Dirtiest Little Secret: A Quick and Dirty Romance (Quick and Dirty Collection)

by Skye Jordan

  Ava tossed her hands in the air. “What happened to celebrating my sexy new job you’ve been thrilled about?”

  “It’s pretty tough to be thrilled when you’re moping.”

  “I’m not—” She caught Mandy’s sideways glance and gave herself a quick mental slap. “Okay, I’ve been moping. I’m sorry. I think the job is amazing, and I’m grateful for the opportunity—”

  “Shut up,” Katie said. “This isn’t a fuckin’ job interview.”

  “Now don’t be too hard on her,” Mandy said. “When a girl’s heart’s broke, it’s hard to be excited about much.”

  “My heart’s not broken,” she told Mandy. “It was just…just…a thing.”

  “Tell yourself whatever you gotta, hon.”

  Exasperated, she turned back to Katie. “What are my options, here?” she asked. “Really? Even if I wanted to repair things with him—which I’m not sure I do—we live two hours apart. That, on top of this job, virtually kills any reason to even think about starting things up again.”

  Though it didn’t eliminate her need or her obligation to apologize for the way she’d acted at the event. For how abruptly and brutally she’d ended their relationship.

  “You don’t have to take the job.”

  “Of course I have to take the job. I have rent, a car payment. I have everyday bills that add up faster than I can blink—dry cleaning, cell phone, internet. Not to mention all the travels you’ve been talking about. I’ve already drained my savings.”

  “Baby violins are playin’ over here for you, girl,” Mandy said.

  Ava ignored her and spoke to Katie. “How can you say I don’t have to take the job?”

  “Because you don’t want it.”

  “Of course I want it. It was, far and away, the best offer.”

  “Even the best offer isn’t good enough if you have to spend every day doing something you don’t love. You’d just be settling.”

  “Amen, girlfriend,” Mandy added. “I should know.”

  Ava pulled in a breath to argue, but swallowed her words. Then reframed her thoughts. And that pulled her right back into depression. “None of this matters. I need a direction for my life, and I need an income. This job gives me both.”

  Katie scoffed.

  “Okay, spit it out.” She shifted in her chair to face Katie. “Just say everything you want to say to me in one piece. You’ve been tossing little snippets at me for weeks, and I’m obviously too dense to put it together. So just tell me.”

  “Yeah,” Mandy said, “Get it out there, girl.”

  “You need to go see him,” Katie said.

  “I know. I will. I just have to figure out how to apologize for being a schizophrenic bitch.”

  Mandy made a sound in her throat—half laugh, half good luck.

  “It goes like this: ‘I’m sorry I was a schizophrenic bitch. Let’s talk about it in bed.’”

  Mandy burst out laughing. “That’s a good one, girl.”

  “Feel free to use it,” Katie told her.

  “You know I will.”

  “It’s more like ‘I’m sorry I was a schizophrenic bitch,’” Ava said, “‘but that doesn’t excuse you lying to me.’”

  “He lied to you?” Mandy asked, then looked at Katie. “Why you tellin’ her to get back with a lyin’ skank?”

  “Yeah.” Ava crossed her arms and tilted her head with a smirk. “Why?”

  “Because he’s not a skank, and he didn’t lie,” she said, then turned to Mandy. “This guy is melt-in-your-mouth hot. He’s got a college degree and his own business. They were friends when they were kids—”

  “We were not friends,” Ava said, “and he pretended to be something he wasn’t.”

  “No, he didn’t. He showed you exactly who he was. You just didn’t see it. The same way you blinded yourself to who Matthew was.”

  An uneasy sensation trickled into her gut. “What?”

  “He gave you all the clues—the late nights with his buddies, the recreational drug use, the way he looked at other women, the way he bailed on you at functions and took over in meetings. You saw it because you told me about it, but you didn’t put one and one together to get two.”

  Ava opened her mouth to argue, but memories were flitting in and out of her brain, making her realize Katie might be right.

  “Matthew showed you he was a self-centered asshole the same way Isaac showed you he was caring and considerate,” Katie continued. “Isaac took care of you when he could have hurt you. He opened up to you about his guilt over his brother’s suicide. He let you help him in the shop. He took you to a home he hadn’t even shown his parents. Then he introduced you to the most important people in his life in a setting that would show you he was worthy. That’s Isaac the man, Ava. Not Isaac the rich kid he used to be, or Isaac the biker mechanic he is now. Just Isaac, the man.”

  Now Ava was so confused, she couldn’t make sense of the truth. “Not telling me things he knew would be important is the same as lying.”

  “No, no, honey.” Mandy shook her head. “Not telling you things because he doesn’t want to lose you? To me, that sounds like love.”

  Ava’s breath caught. Her stomach clenched. She knew she’d been wrong, but maybe she’d been even more wrong than she realized.

  “That’s what I’m talkin’ about, girlfriend.” Katie fisted her hand, offering it to Mandy in a fist bump.

  “You two make my brain hurt.” Everything about this situation with Isaac fell into too many shades of gray to analyze. She shook her head, sat back, and closed her eyes. “All I know is that I can’t debate this even one more time.”

  16

  Isaac had just sat down and picked up a wrench when the shop’s phone rang.

  He exhaled heavily and lowered his head, trying to decide whether to let it go to voice mail or answer. Then the rumble of motorcycle engines slowed out front.

  “Jesus Christ,” he muttered. He would never grow his damn business when he couldn’t get anything done.

  Isaac dropped his wrench and stood, ignoring the phone in favor of the two members of the Steel Warriors rolling into his bay.

  Roach had taken one of Isaac’s older Heritage Softails on a road test with Grim. Now, the Warriors shut down their engines and Isaac met them at the center of the bay, arms crossed. “What do you think?”

  Both men climbed off their bikes, and Grim and Isaac watched Roach peruse the bike again. He didn’t say anything, just inspected the exterior with squinted eyes. The man had a Zen-like temperament, silent, still, thoughtful, and Isaac wondered if his nickname was Roach because he always acted like he was high. He’d looked over every inch of the bike for twenty excruciating minutes before the ride. Isaac hoped he wasn’t in for twenty more minutes of deep, silent contemplation.

  After five, Roach crouched, fiddled with a few things. After another five, he pushed to his feet with a heavy sigh.

  “Here’s the thing,” Roach started.

  Then never finished.

  Isaac was about to prod him when Roach finally said, “This bike is a mirage.”

  Isaac cut a questioning look at Grim, who shrugged, then asked Roach, “A mirage?”

  “Yeah. She makes you think you’re going to get one thing, but you end up with something else,” he said with his slow, hypnotic voice. “What’s on the outside doesn’t tell the whole story.”

  Isaac tried another look at Grim and got another shrug. “I told you she needs some work. Grim said you were looking for a fixer-upper.”

  “I am. I am.” He walked slowly around the bike, serious and stoic and calm. “But she,” he waggled his finger at the bike, “she’s…”

  “She’s…?”

  “She’s a pretender. A man could get fooled by a bike like this. He could focus on her perfect impression, make a decision based on label and price, but that would only be half-truth.”

  Man, he didn’t have the patience for this. “Truth of what?”

  “She’s n
ot at all what I expected by the look of her or what you told me.” Roach leaned back and gestured to the bike as he laid out the issues. “The clutch slips, and the brakes are soft.”

  Isaac scratched his head, sure now Roach had fried too many gray cells smoking. “I mentioned that before you took her out.”

  “You did. But she also hesitates when you turn on the gas, then hiccups, like the fuel injection is gummed up. And she loses power when she’s revving up an incline.”

  That sounded more problematic than Isaac had anticipated. “I haven’t ridden her since I brought her home.”

  “She’s also got a few dents, and she drifts to the left. This baby has a troubled past. But you wouldn’t know by looking at her.”

  Isaac shook his head. “I picked her up at an auction with five others. I don’t know the history. Look, if I had the time, I’d do the repairs myself. I’ve got her priced five hundred below Blue Book.”

  “It’s not about the money.” Roach pressed his fists to the seat and lifted his gaze to Isaac’s. “It’s about integrity. She’s just not what she seems. Integrity is important to me.”

  Isaac scratched his head. “Integrity.”

  “Integrity. What you see is what you get. Living up to the promise you project.” Roach gestured toward the bike again. “Her guts don’t jive with her promise.”

  That succinct evaluation hit Isaac a little sideways, but he wasn’t sure why. He also wasn’t completely sure he was following Roach’s convoluted correlation between a rusty bike and integrity.

  He was still wrangling with the concept when Roach said, “Let me think about it. She just turned out to be something different than I expected. Once I get my mind around that, I’ll come back.”

  Roach shook Isaac’s hand, turned, and strolled toward the bike he’d come in riding.

  Isaac glanced at Grim. “The bike talks to him?”

  Grim grinned, shrugged. “Roach is…deep.”

  “That’s one way of looking at it,” Isaac muttered.

  He crossed his arms and watched the men ride off together, puzzling out the discomfort gnawing in his gut.

  “Integrity… She makes you think you’re going to get one thing, but you end up with something else. What’s on the outside doesn’t tell the whole story.”

  Just like Isaac had led Ava to believe he led a simple life when there was way more to his story. He’d justified his behavior by telling himself he hadn’t lied to her.

  But he had lied. Just not in words.

  Shit. Now Ava was on his mind again. Or, rather, how his stupidity and pride had pushed her away.

  Isaac rolled the bike to the yard, where he lined it up with the others. The garage phone rang right as tires crackled on the gravel out front. Isaac closed his eyes, dropped his head back, and exhaled heavily. “All I want is a fucking moment.”

  With a sigh, he entered the garage through the side door and picked up the phone. “Revival.”

  “Hi,” a woman said. “I saw your help-wanted sign when I was driving by. Are you still hiring?”

  “Yeah. Why don’t you give me your name and number? I’m screening with phone interviews. I’ll give you a call back when I can.”

  He picked up the pen stuck to the wall by the phone, but there was no paper left in the scratch pad. Isaac wrote it on his hand with a promise to call her later today and hung up. He slammed the pen back to its spot on the wall so it didn’t disappear like the paper and turned to face the soft footsteps entering the garage.

  He pulled in a breath to greet the customer and found Ava. All his breath left him in a swoosh. Shock hit him first, then a burst of other emotions collided in his body all at once—excitement, hope, fear, guilt. Love.

  A tentative smile lifted her mouth. “Hi.”

  Isaac wanted to wrap her in his arms and bury his face against her soft, fragrant skin. But he couldn’t make himself move. “Hey.”

  The phone rang behind him, making him jump. “Sonofabitch.”

  He swiveled, picked up the phone, then slammed it down again, hanging up on whoever had called. Then he lifted the receiver again and let go. The phone dropped to the end of the coiled cord, stopping just above the concrete floor, and bounced there.

  Isaac stared at it with a sliver of satisfaction. “I should have done that a long time ago.”

  “No Becky Rae?” Ava asked.

  “No Becky Rae.” He wandered a few feet toward her, with so much to say but no words gathered to say it. She was in her cutoffs, a pink tank top, and flip-flops. Her hair was down and loose. And Isaac ached to feel her against him.

  “Business still good?” she asked.

  “Still good.”

  She smiled and pushed her hands into her back pockets. “That’s great.”

  “How are you?”

  “Oh, you know…” She scraped her lower lip between her teeth and nodded. “I took a new job.”

  “Yeah?” He smiled. Just having her in the same room changed his outlook on the world. “That’s great. Where?”

  “The Quantum Group.”

  “The construction firm? Really? That’s fantastic. A few of my friends went to work for them when we graduated, and they love it there.”

  “Yeah, it’s a good company.”

  She wandered close enough for her scent to drift to him, and the sweetness of it clenched his gut.

  “What are you doing there?” he asked.

  “I was vice president of regional operations for North America and Europe.”

  Shock and excitement hit him first. His eyes went wide. “Wow, that’s—” He was going to say amazing, but changed it to “Wait. Was?”

  She grinned and huffed a laugh. “Yeah. I lasted a whole week.”

  His shoulders dropped along with his smile. Concern replaced joy, and he automatically stepped forward, stopping himself just short of touching her. “Why?”

  She sighed, pulled her arms from behind her, and hooked her thumbs in her front pockets. She shook her head and looked at the floor. “Isaac,” she lifted her gaze to his, “I need to apologize. I’ve needed to apologize for weeks, I just didn’t know how.”

  “No.” He reached out and wrapped his fingers around her forearms. Her skin was soft and warm, and his own apology spilled out of him. “No. It was me. I did everything wrong. I should have told you earlier. I shouldn’t have surprised you like that at the event. You were under so much pressure, and I was only thinking of myself. I made you believe I was one thing when that wasn’t the whole story. I should have handled things differently.”

  “I overreacted.” Regret swamped her expression. “I’ve been living so long one way that when the rug got pulled out from under me, I fell on my butt and cried instead of dusting myself off and getting back up.”

  “What happened to you was not as simple as a little bump in the road, Ava.”

  “Maybe not, but I’m disappointed in myself for how I handled it. And I’m sorry I hurt you.”

  Isaac exhaled and stroked her arms. He knew this apology didn’t mean she wanted to get back together, but he couldn’t keep his emotions inside a second longer. “I’ve missed you so much.”

  She smiled, pulled her hands from her pockets, and linked her fingers with his. Leaning in, she pressed her forehead against his chest. “I’ve missed you too.”

  All the hope he’d been holding back exploded in his chest, and his breath stuttered. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her so hard, she came off her feet.

  When he put her down, she was laughing.

  Isaac lowered his head and kissed her gently even though he was hungry enough to devour her. Ava sighed, and her body swayed into his. She wrapped her arms around his neck and opened to him. Her warmth and sweetness filled him to the brim with joy, and his body came back to life.

  When they broke from the kiss, Isaac said, “You didn’t answer me. Why aren’t you with Quantum?”

  “I thought it would be enough to fill the hole left by my family. But aft
er working there, I realized that the only reason I was in the corporate world to begin with was for my family, not me. And I don’t want to spend my life working for someone else, doing something I don’t love.”

  That was a huge step. She’d just walked away from a job with an amazing company, a quarter of a million in salary, not to mention bonuses, and a hell of a lot of prestige that would have gone a long way toward getting revenge against her family.

  “That is a big revelation,” he told her.

  She laughed. “Tell me about it.”

  He combed his fingers through her hair, surprised just how much he missed the feel of it. “Do you know what you’re going to do now?”

  She sighed. “No. But…” She looked around the shop, her gaze lingering on the empty front office, then met his gaze again. “I understand you’re lookin’ for help around here.”

  Isaac laughed, squeezing her closer. “Baby, don’t tease a starving man with a cut of prime USDA.”

  She rocked her hips against his. “I’ve already proven I’m not a tease.”

  His heartbeat kicked higher. “Why in the hell would you want to trade a Manhattan high-rise for Connecticut backwoods?”

  She smiled. “Because you’re in the Connecticut backwoods and because it’s time for me to explore outside the Manhattan high-rise.”

  He scanned her face. “You’re serious.”

  “I’m serious.” She slid her hands over his shoulders, laid them against his chest, and smiled. “I’m a quick study, I’m great with customers, and I can sell steel to a tribe in the Amazon.”

  This was too good to be true. She had to be playing him. “Baby, you know I can’t pay you what you deserve. I’m not using family money here—”

  “Money isn’t what I expected to find here. But I do think the job of executive assistant, senior sales consultant, and master of all things that ring warrants a quarterly bonus.”

  He smiled. “Here comes the sales pitch.”

  She rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “I’m thinking a percentage of net income.”

  “Net income,” he repeated. “You mean the money I earn from working my fingers to the bone.”

  “The money you earn from the jobs I pull in that work your fingers to the bone—yes.”