Dirty For Me (Motor City Royals)

by Jackie Ashenden

“Hey,” Gideon said slowly, breaking the silence. “It’s Tamara, right?”

  Her gaze flicked to Gideon, a polite smile curving her mouth. “Yes, that’s right. Nice to see you again, Gideon.”

  Jesus. So fucking polite.

  Anger threaded through him, though he couldn’t figure out why. Okay, so he hadn’t been expecting to see her again and sure, her showing up here in her fuck-me dress and killer heels was a shock. But it was no big deal, right? It wouldn’t be the first time he’d had women turn up at the garage hoping to find him.

  Except all of that didn’t do anything to change the restless, antsy feeling that had been bugging him all week and that seemed to rise up inside him, swamping him, the moment she’d walked through the door.

  He’d thought the fights he’d had over the course of the week would have put paid to it, but they hadn’t. It felt like a million ants crawling over his skin and no way to brush them all off.

  Putting his beer down on the ground beside his chair, he got to his feet in a sudden, sharp movement, then swung around to look at his friend. “A little privacy here.”

  The other man raised an eyebrow, but after a moment, the look on Zee’s face obviously doing its work, he said, “Sure. I’ve got some paperwork to do anyway.” He straightened and gave Tamara a grin. “Catch you later, Tamara.”

  Zee waited until his friend had gone up the metal stairs to the office, the door shutting heavily behind him, then swung back to the woman standing in the middle of the garage.

  And just like that the tension between them pulled excruciatingly tight.

  Something was different about her tonight, at least different from the way she’d been with him before. A week ago she’d seemed nervous, off balance. She’d kept looking away, her lashes veiling her gaze.

  But now she stood very still, her gaze meeting his without flinching. And this time he saw the raw need glinting in the darkness of her eyes, like diamonds at the bottom of the ocean. She made no attempt to hide it or look away. She only stared back, letting him see everything.

  “What do you want?” he demanded, breaking the silence and trying to lock down the hunger that rose. Like she’d turned a switch on inside him, sending a live current straight through his whole body. “I thought we weren’t going to see each other again.”

  “I know.” She was holding a red purse, no monogram anywhere on it this time around. But that didn’t make her any less a lamb in a den of hungry wolves.

  And you’re the biggest wolf of all.

  No, he wasn’t. He’d left that life far behind him. He was on the straight and narrow because of Madison and that’s how it was going to stay.

  “So why the fuck are you here?” He tried to make his voice less rough, but it didn’t seem to work. Already the seductive smell of her was filling the space, a heavy, dense scent that was now inextricably linked in his head with the hot and hard sex they’d had in the back of the Trans Am.

  It made his mouth go dry and his cock get hard.

  Jesus. He’d been sitting here discussing with Gideon how they were going to approach telling Rachel about Levi’s release and what needed to be done to help him ease back into life in Royal again. And he’d also been going through his own plans for the gym and the preliminary program he’d drawn up.

  Basically not thinking about one hot little rich girl he hadn’t been able to get out of his head for a change. And now here she was, stepping back into his life, dressed to kill or at least to seduce. With the kind of look in her eyes that made him want to back her up against the nearest hard surface and give her everything she wanted.

  She shifted on her shiny black shoes that made her legs look so long. That had him thinking about them wrapped around his waist or over his shoulder or any one of a number of different positions. “I want to say that I was just in the neighborhood or something. But I guess you won’t believe that.” She took a step toward him, that open, bare look in her eyes. “I came for you, Zee.”

  He didn’t move, staring back at her, feeling the hunger coil hard inside him. The hunger that wanted to tear that pretty dress of hers and get it all dirty. Put his oil-stained hands all over her smooth, creamy skin and dirty her up too. Make her scream his name the way she had back in the car a week ago.

  Why did he want that? Why was that so important?

  He didn’t have any answers. But she’d taken everything he’d given her that night and there was a desperate part of him that wanted to do the same thing again. A part that craved release.

  The dark part of himself he never showed to anyone who wasn’t in the ring with him.

  “Yeah, well, I’m not in the market.” He didn’t temper the harsh note in his voice. She had to know that he’d meant it when he’d said they weren’t going to see each other again. That had been the only reason he’d caved to the urges of his stupid dick rather than listen to his own better judgment.

  He wasn’t going to do it again now.

  Getting tangled up with hungry, desperate socialites out looking for a bit of rough was a complication he didn’t need. He was supposed to be a better man than that; at least, that was the idea.

  Something flickered in her gaze. “Why not? You seemed perfectly happy about it last week.”

  “That was last week. And I told you it was a one-off thing. I meant it.”

  Still she made no move to leave. “I’m not looking for anything else. So if you’re imagining I’m going to start wanting flowers and dinners and dates, you can stop. I just want what we had last week.”

  “Go find someone else. I’m not interested.” It was for her own good—didn’t she know that?

  And yours, too. Don’t forget that.

  Yeah, he couldn’t pretend this wasn’t about his peace of mind as well.

  Her dark eyes glinted in the harsh fluorescent lighting of the garage. She took another step toward him, then another. And this time her gaze swept down his body and stayed down. “I don’t think that’s true.”

  Oh fuck. Of course his goddamn dick would have other ideas.

  “I’m in charge, pretty girl. Not my fucking cock. And if I said I’m not interested, I’m not interested.”

  But she didn’t stop, her heels making soft tapping sounds as she made her way across the dusty concrete floor to him, the light following the sheen on the fabric of her dress, outlining each delicious curve. There was determination in her eyes and hunger, and something else. Something painful.

  She was only inches away from him when she stopped and she didn’t look down this time. “Okay, then,” she said quietly. “Here’s the truth. Ever feel like you’re only an actor playing a part? That you’re not really who everyone thinks you are? That’s how I feel. And tonight, I just want to step off the stage. I want to stop acting. Stop pretending. Tonight I want to be me.” She paused, searching his face. “I’m sorry, I’m not articulating it very well. And I know you don’t know me or anything. But . . . that’s the best way to put it.”

  There was a raw honesty to the words that caught in his chest, made something inside him go tight.

  You know exactly what she means.

  No, shit, his situation was different. He wasn’t acting. He was trying to be the man he’d promised Madison he’d be and he’d pretty much succeeded. Gideon and his friends didn’t know his background or even his real name, but that didn’t matter.

  Damian Chase, son of Joshua, was dead. He’d died the night his father had told him Madison’s death in a car crash wasn’t an accident.

  “I get it,” he said roughly, trying not to notice how close she was standing. How the heat of her body made him want to growl down low in his chest and the pulse at her throat cried out for his hand. So he could feel how fast it was. So he could feel it get faster. “You wanna use me as your rich girl therapy? Get a bit of the dark side? Is that what this is about? ’Cause, baby, if so, there’s a hundred or so guys right outside this door who’ll give you that. You don’t need me.”

  “I can’t
go to them.” Her voice had a husky edge to it. “I don’t trust them. But I do trust you.”

  “Why the fuck would you do that?”

  “God, why wouldn’t I? You give women self-defense classes. And you were so pissed off about me hanging around this neighborhood on my own that you gave me a lift home.”

  “Yeah, and then I fucked you in the back of my car.”

  That glint in her eyes flared. “Because I wanted you to.”

  “You were also very clear we weren’t going to see each other afterward. So what the hell happened to bring you down this way again?”

  Her mouth tightened. “Does it matter? Can’t a woman just want sex for the sake of it?”

  “Sure they can. But I don’t fuck rich girls from downtown, Tamara. That’s a rule and I’ve already broken it once. I’m not doing it again.”

  She stared at him for a long moment and he could see anger glittering in her eyes, mixing with the heat to create something intense, combustible.

  It pulled at him like she had a string tied to his fucking dick.

  “I’m getting engaged soon,” she said abruptly. “I’m getting engaged and I . . . want a night. Just one goddamn night where I don’t have to play a role. Where I don’t have to be anyone but myself.” She stopped, her breathing sounding shaky, her gaze suddenly fierce. “Where I don’t have to keep it under fucking control all the time.”

  Engaged. Hell . . . There were so many reasons why saying yes would be a bad idea.

  But you want to anyway. Because you want her. You want to step outside your role as much as she wants to step outside of hers.

  “So you wanna use me? Celebrate your last few nights of freedom with hot and dirty screwing before you settle down?”

  Her chin came up, defiance joining the anger in her eyes. “You have a problem with that?”

  Of course you don’t. And that’s what makes it perfect. No commitments, no complications.

  Yeah, and his head needed to shut the fuck up.

  “You don’t know me, pretty girl.” He stared at her. “I could be anyone.”

  “You don’t know me either. Which is why this works.”

  She wasn’t wrong. So really, why was he protesting? Hadn’t that restlessness been eating a hole in his gut? And hadn’t the fact that he’d been thinking about her all damn week been pissing him off? Yeah, he was wary of girls like her for a number of different reasons, but in this instance she had her eyes wide open about what she was getting into. She already knew what kind of man he was.

  The thread of darkness inside him twisted hard.

  She wanted something and he could give it, they’d both get orgasms, it was win-win all the way.

  He held her gaze. “You want me, Tamara?”

  She didn’t look away. “Yes.”

  “And what do you want me to do? I wanna hear you say it.” He wanted to hear those dirty, dirty words coming out of her pretty, pretty mouth.

  Her throat moved. “I want you to f-fuck me.”

  The stutter got him even harder than he was already. Which made him a sick fuck, but suddenly he didn’t much care. “You have to make the first move this time. I’m not gonna do anything until you do.” If she wanted this, if she truly wanted to step out of her good-girl role tonight, then shit, he’d help her. He’d find out just how far out she was truly prepared to step.

  You want to show her as badly as she wants to be shown.

  He couldn’t deny it. He did. Wanted to know what her limits were and whether he could test them. Perhaps it was the vulnerability he sensed beneath the surface of her that he wanted to get at, that he wanted to uncover. Or the passion he knew burned hot and strong under that sleek, expensive dress of hers. Whatever it was, he wanted it.

  Tamara reached out and put a hand on his chest, her palm like a brand on his bare skin. And he had to take a breath, because that electrical current had him in its grip all of a sudden and he couldn’t move.

  A lot of women touched him like this, unable to take their eyes off his body.

  So he felt it like a shock when she looked up, straight into his eyes. Held his gaze like what he’d seen in her, she could see in him, too.

  Unease turned over inside him, but before he could say a word or move to break the contact, she slid her hand on his chest up to his shoulder and around behind his neck, reaching up to the back of his head.

  To bring his mouth down on hers.

  Chapter 6

  Tamara didn’t know what she was expecting as she pulled Zee’s head down. Perhaps the same kind of kiss she’d always had from Robert: tentative and respectful. Not demanding, not taking.

  It wasn’t what she got.

  He was like a lion lying still and waiting for its prey to get close before pouncing. Because as soon their lips touched, his mouth opened and he simply devoured her, his tongue pushing inside without any preliminaries.

  A shudder went through her whole body, the hot taste of him igniting a fire inside her she hadn’t even realized was smoldering.

  Her fingers curled on the back of his head, her nails digging helplessly into his scalp. Not so much to hold him there as to just hold on because it felt like her knees were going to give out.

  Beneath her palm on his chest she could feel the oiled silk of his bare skin and the rock-hard muscle under it. God . . . so hot. She wanted to spread her fingers, run her hands all over that perfect body of his, feel it against her own. He smelled of engine oil and that spicy, musky scent she remembered from the car. The one that made her body ache and sent her senses into free fall.

  Then, abruptly, his hand curled around her throat and he lifted his head, tarnished steel gaze holding hers.

  Tamara forgot how to breathe, how to speak. She even forgot how to think.

  There was only him and the heat of his hand around her throat, his palm pressing on her pulse, all demanding and possessive. Only the dark glitter in the depths of his eyes, the one that told her the sex they’d had in the car had only been a small taste of what he was capable of.

  She shivered, unable to help herself, a sliver of doubt winding through her.

  He was right, she didn’t know him and her reasons for trusting him weren’t exactly built on anything but a car ride home and gut instinct.

  But it was too late to turn back now. And more, she didn’t want to.

  She knew what she wanted and she’d been the one to dress up like this and come down here. The one to convince him even when he’d said no.

  She’d been the one to make the first move. She could have turned around and walked away at any time. But she hadn’t.

  So now she had to deal with the consequences.

  He looked at her a long moment and she had no idea what was going on in his head. Then he flicked a glance up the metal stairs that led to what must be the office, where Gideon had gone.

  “Come on.” He let go of her throat, gripped her elbow instead and turned, drawing her after him as he headed toward a door at the back of the garage.

  She stumbled a little, her heels not really made for oil-stained concrete floors and the metal offcuts that littered them. “Where are we going?”

  His fingers on her arm were hard and sure, holding her up. “Out back.” He pushed the door open and went through it, pulling her after him.

  Gravel crunched under her shoes as she stepped out into a small parking area with chain-link fences on either side. The space was full of a number of different cars, probably waiting for their turn to get worked on in the garage.

  Zee tugged her over to the side of the building, where the shadows lurked, then pushed her gently up against the brick wall.

  Although it was deserted and they were in darkness, and there were a few cars between them and the street, she still felt exposed.

  She tipped her head back and looked up at him as he put his palms on the brick on either side of her head. “H-here? Right now?”

  His body was so close to hers, the heat coming from him like one o
f the powerful engines he worked with. “Yeah.” His face was in shadow, and she couldn’t see the expression on it. “You said you didn’t wanna date or get chocolates and flowers. So you’re not gonna get them. You want me, pretty girl, it’s right here, right now.”

  Out on the street behind him, beyond the parked cars, a group of people walked past, laughing and shouting.

  Tamara swallowed. Okay, so another thing she hadn’t expected. “I just . . . People might see.”

  He didn’t move, that perfectly muscled body looming over her, surrounding her. “They might, but it’s pretty dark. And it’s nothing they haven’t seen before around here.”

  That wasn’t particularly reassuring, and yet she couldn’t deny a small piece of her was perversely excited by the thought.

  You wanted to step outside your life? So step outside.

  There was only darkness where Zee’s eyes should be.

  And something inside her clenched hard.

  “What are you waiting for?” she whispered, suddenly shaking and not quite sure why. “Changed your mind?”

  “No.” He lifted a hand and placed it lightly around her throat again, making goose bumps rise all over her body, sending her pulse racing and her breathing short and fast. “I’m just thinking about what I wanna eat first.” His hand moved down, his fingers trailing over her skin in a light caressing movement that made the shakes worse. “And I think . . .” His hand reached the neckline of her dress, brushing over the swell of one breast. “I wanna start here.” And he slid his fingers inside the red silk and pulled down hard.

  She couldn’t stop the gasp that burst from her in a soft explosion of sound and she had to grip on to the brick wall behind her to stop from instinctively covering herself. Because she wasn’t wearing a bra under the dress. There was nothing at all between the fabric and her bare skin. And now there wasn’t even that.

  She stared up at him and gradually the expression on his face became clear in the darkness, taut and hungry, silver glittering in his eyes.

  A deep shiver caught her.

  Are you really sure what you’re getting yourself into?

  No, actually, she wasn’t.