by Jill Shalvis
asked.
She turned her head and met his gaze. “You think I’ll get the job?”
“Yes.”
She looked surprised.
That made the second time today he’d surprised her by offering support.
He knew her parents, both sixties throwbacks, who were equal parts proud of their daughter and confused by her. The support system went from Harley to them, not the other way around. Same with Skye. It was doubtful Harley ever was on the receiving end of the same level of support she gave.
She kept busy looking at the thick, lush woods on either side of the narrow, windy road that led to Wilder Adventures. The trees were pine, most well over a hundred years old and a hundred feet tall. “I figure Colorado won’t be all that different from Wishful,” she said.
“What about the boyfriend?”
“Nolan?”
He slid her a look. “You have more than one boyfriend?”
“Why do you keep saying it like that, like you’re putting quotes around his name?”
“I’m not. Nolan’s a good guy.”
“But?”
“I didn’t say but.”
“Yes, but there was definitely a but at the end of that sentence. It was a silent but implied but.”
“Jesus,” he muttered. “Can’t you just answer my question?”
“Fine. What exactly is the question again?”
“Why isn’t Nolan going out to Desolation with you?”
“I didn’t ask him. Listen, I realize that in your eyes I’m only a mechanic, but—”
“You’re more,” he said quietly, then met her gaze for a beat to let her see he meant it. “Far more.”
She was silent a moment, absorbing that. “I grew up out here, TJ, same as you. As the only tow truck driver in town, I’ve been called out at all hours. Alone. I’ve faced all sorts of things.”
He’d known that. He’d always hated that. Letting out a breath, he pulled into Wilder Adventures. He parked in front of the three-story lodge that he and his brothers had built, the late afternoon sun illuminating the stone and wood accents harvested from the property itself.
Home, for better or worse. He spent a lot of time away from there, and yet he always came back.
“I forget how beautiful it is,” Harley said quietly, and looked at him. “You ever think about it? Where you started out, and where you ended up?”
“Since we started out in the gutter and somehow ended up here, no. I try not to go there.”
“You didn’t somehow end up here. You guys worked your asses off. You deserve this.” With that shocking statement, she hopped out of the Jeep.
The sound of whining engines rent the air around them. Cam, Stone, and Nick—their pilot and mechanic—were racing on quads.
They’d had a lot of rain in the past few afternoons. The ATVs were churning across the yard, mud from the tires flinging up through the air in high arcs.
Annie stood off to the side, Chuck at her feet, the kittens nowhere in sight, but most likely in the lodge, creating utter destruction. Annie wore her usual dark jeans, vintage rock T-shirt, and chef’s apron. This one said: COMPLAINTS TO THE CHEF MIGHT BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH. She had her hands on her hips, and given her expression, she’d clearly rather be riding than watching, but Nick had set the law—no riding while pregnant. TJ was just glad Nick had told her that, since no one else could tell Annie what to do and live.
TJ set his hand on the small of Harley’s back and nudged her closer, just as Cam whipped past Nick and skidded to a stop right in front of them, the apparent finish line. Cam pulled off his helmet, hopped off the quad, and grinned. “I’ve still got it.”
Nick pulled in right behind him and shook his head. “You cheated. The finish line’s around the back of the lodge.”
“I’d have beat you there, too,” Cam said, eyes on Harley, a smile curving his lips as he pulled her in for a tight hug, affectionately rumpling her hair.
Right in front of TJ’s eyes, Harley softened, hugging Cam back, looking quite cozy while doing it.
“You’re not running clean,” Harley murmured to Cam about the ATV. “May be a carburetor problem.” She gently hugged Annie as well, rubbing her belly. “You feeling good?”
“I’d feel better if we could come up with a baby name.” Annie accompanied this with a long look in Nick’s direction.
“Hey, I’ve offered a bazillion names,” Nick said in his defense. “Ashley, Emily, Madison, Olivia. You vetoed them all. Even Abigail.”
“Not Abigail.”
Nick threw up his hands and looked at TJ. “She’s right, man, your quad is sluggish. It needs work.”
“Can’t be,” TJ said. “I just went over it.”
“Really?” Harley lifted a brow and moved toward the quad, inspecting it with a sharp eye. Not that TJ was noticing anything besides how her Levi’s were nice and tight across her ass as she bent down for a better look. “When?”
“Last week,” he told her.
“Huh.” She crouched at the quad and looked it over with a critical eye. “You did a pretty shitty job.” She said this so sweetly it took TJ a moment to process her words.
Cam grinned. “If I’d told him that, he’d have kicked my ass.” He pulled her up for a smacking kiss. “God, I love you. If I wasn’t already getting married, I’d ask you to marry me.”
TJ rolled his eyes. Cam looked just like Stone and TJ, but slightly leaner. TJ could kill him with one snap of the neck and make the world a better place, but he’d probably feel bad about it later.
Maybe.
Nick handed Harley his helmet. “Take it out for me? Tell me what else is wrong with it.”
“There’s nothing wrong with it,” TJ said.
“Ride it hard in the turn,” Cam told her. “You’ll see what I mean.”
“I can already tell you what’s wrong with it. You have a carburetor problem, and maybe a failed spark plug.” Harley slipped into the helmet, then looked at Nick, who was preparing to follow her on his quad. “Around the back of the lodge?”
“Yeah.”
“What do I get if I win?”
Nick’s gaze slid to TJ’s. “I’ll hold TJ down so you can beat on him.”
She actually turned and looked TJ over as if that might be satisfactory to her.
TJ arched a brow, and she let out one of her rare smiles. “Deal,” she said.
Before TJ could react to that, she threw a leg over the quad and kicked started the thing with an ease that was incredibly sexy.
TJ shoved Nick off his quad and replaced him. “If I’m the prize, then I’m sure as hell doing the racing.” He revved the engine, shot both Nick and Cam a long look, then nodded to Harley.
They took off. The wind hit his face and cut right through his clothes. It felt great. Harley was about twenty yards ahead so he floored it, his quad agreeably leaping forward, coming up neck and neck with her. She was leaning low over the handlebars in her black tank top and jeans, her legs hugging the machine like he wished they were hugging his hips. Oh, yeah, now there was an image…
Taking advantage of his momentary loss of concentration, Harley took the sharp right at the lodge and vanished.
TJ turned, right on her tail, content to stay behind her for the view alone, especially when she stood up, leaning hard into the turn, her ass looking damn fine.
The wind kicked up, but he still heard her laugh, and it caused one of his own. It felt good to play, even better to play with her, something they rarely got to do because though she was warm and fun and open with just about everyone else, with him she put up that damn brick wall that he hadn’t figured out how to break down.
Not that it’d mattered. None of it did. He was gone more than he was there anyway. And if he didn’t get his head out of his ass, the muddy, laughing, screaming Harley was going to win the race. She was good, damn good, but luckily he was better. He caught her on the back side of the lodge and neatly cut her off.
In tune
to her swearing, he hit the finish line a nose ahead of her. He stood up and turned to face her, grinning.
She turned off her engine and pulled off her helmet. She flipped her hair free and looked at him. She was mud splattered, and her tank and jeans were plastered to her. “Fine,” she said, flashing him a rare but gorgeous smile. “You win. I don’t get to beat you up.”
“Maybe another time,” he murmured.
“Count on it.”
He knew she was only half kidding.
She shivered, and drew his attention downward. Her nipples were two hard points, pressing against the thin stretchy material of her tank.
“They’re just a regular old pair of breasts,” she said. “Half the population has them.”
Not that perfect, they didn’t.
She crossed her arms over herself. “I’m feeling cold.”
That wasn’t what he was feeling. But he shrugged out of his outer shirt and wrapped it around her, using it to tug her up against his broad chest.
“I’m muddy,” she said in protest.
“Makes two of us.”
She tilted her head up to meet his gaze warily.
“I won,” he reminded her.
“Yeah. So?”
“So now there’s something you can do for me.”
“Let me guess. Something sexual.” Her tone suggested complete disinterest. The pulse fluttering wildly at the base of her throat suggested something else entirely. “God, you are such a guy.”
He held his silence, and finally she sighed. “Okay, what? What could you possibly think would be okay to ask of me?”
“For you to admit Nolan’s not your boyfriend. At least not yet, he isn’t.”
She stared at him, then let out a breath. “Bite me, TJ.”
“With pleasure.”
Instead of looking pissed, she let out a low laugh. “What’s gotten into you today?”
He had no idea, but he knew it was something he wanted to explore. Did she? He figured he had sixty seconds tops before his family made it around the side of the lodge on foot. He wanted those sixty seconds, so he stepped even closer, until their muddy boots were toe-to-toe. Reaching out, he rubbed at a spot of mud on her jaw.
Her breath caught, and unguarded desire crossed her face.
Yeah, they were definitely on the same page. “Nice riding.”
“Hmmm.” As if she needed balance, she set her hand on his chest. He liked the feel of her touch. A lot. She looked at him, her hand lightly dancing back and forth on his pec as if she didn’t even realize it. Leaning in so that their mouths were only a whisper apart, he breathed out a soft, “Harley.”
She looked up and met his gaze. He could see the swirl of desire and hunger, and the air escaped his lungs. “Harley,” he said again, a little hoarsely now.
“I know.” Her eyes drifted closed. Their thighs bumped. Heat and affection and need warred for space in his head as he laughed softly and pressed his mouth against her ear. “How about now? Are you really, really hot? ’Cause I sure am.”
Her eyes flew open and she stepped back, spell broken just as Cam and Nick came around the corner.
“Who won?” Cam called out.
TJ didn’t take his eyes off Harley. “She did.”
Harley blinked, then shot him a look filled with an intoxicating mixture of confusion and desire.
Yep. Definitely on the same page.
CHAPTER 4
“And that’s how I ended up making a fool of myself,” Harley said to Skye after recounting the events of the quad race the night before.
Her sister had come by to bum breakfast before heading to class. Breakfast, and cash. She needed books for the new quarter.
“So let me get this straight,” Skye said with a smile, eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes. She was the same five foot five that Harley was, but unlike Harley, she was willowy and dainty and model pretty. “You, Queen of Need No One, begged him to kiss you.”
Harley sighed. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this. You have a big mouth.”
“I do not!”
“You told everyone when I locked myself out last week. I fielded calls on that one all day long.”
“Yes, well, that’s because you were wearing only your towel, which you dropped when you climbed in the window, mooning Mr. Kletzy across the street. Word is he hadn’t seen a naked woman in fifty years. He’s now requesting that next time you lose your towel at high noon because the light is better.”
“It wasn’t a complete flash, I caught the towel before it hit the ground, and I was just trying to get the damn newspaper.”
“Focus, Harley. The begging.”
Harley pictured herself leaning into TJ, all muddy and turned on, staring at his mouth as she touched his chest…“It’s embarrassing.”
“Walk me through it. You begged him to kiss you. And he didn’t.”
“Yeah. Pretty much.”
Skye looked at her for a moment. “Harl, you don’t ever ask for help on anything. I just don’t see this happening.”
“This was more of the silent type of begging.” And worse, it hadn’t been the first time. She flashed back to all those years ago, to that one night she and TJ had shared.
The one he didn’t remember, the ass.
She could still feel his warm hands on her back, the pleasure those hands had brought her, how she’d been reduced to begging then, too.
Damn it. Damn him. She sighed. “Okay, so the begging was mostly done with my eyes. I might have leaned into him. And set my hand on his…chest.”
Skye’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “In the center of his chest, or did you touch nipple?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“A lot.”
Harley blushed beet red. “Maybe I got nipple. But I didn’t mean to.”
“Doesn’t matter. You took the casual touch to the next level.”
“Involuntarily!”
“You put up a red flag. You might as well have announced you weren’t wearing any underwear.”
Harley groaned and covered her face. “Nothing happened!”
“Which reminds me—how does anyone resist any of the Wilders? They’re all so hot. TJ especially. He’s the biggest and the baddest, and when those sharp green eyes land on you…” Skye sighed. “He’s something.”
He was something, all right. “I’m dating someone else.”
“Oh, for God’s sake. Stop saying that. It’s not even true.”
“Yes, it is. Nolan and I have gone out twice.”
“But one of those times was an accident!” Skye sighed. “Look, Nolan’s great. Okay? He is. He’s just not great for you. I mean, he’s cute and smart and has a job, the major three requisites, but…”
“But…?”
“The two of you are too much alike. Sweet, kind…”
