Stick Shift (7 page)

He wasn't going to let Lily move on from him. She was stuck with him, age difference, infamous face, controversial attitude, and all. She— “Cam? Buddy? You with me?”

Cam grinned and hoped that Ronnie hadn't said anything important. “Yeah, I'm with ya. Sorry about that. Not much sleep last night.”

Ronnie let out a whistle. “Oh? Ya hear from your gal?”

There was the twang. “Yes. She was waiting for me yesterday. We had dinner.”

And sex. Lots and lots of sex.

Cam opened the door to the shop, and both men took off their sunglasses.

Ronnie immediately put his back on. “You had dinner? All night? Damn, either you had some shitty service or the girl was dinner.”

He ignored the comment and hoped that Ronnie would let it go as well. At the same time, Cam knew that by not saying anything, he was confessing a whole hell of a lot. Damned if he did and damned if he didn't.

“You dog.” Ronnie nudged him in the shoulder. “You did the girl on the first date? Damn. Was she good? Gonna see her again? Gonna share?”

Cam walked off, laughing and shaking his head. No way in hell was he going to answer now, and no way in hell would he be sharing Lily with any of the guys. It had been a running joke with the whole crew that they all shared so much being on the road for most of the year that the only thing they hadn't shared yet was a woman. It wasn't going to start now either, not with his woman.

His. Oh yeah, he loved the sound of that. His woman. Not girl. No, she wasn't a girl anymore. She had the body of a real woman, and damned if it didn't make him rock hard just thinking about it.

“Team meeting in five,” Ronnie called out from behind him.

4
Cam lifted a hand up in acknowledgment but kept right on walking. After pulling his cell out of his pocket, he found Lily's number in his contact list and sent her a text.

Get home okay?

That wasn't what he wanted to ask, but he figured he'd start with something innocent, not knowing where she was, who was with her, or if her phone lit up like a Christmas tree when a text message came through.

Yes. Aren't you supposed to be in a meeting?

Cam settled down on the floor of the garage and leaned back against one of his cars.

In a bit. What are you doing?

Cam waited a few minutes, staring at his phone, waiting for her name to pop up. When it did, the little flip of his stomach astonished him. Again. It would take some getting used to, this over-the-top attraction and desire for her. He felt like some teenager waiting for his crush to text him, to call him, to give him the fucking time of day.

Having coffee with a friend.

The one from the other day?

Yes.

Ronnie came around the front of car with a clipboard in hand. “All right, guys.

Let's get moving.”

Gotta go. See you later today.

47

“I can't believe he's texting you. I can't believe you spent the night with him.

Candi is going to flip her lid when she finds out. Maybe I should have let you go sit in the car and not meet him.”

Lily laughed at Allison's playful pout, and in all honesty, she couldn't believe everything that had happened either. Cam Carter was sending her text messages.

Cam Carter wanted to see her again. Cam Carter had had sex with her, had had his mouth pressed between her legs, had spanked her until she was more wet than she had ever been. The desire to feel his hands like that again made her squirm in her seat.

“What's that blush for, and why are you grinding in the chair? Tell me, tell me!”

No way in hell was she telling Alli. “Just thinking about him; that's all.”

“You have it bad for him.”

“I can't have it bad for him. He's… Well, he's… He's just a fling while I'm here for the month.”

“A fling? Are you serious? The end of the month is going to get here and you'll be so head over heels in love with him, you won't know what to do with yourself.”

“Falling in love is not an option, Alli. I can't. And more to the point, he won't be falling in love either.”

“You don't know that. If the blush on your face is any indication, something sizzles between the two of you, and it's not the dinner you had last night. My guess is that it was dessert that lit you on fire.”

4
Lily didn't answer. Instead she lifted the coffee cup to her lips, only to realize that it was empty. Damn. She got up and walked to the sink. “I've never been with anyone like him.”

“That good, huh?”

“God, Alli. Good doesn't even begin to describe it. He did things, said things…

It's not just sex with him. Not for me. And I don't know what it is for him. I mean, I know what he says, but you know, he doesn't have to mean any of it.”

“You've never been a just-sex kind of girl, though, Lily. Flings and no strings have never been your thing.”

“I know, and that's the problem. If it is just sex with him, where does that leave me in a few weeks when I go back to Florida? Cam Carter is a once-in-a-lifetime man, and I'd be a fool to stop seeing him just because I'm afraid of a broken heart. On the other hand, I'd be a fool to keep seeing him because I'm afraid I'd never get over him.”

“You can't stop seeing him. It's just like you said. Cam Carter is once in a lifetime. Will you regret the time spent with him more than you would regret wondering 'what if' for the rest of your life?”

Lily knew Alli was right. It didn't make things any easier, though. The man was under her skin. She'd had fantasies about him before she met him, and ever since the staring contest across the autograph table, she'd begun dreaming about him, oftentimes waking up from her dreams in the midst of an orgasm. No other man had had that kind of effect on her. So really, what choice did she have?

“What are you guys doing later?”

“I don't know. He just said he would be here at three. Oh, and I need to ask you something.”

“Shoot.” Alli leaned back and drained her coffee cup. “Does he want a threesome?”

49

Lily turned shocked eyes on her friend to see the smirk playing about Alli's mouth. “No. He wants me to be in the pits this weekend for the races—well, he wants us to be in the pits this weekend. I told him we had tickets already, but I don't suppose you know anyone who would want them, do you?”

“The pits? We'll get to be with the crews and up on the pit box and everything?”

“Yeah.”

“I'll find someone at work to take the tickets and you tell him yes, we'll be there. With bells on too if he wants.”

The sheer excitement of Alli's reaction helped Lily to relax a little more about what was going on with her and Cam, even though she wasn't really sure what the hell was going on with them. Alli didn't have an issue with Cam being so much younger than Lily, so why did she have such a problem with it? Especially if this was only going to be a fling for a few weeks?

But then, hadn't Cam said he wanted to take her on the road with him, out to meet his parents, and that this wasn't just a fling?

“What are you thinking?”

“I don't know what to make of all this. Really, I don't. This is so much bigger than me. I'm not this person. And the only thing I do know, is that I'm not going to want to leave him in a few weeks.”

“Deep down inside, I think you are this person, Lily. You've just never met anyone to bring it out in you. As for leaving him, don't. You can get a job up here.

Candi and I would love it if you were here.”

“You and Candi would want race car drivers of your own.”

“And there's something wrong with that because…?”

Both women laughed, and Lily realized just how much she'd missed her friends since they'd moved away from Florida. She lived such an isolated life: going to work, coming home, staying to herself. The life Cam lived every day was vastly 5
different. Right then, she couldn't even imagine fitting into his world. Would she want to give up her solitude for his hectic, traveling-all-the-time, in-the-spotlight life?

The image of him naked, kissing her, spanking her, filling her body with his cock flashed through her mind. His smile and his eyes lit with mischief filled the other part of her mind and she knew in an instant that yes, she would give it all up for a chance at being with him for longer than the three weeks she had left at Candi's house.

“So we have a few hours before he gets here. What say we go shopping?” Alli suggested, interrupting Lily's thoughts.

“For what?”

“Me. I need something to wear to the races.”

“You're going to buy something new?”

“Oh My God! Lily! We both need something new and hot. Well, okay, you've already got the guy, the hottest guy, but I don't. And in order for any of them to notice me, I need to wear more than skinny jeans and a tight T-shirt.”

“You're not serious? Alli, it's still a stock car race.”

“It's so much more than that. C'mon. Candi doesn't have anything fun in her closet.”

Three hours later, Lily stood outside the dressing room of yet another clothing store. She'd never seen anyone try on so many clothes in such a short amount of time. Alli was wasted sitting behind the desk of a corporate law firm fielding calls and ordering office supplies. Lily was sure her friend had missed her calling in the wide world of clothes, fashion, and design. She'd always had a good eye for it, but the shopping was more hobby than passion for Alli it seemed.

So long as the job paid her enough money to go on weekly shopping sprees, Alli was happy to do whatever for it.

“What time is it?”

51

Lily looked at the display on her phone. “It's about a quarter to two.”

“Okay. I'll be done after this last outfit. Then we'll get you back to Candi's long before Cam gets there.”

Cam's name was said in a stage whisper, and Lily had to smile. She doubted that anyone in hearing distance would realize whom Alli was actually talking about. “I'm not worried about it.”

“I know you're not, but you need time to relax and freshen up.”

“I haven't been doing anything. Why do I need to freshen up?” She couldn't help but think that a quick power nap would be a nice idea, though. She wasn't used to all-night sex.

“You've been shopping. You had lunch. Honestly Lily, one would think you'd never been on a date before.” Alli exited the dressing room, somehow looking even more beautiful than when she'd walked in. She took the clothes draped over Lily's arm and hung them on the rack. “If I didn't know better, I'd think you were trying to sabotage this thing with Cam.”

“I'm not. I just… I don't know how to feel about it, how to act about it.”

Walking out of the store without buying a thing, they left the mall the same as they had come in, empty-handed. Alli sighed and took Lily's hand, swinging their arms between them like when they were kids. “You're supposed to just go with it.

He's into you. He wants you. Don't try to overthink it. He's not like the other guys you date. He's not stuffy, and he's not buttoned-down.”

“No, he's certainly not either one of those.” And in private with him, she wasn't stuffy and doubtful and buttoned-down either. She was the complete opposite. She was free and sexual and playful. She was the way she'd always imagined being but never had the nerve to be.

“He's going to be good for you. He's going to end up being the man of your dreams. I just know it.”

The thing was, Lily already knew it to be true.

5
* * *

Cam knocked again on the door, and his frown deepened when Lily didn't answer. She hadn't answered her cell phone either the three times he'd called. He looked around. Everything seemed normal for a small residential neighborhood.

He'd driven through this particular area of town quite a bit but had never really paid much attention to it.

Older all-brick homes lined the street with fairly large yards and full-grown trees. There were a lot of green lawns, quite different than the more up-to-date subdivision he had grown up in out in California. The oaks and magnolias gave this area Southern charm, and he marveled that it was so close to the speedway. He'd never have guessed from standing there that he was just minutes away from the loud roar of engines a few times a year.

He stepped off the front porch and toed his way through the front flower bed to peer into the front window. He hoped no one saw him. Race car Driver Turned Peeping Tom. Wouldn't that be a fun headline? But he forgot all about that when he saw her curled on the couch, sleeping.

A green blanket covered her, and all he could see was her face. It was May, and she was cold. Something about that made him smile. A pair of glasses were folded on the coffee table in front of the couch and from what he could tell, the house, while older on the outside, had been modernized on the inside.

“How the hell do I wake her up?”

Cam tapped on the glass, hoping to get a response out of her. She didn't stir.

He tapped a little harder, and still nothing. This wasn't going well. The woman he couldn't stop thinking about, the woman he'd had a hard-on for all day, was sound asleep on a couch. He moved back out of the flower bed and up onto the porch again.

In each of the four corners were flowerpots. What were the chances he'd find an extra key under one of them?

53

No chance. Shit. He replaced the fourth terra-cotta pot and then proceeded to check under the mat at the door. Nothing there either. What the hell was he supposed to do now?