What a Woman Wants

by Brenda Jackson

  ‘The shop’s closed.”

  She cleared her throat. ‘I know.” Her body was beginning to ache. Now in addition to the heat between her legs, her breasts felt tender against the material of her dress. And talking about the dress ... he was noticing it. He glanced up and down at her in a way that was winding her up real tight, and then he took a huge gulp from the beer can before tossing it into a nearby trash bin.

  “If you know the shop’s closed, then why you’re here?” he asked in a raw whisper that not only assaulted her senses, but zapped every feminine thing about her.

  She knew he was waiting on an answer. He wanted her to spell it out for him, did he? Well, she had no problem doing that... if she really had to.

  Taking a step forward, she deliberately brushed her body against his. “Do I really need to answer that?”

  He angled his head back and continued to stare at her ... and her dress. Finally he answered by saying, “No, I guess not.” He then stepped aside. “Come on in.”

  The first thought that came to Shannon’s mind was that what she was about to do was crazy. She knew nothing about this man other than what he did for a living as well as what he did to her each time she saw him. What if he was a mechanic by day and a rapist by night? What if he was a serial killer? What if—?

  She shook her head, ridding her mind of any visions of being held hostage or him doing her bodily harm. For some reason, even with his rough and raw nature she felt safe with him, so she dismissed all those crazy ideas going through her head as her mind started going crazy on her. She was the one in charge of things here.

  Besides, she had questioned a couple of people about him, and although none knew him personally, the cook at the cafe, the one who’d referred her to this place yesterday, said that all the mechanics who worked for Kent Scott were fairly decent guys and didn’t get into trouble. He’d further gone on to say that although he didn’t know the mechanic who had moved above the garage, he must have been a close friend of Kent’s to live there, and the few times he’d come into the cafe to buy coffee, he’d seemed like a nice fellow.

  Shannon also figured she had her back covered, since Faith and Monique knew where she was, and she would make sure he knew it in case he took it upon himself to try any sort of funny business. So, despite any misgivings she might have harbored, she stepped over the threshold, and when he pushed the button to lower the huge garage door back down, leaving her completely alone with him inside the warehouselike building, she boldly met his gaze. And the only thing she could think about was the possibility that for the first in her life she had gone a little too far.

  Adam stood at the sink to wash any grease and grime from his hands as he watched Shannon slowly move around his work area like she found everything she saw fascinating, including the pile of grease rags stacked in the corner. He definitely remembered her from last week and if the truth be told, she had entered his thoughts several times since then.

  He could tell that she was nervous, which was a good sign that she hadn’t done anything like this before. A woman showing up alone to pick up a man wasn’t a real smart move, considering all the sickos in the world. He might be a lot of things, but a weirdo he was not.

  Back in Memphis, most women thought of him as the lone wolf, skillfully predatory, yet painstakingly detached when he wanted to be. And he was a cautious man by nature. It came with his profession, since he’d heard and seen it all. One thing he was definitely leery of were women bearing gifts, especially the let’s get naked kind. And that dress she was wearing could mean only one thing. She had sex on her mind, and he was the male she had targeted. Sheesh, lucky him.

  Oh, he knew her kind. Being the oldest son of Judge Warren Corbain, he was the object of numerous women’s pretended affections because of his family’s name and status. They were ladies who were well refined and dignified and who in the end would show their true colors only after a wedding ring had been placed on their finger. Those were the Exhibit As. Shannon Carmichael was one of those he tagged Exhibit B—high-class society women, the kind who dated one type of man during the day and slept with another type at night. She got her kicks walking on the wild side whenever the mood struck—preferably after dark—and indulging in fantasies that would never cross a “good” girl’s mind.

  He was glad Sydney, his one and only sister, who was eight years younger than him, never got into the casual dating scene before she married Tyrone. Her long-term affair with Rafe, everyone thought, would surely end in marriage. He had been shocked as hell when Sydney announced to the family one day that she and Rafe were through. A little more than a year later, she was making another announcement that she had fallen in love with and was marrying a guy by the name of Tyrone Hardcastle. She had left the family firm to move to D.C. with her husband, and almost two years later they were expecting their first child.

  Times were too dangerous to have too many sleeping partners for both physical as well as emotional reasons. Some men didn’t know the meaning of being a gentleman, but then he had a feeling a true gentleman was the last thing Dr. Shannon Carmichael was interested in tonight. But still, if she thought he would immediately fall victim to her wiles, she had another thought coming. Oh, he intended to eventually give her just what she came for, especially since seeing her dress this way painfully reminded him how long he’d been without a woman. But he would sleep with her on his time and his terms.

  But first, there was something he needed to get out of the way. Now that he was seeing her again, a degree of passion he’d felt the moment he set eyes on her escalated to an alarming rate. But then he knew her full breasts, tiny waistline, spectacular, long sexy legs and attractive face had a lot to do with it.

  He slowly walked over to her, saw the uncertain look in her eye before it was replaced by a glint of red-hot lust. Oh, yeah, she came here for only one thing, but he was going to show her he wasn’t easy.

  When he came to a stop in front of her, he heard the thickness of her breathing at the same time he inhaled her scent, a seductive fragrance that he knew had been deliberate. He hadn’t been born yesterday and was well aware of how some women operated with seduction on their mind, and this one was working it.

  ‘So,” he said slowly, reaching out and letting his fingertips stroke up and down her arms, feeling the goose bumps appear on every area he touched. “Since you’re here, I think there’s a few things we need to get out of the way, don’t you?”

  He watched her swallow, and the movement of her throat gave him an adrenaline rush that made his body harden even more. He was taken back by the force of his reaction to her. He didn’t know a woman alive who could shoot his libido up sky-high.

  “Things like what?”

  The sexy tone of her voice, filled with feminine curiosity, sent more adrenaline shooting through his body. If he didn’t get in control of things—and fast—he would be putty in her hands in no time.

  “This, for starters,” he said, and before she could react, he grabbed her elbow and brought her closer to the fit of him before lowering his head and capturing her mouth.

  Whenever he worked on a car, his body seemed to be filled with excessive energy, which he suspected was the reason he was plunging into this kiss, lapping her up like there was no tomorrow. And he was beginning to feel weak in the knees when he realized she was lapping him back.

  Kissing, when you really thought about it, required no degree of experience or skill. All you needed were willing mouths and greedy tongues, and the two of them had both. It seemed they had this segment of lovemaking down to a science. There was no way this could have been a simple kiss, not by the way he was tangling with her tongue like it rightly belonged to him. Mating his mouth with hers was as intense as it could get, and the more he thought about it, the greedier he became and the more he wanted to devour her in a way he had never done with another woman. He bet she would make one hell of a sex partner and knew that in time he would find out just how good she was in bed. He had a feeling
they were as sexually compatible as any two people could get.

  When he felt himself losing control, he broke off the kiss and pulled back, but thought, “Oh, hell,” and leaned in for another sweep of his tongue across her lips before diving that same tongue right back into her mouth.

  Moments later he pulled back and stared down at her. The intensity of his gaze had to be setting her on edge, but he didn’t care. The woman was a witch. She had to be one to have trapped him, the elusive Adam Corbain, this quick and easy.

  “So, what’s next?” she asked when he leaned forward and zoomed in for her mouth again.

  He blinked, knew he needed to get a grip. “What’s next?”

  “Yes. You said there were a couple of things that we needed to get out of the way. So, what’s next?”

  Adam breathed in easily. He was tempted to whip her luscious body around, flip her naughty-looking dress up, unzip his jeans, and take her against his car by plunging into her, giving her just what she came for. But he ripped that tempting notion from his mind. No woman had the upper hand when it came to him, especially not this one, who thought she could just breeze into his world—the one she assumed was his—and call the shots. This good ole Tennessee attorney was about to teach the good doctor a lesson about judging a book by its cover. And he would enjoy every minute while doing so.

  His lips tilted into a smile when he reached out and handed her a clean rag. When he saw the look of total bemusement on her face, he held back a chuckle when he said, “Next, you can make yourself useful by helping me work on this car.”

  9

  “I must have misunderstood you,” Shannon said, after finally recovering her voice to speak.

  “No, you didn’t misunderstand me,” Adam replied, leaning against a fender of the car and crossing his arms over his chest.

  She glared at him. “Don’t be ridiculous. Do I look like I’m dressed to work on a car?”

  Adam glanced at her up and down, and the power of his gaze actually made her panties—the skimpy lacey ones she was wearing— wet. He seemed to linger on the strappy sandals on her feet, and she couldn’t help wondering why. She knew some men had a fetish for women’s feet and wondered if perhaps he were one of those kind.

  “I’m very well aware of how you’re dressed, Shannon,” he said, breaking into her thoughts by using her given name for the first time. “I also know why,” he added. “But it has come to my attention that you and I need to get a few things straight, right off the bat.”

  Shannon’s thoughts whirred. What the hell was he doing, or trying to do? She was the one calling the shots, not him. She tossed down the rag he’d given her and tilted her head slightly to establish perspective. “Look, I think I’m the one who needs to get a few things straight with you,” she said, as if he was one of her students at the university. “When it comes to affairs, I go about handling them a lot different from most women. The only thing I’m looking for is a good time. I’ve never been married nor do I ever plan to marry And I’m not looking at life through any rose-colored glasses. I know the real deal when it comes to relationships, even the supposedly committed kind. When it comes to bed partners, I’m very selective, so consider yourself one of the fortunate ones. You’re not exactly the type of man I’m usually attracted to, but there’s nothing I can do about that since I am attracted to you. But to get the record straight, to get you straight, all I want from you is a summer fling for a couple of weeks. Nothing more, nothing less. When it’s over, I’ll go my way and you can continue to tinker with cars.”

  She took a deep breath and with a graceful toss of her head then said, “Now, is there anything you would like to say?”

  Adam had to fight to keep from laughing out loud at Shannon’s saucy, I’m-the-one-in-charge, my-way-or-the-highway spiel. With her hands braced on her hips, she looked absolutely luscious, and a part of him longed to give in to her terms and bestow upon her every single thing she wanted, while taking joy in every pleasant thrust. But he had no intentions of doing that, and before he sent her on her merry way, he would teach her one thing. That sassy mouth of hers was better used for kissing.

  Pushing away from the car, he slowly closed the distance between them until he was standing directly in front of her. Later to-night he would probably call himself all kinds of fool for sending her away, but she had a lesson to learn that there was more to life than just great sex. Respecting those she had a tendency to look down her snooty nose at would also be nice.

  “Yes, there’s something I’d like to say.”

  “What?” she all but snapped.

  “You talk too damn much.” And before she could utter what he knew would be a blistering response, he leaned in and took claim of that sassy mouth.

  Shannon gave up trying to deny she wanted this kiss and simply... gave in to it, participated in hopeless desperation. The will to pull away was lost within all the sensations she was feeling. When he released her mouth for a brief moment, she closed her eyes and breathed in the scent surrounding them. Oil, gas, fumes ... man. Adam.

  And when he took her mouth with finesse, she couldn’t help but moan in irresistible pleasure. She felt herself being lifted into strong arms and placed on the fender of the car. She felt her pulse race uncontrollably when he stepped between her open thighs but he didn’t make a move to get her out of her clothing. Instead he slid a hand between her legs and with a guttural moan he ripped the flimsy material of her panties apart and off her. And then his hand was there, at her wet entrance, the very heat of her. She shivered at the touch, moaned out loud at his strokes, and then groaned at the invasion of his fingers that filled her body with a sexual intensity she didn’t know was possible. Those fingers that he used to work on cars were definitely working on her, flickering to life a fire that she did not know could burn so hot.

  Her fingers dug into his shoulders, and when an orgasm struck, she let out one sultry cry followed by one high-pitched scream as sensations hit her like a shot from cannon. They pulled everything from her while at the same time giving everything to her. The world around her seemed to be spinning on its axis; she was afraid if she opened her eyes, she would see that the moon had actually fallen from the sky. Never had she experienced anything so starkly sexual and so mind-blowingly good. Moments later, like a rag doll she fell forward onto his chest, moaning and breathing in the scent of grease, oil, and sex from a miraculous finger job. And then he tilted her chin and was kissing her again while moving his hand slowly over her hips and belly.

  Without any warning, he broke off the kiss and stepped back. Pulling her dress down, he closed her legs and placing his hands beneath her butt, he lifted her off the car. Her body wanted to scream that although what he’d done had been spectacular, wonderful, out-of-this-world brilliant, she wanted everything else that came with it. She wanted an invasion of the most profound kind. She wanted him inside her.

  The sound of keys made her eyes open, and she looked at him. He was handing her purse and her car keys to her. “Good night, Dr. Carmichael. If you decide to stop by again, please come dressed to work.”

  A few minutes later Shannon was driving away, fuming. How dare he! No man had ever denied her what she’d wanted before. Who in the hell did that two-bit mechanic think he was, anyway?

  Her body began humming a tune that said, “Umm, for starters, he’s an expert kisser, and those fingers weren’t so bad either. He made you scream, break loose your impeccable sophistication, and give in to an uninhibited nature where if he’d just said the word, you would have placed yourself on a platter just for his taking. No man has ever made you go that far. No man ...”

  And although she didn’t like the thought of being mere putty in any man’s hands, especially the one who had given her an orgasm on the fender of some damn car, she refused to give up on him just yet. Just before walking out the garage door, she had glanced back at him and the look in his eyes had turned just as cold as the metal her butt had rested up against while on that fender.
/>
  But still, the man had a lot to learn when it came to the handling of a refined woman. Oh, she would be back, and she, not he, would decide how she would be dressed.

  10

  “So, how did your date go tonight?”

  Shannon wasn’t surprised to find Faith and Monique still up, waiting on her. She knew they hadn’t approved of her going to the repair garage to see Adam. They thought it was a bad and thoughtless move on her part, but they’d also known once she made her mind up about something, there was no talking her out of it.

  She threw her purse down on the coffee table and joined them on the sofa. They were her closest friends, and she loved them to death, but a night like tonight was one you just didn’t share. Not in full details, anyway. So she decided to give them the watered-down version. “It went fine and he was a perfect gentleman.”

  Monique gave her a smug smile. “And I bet that surprised you since you think men who use their hands for a living lack a level of fine grooming and social skills.”

  Shannon frowned. “I never said that.”

  “No, but your actions speak louder than words, Shannon. I hate to say this, but one day you’re going to meet your match.”

  I might already have, she thought to herself, remembering just how her night had gone, down to each finest detail. Her missing panties, the ones he’d ripped off her, were a definite reminder. “Keep your predictions to yourself, Monique,” she said, standing and yawning. The magnitude of that orgasm had taken a lot out of her. “I’m turning in, so I’ll see you ladies in the morning.”