants.”

Sass nibbled on the inside of her thumb. “You’ve thought a lot about this.”

“Yep.”

“What makes you think I don’t want to move to Denver?”

Jordan glanced over at her with one brow raised. “Give me a little credit, Sass.” Then he slid his hand up her thigh, making her catch her breath as he whispered in a low voice, “I think I know you pretty well.”

“Yeah, well,” she whispered, her husky voice betraying her.

“Yeah, well, what? Don’t you like the idea?”

She turned in her seat to stare at him. She couldn’t help it. He was so damn good…at everything. Smart, too. Talented. And now he was telling her he was willing to move out to Greenview? Had she finally paid off her karmic debt?

Jordan turned, smiling quizzically at her unwavering stare. “What?”

“Are you for real?”

“Of course I am.”

“Huh.” Sass shook her head and then turned forward in her seat again. “That’s not a half-bad idea,” she said with a stupid grin on her face. “For a City-boy.”

…

The minute she got to the shop, Sass headed straight to Buck’s office, but he wasn’t there. “Yo, Al-a-ka-zam? You seen Buck today?” she called.

Al shook his head. “Nope. Not yet.”

“I’m going to be in bay two, can you come get me when he comes in? I need to talk to him.”

“Didn’t you see him this morning?” Al asked as he approached.

“Nope.”

Raising his brow at her, Al said, “You left your truck here last night.”

“Yep.”

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing, Sass?”

With a hand on her hip, she shrugged. “Nope.” She moved closer to the man who was part coworker, part father figure and part friend. “And you know what? My personal life is none of your goddamned business.” Smiling as sweetly as she could she leaned forward and gave Al a hug. “But thanks for your concern.”

Leaving Al in a state of shock, Sass skipped into bay two where Jordan was already working. She gazed around the space with a feeling of giddiness. The car was really coming together. She could hardly believe how much they’d accomplished in the last two days. With a few more weeks and with some help from the others, it should be ready. She glanced at Jordan where he was bending down beside the newly installed trunk and her heart did a crazy little flip against her ribs.

He smiled up at her. “What are you looking at?”

“You.” Sass turned to step into her coveralls so he wouldn’t see her face. She pulled her hair back to fit beneath her welding helmet and fired up the MIG welder, her nutty grin a permanent fixture on her face.

In fact, Sass wore her perma-grin for pretty much the whole day and well into Wednesday. The only thing that had her unsettled was the fact that she still hadn’t talked to Buck. Where the hell was he? Now that Jordan had planted the idea in her brain, she couldn’t wait to talk to Buck about it. Plus, there were other things she needed to say too. Apologize, for one. She remembered what Buck had said about how Mary-Lynn made him feel like he was really living. Sass hadn’t understood that before.

She did now.

She and Buck? Hell, for the last decade and a half they’d just
existed
, kind of like the roadster shell. The body looked cool and original and exciting, but the real heart of the car was the engine. A car only came to life once the engine was installed. And once the engine was installed, no car wanted to go back to being a shell on a dolly in a shop.

It wasn’t until closing time on Wednesday that Buck turned up and he was flustered in a way Sass had never seen him flustered before.

“Hey, Buck, do you have a minute?”

“Not really,” he said as he motored by.

She followed him into his office. “What’s got you so razzed?”

“A wedding.” He rolled his eyes.

“But Mary-Lynn isn’t even here.”

“I know. That hasn’t stopped her. She is in full-on wedding mode and apparently that means I need to be at her beck and call for all wedding-type decisions.” He shook his head. “What is it about you women and weddings?”

“Hey,” Sass said, raising her hands in protest. “Don’t lump
me
in with that group.”

Buck tugged open his desk drawer and pushed nuts and bolts, pens and paperclips out of the way, searching for something.

“What are you looking for?”

With one hand stuck in his hair, he muttered, “Oh, only a little thing called a wedding ring.”

“What? You lost your wedding ring? Already?” She wanted to laugh but Buck’s expression of sheer panic made her clamp her lips shut. “Here, let me help.”

Mumbling still to himself, he said, “I know it’s here somewhere.”

“Seriously, Buck. How could you lose it?”

Sifting through the cluttered top of his filing cabinet, he said, “I’ve been a little distracted, what with the wedding and the shop and…you.”

“Me?”

“Yeah,” he said as opened the cabinet drawer to look inside. “Things between us haven’t exactly been easy lately.”

“Yeah,” she said slowly. “About that.”

“Oh, thank God. Here it is.” Buck lifted the box out of the filing cabinet and held it up as if the jeweler’s box was Excalibur and he’d just pulled the sword from the stone. He pocketed the box and then rushed for the door.

“Where are you going?”

Pausing for just a moment, he said, “I’m late for an…ah…meeting.” Then swept out of the office as quickly as he’d come in.

She followed him out through the front and watched him get into his Charger and charge out of the parking lot. Call it a premonition, but Sass felt compelled to tail Buck. Who was he going to meet? It had better not be Dex, Mr. Scumbag of the year. She hadn’t told Buck about what happened, hadn’t wanted to add any more stress. But now she wished she had. Under normal circumstances, Sass was pretty sure he wouldn’t make a decision without consulting her, but then Buck wasn’t himself and a man who could misplace his never-been-worn wedding ring was a man who was not thinking clearly.

After locking up the shop, Sass climbed into the truck, intent on sweeping the streets of Greenview. She started at the Inn, her heart pounding between her temples just at the sight of the place. But Buck’s car was nowhere to be found. Neither was Dex’s. After that, she stopped by the Pit, but again, no luck. Next she turned down Main Street, driving slow, peering out one side window then the next. If anyone had been driving behind her, she would have been rear-ended when she’d slammed on her breaks because she saw a red ’57 Chevy with flames licking up the sides parked outside the Bean There Café. It took her a moment to get her breathing under control before realizing Buck’s Charger was nowhere to be found.

Where was he?

She continued down Main Street, her heart pounding. There at the very end of the block was Buck’s car, parked outside of the flower shop. Before Sass had a chance to park, Buck emerged from the store with a huge bouquet tucked under his arm.

What the hell was Buck doing with flowers? They weren’t for Mary-Lynn. She was in Florida. They weren’t for her, Buck knew better than to give
her
flowers. If he wanted to give her a present, he’d get her something useful, like a subscription to a hot rod mag. Who were they for?

She pulled into a parking spot on the other side of the road, waiting for Buck to leave. She had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach as questions niggled around her brain. Did Buck have a secret girlfriend in Greenview—someone he needed to break up with? She never would have thought it possible a month ago, but a man who could keep one relationship secret for a year and half was capable of pretty much anything. What if he was going to see her for one last booty call? Eww.