Stick Shift (9 page)

Lily had barely gotten her helmet off when the window net on her side of the car was pulled down and one of Cam's crew members reached in to help her with her buckles, hooks, and catches.

“Have fun?”

Lily looked up at the kid. Well, he wasn't a kid really, but he likely wasn't any older than Cam. That brought her up short. Looking back and forth between the two men, young though they might be, there was a vast difference in their faces.

Cam had youth, but his eyes seemed older than his actual years. The man at the window helping her seemed more like a boy than a man. Cam had responsibilities on his shoulders that most men her age wouldn't be able to handle. Cam carried the weight of his crew, his sponsors, his bosses, his managers, and his family on his shoulders. They depended on him, and he depended on them.

Lily swayed when she stood on the ground, and the kid held on to her arm just a bit longer. She leaned back against the side of the car and took a few deep breaths.

“You okay? Sometimes it takes a few minutes to get your bearings again after a ride like that if you're not used to it.”

Lily smiled at him. “I'm fine, just needed to catch my breath.”

“I got her, Mick. Thanks.” Cam reached out and brushed a piece of hair from her eyes as Mick walked away. He didn't look like a Mick, more like a Mickey.

6
Maybe that's what Mick was short for. She shrugged and looked up at the man who stood in front of her, the one she was falling for.

“I loved it, Cam. Thank you so much for bringing me out here and taking me for a ride. I won't ever forget it.”

“I'm glad, baby. I hope there are going to be a lot of things between us that you won't ever forget. I—”

“Hey, wanna go for beer and wings?”

Lily looked up at the older gentleman who had walked up. Cam pulled her into the crook of his arm and turned to the man. “Ronnie, this is Lily. Lily, this is Ronnie, my crew chief.”

Ronnie's face lit up and he pulled her into his arms for a hug that squeezed the breath right out of her. “So you're the gal? Damn, it's nice to meet you.”

“Hi.” Lily wasn't sure what else to say. The gal? Ronnie let go of her and just beamed from ear to ear. What had Cam told him?

“So you gonna come sit with me on Sunday?”

“Uh yeah, I think so. Is that all right? We don't want to be in the way or be a distraction.”

“You'll be fine, darlin'. Don't worry. We have plenty of room, and it'll make Cam here real happy.”

“Okay then, if you're sure.”

“Very. So,” he said, smacking his hands and rubbing the palms together, “wanna go for beer and wings with us?”

Cam looked down at her, and she looked up at him. She didn't mind one way or the other; she simply wanted to be with him. Time was short, and every moment would have to last years for her. Despite everything he'd said, things would come to an end when the month was over. She'd have to go home, back to her own life.

The question though, was why?

“Sure, we'll come for a little while.”

63

“Great. We'll be at Billy's.” Ronnie jogged off, leaving Cam and Lily alone by the car. Track workers hovered on the other side of the pit wall, but well out of earshot.

“You don't mind, do you?”

“No.”

“You sure? You're not saying much.”

“What did you tell him about me?” She really hadn't meant to ask, but curiosity got the best of her.

Cam laughed and took hold of her hand, walking with her toward the garage area where he'd parked his truck earlier. “Nothing. Honest. I only told him I'd met you and liked you and…”

She stopped short, causing him to have to stop as well. He turned and looked at her, and that's when she noticed the redness of his cheeks. “Oh my God. You told him that we…” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “That we…spent the night together?”

“No, I didn't tell him. He figured it out.”

“How embarrassing.”

“Not really. I don't care that they know. Why should you? I want you. I can barely keep my hands off you. Being with everyone tonight will be a lesson in restraint that I don't want. Seeing you on Sunday will take every ounce of willpower I've got not to put you over the hood of the car and fuck you in front of the world, making sure everyone knows that you're mine.”

He'd stepped closer with every word he spoke until he was pressed tight against her body. He held her around the waist and she felt every inch of his cock through their clothes. His eyes, uncommonly devoid of sunglasses at the moment, had darkened to a near-midnight blue. The lust she read on his face matched the lust his words had brought to life in her body.

6
“I know you have doubts about me, about this. I'm not letting you go. You should probably start figuring out how to say yes at the end of the month.”

“Yes? To what?”

He didn't answer her, just kissed her lips in the sweetest way and started leading her to the truck again. What was he up to? What was he planning? Did he really believe he wasn't going to let her go?

He opened the door to the truck cab for her, and when she was inside, he walked around to the driver's side and climbed up behind the wheel. “You like wings? Beer?”

“Yeah. What's Billy's?”

Cam pulled out of the garage lot and wound his way around the infield to the tunnel that would take them out to the main highway.

“It's a little bar that one of the guys' brothers owns. We go there a lot, at least once a week before we head out of town. I usually end up buying him a new pool table each season because one of us inevitably ruins one of them.”

“Oh my.”

“We do get rowdy; we do get drunk. Not many women hang out there either, so that's a very good thing. No telling what I'd have to end up buying Billy if women were around.”

“Oh my.” She didn't know what say. And oddly enough, she was looking forward to being around them all. “Maybe I should call Alli and see what she's up to.”

“The one from the autograph line?”

“Yeah.”

“No. They'll have her on the pool table. My crew has the most young, single guys of any of the other crews. It wasn't planned that way, but that's how it happened. It works for us. We're all young. Ronnie is the oldest of us and is like a big brother or father figure. We look up to him, and he looks out for us.”

65

“Sounds like a family almost.”

“It is. It's a lot like a family, and that's the only way it will work. We have to be as close as brothers.”

Lily smiled at the thought. She knew he was far away from home living on the East Coast and his family being on the West Coast, and she liked the idea that he had a surrogate family. Even if they were all guys, they took care of one another. It was how she, Alli, and Candi had always been. As close as sisters without actually being blood, though all three of them had sworn they'd been separated at birth at one time or another over the years.

Cam pulled into the dirt parking lot of a small wooden building. At least from the front it looked small, and she wasn't sure how all the people from all the cars out front would fit inside such a tiny place if it wasn't larger toward the back. He helped her down from the cab and locked up the truck. She was nervous to meet the other members of his crew. If Ronnie knew they had slept together, didn't that mean everyone else likely did as well?

“C'mon. They won't bite. Not like I do at least.”

“Do they…?”

He grinned at her with a mischievous gleam in his eyes, and she wanted to kick him in the shin. “No, they don't. Though if you don't wipe that blush off your cheeks, they're going to know something's up.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah.”

“Then you should do something about the bulge in your pants.” Lily slapped her hands over her mouth, and her eyes widened. She couldn't believe she'd just said that. What the hell was wrong with her? Around Cam, she was a completely different person. Flirting and smart-mouthed comments and sex on the first date were things that Alli did, things that Alli could get away with, but…

“How do you suggest we take care of it?”

6
“I…I…”

“Cat got your tongue, woman?”

Lily shook her head, afraid to speak, afraid of what might come out of her mouth. Cam just grinned at her and ushered her inside the bar.

It was going to be a long night.

67

“Where's your friend?” Cam reclined in the corner of the couch with Lily's head in his lap. They'd been back at her friend's house for a little while, and he was uncertain if they were going to be staying the night there or if they were going back to his place. He didn't know how Lily felt about it, but he sure wasn't planning on spending a night away from her. Sex wasn't the answer to everything, but it could go a long way toward forging a strong bond between two people.

“Candi is in Europe on a tour of Italy. It's been a dream of hers to go on a cooking tour there.”

“Is she a chef?”

He played with Lily's hair as she talked. It had just gotten fully dark outside, and the light from the moon wasn't all that bright, but he didn't want to move just yet. Lily felt like home to him. He'd seen his mom and dad snuggle on the couch many times over the years, and he'd seen his brother and his new wife snuggle together in a recliner or on a couch. It was a closeness he'd always wanted to share with someone. Someone who wanted him for him and not for the money or the fame.

Now that someone had a name: Lily.

“No, she's not a chef. Not a professional one anyway. She loves to cook, and when she learned that this tour coincided with part of her vacation time, she petitioned her boss for the rest of the time off for it.”

“It must be expensive, though.” He had tons of money, more than he knew what to do with. Even when he gave away what he thought was a small fortune to causes and charities and relatives and friends, he found it barely made a dent in his accounts.

6
“Yeah, it did cost her, but she took it out of her 401(k). She said it's an investment. For all I know, she'll come back and enroll in cooking school.”

“Hmmm…maybe I could hire her to cook for me. I can bake some, but I can't cook worth shit.”

Lily sat up and turned toward him, but he couldn't see her face for the darkness. “You can bake?”

“Yep. My mom loves to bake and was always baking something when we were growing up. I used to help some when I was a kid. My girlfriends always found it romantic, just like my mom said they would. She used to tell me I could get out of just about any jam with a woman if I baked her cookies. You surprised?”

“Yeah. I've never met a guy who could bake anything. I know few who do anything in the kitchen beyond punch the buttons on a microwave.”

“My mom baked cookies at least every other day. Different kinds too. Our friends used to always come home with us after school for milk and cookies.” He seriously hoped he didn't sound like a dork. He loved those times, though. They were memories he hoped to pass on to his own kids one day.

“I love cookies. Molasses cookies are my favorite.”

The wistful, playful, pleading tone in her voice made him laugh. She was trying to get him to bake her cookies. “They are, huh?”

“Yes. Big, soft molasses cookies with the sugar crystals on top.”

“Uh-huh.” He'd make her any kind she wanted, but she was going to have to work for them. “And if I agree to make you these molasses cookies, what do I get in return?”

“Umm, well…what would you like?”

“What do you think they're worth?”

She sat there for a moment and then moved, pressing against his side, kissing the corner of his mouth. She giggled and tried a second time, kissing him fully on the lips.

69

He knew the darkness hampered things a bit, but he wasn't going to let her off easy. “Surely you don't think that's enough.”

She leaned in and kissed him again, this time sliding her tongue along the seam of his lips until he parted them. The kiss was slow and sensual, and it was all he could do to keep his hands to himself, but this was her show. For now.

She pulled back. “How was that?”

Her voice was beginning to take on that breathy quality he loved when she started to get excited. He sighed dramatically. “I don't think you want those cookies all that much.”

“I do, Cam. I really do.”

The pleading tone was fun. The playfulness was fun. “You're going to have to do better than that, then.”

“Oh.”

She sat back from him and was silent, and he wondered what she was thinking. He started to say something when she slid off the couch and crawled between his legs. Kneeling there, she reached out, unsnapped, and unzipped his jeans.

Cam wasn't sure what he'd expected, but this wasn't it. He slid lower on the cushion as she reached in and wrapped a hand around his cock. Thinking she was perhaps just going to stroke him, he nearly choked when she wrapped her lips around the head, and her mouth glided all the way down.

Holy. Fucking. God.

Lifting her head, she slid her tongue up his length, leaving a wet trail that cooled as air touched it. She wrapped her fingers around the base, worked her mouth up and down over the head and shaft, and squeezed with her hand.

Again, her mouth drifted all the way down, her lips replacing her fingers, and her throat working on the crown. The woman had a magical mouth. He'd have never guessed she was so skilled in giving blowjobs, but damn, was she ever. He leaned 7
his head back and lifted his hips. She pulled up when he pushed up. It was insane how hot her lips were gliding along his cock, how wicked her tongue was as it danced along the vein, how constricting her throat was when he pushed into it.