The Right Men for the Job

by Saskia Walker

  A Total-E-Bound Publication

  www.total-e-bound.com

  The Right Men for the Job

  ISBN # 978-1-907280-26-9

  ©Copyright Saskia Walker 2009

  Cover Art by Lyn Taylor ©Copyright September 2009

  Edited by Claire Siemaszkiewicz

  Total-E-Bound Publishing

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Total-E-Bound Publishing.

  Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Total-E-Bound Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

  The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

  Published in 2008 by Total-E-Bound Publishing 1 The Corner, Faldingworth Road

  , Spridlington, Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, LN8 2DE, UK.

  Warning: This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has been rated Total-e-burning.

  THE RIGHT MEN FOR THE JOB

  Saskia Walker

  Dedication

  For Mark, who is always the right man for the job.

  Chapter One

  “Hey Deacon, look lively. We have a customer.”

  Deacon frowned. It was past closing time and they already had a backlog of cars in the workshop. The vehicle he was working on had to be ready before ten the next morning. “Can you cover it? I’m busy here.”

  “Oh yeah,” Vico replied. “Sure I can. It’s the goddess from the office across the street. I’m glad to be of service for such a beautiful customer.”

  “The goddess?” Deacon dropped his tools and made a move to climb out of the inspection pit. As he did he caught sight of her walking towards the entrance to the workshop. The early evening sun was lowering in the sky behind her, and that only emphasised her outline.

  She really was here and Vico—his junior partner—was already on his way over to greet her, prowling like an alley cat. Deacon cursed under his breath, and then dented his forehead on the underside of the car as he hastened out of the pit. He’d been lusting after this lady since they’d opened the workshop. They both had. They were often attracted to the same type, but usually Deacon backed off. Vico could charm whoever he wanted—women and men. He was Eastern European and displayed old world charm in his every move. Vico was also bisexual and flaunted it, whereas Deacon was straight. He also wasn’t so sure of himself, so he usually threw the towel in if another man got territorial.

  Not this time. If the goddess from across the street was coming over, he really did want his chance to chat with her as much as Vico did.

  “Greetings, how may I be of assistance?” Vico already had the charm at full throttle, and he’d also had the foresight to clean his hands on a cloth as he approached the woman.

  She smiled Vico's way, tentatively, and then glanced at the sign over the workshop door as she passed under it, entering their space. In one hand she held a small shoulder bag, and a key fob dangled from her long, elegant fingers. Her glossy black hair swung to her shoulders in a long bob. She wore a short, fitted dress in some kind of shiny blue fabric. Simple, but pure style. The strappy high-heeled sandals she wore made her shapely legs look even longer.

  Deacon rubbed his hands over his head and then forced himself to drag his attention away long enough to check his hands. Oil everywhere. No doubt he had it on his head as well and looked like a right idiot.

  “Hi,” the goddess said, “I work across the road and I’m afraid my car won’t start. It’s a classic and it’s a bit temperamental. I have a mechanic who usually services it for me, but he’s near home and that’s ten miles away. I need to get to an appointment this evening.”

  She glanced his way and smiled. It mesmerised Deacon. Suddenly he didn’t mind so much that she might be amused at his appearance. “I wondered if one of you could take a look at it for me?” she added.

  She looked from one to the other of them, as if unsure who to direct her comments to.

  He snapped into action. “Sure thing. Vico, could you check the lady’s car, please.”

  Vico gave him a wry smile indicating he was unsurprised that Deacon had pulled rank, and collected her keys from her.

  Deacon noticed she was about to follow Vico back to the car, and interrupted. “Take a seat. I’m sure this won’t take long.”

  She walked over to the seat he offered. Up close, she was even more attractive than he’d imagined. Large green eyes and a mouth that made him ache to kiss her.

  “I hope you’re right. Unfortunately I have an appointment I have to be at. This couldn’t have happened at a worse time.” She glanced at her watch as she sat on the chair, and then crossed her legs high on the thigh, magnetising Deacon’s attention to the soft, bare skin of her legs. The urge to kneel down beside her and stroke her was taking hold of him. He dragged his attention back to her face.

  “I can always get a taxi.” She frowned. “It's my fault for wanting a classic sports car.”

  “It’s a gorgeous vehicle. We’ve both been admiring it.” Not just the car, you too, he thought, and smiled

  Her expression brightened. “Thanks. It costs a lot to maintain, but I love it. In fact my friends tease me about it. They say that the car is the love of my life and there isn’t room for a man as well.”

  Interesting. “What you need is a man who is a mechanic, and then both you and the car would be kept happy.” It was a spur of the moment comment, but was it too blatant, he wondered. What if it was? He had very little time. Vico would be on his way back soon. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

  She laughed softly, and he noticed how thick her eyelashes were as her eyelids lowered. “That would indeed be rather handy,” she responded, and then fanned herself with one hand, glancing at him as she did so.

  Was that a once-over? And was she aroused, or was she just hot? Deacon felt clueless. She looked warm, and her cheeks were flushed. It was humid inside the workshop, could be that. They were used to it, but he made a mental note to get a large fan, in case he had a beautiful woman sitting here on a hot August evening again.

  “What is it that you do over there?” He nodded at the office block. “We’ve been wondering, since we opened up here.”

  “Oh, there are several different organisations in the block. We rent part of the second floor, the offices overlooking this side.” Again her eyelids lowered briefly. “I work for the Yorkshire tourist board.”

  “Tourism? Sounds glamorous.”

  She chuckled, pushing her heavy hair behind her ear on one side as she looked at him. “Not really. I monitor standards in the local hospitality industry, hotels mostly.”

  Responsible job, high powered. What would she want with a self-employed mechanic?

  “The car is my bit of glamour,” she added.

  She didn’t need a glamorous accessory like the car, she was pure glamour herself. He was about to respond when Vico jogged back.

  “The starter motor has gone. We can have one delivered first thing in the morning.”

  She nodded. “Thanks. I better call a taxi.”

  Deacon shook his head. “That won’t be necessary, I'll give you a lift. We don’t have a courtesy car as y
et, so it’s the least I can do.”

  She looked up at him, hesitating. “I don’t want to be any trouble.”

  “You won’t be.” He smiled. “I was about to lock up for the day.”

  “Yeah,” Vico interrupted, and started undoing his overalls right there and then. “We were about to lock up anyway, we can give you a lift right away.”

  Deacon frowned. He’d been making headway, but Vico wasn’t going to let it go. Apparently he wanted her just as much. There had been friendly banter between them about her every time they’d spotted her going in and out of her office. Deacon had even announced he wanted to wake up with her, every morning. Vico had responded that he’d already be there in her bed. It was genial rivalry, but that was before either of them knew they’d get a chance to meet her for real. Would this test their friendship? He hoped not. Vico was the perfect business partner. Hard working, positive, energetic. Deacon knew he couldn’t compete with him when it came to women, however.

  Her eyes had widened and she watched as Vico stepped out of his overalls, deftly peeling off his work persona. Underneath he wore snug black jeans and a T-shirt. He kicked the overall to one side, and then put out his hand. “Vico Laberi, at your service.”

  She rested her hand in his. “Astrid Jacobs.”

  Vico met Deacon’s stare and flickered his eyebrows.

  The cheeky bastard was challenging him. Deacon rose to it and pulled the poppers on his overall, flexing his muscles, drawing her gaze right back to him as he stripped it off.

  When he was sure he had caught her attention, he winked.

  All is fair in love and war, he told himself, right?

  * * * *

  “Climb in. You get a great view from up here.” The bloke called Deacon patted the seat next to him.

  The other one, Vico, was at her back, standing with one arm up against the door of the pick-up truck, almost touching her. Astrid swayed, barely resisting the urge to take a step back and feel that limber, muscled body against her back. She glanced over her shoulder at him and smiled, then looked into the front seat of the truck and wondered how the hell she’d got herself into this situation. Twenty minutes ago she’d had to physically and mentally brace herself to approach the workshop, because dealing with mechanics unnerved her so badly. With all their brawn and secret knowledge they made her—a confident business woman—feel clumsy and stupid. Her regular mechanic was a mature gent who specialised in classics. Him, she could cope with. These two were something else. Walking in to their space had been like walking into an exotic foreign land, one that was redolent with masculinity.

  They hadn’t made her feel stupid about the car needing attention, though, for which she was grateful. In fact they had both gone out of their way to be charming. And now, somehow, they had convinced her to get into a recovery truck, where she was apparently going to be squeezed into a bench seat between the pair of them. Talk about overload of testosterone. These two were positively oozing with it, and their bravado and charm meant she‘d been swept along easily with their suggestion.

  Again Deacon patted the seat next to him. If she didn’t know better, she’d think the two of them were competing over her. That couldn’t be the case because they’d only just met. She shrugged the feeling off. They probably acted this way with all their customers, friendly and charming. She dropped her bag into the floor space and clambered in.

  “Allow me.” Deacon reached across to strap her seat belt on.

  She caught a breath of his cologne as he buckled her in and it made her think about rolling across a bed with him, naked. Where the hell had that come from? Her eyes flashed shut and then open, her spine straightening. Her pulse rate was already erratic and now it paced up, her entire body kindling. He was a good-looking bloke that was why. They both were. Deacon was built large and powerful, with massive shoulders and arms, like a weight lifter. He had dreamy blue eyes and closely cropped brown hair that made her want to run her hands over his head. Vico was sleeker—lean and hard, physically—and darker in colouring. He had longer hair and sharp features, dramatic cheekbones and a killer smile.

  Deacon clicked the belt into place, and winked at her.

  This was going to be a test of her ability to hold it together, she could tell. Once she’d agreed to the lift, they’d peeled off their overalls, washed up and closed up the workshop—inside the space of two minutes. They looked pretty damn good, too, in tight jeans and T-shirts.

  When Vico climbed in behind her, she found herself squeezed on both sides by solid male thighs. Folding her arms around her waist, she wondered where she should put her hands and bit her lip to stop herself smiling when she realised the obvious place was one on each of those sculpted thighs.

  Deacon switched on the engine and it roared into life. He nodded at the road. “Where to?”

  “My appointment is about four minutes’ drive on the easterly road.”

  Moments later they were roaring along the open country road out of town, and the height of the truck gave her a great view of her beloved Yorkshire Dales. The view and the company took the edge off her feeling about the appointment she had to attend. As she gave directions, she acknowledged the fact that these two were giving her beleaguered confidence a much-needed boost. It was the last thing she’d expected as she’d reluctantly headed over to their workshop, but with the event that lay ahead she was grateful for what their attention was doing for her, because she was dreading the party.

  The event she was attending was her best friend’s engagement party. The problem wasn’t Lucia, her best friend since school days. The problem was that Lucia was engaged to Roger, Astrid’s ex. Two years it had been since he’d done the dirty on her, but it still hurt. It also meant she found it difficult to trust and get involved again. And now Roger was marrying her best buddy. Lucia knew what a bastard he’d been, but apparently that hadn’t stopped her getting involved. It was all horribly awkward, but she’d vowed to be polite and rise above her base emotions, for Lucia’s sake.

  The truck drew to halt. Astrid glanced at the house. It was Lucia’s parents’ place. She’d visited many times in the past. Heart-shaped balloons decked the porch. The front door was open, music spilled out, and people were milling about in the hallway. She sighed, her spirits sinking.

  “You don’t want to go to this party, do you?” It was Vico the gypsy-looking guy.

  She shook her head. “Nope. Is it that obvious?”

  He lifted one shoulder in a kind of lazy shrug.

  “No. I don’t want to go, not really, but I have to.”

  He drew her hand to his mouth and kissed the back of her fingers. The action sent a delicious shiver of anticipation through her, her body responding.

  Glancing up at her as he kissed her, his eyes twinkled. “You have to go? That’s a shame. We could go get a drink otherwise.”

  He really was flirting with her.

  “Yes, the three of us could go get a drink.” Deacon had switched off the engine and was watching Vico flirt with a wry smile. “What’s the event?” he added.

  “It’s my best friend’s engagement party. I was just going to show my face for twenty minutes.” As she glanced from one to the other of them, an idea occurred to her. “I don’t suppose you’d like to come in with me, just for a few minutes, get a drink and a canapé? The invitation said I could bring someone.”

  Or two. There would be several cliques in there, and that was what she was dreading most of all. She’d feel much less like a sore thumb if she had company. Especially such good looking, sexy company. The very thought of it boosted her confidence and steadied her nerves. She smiled. When she did, they both reacted.

  “Sounds great,” Deacon replied.

  “You’re on," Vico said, in the very same moment.

  “I’d really appreciate the company.”

  “The pleasure is all ours,” Vico responded.

  From no date to two sexy companions, inside a heartbeat. Maybe her luck was changing. “Okay gu
ys, let’s do this.”

  Chapter Two

  Vico scanned the crowd and knocked back the glass of champagne Deacon had put in his hand. “You know all these people?”

  Astrid shook her head. She sipped from her flute of champagne in an almost compulsive manner, as if she was nervous. “Some of them. A third, maybe. The ones I know are old friends that I haven’t been in touch with for a while.” She nodded across the room at a man who Vico had already tabbed as the biggest schmoozer in the place. “That one, he’s my ex boyfriend, that’s why this is so awkward for me. This is his engagement party.”

  Deacon nearly choked on his spicy-chicken-on-a-stick. “Seriously?”

  Astrid nodded, and then took a bigger swig of her champagne. She was seriously uneasy. Vico perched alongside her where she rested up against a window sill, and slid his arm around her. He let her feel his reassurance in a gentle embrace, his hand tightening around her waist, before he glanced back at the schmoozer. Oddly enough he could picture them together but it would have been far too perfect, and he didn’t approve of that. Life never approved of it, so why should he? A sophisticated woman like Astrid needed a bit of rough to set her off and let her glow. Two bits of rough, maybe? Vico’s thoughts ran in a direction that his fantasies often secretly did. What did Deacon think, he wondered?

  Deacon was frowning as he looked across at the ex. “Wait a minute, you’re telling us that bloke there,” he gesticulated with his half-eaten canapé, “left you, for the woman you were talking to at the door?”

  He was still frowning heavily as he asked the question. He was right to frown. The friend was pretty, but Astrid was a goddess. Their goddess. Vico was already thinking of her that way. He wondered if he could convince Deacon to give it a go. He’d shared a woman with another man before, but his instinct was that Deacon had not.