Sold As Is

by Holley Trent

  “So you’re telling me the trip was a complete bust?”

  “Nope. I managed to pick up a little Nova off this old lady who had only driven it on Sundays for twenty years. It’s stick shift, but folks out in the mountains like those. I left your paperwork in your inbox. Listen, you have any luck finding someone to take my place? I don’t know how much longer my old man is going to forgive me for being out of the law office. You know I love being a part of the team and shit, but he’s pretty vocal. I’m tired of the headaches.”

  Aaron groaned. Fuck. Mike Leonard, throw me a bone, man. “Chas, I’m working on it. It’s not like I can replace you with a highly trained monkey. Besides, monkeys are expensive.”

  • • •

  “Now that’s more like it.”

  Mandy rolled her eyes at the sound of Aaron’s voice and turned her attention back to his bustling staff. The female mechanic was making some notes on a clipboard about two older minivans. The guy Chas followed Tina out in Aaron’s SUV as she left to deliver the station wagon. Elly was in the hospitality lounge being entertained by Mandy’s mother, who sometimes hung out on the lot on the days she wasn’t on the schedule at the hospital. She had nothing better to do.

  “I assure you, my clothing choice today has absolutely nothing to do with you,” she said in response to his quip. Her attire for the day consisted of wide-leg jeans and a plain black tank top. “I happen to be backed up on laundry.”

  In other words, Archie blocked the machine the night before and told her she’d have to pay three dollars per load.

  “I’d hate to see what else you have in that laundry pile if Monday’s and yesterday’s attire are representative samplings.”

  “Definitely representative.” She lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “I like clothes.”

  “Right.” He pulled his pen out of the front pocket of his spring green button-up shirt and twirled it. “Well, what do you have on under them?”

  She laughed and couldn’t help it. His expression was so friendly, but his voice dripping with so much suggestion, the disparity was hard to ignore. And she’d tried ignoring him since the moment he’d driven onto the lot that morning, but that damned infuriating man kept chiseling little cracks into her exterior.

  “Can’t you guess? You’ve already seen an example of at least half my lingerie preferences.”

  “I’d rather see. I’m a visual learner.”

  She felt her blood start to surge and covered her chest with her arms. It definitely wasn’t cold outside, but her nipples sure looked like it. “Nothing to be done about that.”

  “I don’t know.” He gave her shoulder a little nudge and pointed to the gray sedan he and Eleanor had deliberated over immediately after arrival. Structurally, it was okay. Interior was fair. There was a crack in the radiator Archie claimed he didn’t know was there. Aaron thought he could talk him down on price a bit. Eleanor thought he’d lose whatever he’d save by haggling when fixing the radiator problem. “Go for a drive?”

  She started to tingle down below even as the little voice in the back of her mind reminded Don’t touch him. He’s not for you.

  “Aaron, I think that would complicate things a bit.”

  “How so? How are they going to get much more complicated than they already are? I mean, I’ve French kissed your Victoria’s Secret.”

  As if she could forget.

  She glanced at the office window, found no one in it for once, and grabbed him by the hand. “Come here.” She pulled him around to the side of the trailer that faced a fallow cornfield, out of view of the folks on the main lot. Her intention had just been to hustle him from one place to the next for some added privacy, but when she got there, she didn’t want to let go of his hand. It just felt right, her small one in his large rough one. With some difficulty she let it drop.

  “I’m going to take the job. I’m pretty sure Archie has been angling to replace me regardless of the warning he gave. I heard him talking about it with my mother last night.”

  “That sounds sort of double-crossing, not that I can get upset about it since it benefits me.”

  She toyed with a button on his shirt and shrugged. “I don’t think Mom knows the full extent of what’s going on here. When Archie tells her little half-truths, she doesn’t question him on them. She never questions him on anything. Never has. I don’t really know why.” She left the button alone and let her fingers trail down his firm abdominals to grip his silver belt buckle. His stomach contracted at her touch and since her urge was to shove her hands into his pants, she decided to let go of him and back the Hell up.

  He looked disappointed.

  “Anyhow, I could hear them from my room last night. He told her about how awful my attitude is and how the customers complain. She told him he should be more proactive about handling it.”

  “Wow.” He trailed the pad of his thumb along the edge of her jaw and angled her chin up.

  “I’m sorry.”

  She closed her eyes and allowed one sweet, sensual peck before drawing back from him. “Quit distracting me.”

  “No. Test drive?” That damned smile again.

  “Why don’t you take Mike instead?”

  Aaron drew his bottom lip between his teeth and looked off into the distance. “I probably should since I need the talk time with the guy, but you’re so much prettier. So, no.” He pulled her against the front of his body and slid his hands down into the back of her low-rise pants to palm her bottom.

  Her breath sped as he kneaded her naked behind and blew into her ear. If he kept it up, she’d be climbing him like a tree and trying to get her legs around his waist.

  “Now, why don’t you get the keys to that sedan?” he whispered.

  She opened her mouth to rebut, but figured it’d be a case of the lady protesting too much. Instead, she stretched up on her tiptoes to offer him her lips.

  “You’re not going to make me fight for it?” He slid his tongue between her lips and teased its tip around hers.

  She answered him by pulling his head down further, tightening her mouth on his, and grinding her belly against his erection.

  Well, well, Mr. Owen. One less mystery about you, sir. Hello, there.

  He pulled back, wild-eyed and breathless, and removed his hands from her panties to give her a little push toward the front lot. “Evil woman,” he mumbled, repositioning his crotch.

  “You started it.”

  He furrowed his brow and crossed his arms over his chest. “And I’ll finish it, too.”

  “Mm hmm,” she said, turning on her heel. If she had been intimidated in his presence before, that feeling dissolved the second she realized how sprung the guy was. Poor thing. She winked at him as she rounded the corner.

  Mike intercepted her on her way to the trailer. “How’s it going?”

  What’s he mean? What’d he see?

  After studying his friendly expression for a moment, she realized he was talking about cars. She fixed her face. “Oh, well, I think Aar … Mr. Owen may take three more cars today. We’re going to go drive that one with the radiator crack.”

  “Yeah?” He held the screen door open for her and waited as she climbed the concrete steps. “The one I steered that little old lady away from? I’m getting the keys now so she can try that Miata instead.”

  Her jaw dropped. “Are you kidding? The pink pu-uh … punk car we’ve been sitting on for a year? I thought you were kidding me on Monday when you said you were going to sell it.”

  He snorted. Everyone on the lot called it the “pink pussy” except Archie. Archie was clueless. “Yep. It works okay, right? It’s just not conservative enough for most folks in town. Fortunately for my bottom line, she’s lived her entire life being good and conservative and wants to try something new.”

  “Huh! Well, good
for her. I can really get behind a lady with chutzpah.”

  And she could. So many women curled up and waited for life to end once they passed their primes. If Mandy had her druthers, that wouldn’t happen to her.

  They walked together to the pegboard in the office.

  “Michael, I’m bo-o-o-ored!” Elly called over with a pout. She was flicking through television channels and turning pages of a tabloid magazine simultaneously. Mandy couldn’t help but to notice the brat’s picture was on a little inset on the cover. She couldn’t tell what the story was about from where she stood, but whatever it was, Elly didn’t seem too flustered by it.

  Is that what it’s like being an Owen? Maybe Aaron wasn’t exaggerating. But other politicians’ kids don’t get this kind of showcasing, do they?

  How did one research that? Should she consult Google or would The National Enquirer be more telling?

  “I’m sorry, love,” Mike cooed. I’d take you on a test drive with me, but the Miata only has two bucket seats.”

  Elly stuck out her lips.

  Mike returned the sentiment and laughed. “When I get back I’ll take you out for some good old Edenton clams for lunch, how’s that sound?”

  She shrugged. “I can live with that.”

  Mike and Mandy plucked their respective keys off the pegboard and returned to the lot. Before they parted ways, she grabbed her stepbrother by the crook of his arm and pulled him in for a huddle.

  “What’s up, Mirandy?”

  She lowered her voice to a barely audible level and hissed through clenched teeth. “Aaron offered me a job and I took it.”

  “Oh?” His cheek twitched and as he narrowed his eyes toward where Aaron stood, his face took on a slightly malevolent glint she didn’t understand.

  “Mm hmm. We’ll talk later,” he said, voice flat.

  “What’s the attitude for?”

  “Sorry. I was thinking about something else.”

  She didn’t believe him, but didn’t call him on it. Even if she pressed, he wouldn’t relent. He was a rock that way. Instead, she gave the hand gripping his cane a squeeze and offered him and pleading grin. “Don’t say anything just yet? I have to figure out how I’m going to do this.”

  He rubbed the auburn stubble on his chin, still staring at Aaron, and nodded. “I won’t.”

  They broke apart, him tending to the elderly widow, Mandy to the man in the mirrored sunglasses.

  On the road, after noting the Miata’s close tail in the side mirror, she squeezed Aaron’s thigh to get his attention. Her gut didn’t feel right. It felt like it had all those times in high school she tried sneaking in after curfew. She’d quietly slip inside and up the stairs, only to find her mother standing sentry in front of her bedroom door.

  She was too old to be grounded, but she did have a paycheck due. Wouldn’t want to compromise that, even if she and Mike were generally in cahoots.

  “Hey, pull a U-ie in the hospital parking lot and head back down 32. We’re going to take the scenic route today.”

  “Anything you say, sweetheart.”

  Five minutes later, convinced Mike wasn’t suspicious enough to have his customer follow their unprescribed test route, Mandy had Aaron turn off onto an unpaved country road.

  “I get the feeling you’re familiar with this part of the county,” he said when she pointed toward a nearly invisible entrance on a wooded lot they approached.

  “Yeah.” She sighed and waited as he navigated between two large trees on the tight path. It was so grassy, it was nearly impossible to tell if they were approaching a big ditch or other obstacle, but fortunately the ride was smooth.

  “I lived out here for a while when I was little, before Mom met Archie and before my father skipped out. If memory serves me correctly, we were renting from a woman who lives in Montana. When my father left, we moved into an apartment in town.” She laughed and undid her seatbelt as they approached the clearing.

  “It’s private. That must be nice.”

  “Yeah, you of all people would think so, Mr. Owen.”

  He shrugged. “Can’t help who I am.”

  “My friend Chelsea and I used to come out here to smoke. You can’t get more privacy than here unless you’re in a hole in the ground.”

  Once they’d passed the tunnel of trees, the boarded-up farmhouse flanked by its empty outbuildings, and what had once been a garden came into view. When Aaron stopped beside the house and pulled on the parking break, she got out and climbed up onto the hood. He joined her, and together they rested their feet on the front bumper while staring at the trees shrouding the road.

  He put his arm around her waist and slid her a bit closer so their hips touched. “I didn’t take you for a smoker. I assumed that dirty voice of yours came naturally.”

  She shuddered as he grazed fingertips up the side of her naked right arm.

  Focus, girlie. This is a test drive, not a booty call.

  “It does,” she said, swatting his hand away.

  He put it right back, so she gave up.

  “Chelsea was the smoker. Or rather, is. I tried a couple of times thinking I was doing it wrong, but hated the way it made my fingers and clothes smell. It’s hard to get that stink out of silk.”

  “You wore silk as a teenager?” He slid his hand down her ribs and lifted the hem of her tank, fixing a steady gaze on her as he swirled his fingertips around to her belly.

  She held her breath anticipating where he’d put them next, but he froze them just over her waistband — daring her to move. She didn’t. “My grandmother is Spanish. Lives in Madrid. She loves buying me the clothes she’s not quite courageous enough to wear herself. Her tastes run toward the classics, but every now and then something interesting catches her eye and she buys it to wear vicariously via me.”

  He gave her an appreciative assessment from the bottom of her bangs down to her feet. “I guess your tastes now are similar.”

  “I think it’d be accurate to say my taste developed under her influence, so, yes.” She laughed and laced the fingers of her right hand through the ones he’d pressed against her belly. She hardly noticed what she was doing, and when she tried to undo it, he tightened the weave of their fingers.

  She felt the blood suffuse her cheeks and looked away from him. “Um, Abi actually suggested I move to Spain to live with her after Mom married Archie. She can’t stand him.”

  “Abi? Wow, I haven’t heard that diminutive since I was in Colombia years ago.”

  She shrugged. “Couldn’t come up with anything better. We went with abuelita for a while, but that so didn’t fit her. She’s got too much spunk, I think.”

  “I bet, if she’s anything like you. Anyhow, I think your grandmother is in good company with the Archie hate. Why didn’t you go to her?”

  “I don’t speak Spanish very well. And it was my freshman year of high school. I thought the culture shock would do me in, but I regret now not being more courageous. Who knows what kind of life I might have if I’d gone?”

  “Well, I don’t regret it. If you’d gone to Spain and become all civilized, I might never have met you.”

  She yanked her hand free of his and balled it onto a fist she propped onto her right hip. “Aaron Owen, are you suggesting I’m not civil?” she asked with her eyes narrowed at him.

  He chuckled and scraped his hair back from his eyes. “Sweetheart, there’s nothing civil about the way those thighs of yours look through the slit of a skirt. The fact I can even keep my fingers off the button of your pants right now has more to do with me being crunched for time than proof of my impressive self control.” He pressed his lips against the line of her jaw and kissed down the front of her neck to the jut of her collar bone and down even further to the place where her breasts met at the top of her shirt.

  “
Keep that up and you’re going to get yourself in trouble.” She laced her fingers through the back of his thick hair and pressed his lips further into her cleavage, shuddering when he lashed out his tongue.

  “It’s a long drive back to Edenton. I think I can get it together before then.”

  “How much time do we have?”

  He grunted and lifted his face from her breasts to ferret his phone out of the pocket of his slacks. “At the outside, I’d say about forty minutes. Chas and Tina had to make one more trip but I need time to negotiate on the remaining cars.”

  “And Mike promised to take Elly to lunch so you don’t have to worry about her entertainment.”

  “Yeah?” He pushed one strap of her tank top down her shoulder and covered the exposed skin with kisses. “What did you have in mind?”

  “Hmm.” She trailed her fingers down the front of his shirt and stopped at his belt buckle. “I probably shouldn’t say with you being my boss now.”

  He grinned. “You’re your own boss. We don’t even have to work in the same office. Probably best if we’re not seen together, anyway. People would make assumptions.”

  “You mean media people? And why would they if you’re not groping me in plain sight?”

  “That’s what people do. They see a single guy and a gorgeous woman and assume he’s trying to bang her.”

  “And do people make assumptions about you and Eleanor, who’s a knock-out, by the way? Or you and Tina, who has a walk that hints she could probably throw a guy’s back out?”

  “No.”

  “And why would I be any different?”

  He nudged the band of her bra over her breasts and stared at them.

  She covered her chest with her arm. “Answer me.”

  He breathed out an exasperated exhale. “I don’t know that it would be. I just know I want you all to myself. Do I really have to justify that, Miranda? It’s a pretty base urge. Caveman shit, you familiar with that at all?”

  “Yeah, I know a little something about cavemen.”