Torn (4 page)

Like I had a chance with a guy that
hot anyway.

“Hey beautiful, what’s your name?” I
called, cocking my head to watch her sexy ass swaying as she headed outside.

“Sky, Sky Torres,” she replied as
she looked back over her shoulder, those gorgeous brown eyes smiling back at me
before she looked away. Jesus, that soft sultry voice had made my cock perk up
the second I heard it.

I grinned, my eyes not leaving
her curvy body as she crossed the road. It made a refreshing change to find a
girl that didn’t faint or go all giggly when she met me, or ask me to autograph
something for them, including their tits or ass. I was kind of bored with
having my pick of women in this town, and when this girl had told me she’d recently
moved here, I’d been happier about that news than I’d expected to be for a girl
I’d only just met. I reached up and rubbed my cheek where her small palm had
touched it as she’d tended to my cut. I was used to getting some feeling from
touching up women, usually centered on the favorite part of my anatomy between
my legs, but I’d never felt anything like I just had when she’d touched me. A
crackle so intense it had probably been audible. Fuck, it had taken all of my
self-restraint not to grab her and kiss her as she’d stood so close, looking up
at me as she bit her lower lip in concentration.

I wheeled her bike to the back of
the shop and quickly repaired it, then checked my watch. I still had
thirty-five minutes of my break left. If I could shower and get changed in
under ten, that left me twenty-odd minutes to go and get to know her a bit
better. Find out why she was here and for how long, and more importantly, if
she wanted to go on a date with me. I was so damn busy with college, baseball,
and trying to cram in as many hours as possible here at the shop for some extra
cash, I’d barely even had time to make out with a girl lately, let alone fuck
one. My balls were turning blue.

I closed up and headed to the
small restroom at the back of the shop, where we had one toilet, two urinals, a
sink, some lockers, and a freezing cold shower. Why JT didn’t just get the
boiler fixed was beyond me, but I seemed to be the only guy who ever showered
here. My first job every time I came in was to scrub the damn toilet clean,
since none of JT’s regular guys had any concept of hygiene. I coated my hands
in GOJO from the wall dispenser, quickly getting rid of any signs of dirt
trapped under my nails, then hastily stripped off and set a record-breaking
time for a shower and rub down before opening my locker and getting back into
my clean clothes from this morning. I took a second to send a text to my ma to
check she was ok. My dad’s death two years ago had been a shock to us all. She and
Josh had fallen apart, but as the new man of the house at the tender age of eighteen,
it had been up to me to step up and take his place. I hadn’t had time to grieve
his loss yet. Ma had been too distraught to return to work after the funeral
and had taken unpaid leave, but had never gone back. The funeral had been left
to me to organize, as well as trying to work out the finances and pay the
bills. I’d juggled college and training with as many hours here as I could,
just to keep us afloat until the life insurance paid out, which had taken some
time.

Dad had been a helicopter pilot,
usually taking tourists out over the Vegas Strip and Grand Canyon. When he’d
crashed, his co-pilot and two tourists on board had been killed as well.
There’d been a massive investigation as to whether he was at fault or not, or if
he could have been suicidal. That had been the insurance company’s main focus,
anything to get out of paying up. Thankfully the crash investigators pieced
together enough evidence to prove that it had been unavoidable. There had been
an electrical systems failure and they never stood a chance. So we received a
payout from both the life insurance company and the company that had failed to
service the helicopter correctly, resulting in wrongful death. We had enough
money to pay off the mortgage, to make up the shortfall on my college scholarship
for my four-year degree, and to pay for my brother’s degree too. We were left
with a small nest egg that was invested in mine and Ma’s names, which just
about gave us enough of an income for food and bills, after her daily alcohol
allowance, which had become her only priority in life. To this day she hadn’t
recovered from losing him. Drinking was her way of coping with the pain, and
she was rarely sober.

So, on top of everything else, like
my life wasn’t full enough as it was, I had to take care of her and my younger
brother as well. I was lucky that JT was one of my dad’s old friends. Even
though I could strip and rebuild an engine, I wasn’t formally qualified, but
I’d done auto repairs in high school, as well as on-the-job training each
Saturday at JT’s. He knew my schedule now was crazy, so if I could do a few
hours to help out, I did. If I couldn’t, he was cool with it. It was the only
spare money I had to spend on myself, and there was no way I wanted to come out
of college saddled with debt.

I closed the shutters on the door
to the auto shop and headed out of the side door, locked up, and made short
work of crossing the street. If I knew Josh and Billy, they’d already be sitting
in there having their ritual Saturday lunch as they stared at the four harpies,
who were always in the window staring at me if I didn’t have practice or a game.
Christ, I must have been desperate to go there. Heather had breath that would
make a rotten fish smell appealing. How the hell I’d kissed her to start with
baffled me, that was desperation for you, but it had ended that date immediately.
Janice nearly pulled, and then bit, my cock off, she was that aggressive
sexually. I was too damn scared of being maimed for life to go there again. Taylor,
while the prettiest of the four of them, had a reputation to rival mine, and
that was something no guy wanted, not to mention that annoying squeaky voice. Once
with her had been enough. Then there was Bev, the only one I hadn’t tried out.
I’d heard my friends say it wasn’t all about looks when you found the right
woman, but hell, if she couldn’t make my cock hard at one glance, there was no
hope. Now Sky, I nodded to myself appreciatively as I strode up the sidewalk
and approached the diner, there was a girl who had the looks, the body,
inoffensive breath, sexy voice, and no idea of her own appeal. She was stunning
even without any makeup on, and she hadn’t noticed I had an erection while she
was looking after me. It had been a while since I’d come across an obviously
inexperienced girl.

I opened the door, the sound of
Taylor’s squeaky voice assaulting my ears as the harbingers of chlamydia all
called my name. Thank God I had the sense to use condoms when I had sex. Not
that Taylor or Janice had even noticed I’d taken precautions, Christ knows what
they were carrying. I ignored them as I looked for Sky and spotted her staring
at me with her mouth open, her cheeks coloring up. I flashed her a smile and
shut the door behind me as I tried to work out how old she was. She acted more
mature than the airheads to my left, but she looked really young. I seriously
hoped she was legal. I spotted Josh and Billy at the other end of the diner and
raised my eyebrows to see that for once, their attention wasn’t on the girls in
the window, the main reason they came down here, but instead they were fucking
looking at Sky! I felt my hackles go up immediately. I’d seen her first. Not
that Billy stood much of a chance, he hadn’t exactly inherited the family good
looks. In fact, he had a face only his mother could love. But Josh? He was
probably more Sky’s type than I’d ever be, and I’d be damned if I was going to compete
with my younger brother for a girl. It was time to show them both that they
were out of their league.

“Hey, Sky,” I grinned as I
approached her. She put down her drink and gave me an adorable shy smile.

“Hey, all done?”

“Sure am,” I nodded as I went to
stand next to her, making sure I was as close as possible without actually
touching.

“The usual, Nate?” Rosie called
from behind the counter.

“You know it.” I winked at her
and she burst into a fit of girlish giggles, then reached up to pat the side of
her hat before placing my order. This face was a blessing sometimes. Even
though she had to be at least twenty years older than me, Rosie hadn’t been shy
about letting me know she was available. Not that I’d taken her up on it, I
didn’t screw anyone and everyone. I knew my reputation in this town, though. I
wasn’t an angel by any stretch of the imagination, but neither was I the devil
they all portrayed me to be. “Have you eaten?” I turned my attention back to
Sky, taking in her expressive eyes, those soft full lips, the way her light
brown hair shone under the overhead lighting, showing up the odd lighter streaks
of caramel and blonde. Her skin was flawless and her nose had the cutest little
turn up.

“I did, thanks. Great
recommendation, it really hit the spot.”

“You’re welcome,” I replied,
thinking right now my food and beverage order wasn’t going to hit mine, only
feeling my lips on hers would. “I’ve got a while before I need to open up
again, why don’t you bring your drink over and I’ll introduce you to my brother
and cousin? I’m Nate by the way, Nate Hudson.” I offered her my hand and she
hesitated for a moment, making me frown, but then she reached out to take it.

“Hi, Nate Hudson. So, it seems
like you have a few groupies over there. They don’t seem very happy that you’re
talking to me.”

“Ignore them, they’re just fans.”
I reluctantly let go of her hand, not wanting the feeling of warmth and energy
from where our bodies had touched to end.

“Fans?” She raised her eyebrows
as she slipped off the stool to stand next to me.

“Even if you hadn’t told me you
were from out of town, I would have guessed since you didn’t recognize me, or
the eagle on my back.”

“Are you some kind of rock star?”
she asked, looking up at me in surprise while I reached for her drink.

“No,” I laughed. “I play varsity
baseball. I was the pitcher for the Boulder City Eagles, and now for the UNLV
Rebels. I’m kind of a celebrity in these parts.”

“You go to UNLV?” She looked
surprised.

“The repair shop’s my spending-money
gig, minimal hours for basic work. I’m on a baseball scholarship, doing a Bachelor
of Sports Science degree while I play. I was approached for the draft to the
minor leagues, but I declined. I want to finish my degree, and hopefully at the
end of it, someone will offer me a decent contract to help me get to the major
leagues.”

“Wow,” she exclaimed, looking
suitably impressed as her eyes flicked to my biceps. Pitching was sure a good
workout for keeping those in shape, and being ambidextrous didn’t only help
with my sporting aspirations. Seeing her looking up at me like I was some kind
of superstar did nothing to dampen my libido.

“Come on. If you’re new to town,
you should meet a few more people.” I carried her drink over to where Josh and
Billy were glaring at me and gave them a wink.
Too slow, guys, too slow
.
You’d have thought after years of seeing me in action, my moves and confidence
would have rubbed off on them a little and one of them would have made a move
while she was sitting there eating.

“Hey, Nate,” Billy grinned, and Josh
just nodded at me.

“Hey. Move over, Josh, go and sit
by Billy to give us some room,” I ordered. He muttered something under his
breath but did as he was told, getting out of his seat and moving around the
table to go and sit next to our cousin. I flicked my head to Sky to indicate
for her to take the seat he’d just vacated, and as soon as she had, I sat down
next to her. I slid her drink over and stretched my arm out over the back of
the booth behind her head, then parted my legs, letting my knee touch hers. She
quickly jerked it away and grabbed her drink to take a sip, her cheeks turning
a light shade of pink. She was nervous around me, I liked it. I was sick of
girls, and women, throwing themselves at me, it had gotten old a long time ago.
“So, the good-looking dude on the left is my younger brother, Josh, and this
here is Billy, our cousin, both eighteen. This is Sky, she’s just moved here
from San Francisco.”

“Hi,” she smiled at them both. I
gave them a look that made it clear I wasn’t impressed with the looks of
infatuation they were already giving her. Both of them had puppy-dog eyes as
they stared at her. A girl this pretty wasn’t going to be lacking offers in
this town.