Revved: A Singer's Garage Novel

by Helene Laval

  It was a soft and tentative kiss, full of a later promise that I planned on delivering. My mouth urged hers to open, and she let me in. She softened against me, and I groaned. She tasted so sweet; the kiss was all I imagined and more. We pulled apart for a moment and I leaned in trailing kisses up her neck from her collarbone to her ear. Her head rolled back, and she braced her hands on my shoulders. I pulled away and leaned back to my corner of the car. When I looked over at her, she was staring at me. I stared back, saying nothing.

  “Wow,” finally emerged from her lips in a longing gasp. Her eyes glistened. She didn’t smile, but her lips formed a perfect little O, then relaxed when she released another deep breath.

  “Later. It’s a promise,” I said.

  13

  Annie

  What the hell just happened? One moment I thought we hated each other, and the next Steve is kissing me. And oh my, I didn’t know a single kiss could do that to my body. My nipples were so hard they ached, and heat pooled low in my belly. It left me shivering, and it had nothing to do with being cold. And he was so soft and tender, I hadn’t known I was missing that kind of gentleness since my mom died. A knot formed in my throat, and I struggled to swallow it down.

  I leaned against my spot in the car, staring as I took him in. He was watching me intently, trying to gauge my reaction. A gentle smile spread across his beautiful face. Tendrils of his dark hair poked out from underneath the knitted beanie. He had one knee up with his elbow resting on it, while the other stretched along the floor. I felt like a neon banana, half peeled and exposed, and I put myself in action to adjust the blanket and my hood.

  Once I put myself back together, I looked down at my phone. Three-thirty. Shit.

  “I hope somebody gets here soon. I have to be back at the bar.”

  Steve grimaced. “I hate to tell you, but even if somebody does come, it’ll be hours before we get back home. We’ll need to get a ride to the closest town, then call for somebody to pick us up. I really thought somebody would’ve seen us by now.”

  Steve was right. This was going to take hours, but it didn’t stop me from willing it not to be my reality. “I have to be back. You don’t understand. I have nobody to work tonight. I have to be there, or we’ll be forced to close, or worse, the bar gets left unattended, and I get robbed blind. Steve, we have to get out of here.”

  “Do you really think that would happen? Do you really think your staff will just leave?”

  “No, not really.” I didn’t think my staff would just walk out the door. They’d figure it out. Cliff worked at the bar long before me. He wasn’t the take charge type of guy. He kept to himself and dunked food into the fryer, poured the occasional drink when needed. But I was panicked, and all kinds of terrible scenarios were filling my head. “Well, we might have to close,” I amended.

  “Will that be the end of the world?”

  I thought about it. “No. No it wouldn’t,” I admitted.

  “There you go. O’Dell’s will survive one night without you. On the other hand, I don’t know how well we’re going to do.” He patted my thigh.

  “We have to get out of here,” I said.

  “We will.” Steve sat up and zipped up his jacket. “Stay here, I’ll go check the road.”

  “I’ll come with you,” I said, rising myself.

  “I got this, seriously. Stay here, I’ll only be a couple minutes.” He put a hand on my shoulder, and I gripped it. Our eyes met, and I wanted to pull him into me for another kiss. God, I wanted that.

  Steve broke eye contact first, hopped out of the car and smacked the trunk on his way out. When he came back a few minutes later he was soaking wet. “The good news? The wind’s died down and our flares are still working. I brought one back and put it on the roof.” Now that he mentioned it, I noticed the blinking light faintly through the tinted windows.

  “The bad news? There’s bad news isn’t there,” I said, dreading what was next.

  “The snow has turned to freezing rain and there’s ice everywhere. It’s more dangerous than before. Definitely don’t want to be driving out there.”

  “Shit. I HAVE to go. At least get to a phone and call the bar.”

  “We aren’t going anywhere. It’ll be okay, Annie. Things will work out. I promise,” he said.

  “You’re soaking wet. Look at your pants. Here,” I said thrusting my blanket at him.

  “You need it more than me.” He pushed it back to me.

  “I’m good,” I said. I wasn’t the one out in that freezing wet muck.

  “No, you’re not.” I leaned over and forced the blanket onto his lap and tucked it in around him.

  Another hour passed by. When it was clear that the sun was going down, I stated the obvious.

  “Sun will be set soon.”

  “Looks like.”

  “It’s going to get colder, and fast.”

  “I know.”

  “I’m reluctant to say this, because of what um, happened earlier, but we should get closer together. For warmth.”

  “Uh-huh.” He smirked.

  “I’m serious. We’ll both need it.” I could feel it getting colder by the minute.

  He scooted around a little trying to get himself comfortable, then brought both hands up and tapped his chest. “Come here.”

  I went.

  As I moved toward him, he stripped off the blanket. I lay on top of his chest, my head tucked under his chin. From above I heard, then felt, him lay the blanket across my back and tucking it around us, then folded his arms around me. God, he felt good. He smelled of leather and spicy aftershave. I could hear the thud of his heartbeat as his strong arms enveloped me. He had one arm across my back and one cupping my ass. I didn’t care enough to protest. We fit together just right, and I wasn’t sure what to do about that.

  We must’ve drifted off to sleep soon after. I opened my eyes to the sound of distant voices outside the car.

  “I see it. See the light? It must be them.” Steve heard it too, because he tapped me twice on my ass and kissed the top of my head before lifting me up and saying, “Rescue is here.”

  14

  Annie

  Steve was right. A plow saw our flares and called it into highway patrol. It wasn’t his first call of the night. Apparently he’d been sending rescue out for the last several hours as he found stranded cars along the highway. The storm was bad, really bad. The patrol officers said the media was calling it a century storm, and the towns were woefully unprepared for the disaster this early in the season.

  They drove us to the nearest town of Beetle, got to love these Pennsylvania town names, and dropped us off at a run-down motel. We took the only room offered, a single king, and practically hurled ourselves inside with relief.

  While Steve called Jesse to bring him up to speed and let him know we were both all right. I called the bar, and when nobody answered, I called Cliff. I was a nervous wreck not being there, but as Steve said, what’s going to happen will happen, and there was nothing I could do. Turns out, I didn’t have to worry. The roads weren’t passable in Song either. When the storm started coming down and the weather alerts hit the airwaves, and nobody could get a hold of me, Cliff made the call to close. Everybody was home safe, the bar was locked up tight, and I could breathe easy.

  I lived in and around Song my entire life and only had to make one business related phone call when I went missing. I mean, I thought I was “missing” but Cliff didn’t express that same concern. Steve, on the other hand, had lived in Song for a single year, and he was making call after call letting people know what happened, where we were and that we were okay. It was clear we weren’t going anywhere tonight.

  “I’m going to take a shower,” I mouthed to Steve as he paced the room on the phone with Lou Ortega who was out on the road helping people that were stuck in Song.

  He waved and nodded his acknowledgement while I slipped into the tiny bath. The hot water was heaven on my chilled body, and I soaked and scrubbed lo
nger than was necessary. After the day I had, I deserved it.

  When I had blasted myself with enough hot water to feel cooked, I reluctantly turned off the water and got out of the shower wrapping myself in a towel that barely wrapped around my body.

  The enormity of where I was and who I was with hit me. A hotel room, one bed, with Steve. This was like a bad rom-com. I was scared to come out of the shower and face Steve on the other side of the thin wall. I took a deep breath and willed my heartbeat to slow down.

  Eventually, I steeled myself for the inevitable and redressed in my same clothes. I longed for a toothbrush almost as much as I longed for food. I hadn’t eaten anything since this morning, and it was well past dark. I toweled my short hair until it stuck up in a hundred directions and smoothed it with my fingers before I left my sanctuary.

  When I opened the door, my mouth watered instantly as the smell of hot food filled my senses. Steve was devouring a hamburger and shoving fries in his mouth when he looked at me mid-bite.

  “I goooo food,” he mumbled around a mouthful of burger.

  “Oh my god, you’re amazing!” I said as I plopped down next to him reaching into the bag and pulling out a burger.

  “Where’d you get this?” I asked.

  “Place across the street is open, believe it or not. I ran over while you were in the shower. I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I ordered a lot of stuff.”

  “I am so hungry, I’d eat anything right now.”

  “Anything?”

  I smacked him in the shoulder.

  “Ow!”

  The television was on a news station, and we watched and ate in silence while we learned the storm had pretty much devastated eastern Pennsylvania. Winds had shifted suddenly and hit us twenty-four hours ahead of the original predicted storm. Apparently, there were more warnings that both Steve and I missed, or else we would’ve known to not be on the roads, in a Camaro no less. I made a mental note to myself to check the news more often.

  Steve hadn’t said a single word about the car since I saw him cooing to it in Spanish. I guess there were other, more important things to worry about. The man had his priorities straight, and I appreciated that.

  Steve ate three burgers and two orders of fries. I had one of each. We lay across the bed on our backs for a few minutes after our feast.

  “I ate too much.” Steve groaned.

  “Me too. But it was really, really good. Thank you.”

  “No need to thank me. I was so hungry, I was about to eat anything, including you.” There was a long silent pause, then he said, “That’s not what I meant.”

  “Are you, Steve Vega, flustered over a slip of the tongue?” I rolled over onto my side to look at him, realizing what I said, and felt the heat rush to my own cheeks.

  In one motion he too rolled on his side to face me, grabbed a pillow above his head and launched it at me.

  “Ow! What was that for?” I snarled, catching the pillow before it hit my face.

  “Teasing me.”

  “I am not teasing you,” I replied stuffing the pillow underneath my head.

  “If you aren’t teasing me, then you’re flirting.” He had me. I’m not the flirting type, but I was flirting. And I liked it.

  “Am I now?” I said, way more playful than I intended. Way more girly than I was comfortable with.

  “Come here,” he said, suddenly serious. God, he was beautiful. He stared at me so intently, his dark brown eyes were almost pure black. He had a heavy five o’clock shadow grazing along his strong jaw, and I itched to know what that would feel like rubbing against my thighs.

  “No,” I said, suddenly wary of my own thoughts and desires. What the hell was I doing?

  “I said, come here,” he said again, never taking his eyes from mine.

  My heart thudding wildly, I was scared out of my wits. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was playing in a club I didn't belong. I wasn’t a flirt, and men, well at least sober men, did not look at me like Steve was now.

  “I can’t,” I said abruptly as I broke eye contact and started to get up. Before I knew it, Steve was above me pinning me in place as I lay flat on my back. He was so quick I didn’t even see him move. His hands gripped each of my wrists and held them firmly on the sides of my head. I froze. I knew he wouldn’t hurt me, but my flight response was soaring. My heart was pounding, my breaths were quick. “I’m scared of you,” I said nearly in a whisper.

  As quick as he pinned me down, he let go and sat up. “Are you really scared?” His eyes widened.

  I didn’t move. I stayed flat on my back and turned my gaze to his. “Um, of you? Not really. Of what is happening here…” I waved a hand between us. “Yes. I’m scared.”

  “We don’t have to do any of this. You mean more to me than just this.” He ran a hand through his hair. “We can take it slow.”

  “Okay.” I said, and he shifted to move up off the bed. I reached out toward him. “I mean, I want to.”

  Did I just really say that? I did. I saw more into who Steve was this afternoon than I had in the entire year I’d known him. He was much more than I had given him credit for.

  He maneuvered himself to lay on his side next to me. Elbow under his head. His free arm reached out and lazily traced circles on my tummy, his fingers burning a hole through my shirt. My breath increased again, and I turned my head toward him, his dark gaze already looking into my own.

  “You look terrified,” he said. He moved his hand up to caress my cheek.

  “I’m not. Adrenaline. I don’t know what to do with it. My stomach is doing flip-flops.”

  He smiled a devilish grin. “Mine too.”

  I reached out and touched a hand to his stubbly cheek. “Good.” I grinned back.

  “You never need to be afraid of me,” he said, and he leaned over to cover his lips with mine.

  This was not the soft and gentle kiss we shared in the car. His hand quickly let go of my face to roam over my body then levered himself so he was once again atop me. He sunk the weight of his pelvis into mine and I could feel his erection straining through his jeans. My body reacted on its own accord and rose to meet him there. His hand found his way down to cup my breast, and his thumb swiped over my already hard nipple through my shirt and bra.

  This felt too good. He tasted too good. I didn’t think I could get him close enough to me. My hands gripped his shoulders and pulled him against me. My kiss grew hungrier, more desperate. I couldn’t get enough of his scent, his taste. I broke the kiss to taste along his jaw, then down to his neck. He groaned above me. A delicious sound that only made me want to offer him more.

  He broke the kiss to gaze down at me, his eyes gone molten with desire. He wet his lips, and I found myself staring at his tongue as he did so.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  Was I okay? No, I wasn’t okay. My body was humming. Alive. On fire. I was more than okay. I managed to nod my head, words failing to pass my lips.

  He kissed me again, his tongue sliding against mine in confident strokes. My brain didn’t know what the hell I was doing, but my body was catching on quick. I hadn’t had a lot of sexual experiences, most of which involved being a clumsy teenager, where each touch of my body was like asking a question, and then a lot of fumbling about. Steve most definitely had a clue. He had lots of clues, and he wasn’t tentative about anything.

  He once again placed one of my wrists above my head and leaned up on one elbow. “My God, woman, you’re perfect,” he said, looking down at me, black tendrils of hair falling into his eyes. He licked his lips, and I lifted my head to kiss him again. The kiss was long, deep, and thorough. He kept his hard lean body suspended above mine, to which I bent one knee in response, an attempt to lift my entire body to his. I failed.

  He broke away again, and I moaned at the loss of contact. Leaning backward onto his knees, he tugged off his shirt. Holy wow. My mouth hung open. I don’t think I had ever wanted anything more in my life. His bronze skin was lean an
d muscled and I watched his abs flex and strain as he twisted to throw his shirt on the floor.

  I wanted, no I needed, to touch, lick and suck every inch of his beautiful chest and run my tongue down the dusting of black hair that disappeared below his jeans. My hands reflexively reached for the button of said jeans when a hand stopped me. The other hand lifted my shirt to expose my belly, then higher still to my bra.

  “Off,” he said in a deep rumble, and I complied, quickly and without hesitation. We were going to do this, and I wasn’t going to let my fear, my anxieties or any of the hundred reasons I could dream up, stop me.

  With my shirt off and out of the way, Steve raked his eyes over my breasts still encased in their tiny black bra. I was lean, and I always thought I left a little to be desired in the breast department. My little black push-up bra did its job though, judging by the still-hungry look in his eyes.

  He took one thumb and pulled one side down so my nipple was exposed and bent to run his tongue over it. I moaned aloud at the sensation of his warm mouth on me. He took my entire nipple into his mouth and sucked, hard. He sucked and teased until I was panting, then did the same to my other breast. I felt things start to burn and clench between my legs and I was overwhelmed with the need to have him inside me, have anything inside me to fill the ache.

  After all the times I told myself this wouldn’t happen, it was happening, and I couldn’t imagine wanting anything more than this man, in this moment. He lifted away from my nipple with an audible groan and leaned up so he could get to work on removing my jeans. If he could make me feel that good just kissing my breasts, I wasn’t sure if I could handle what was next.