by Jill Monroe
“There’s my car.” He pointed to a sleek navy roadster, older but obviously well loved, parked in front of the dealership. Brightly colored helium balloons were tied to the side mirrors and a large placard announcing For Sale was stretched across the dashboard. “Or that was my car.”
Tony flipped on the blinker and pulled the Ladybug into the row of spaces outside the floor-to-roof glass windows advertising no credit checks, 0 percent down and low cost financing.
A man sporting the smooth fabric of a very expensive dress shirt and a muted silk tie shoved open the door and scurried toward them.
Hayden stifled a groan. She’d rather give up chocolate for a month than step on a car lot. Who loved feeling stressed, pressured and patronized? She hated buying anything that didn’t have a set price anyway, and salesmen seemed especially adept at locating and zeroing in on her weaknesses, ensuring she got the worst possible deal available every time.
“We need some kind of a plan before we get out,” Tony said.
“When he comes up to us, no matter what he says...just act natural. Like it’s absolutely normal for us to be here today.”
His lips twisted and he raised a brow. “You’re really good at this whole subterfuge business.”
“It’s all I got,” she told him with a shrug.
“Works for me. Unless...” His voice lowered, and he looked behind his shoulder quickly.
“Unless what?”
“How natural should we react when the police pull up beside us because we took this car for a test drive last night and never came back? Or maybe we just walked around the dealership and snatched the keys from someone’s desk and ran. Damn, I shouldn’t have parked so far away from the exit.”
Her chest constricted in alarm. “Tony, why in the world did you pull in here? Forget your old car. Put Ladybug in Reverse and gun it.”
Then she spotted the playful twinkle in his eyes. “Okay, cut it out,” she demanded with a wag of her finger. “I know you’re messing with me. Are you sure it’s documentaries you make? With that imagination maybe you should be writing films.”
“Well, those two scenarios did cross my mind. There was a time in my life when...” His words trailed off.
“Oh, stop it.” She had another fact to add to the file marked Project Getting To Know The Man You Plan To Romp On Later—Tony liked to tease. She’d squirrel that away for later and simply enjoy the moment of appreciating his playful smile. Yeah, before they were arrested, because it would all be downhill from there.
He engulfed both her hands in his, his palms warm and comforting. “I’m positive you wouldn’t steal a car, Hayden. And just to reassure you, my lawless days went the way of my baggy cargo shorts and soul patch. I’m a good guy now.”
That was the second time he’d assured her he was one of the good ones. Clearly, her knowing that was important to him. Although she hoped he wasn’t too good.
She reached for the door handle. “I guess now’s the time to see our fate.”
The smile slowly faded from his face and the teasing glint vanished from those deep, dark eyes of his as he looked at her. “I see my fate.”
Her heart pounded in her chest and her chin would have dropped if he hadn’t suddenly winked and opened his door.
“Ah, Tony. So glad you’ve come by again. Is Hayden with you?” asked the approaching salesman, with both hands in the air in welcome. Ah, yes, already in pretend best-friend mode. At least he wasn’t secretly pocket dialing the police for help.
Hayden’s shoulders slumped and her breath came out in one long, relieved hiss. No way would they be greeted so enthusiastically if they’d done anything illegal last night. Tony glanced her way and gave her a wink as if to say, told you it’d all work out.
“And the car looks...interesting,” the salesman managed to say.
Poor Ladybug. Even a man trained to lie for a living couldn’t give the girl a real compliment. Hayden climbed out of the car and joined the two men inspecting the black dots on the shiny red hood.
Their salesman sported a lanyard proclaiming his name was Jeff and he’d been salesman of the year three quarters ago. Jeff scratched at his head. “I wasn’t sure how well the touch-up paint would work making the spots, but it came out pretty much how I imagined.” Still not a compliment. “Did you use all six bottles?”
Tony and Hayden looked at each other. “Hayden, I don’t remember, did we?”
Great, thanks, funny guy. That was his idea of playing it normal?
She nodded her head with a smile. “We sure did. Isn’t it pretty?”
“It’s something else, I tell you.” Which, of course is southwestern speak for it’s awful. “But you were insistent. Anything for the ladies, am I right, Tony?” He slapped Tony on the back.
Now it was Tony’s turn to nod his head and act normal.
“But you were happy to trade your car in for, uh, what were you going to call it?”
“Uh, Ladybug?” she offered.
“That’s it. Tony, hey, man, are you okay?”
Tony’s face had grown pale.
“I traded my car for that?”
Was that incredulous pain in his voice? Tony looked as if his favorite football, baseball and basketball teams had all lost at the same time on the last play in the final round.
“Well, not an even trade,” Jeff assured them.
That must have been where the two grand had come from.
“You paid me four hundred dollars.”
Tony made choking sounds.
“I’m not supposed to tell you this, but you really got a good deal out of us last night.” Jeff rubbed at the back of his neck. “My boss raked me over the coals this morning, that’s for sure.”
More choking sounds.
Jeff dropped the pretense of stress and winked. “Guess last night was your lucky night. You couldn’t wait to spend your winnings from the Endeavor.”
Hold up, that’s the first interesting thing Jeff had said, and it had only taken five minutes of conversation.
“Endeavor?” she promoted.
“The casino at the Oklahoma-Texas border. Of course around here we call it the Win Never. Yep, your lucky night indeed, first the cash and then the car.”
And still more choking.
“Jeff, could you bring us a couple of waters? That’d be great,” she told him and turned to Tony. Jeff needed to go. Fast.
Tony’s eyes squinted against the sun as he stared at his former vehicle. “I built that car. At the center we had to take skills classes to keep us occupied and off the streets. I’ve worked on that car since I was seventeen. Whenever I had the cash and could buy the spare parts,” he told her, not bothering to hide the love and pride and sadness in his voice.
That explained why the roadster was older but so well taken care of. The car wasn’t just Tony’s sleek baby on four wheels, that smooth machine had probably been his salvation.
So much for his theory that even under the influence of whatever the heck they’d been on last night, they still wouldn’t do anything they wouldn’t normally do. Clearly he loved his old car and would never have sold it under normal circumstances. And who could blame him? Hayden imagined driving it in California, the top down, the sun on her face and palm trees overhead. She could almost feel the warm wind blowing through her hair. Heaven.
“I must have been out of my mind last night. My car is worth twice as much as that piece of cra—uh, sorry. I know that Ladybug was kind of your thing.”
Her stomach tightened. That’s right—Ladybug was her thing. She’d wanted a car painted like that since she was a little girl and had spotted one in the parking lot of the mall. That’s when her grandma taught her the word frivolous.
But last night, Anthony Garcia had made her little-girl dream happen for her. She hadn’t even realized that it was still even important to her after all these years.
His actions loomed, humbling and horrifying at the same time. She would fix this car swap for him. Fix it
right now. “I’ll be right back,” she told him as she aimed for the office.
“Where are you going?”
“Maybe we left our cell phones in there by accident. Signing paperwork, you know, that kind of thing.”
Tony nodded and wandered off in the direction of his car. Probably to spend some last quality time with the classic he no longer owned because of her.
Of course she was ill-equipped to do battle. If she still possessed her phone, right now she’d not only know the full value of Ladybug, but also the trade-in value of Tony’s car. Plus a rating for the dealership and on Mr. Salesman-Three-Quarters-Ago Jeff. He met her at the glass door juggling two bottles of water. “Oh, there you are.” He greeted her with a smile. He tossed her one of the bottles. “Catch.”
Jerk. He’d probably expected her to yelp and drop it, or something equally stupid. But she’d played softball in high school and had no problem making the play.
“Jeff, we’ll need to trade Ladybug in for Tony’s old car.”
The salesman tilted his head back and looked down his nose at her. The corner of his lip turned up in an attempt at a smile that came off more like a sneer. Pretend best-friend mode was officially off. “I’ve already had two people stop by to take a look at that beauty. Our guys gave it a good polish this morning. Have to tell you, we’ve already sunk some dough into the car. I can work with you, but I suffered some heat for the deal we made last night, and...”
She could fill in the blanks. “It’s going to cost me.”
Jeff shrugged. “Have to recoup my losses. Pay the guys in the back for their time. The title paperwork alone is worth hours. The accrued wear and tear.”
“Since last night?”
“Plus you’ve already damaged the car I sold you, lady.”
She gasped. “Damaged? How?”
He lifted a superior brow. “The spots. Who’s going to buy it the way it is now? It will have to be repainted. I’m actually a little surprised you want to trade it back in after all your plans for it. You were both so happy about that little beauty last night.”
Now it was her turn to work the angle. “Would you say, unusually happy?”
“Very,” he told her with a nod, warming to the subject.
“So then it wouldn’t surprise you to hear that Mr. Garcia and I may have been the victims of a suspicious substance last night? One that clouds judgment and induces short-term memory amnesia. How do we know that we weren’t dosed here?”
“Now wait a minute—”
“It’s easy to verify. A simple blood test.” She’d actually done her fair share of volunteering for various drug trials to make a little extra cash, so she understood labs and test results. His nostrils flared and his air of arrogance dropped off fast.
She patted him on the arm, and delivered a wide smile—pretend best-friend mode on high. “I’m sure you had nothing to do with it, Jeff. And I know you wouldn’t want there to be any rumors that the dealership made this situation even worse for us. You know how cruel social media can be.” Hayden shuddered. “I can only imagine the snarky memes, hashtags and reviews headed your way.”
“Well, I...uh...”
Then Jeff straightened and that cocky, overly confident grin returned, and her stomach tightened. Of course, getting the best of him wouldn’t be that easy. She was an amateur when it came to manipulation. So she gave him a conspiratorial wink and tried another tactic instead, “Jeff, what’s it going to take to get us back in that car today?”
* * *
TONY RUBBED AT a nonexistent smudge on the hood of his old car. He’d been nursing this sweet thing back to health since he’d found it missing a fender and ready for the crusher at a salvage yard nine years ago. He’d been searching for spare parts for a shop project at the center, never suspecting he’d stumble onto an endeavor that would consume him and save him at the same time.
He’d wrangled a deal with the guy at the wrecker—he could have the car if he promised to work there every day after school and on Saturdays for five weeks, ringing sales and pulling parts off junkers in the yard.
It had taken another two weeks of work to afford the new parts he’d need to repair his new car and another month to score enough cash for a paint job. Navy hadn’t been his first choice—the rebellious teen in him wanted something black with flames down the sides—but the dark blue had been on a closeout sale, and he’d never looked back.
Until now. His car had got him through high school. It had been his crash pad when he’d put all his money into financing his first film and couldn’t afford the rent. Been with him on every film since.
And last night he’d given it all up.
A breeze, or maybe it was hot, sexual awareness drifted over his skin. He looked up and there was Hayden, filling his vision. Her long, dark hair bounced around her shoulders as she hurried toward him. Her fit, lightly tanned legs snagged his gaze for a moment. He’d always been a leg man. Short or long or lean—none of that mattered. A woman’s leg, from the sexy curve of her calf to the softness of her thighs, always drew his eyes for a second glance.
Yet, he was also entranced by the way her hair framed the roundness of her face, caressing her cheeks the way his fingers wanted to. And by the way her soft lips invited him to take a long, sweet taste... Then there was the sway and rock of her hips as she raced toward him that made his hands itch to curl his fingers around the curve of her waist and slam her against his body to cradle his cock. Oh, hell. He wasn’t a leg man after all. Everything about Hayden turned him on.
“I see my fate.” He tamped down the thought. Forced it from his mind. Because the idea of a woman he barely knew being it for him was ridiculous. No, what he wanted was last night again. Hayden naked. In his arms. Wanting him.
Her breasts lifted and bounced with every step as she walked toward him, and he remembered Betty’s hasty apology that she didn’t have a bra in Hayden’s size. Her nipples poked against the thin cotton of her borrowed T-shirt, and his mouth watered. Last night he would have laved her breasts with his tongue, drawn them into his mouth and teased the tips with his teeth. And he didn’t remember one thin detail.
“Here,” she called, and she tossed him a set of keys. He caught them one-handed and then glanced down at the key resting in his palm. He’d recognize the shape and cut anywhere. The one thing he’d held on to since he was seventeen. The key to his car.
“How did you...?”
A flirtatious smile curved her lips as she leaned toward him. “Grab the cash out of the glove box of Ladybug and let’s go.”
She didn’t have to tell him twice. In less than two minutes, she was beside him and Ladybug was in the rearview mirror.
“Hayden—” he began after a few minutes of driving together in silence.
“Does the top come down on this car?” she asked.
“Of course.”
“Then do it. Today I want to be the woman who rides with the top down and the wind in my hair.”
He took his foot off the gas and pulled over to the side of the road so he could lower the top as she wished.
That’s when he realized how it had happened. How he’d traded in his car, how he’d painted big black spots on an ugly cheap car, probably how he’d finished his evening in the cabin with a hot tub—because Hayden had wished it.
“I’m not going to see red-and-blue flashing lights behind me anytime soon, am I? Jeff’s not calling the police right now?”
“A little late to be asking the question,” she told him, then shook her head with a laugh.
She lifted her hips off the seat and Tony was glad he wasn’t driving; they’d have wound up in a ditch. Hayden reached into her back pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “All legal. Your car is yours again. Fair and square. Shall I put the paperwork in the glove box?”
He nodded, reaching over to gently tug it open with the knob. His knuckles brushed the supple skin above her knee. Soft and warm. More, more, more, his body demanded.
He cleared his throat. “Oh, I found a necklace underneath the cash,” he said, handing her a gold chain with a key suspended on it like a pendant.
“I can’t believe it, Tony. I’ve never talked to another person like that in my life,” she said as she slipped the chain around her neck and slid it beneath her T-shirt.
“Who?” That soft Texas lilt of hers intoxicated him. His eyes followed the movement of her mouth as she spoke. He ached to trace the outline with his tongue. To suck her full lower lip into his mouth.
“Jeff. There was something so superior about him. Like he knew he’d gotten one over on us last night, and was not so secretly laughing about it. About us.”
After stashing the paperwork in the glove box she reached for his hand, threading her fingers through his. Her green eyes caught his, and there was no way in hell he could look anywhere else. Or would want to.
“I knew you’d made Ladybug happen for me last night. I had to make it right for you today.”
No one had ever done anything for him. He wouldn’t allow them to. They either quickly moved onto some other hard-luck case, or they held it over his head, waiting to drop the guilt bomb, like his mother. After all the things I’ve done for you...
But somehow Hayden had sneaked her help right in with her laugh and open smile. And she wanted nothing in return.
His throat tightened and he fisted his hands. Then Tony reached for her. He wrapped his fingers around her arms and drew her to him. Her lips were just as soft and full as he’d fantasized moments ago, as he must have sampled over and over again last night. Now they parted as his tongue found their seam, and Hayden moaned when he slid his tongue along hers.
That moan went straight to his cock, making him hard. Making him want things he had no business wanting. He stroked the backs of his fingers across her soft cheek. So smooth. So tantalizing. Then he fisted her hair around his hands, the tendrils curling and ticking his skin. Hayden pressed herself against him, the oh-so-slight brush of her nipples against his chest making him crazy. Only the stupid gearshift kept him from dragging her into his lap.