Skid Row Kings Complete Series

by Winter Travers

  “Really?” Walking into a turn-key shop was ideal, but it rarely ever happened. Typically, walking into a body shop meant you were getting bare bones because the previous owner had sold everything off except for the building. “So, Nos is your partner?”

  “No, he’s just going to take care of the front end for me.”

  “Oh.” Then, who in hell was going to be his partner? I thought for sure it would be Nos since he had been spending so much time with him lately.

  Kurt grabbed my hand and tugged me up the sidewalk and to the front door. “Come on; I’ll show you around.” Kurt pulled his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the front door. “You have no idea how weird it is to open this door and know that everything here is mine.”

  I could only imagine how amazing that would be. I loved working for Luke, but I think it was always every mechanic's dream to be able to open their own shop. I just knew that wasn’t going to be a possibility for me for a long time, if that. “Wow, this is really nice, Kurt,” I marveled as I looked around and took in the clean and tidy waiting area. “Are these made from actual car parts?” The benches lining both walls were made from tailgates from pickup trucks.

  “Yeah, I thought they were pretty impressive. I found a guy online who made them.” Kurt motioned behind the front counter. “The chair back there is also made of actual car seats. Nos flipped out when he saw those. They’re comfy as shit.”

  The top half of the walls were painted dark gray with a chair rail in the middle with the bottom half of the wall covered in steel plating. Various car signs were hanging on the walls over the benches, and there was a big neon sign behind the counter that boasted “Lee’s Speed Shop.” “So, are you going to change the name?” I figured if Kurt was going to go after his dream, he sure as hell would name the place something with his name in it.

  “Nah, I like the one I have.” I guess that made sense if Kurt was trying to keep the old clients coming in. Although, it was really hard to believe. “Come check out the bays and workstations. They’re really top of the line. Most of this stuff was left from the old owners, but I rearranged it to better suit what I want to do.”

  “And what exactly is it you want to do?” We walked through a door behind the counter, and I sucked in a breath when I saw all the space behind the office. I was in mechanic Heaven. The six work bays each had a car lift and every tool you could possibly ask for. Huge bright green toolboxes at each bay had huge Lee’s Speed Shop stickers on the sides of them and my fingers itched to open the drawers to see what was all inside.

  “I want to specialize in racing. Any and everything that has to do with racing, I want to be able to build and fix it here. American, foreign, drag cars, oval track cars, hell, even dirt track cars. I want to be known as the place you go to when you need anything for your race car.” Kurt’s eyes lit up as he talked and I knew this was what he had been wanting. His dream was coming true, and I couldn’t have been happier for him.

  “That sounds like a really good idea, Kurt. I know Luke works on drag cars, but that’s about it. It looks like you’re going to carve out your very own niche in this town.”

  Kurt grabbed my hand and pulled me into his arms. “Yeah, that is part of the plan. As long as my partner goes along with it.” He brushed my hair off my neck and pressed a kiss to the side of my head. His hands brushed down my back, and he pulled me close.

  “You haven’t run any of this by your partner yet?” Was Kurt crazy? How was he doing all of this and yet his partner had no idea?

  “No, she hasn’t really known anything.”

  She? Kurt’s partner was a woman? “Oh.” I gulped. I hated to admit it, but I was jealous as hell. “When do you plan on telling her?” I tried like hell to make my tone even, and not sound like a raging, jealous bitch.

  “Today.”

  Jesus, was Kurt’s partner about to walk through that door, and he was standing here groping the hell out of me. I tried to pull out of his arms, but he wouldn’t let me go. “Kurt, knock it off,” I scolded. “Your partner is going to walk through that door any minute, and I don’t think this is the type of impression you want to give.”

  “It’s exactly the impression I want to give, and she’s already here, Lee.” Kurt buried his face in my neck and nuzzled my ear.

  “She’s here?” I screeched. “Stop! Have you lost your mind? You can’t make out with me in front of her.” As much as I wanted to show this chick Kurt was with me, I didn’t think making out in front of her was the best way to make my point.

  “Lee,” Kurt said firmly. “I haven’t touched you all day, now stand still before I spread you out on that work bench and really show you how much I missed you.”

  “Kurt, you just said your partner is here. You’re absolutely crazy to be even thinking about having sex with me right now.”

  Kurt’s hands moved to my ass and gave me a firm squeeze. “I actually planned on doing this differently, but you’re driving me insane.”

  “What? Do what differently?” What in the hell was Kurt talking about?

  Kurt shook his head and laughed. “I was surprised you didn’t get it when you got out of the car.”

  I smacked him on the shoulder. “Kurt, you’re killing me here. What in the hell are you talking about?”

  “You, Lee. I’m talking about you.” Kurt closed his eyes and leaned his head back. “You are my partner. You are the one who is hopefully going to do this all with me.”

  “You want me to come work for you?” Huh?

  “No, Lee. This,” Kurt pulled away from me and swung his arm around, “is all yours. I want you to be my partner. Fifty-fifty. You and me.”

  “You…this…me…” I choked on my own words. I sputtered and coughed as I looked around. “I’m Lee?” I asked, as I pointed at the huge Lee’s Speed Shop that was painted on the back wall.

  “You’re the only fucking Lee. I can’t believe it took you this long to get it.”

  “I thought Lee was Nos’ uncle and you weren’t going to change the name because you wanted to carry over his customer base. Except that didn’t make sense anymore when you said you were going to specialize in racing.”

  “Nos’ uncle's name is Pedro and the shop used to be called Elm Street Garage.”

  Oh. Well, holy hell. To say I was a bit off was an understatement. “How did you do this, Kurt? This is huge, and now you want me to run it with you?” My chest tightened, and my breathing got short. Opening a shop was crazy and insane. Opening a shop with me was even more insane. “I can’t be Lee!” I sputtered.

  “Well, there isn’t any other Lee I plan on doing this with. The signs have been bought and hung, Lee. I need you to do this with me,” Kurt declared.

  “This is pure insanity, Kurt. All that keeps running through my mind is the word insane.”

  “To start your own business, you need to be a bit crazy, Lee. This is us breaking out and doing what everyone is afraid of.”

  “They’re afraid because they’re smart.”

  “No, you’re wrong, Lee. I have thought this over and played out every scenario in my mind. Admit it, before I told you that I wanted you in with me on this, you thought it was a good idea. Hell, you said I was going to carve out my own niche in this town, Lee. I want you there, right next to me, building this business with me. You know more about cars than any mechanic I have ever met. Hell, Luke is pissed as hell that we’re doing this.”

  “Wait, Luke knew about this?” How in the hell did Luke know about this before I did? “Don’t you think you should have run this by me before you told my boss that I was quitting?” I rubbed my chest and wondered if this was what a heart attack felt like. My chest was tight, and it felt like I couldn’t suck in enough air. I tried running my fingers through my hair and ran into the messy ponytail I had thrown it into. I ripped the hair tie out and looked at Kurt who looked like I had kicked his puppy.

  “I let him know what my plans were and he figured that you would come with me, but I told him
you were going to be my partner. At least, I thought you would be my partner.”

  “I didn’t expect this.” I ran my fingers through my hair and paced a short length of the shop. “I came here thinking, hell, I don’t know what I was thinking, but it sure as hell wasn’t this. You bought a shop and are giving me half of it, Kurt. Do you know you are doing that?” I stopped pacing and tossed my arms in the air. “Who in the hell does that?”

  “I do. This is something you want?”

  Was it something I wanted? Hell yes. Was I expecting it? Fuck no. “Of course, I want this Kurt, but you’re just giving it to me. I didn’t do anything to earn it. You keep saying you don’t want shit given to you and you’re sick of Luke and the garage, but here you are, giving me a garage.”

  “I’m not giving you a garage. Well, I am, but you’re going to have to work your ass off just as hard as I am, if not harder. We have this, Lee, but we need to make it something. Buying this is only a small step into having a successful business, and I know I can’t do it without you.” Kurt grabbed my hand and pulled me into his arms again. “I know we started off backward as hell, Lee, getting married and not just getting to know each other, but I know that I don’t want anyone else in my life and that you are the only person I can do this with. If this is not what you want, I’ll sell it, and we can find a place that you want. Hell, if you don’t want this and would rather work for Luke the rest of your life, I’ll be fine with that. I’ll sell and go back to work for Luke, too. This is nothing without you.”

  “I can’t wrap my head around this, Kurt.” I looked up into his eyes and saw the man I had fallen in love with. “We’re both insane for doing this.”

  “Does that mean you’ll be my partner?” he asked, his eyes full of hope.

  I looked around, now seeing this shop as my own. A place I would come every day, work on cars, build a customer base, and all the while, do it with the man who had stolen my heart when he stopped his life to help save me.

  I believed in Kurt with everything I had and knew whatever he put his heart and soul into, it would be successful. “You do know that you’re asking a smart-talking, half-Puerto Rican woman to be your partner. Not only will we be husband and wife, but we’ll also be business partners. We are going to be with each other every hour of every day.”

  “See, you see that as a drawback. I just figured if I’m with you all of the time, there’s going to be a time when Jay isn’t around, and then I can have my way with you.”

  “So, this all goes back to naked woo, doesn’t it?” I laughed.

  “Did it ever stop being about naked woo?” he countered as he pressed a kiss to my lips. “Say you’ll be my partner, Lee.”

  “What if I say no?”

  “Don’t say no. That sign out front was expensive as hell.”

  I threw my head back laughing and knew this was it. This is what Kurt and I were going to be. The smart-ass woman mechanic and the hot as hell gear head. “Well, I wouldn’t want you to go to all of the trouble of getting a new sign, so I guess I’ll say yes.”

  “Yes?” Kurt asked, sounding a little shocked.

  I nodded and wrapped my arms around his neck. “Hell yes.”

  Kurt lifted me off the ground and twirled me around. “Fuck yes!” he shouted.

  I wrapped my arms around his waist and kissed my way down his neck. “I feel like this was like you asking me to marry you, but that already happened.” I giggled.

  Kurt walked over to the nearest workbench and set me on the top. “This is the second best day of my life.”

  “And what was the first?” I asked, as I ran my hands down his arms.

  “The day you agreed to marry me will always be the best day of my life, Lee.”

  “But we got married because you were helping me.”

  Kurt shrugged. “So, we did this a bit backward. That doesn’t change the fact that we’re married, does it?”

  “It better not,” I whispered. With each day that went by, the more I loved that Kurt and I were married. I had found the person I was meant to be with by accident, but I wasn’t going to let him go.

  “You know, this is the first time in over a week that I’ve had you all to myself. I swear Jay was never around that much before.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. Every morning we would wake up, and Kurt would try to get some action, but each time, he would be interrupted by Jay’s alarm going off in his room. With Jay being back in school, he rarely stayed the night with his friends and was always home at night doing his homework. Kurt wasn’t able to catch a break all week. “Hmm, my poor Mr. Jensen is feeling neglected?” I purred.

  “Yeah, but I’m about to make up for the past year right here on this bench. I never realized what a perfect height these were for fucking my wife.” Kurt threaded his fingers through my hair and tugged my head back. “I’m gonna make you mine in every way possible, Lee.”

  My heart leaped at his words. He slammed his lips down on my mouth, and it felt like I was finally home. Kurt was all I needed. Even if we were in a body shop with tools and cars surrounding us, he still felt like home to me.

  “I gotta have you, Lee. I can’t fucking wait any longer,” he growled against my lips.

  “Take me, Kurt. I’ve always been yours,” I gasped as his lips traveled down my neck and his hands grabbed the hem of my shirt. He pulled it over my head and tossed it on the bench behind me.

  “Thank fuck, Lee, because you’ve had me since day one.” His hands roamed over my body, cupping my breasts through my bra and I arched into his touch. He roamed to my back, caressing my skin as he unhooked my bra and the straps fell down my arms.

  Kurt shook his head and reached into his pocket. “I knew I was going to fuck this up. I swore I’d wait to get you naked until I gave you this.” He pulled a ring box out of his pocket, and my breath caught. “I should have given you a better ring the day we got married, Lee, not some shit from Wal-Mart, but I was so in shock that you actually agreed to marry me, that everything just went out the window.” He opened the box, and I swear, I felt my heart stop. “I know you’re not into girly shit, but when I saw this ring, I knew it was made for you.”

  He took the ring out of the box and slid it onto my finger. “It’s perfect,” I sighed. The ring was a dark silver with a huge, round diamond in the center with tiny little diamonds surrounding it. The darkness of the silver toned down the femininity of a normal wedding ring, but it also helped to let the diamond sparkle. I laughed. “Except this wasn’t how I pictured you slipping my wedding ring on my finger.”

  “You should have figured out by now, Lee. You and I are never going to do things the normal way.” Kurt moved back in between my legs and grabbed my hand he had just slipped the ring onto and put it over his heart. “This will make for an interesting story to tell our grandkids one day.” He smirked.

  The light caught my ring and glistened. “I think this is a story I’ll keep to myself. You ravishing me on a workbench topless isn’t something anyone needs to know.”

  Kurt wound his arms around my waist and pulled me close. “You topless is enough for me to forget my name. I’m amazed I remembered to give you the ring.”

  My fingers delved into his hair, pulling his head down. Kurt’s mouth devoured my lips, and my tongue explored his mouth, tasting and teasing with each swirl. My hands grabbed his shirt, tugging it up his body and I pulled it over his head. I sailed it over his head, and my hands began exploring every tight muscle and ridge of his hard chest. “I think both of us topless is even better.”

  “You getting your fucking pants off would be better.” Kurt pulled me off the bench and knelt in front of me. “You work on the jeans; I’ll get your boots off.” My hands instantly went to the button of my jeans, unsnapped them and pulled down the fly. “You changed out of your damn work uniform, woman, but not your damn steel toes?” Kurt cursed as he worked the laces loose and pulled the first boot off.

  “I was in a rush this morning because someo
ne distracted me and forgot to grab an extra pair of shoes. This is your own fault for kissing me too much before I went to work.”

  Kurt untied the other boot and pulled it off. He grabbed the waist of my jeans and stripped them down my legs and tossed them over his shoulder. “I could never kiss you enough, Lee. Each one just makes me want to taste you even more.” His finger traced my underwear, and he pressed a kiss to my stomach. He looked up and wiggled his eyebrows at me. “Now, I have even more places to taste.”

  “You’re a perv, Mr., Jensen.” I laughed. “But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  “As much as I want to taste all of you, Lee, my dick has been begging to sink into your sweet pussy ever since I saw you bent over the fender of that car.” Kurt stood, slipped out of his jeans and grabbed me around the waist. “Wrap your legs around me, gorgeous, and hold the fuck on.”

  “Underwear first, Mr. Jensen. This is one thing we can’t do backward.” I hooked my thumbs into the waistband of Kurt’s boxers and pulled them down his legs, and his hard dick bobbed in my face. Just as my hand reached for it, Kurt grabbed my arm and tugged me up.

  “No time for that, Mrs. Jensen. My dick is so hard, I could pound nails with it, and I know just one touch from you is going to send me off like a rocket.” Kurt pulled my underwear down, and I stepped out of them. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he pulled me up into his arms again. He set me down on the bench, but I didn’t move my legs from his waist.

  “I pray to God you locked that door, Kurt, because I don’t think meeting anyone with us naked would be the best start to our new shop.”

  Kurt laughed. “It’s locked, Lee. No one gets to see you naked but me.” He brushed my hair from my neck and his mouth assaulted me, nipping and nibbling.

  I delved my fingers into his hair and tossed my head back. “You know just the right thing to do with your mouth, Mr. Jensen.” I moaned as he sucked on my earlobe. His warm breath washed over my neck and my hand snaked in between us.