Unsteady (The Torqued Trilogy Book 1) Read online

  When I’m finished with the Explorer, Red’s watching me, his hands on the hoist.

  “Help me out here,” he says, nodding to the engine he has ready to take out of the car in his stall. “I need an extra hand and you’re distracting me.” He turns facing the car, and then back to me. “Might as well help out.”

  My first reaction is to be defensive and say something bitchy in reply, but when I take a second I realize he’s teasing which means he’s starting to relax. I’m not gonna lie, I breathe a small sigh of relief before crossing my arms over my chest. “So let me get this straight. First you don’t want me here, now I’m distracting you and you now want my help?” I decide to tease right back, trying to make light of everything that we just said an hour ago, but it’s slightly entertaining the look that comes over his face.

  “You know damn well that you’re distracting me.” And then he steps closer, his brow scrunched in determination. “Now are you going to help me or what?”

  For every part of me that knows pushing Red away is the right thing, there’s an equal part of me who can’t let him go.

  “I don’t know. Are you going to ask me nicely?” I step forward, coming to stand in front of him.

  What the fuck am I doing?

  He stands in front of me now, crossing his arms over his chest, there’s the faintest of a grin tugging at his beautiful lips I desperately want on mine again. He leans down to whisper in my ear. “Lennon.” Oh God, the way my name rolls off his tongue nearly brings me to my knees. “Would you please do me the pleasure of helping me?” He then pulls away and stares into my eyes.

  Warmth creeps up my neck coloring my cheeks. He’s read my mind, hasn’t he?

  He takes a step back, waiting for my answer.

  When I don’t say anything, his eyes narrow. “Are you going to make me beg?”

  I sigh. “All right, no need to beg.”

  He looks back at me over his shoulder as he steps toward the engine again. “I’m not the kind of man who believes in making a woman beg and I’m definitely not the kind of guy to force a woman to do anything she doesn’t want to do.”

  “I’m sure.”

  I can’t see his face when he says, “It’s a good thing you’re not wearing those shorts again.”

  I roll my eyes, following him. “You and those shorts.”

  He stops and I nearly run into his back when he does this, whirling to face me, his chest pressing into mine. “Stop teasing me.”

  I hold up my hands in surrender. “Sorry.”

  I take a seat on the stool near him, waiting for him to tell me what he wants me to help him with.

  “I just need help guiding it out to make sure none of the hoses get stuck.” He motions to the engine.

  It’s clear he doesn’t need my help and that makes me smile too. He wants me in here with him.

  We work in silence for the most part, but it’s unbearable as it usually is around him. So I start asking questions.

  “Who’s watching Nova tonight?”

  “She’s with my mom tonight.” Red stands and reaches inside the fridge not far from his toolbox to remove two beers. He hands me one. “I don’t know what I’d do without my mom. Being a single parent isn’t exactly easy when you’re trying to run your own business.”

  I take the beer he hands me. “I can’t imagine it is. How long have you been a mechanic?” I ask, realizing I don’t know much about him and his passion for working on cars.

  He looks back at me over his shoulder as he’s staring at the engine on the hoist we just pulled out of the car, surprised by the question. “Well I wanted to be a mechanic since I was old enough to turn a wrench.” He steps back from the engine and reaches for a shop rag on his toolbox. “I once took an engine apart when my dad was at work. I was ten, maybe.”

  “So Lyric… was he mad when you took apart the engine or did he help you out?”

  “Uh, no, my old man was pissed.” Red laughs. “It was the engine out of his truck. And he didn’t exactly want it taken apart. There wasn’t anything wrong with it. From then on, my dad started bringing me to the shop, teaching me everything from changing the oil to replacing the engine. And putting his back together.”

  I love that sound of his easy laughter flowing through the shop. God, I wish he’d never stop laughing. “And your dad left the shop to you when he died?”

  He takes a seat next to me on the stool beside his toolbox. “Yep.” He then looks around the shop. “Sometimes I wonder what the hell he was thinking.”

  He watches my lips as I speak. “Are you scared it’s not going to work?”

  “Well yeah, I am.” He laughs. The sound makes me smile again because it’s so damn captivating. “He spent his entire life making this place work and he’s only been gone two months and I’m not sure from Monday to Friday if I can make it work the way he did.”

  We’re quiet, and I think he’s going to get up and leave; there’s an uneasiness in his posture. The sound of the rain picking up catches his attention as it pops against the metal roof. “Shit… I left my windows down.” Squinting at me, he bites down on the corner of his bottom lip, contemplating what he’s going to say but still, withholding so much. “I’ll be right back.”

  When he leaves, I sit on the stool staring at my hands wondering what the fuck is wrong with me.

  Why did I stop him last night? Truth be told, I know why I stopped him. It’s because I’ve made so many bad decisions in my life, I don’t even know how to make a good one. It’s like my default decision is permanently turned to make the shitty choice.

  Given the chance again, I know what my answer will be. There’s something deep inside of me, a need, a craving I know won’t be cured until I’m with him physically.

  I fucking try to ignore her. I do. Especially with everything she said today. If she wants to believe that last night meant nothing, then that’s her choice.

  Despite that, it’s all the same and nothing changes. Nothing in my fixation with Lenny that is.

  I’m desperate.

  I’m weak.

  I can’t stay away from her even if I try. She’s everywhere. In my thoughts and in my space because her stall is right next to mine. And I insist on punishing myself even more here by allowing her to stay late and then asking for her help with the engine.

  I didn’t need her damn help. We both knew that. It was my way of getting her to stay late with me.

  Still, it’s shitty and unfortunate because I’m a goddamn idiot who loves to torment himself.

  My bigger problem comes when she starts asking questions and I open up to her and talk about becoming a mechanic and the fear of letting my dad down. She sits there listening like what I’m saying is the most interesting thing she’s heard all day and all that does is re-enforce the fact that I’m starting to feel something more for her. At first my attraction to her was purely physical, but now it’s… hell, I don’t know what it is.

  We sit in silence, the sound of the rain picking back up shakes me out of my thoughts. With all that happened today with Tyler, and then Rawley, I totally forgot that I left my window down in the Nova. “Shit… I left my windows down,” I tell her and jet out the door into the parking lot through the heavy downpour of rain.

  Sure enough, the inside of my car is soaked.

  I roll the window up and take a minute standing in the rain, breathing heavily. The restless charcoal sky rumbles, a boom of thunder echoing through the night. I close my eyes, trying to blink away the thoughts of her.

  Running my hand through my sopping wet hair, I walk toward the bay doors to finish replacing the engine hoping that keeping busy will help me take my mind off of her.

  My problem is as I’m walking back inside it hits me that I know what’s going to happen once I’m in there. This almost overwhelming response rushes through my veins, and I know it’s not just a matter of wanting Lenny, no, it’s a matter of needing Lenny.

  “You’re soaking wet,” she says once I’m ba
ck. I look down and sure enough, my shirt and pants are soaked, sticking to my body like a second skin.

  “Guess so, huh?” As I look back up at her, I would love to take them off, but I’m not sure that’s the direction I should go right now.

  With water dripping in my eyes, I shake my head, beads of water letting loose from my hair and she laughs and covers herself from the spray. “Were your windows down?”

  “Yeah.” I exhale a resigned breath, knowing exactly what I’m hoping I’m about to do, though I know I shouldn’t.

  It’s not just the fact that she works for me, even though that should be reason enough. No, I need to know she wants this as much as I do. Some sort of signal from her that she’s caught up in whatever web this is like me. That’s all I’m looking for.

  As much as I know I need to keep my distance, there’s the fact that she’s fucking sexy as hell and the temptation that I can’t have her, makes me want her even more.

  Standing there watching her, I notice there’s a tremble to her body and she tenses just for a split second, like she knows where this is going. Then she suddenly relaxes, a calm taking over her features like she’s made a decision she’s been struggling with. A decision that’s lifted a weight off her shoulders.

  And as if to give me the signal I was hoping for, she walks up to me placing her hand on my chest. “Red…. I’m sorry for the way I was acting earlier. I was just scared… of this. Of you.”

  My posture weakens. That’s it. That’s all I need to hear. I know I’m fucked now. She has me. If there were ever a chance of going back after this, it’s gone.

  I move to stand directly in front of her and cup her cheeks in my hands, my eyes darting from her lips, to her face.

  “So I scare you?” I ask, leaning in so my lips graze her ear. My heart races, fire raging through my veins when she intakes a sharp breath.

  When I draw back—waiting on a reaction—she looks at me with wonder in those too-big brown eyes. “No,” she squeaks. I know she’s lying to me. “It’s how you make me feel that scares me.”

  “How about now?” I breathe, and she shivers under my touch when I move even closer, this time her posture weakens. “Does that scare you?”

  “Maybe a little,” she replies, squirming away from me, drawing her bottom lip in her mouth.

  “Just a little?”

  Her pouty lips part only a fraction as if she wants to tell me the truth. Only she doesn’t say anything. Her eyes shut and she releases a sigh. “Maybe a lot.”

  I can’t take it. I need to kiss her. Leaning in, my tongue sweeps over the seam of her lips, and gently pulls her bottom lip with my teeth. The action sends a wave of chills over my body, gnawing at me.

  God, her mouth is driving me insane. I need more of it. I need to be inside her is what I need.

  When I think she might pull back, she doesn’t. Instead, she grips my shirt and lets me kiss her. Cupping her cheek with my right hand, I deepen the kiss. She tastes sweet and for a second, I want to drop to my knees and taste her pussy.

  A resounding growl spreads through the shop followed by a flash of lightning. Lenny startles at the crack of thunder, her hand clutching her chest. “Holy shit,” she gasps, parting her lips from mine.

  I laugh, my hands on her shoulders. “You okay?”

  “Yeah.” She looks up at me with those sultry brown eyes. “I’m good.”

  I swallow, wanting to kiss her again.

  As I lean in, there’s another loud crack of thunder, the florescent shop lights dimming. The hum of the air compressor fading catching our attention as the power fades. The battery operated lights above my toolbox give me enough light I can still see her. Vaguely.

  Slowly, Lenny backs up against the work bench and lifts herself up so that she’s sitting on the edge. I step forward, ripping my soaked shirt over my head and letting it fall to the floor. The squeak of my boots against the concrete is barely heard over the rain. Lenny stares at me taking in the sight of my naked chest as I come closer, my heart racing with each move.

  Instability paints her face and she beckons me forward with a look that says, come get me, I need you right now. Everything she said earlier about needing distance and regretting the kiss, it’s out the fucking window now. I know it.

  I have to fuck her. That’s all there is to it. I can’t take it any longer. I’m craving what I’ve dreamt to be her perfect pussy and her perky tits laid out before me.

  Her eyes grow wide at my proximity and I fixate mine on hers, but she doesn’t move. No, she won’t either because looking at her, and the way her eyes are taking me in, the way she’s giving as much as I’m taking with that kiss, I know damn well she’s been wanting this as much as I have from the moment she stepped foot inside my shop.

  My voice drops to a heavy baritone, as if I’m purposely trying to let her in on a naughty secret. I am. “Do you have any idea how bad I want this?” Making contact with her now, I press my erection against her center, her legs wrapping around my waist as she sits on the edge of the bench.

  “Probably as bad as I want it,” she tells me, pulling back to look at me. She then she pushes me back, her hands on my chest and slides off the bench in front of me. I don’t let her escape and rest my hands on either side of the bench, my lips touching the side of her neck.

  As if she needs me to see this, she forces me back. Slowly, she licks her lips and reaches for the hem of her shirt. No bra. Just perfect naked tits.

  When I don’t say anything, she asks, “What’s stopping you?”

  What is stopping me?

  My morals… my wife… Nova… everything… her.

  I know I want her body more than breathing, and that’s kind of a shitty thing to want.

  I’m not sure what’s changed from her telling me the kiss was a mistake, to this, but I’ll take it. Anything to finally ride this need of wanting her.

  “Nothing’s stopping me,” I tell her, my body in line with hers, no amount of space between us.

  She makes me step back again, easing off the bench and turns so that her back is to me. My hands dance over the swell of her ass, her eyes on me over her shoulder. Slowly, she unbuttons her jeans and deliberately bends down to slide both her jeans and panties off giving me a front row view of her perfect ass. Once her jeans are removed, she kicks them to the side and as an unspoken invitation she places both hands on the workbench in front of her.

  I step forward, pressing my jean-clad erection into the crack of her ass, causing her to gasp.

  “You really want this?” Turning so that her bare breasts are now only inches from my naked chest, she awaits my answer.

  “So fucking bad,” I growl, letting those questioning eyes bore into mine unabashedly. She can’t turn away from me now and I can’t fucking tear myself away from the look I’m getting.

  Cupping her face with my left hand, I kiss her passionately as I work on getting my jeans undone and kicked to the side as fast as I can before she changes her mind.

  This is where I should stop. But I can’t.

  My hands move up her ribcage and her breaths become deeper as if she’s gasping. Christ, she is. My dick is pressed to the curve of her ass and I lose myself in being close to a woman again. But not just any woman, this woman.

  I kiss her jaw and neck working my way down to her shoulders while my hands start to move as if they have a mind of their own. Kneading her breasts and not so gently rolling her nipples between my fingers, they harden with my touch. I can’t concentrate on anything but the way her body reacts to mine, arching almost uncontrollably against me.

  She turns her head to look over her shoulder and her breath fans over my face like a whisper and I can’t take it. Again, I forcefully turn her so that our mouths can find one another. Her lips submit to mine and our tongues meet, gently at first. But as I expected, what happens next is anything but gentle. It’s fucking animalistic as throaty moans and our gasping breaths take over. I keep one hand on her face so I can taste her
deeper and she responds by gasping into my mouth and bringing her leg up to grip around my waist. I grasp it, lifting her off the floor and setting her back on the edge of the work bench before I push forward but still, I don’t enter her. I don’t have a condom on yet, but there’s no doubt she knows how badly I want this.

  Tools rattle together with my movement, and I’m ready to fuck her against any flat surface, this bench, the wall, floor…. It doesn’t make a damn bit of difference to me.

  Sure, I should be gentle with her and take my time because I don’t know what this could mean, but I’m a starving man. I can’t think clearly enough to slow down and I’m racing toward what I know can sedate this unattainable addiction.

  “Do you have a condom?” she asks.

  I nod. “There’s one in my toolbox.”

  Stepping back, I reach over to my toolbox and grab the condom I’ve had in there for the last six months. Thanks to a joke between Tyler and Colt.

  Lenny takes that moment to lean back and catch her breath. Her hands are out beside her and she spreads her legs a bit wider to give me a sneak peek at her dripping wet pussy.

  When I have the condom on, I step toward her again running my finger slowly down her center soaking in her juices. At my touch, she whimpers. Actually fucking whimpers.

  “Slide off the bench,” I tell her in a slow, commanding voice. She does as I say and as soon as her feet touch the ground, I turn her so that her ass grinds into my cock. My head falls forward, resting against her shoulder as excitement shoots through me with her every movement.

  My mouth moves over her shoulder to the base of her neck where I bite down tenderly. “Put your right leg on the table.”

  She does exactly as I say, her neck arching as I run my tongue over the path my teeth made. I position my cock right at her entrance, guiding my latex-sheathed dick inside what I can only describe as paradise.

  I can hardly control myself when I enter her and she clenches around me. My hips automatically move quickly, in jerked motions until I gather my senses and make sure I don’t blow my load right away.