by Amelia Jade
Chapter Four
Robyn
He hadn't shown up.
Isn't that a good thing? I thought you didn't want to complicate your life with men?
Shut up. He's...different.
Shaking her head in disgust at the conversation she was having with herself, Robyn slipped the car into her gated off area and killed the engine. She sat on the door for a moment before she hauled the rest of her out of the car. The doors were welded shut, so she had to climb in and out through the window. For now, resting her head on the roof as she sat on the open window, she didn't want to do anything else.
Why had she been so confident that he would show up? Andy had been perfectly clear when he told her that he had work to do and that it was likely he would be unable to make it. Yet, despite that, Robyn had awoken with the gut feeling that he would be there. Something told her that had been his plan, but she had looked for him. The reserved seats were filled, but no giant bear-shifter in sight, as far as she could see.
Just her boss, his sycophants and their paid groupies. It was disgusting. Yet every time she made a comment about it, Charlie was quick to tell her that he was just waiting for her. Eventually she had stopped saying anything to him, just trying her best to ignore his remarks. Pushing the memory aside, she started to hoist herself the rest of the way out of the car.
"Let me," a voice rumbled behind her, so deep it sounded like thunder.
Large, powerful hands wrapped themselves around her waist and lifted her from the car like she was nothing.
"Andy," she gasped, trying to maintain her balance. Never before had she been so easily manhandled. It sent a rush of blood to her heart and, to her consternation, between her legs. She gripped the car heavily as she turned to face him, leaning back against the frame as she looked up at him, meeting his eyes. He was standing so close to her she could feel the heat emanating from his chest.
There was laughter hidden there, laughter and...relief?
"Why do you look so relieved?" she managed to get out before he spoke again.
"Truthfully, I wasn't sure if you were going to let me assist, or try to tear me a new one," he said with a laugh, still not backing up.
She swallowed hard, trying not to give into the urge to rest her head on his chest. The idea just seemed so tempting all of a sudden. Her bear was growling, urging her to do something. Interpreting that to mean she needed to put some space between them, Robyn slid off to the side, taking an uncertain step or two before she recovered her balance, heading back to her trailer.
"So, where were you?" she said, rounding on him as he followed her over. "I didn't see you there."
"I was in the crowd. Section C, fifth or sixth row back, as a matter of fact."
"Why were you over there? You had reserved seating."
"I couldn't find an empty seat. So, I went up to the bleachers to watch."
"You weren't even there, but nice try," she razzed him, trying to find out if he truly had watched. Part of her, deep down, was hoping that he had, in fact been there.
"I was," he said defensively, a look of injustice on his face now.
She suddenly felt terrible, accusing him repeatedly of not having watched her, despite him being in front of her now.
"If you must know, your boss had taken all of the seats, and I did not wish to dismantle him in front of everyone. So I chose the mature way out. But I was there, Robyn. Do not doubt it." There was a slight tremble of anger in his voice at the slight she had visited upon him. "I saw you with the bad luck at the start, with the muddy ground making you stick, and then," he paused, and she thought he was going to call her out on being a bitch.
"Then I saw some of the best damn driving I've ever seen. You have some real talent behind the wheel, in case you were unaware," he said, pride and amazement written on his face and in his words.
"Really?" she asked. Robyn had an inkling she was good with a car, having been told by others before, but it was always a hard thing to believe. Especially when she kept losing every match. It seemed like no matter how good she got with her car, it would never be good enough.
"Really. I'm impressed." He looked it, too. There was even a bit of what looked to be smugness hidden in there. She wondered why he felt that way about her skills. Odd.
"So, Charlie took all the seats, did he?" she asked, trying to change the conversation.
"Yeah. What is he?"
"What do you mean?" she asked, confused. Charlie was just...Charlie.
"Well, he's not a shifter, but he's not afraid of me. Why not?"
"Oh. That. Well, the thing about Charlie is," she hesitated, "he's an idiot."
Andy blinked.
Then he started to laugh, a big, booming noise that vibrated the very air around her with its timbre. It was still infectious, however, and moments later she was laughing alongside him, her hearty belly laugh all but drowned out by Andy's.
"That would explain a lot," he managed to get out eventually as they regained control of themselves.
It felt to her, as if the shared moment hadn't just been a good laugh, but had also forged some sort of link between them. They were on the same team now, she realized. Neither of them liked Charlie, and both of them realized how big of an act he really was. She liked that— knowing that someone else was on her side. Too many of the other people who worked for him were willing to act like he was the right hand of God. It was nice to have someone else who realized he was just a trumped-up dick.
"So," Andy said, all business again. "When are you going to be back over?"
"What do you mean?" Was he inviting her over, like a date? She looked away, anywhere but his eyes. She didn't want him to think she was interested in him. That wasn't where she had planned for things to go. He was a good guy, and she enjoyed his company. Right now, Robyn told herself again, what she needed most was a friend, someone she could trust.
"To fix the car," he rushed out, pointing behind them to her dinged-up ride. "Staci, can I call her Staci?"
She nodded.
"She's going to need some love and attention if you have a hope in hell of moving past the next round. When's that, couple of days?" he asked, already looking over the car, inspecting things while she watched.
"Tomorrow."
"Oh. Well, it's a good thing I took the afternoon off work and don't work tomorrow, now isn't it?" he said with a grin, closing the hood he had opened to take a look at her engine. "How did you even get this thing back here?"
"What do you mean?"
"There's a piece of steel pushed straight into your engine. We're going to have to take the whole thing out and find a new one."
"You're joking, right?" she said, panicking as she ran over to the front of the vehicle, her eyes immediately picking up what he was referring to.
There was a huge chunk of metal jammed straight through her grill and into the engine block itself. The death knell for her. She slammed a fist into the car, letting loose a cry of anger.
"Whoa, whoa!" he cried, holding out his hands to calm her down as she started to kick the frame. "What's going on?"
She turned to face him, trying to blink back the tears but not succeeding entirely. They were tears of anger— she had the annoying habit of starting to cry every time her temper flared up.
"I don't have the money for a new engine, Andy. I spent it all fixing Staci up after the last competition. This is it," she said to him. "I'm done, I'm finished competing."
"I knew there must be a reason I came into your life, then," he said with a grin.
She wanted to hit him for staying so upbeat as her career crumbled around her.
"What the hell do you mean? I need an engine hulk! Not a massive piece of sexy man meat!" she said without thinking. "Uhh, I meant to say," she stuttered, trying to backtrack as her face went crimson with embarrassment.
It didn't help that Andy was standing there, just looking at her. "You think I'm sexy?" he asked slowly.
"Are you serious?" she said, regain
ing some of her wit as he fumbled the situation worse than she had. "How can you not realize that you're attractive? You're tall, covered in muscle, and have a jaw most men would kill for. What more do you need?"
"I see," he said flatly. Then he looked back up at her. "Did you call me 'hulk'?"
She laughed, thankful for the change in topic. "I did. Remember that whole tall, lots of muscle bit? The real difference is you don't turn green."
"Okay," he replied, a small grin tugging at the corners of his lips.
"So, what is the reason you came into my life?" she said sarcastically, her mind racing as she tried to think of a way to come up with a new engine by tomorrow.
"Did you hit your head in there?" he teased, pretending to check her head for problems.
"Oh, spit it out!"
"Robyn, I'm a mechanic. I have a scrap yard full of cars with engines we could use."
Her jaw dropped. He was right, she had been acting like an idiot. How the hell could she have forgotten that little tidbit of information? He had offered her any parts from it she may need yesterday! She had been too occupied bringing up his anatomical perfection to remember.
He is rather rugged and handsome, though...
She forced herself to let that thought die. The last thing she wanted to be doing was admiring the way his shirt was practically molded to his frame. She hadn't yet, but Robyn knew if she ran her hand along his stomach it would be rock hard with washboard abs.
"Shall we get Staci loaded up?" Andy asked, interrupting her thoughts.
"Thank you, Andy," she said, looking up at him again. "I can't begin to tell you how much this means to me." Before she could second guess it and before he could speak, she took a step closer, stood up on her tiptoes, and kissed him softly on the cheek.
Then she turned and walked to the trailer, undoing the locks and lowering the ramp. Spinning in place to head back to the car she saw Andy still looking at her, a strange look on his face.
"Hey, this car isn't going to move itself," she joked, trying to play off her actions earlier, pretending as if they hadn't mattered.
"Right," Andy nodded, moving to the other side of the car. She disengaged the break and they began to push Staci toward the ramp. Andy did most of it, she had to admit. Normally she drove the car up, although that wasn't possible this time. Grunting and sweating, they finally got the car up the ramp with enough speed. She dove inside the window and pulled the handbrake, though the car still hit the far side of the trailer with more force than she would have liked.
"You okay?" came Andy's concerned voice, checking in after her.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Make sure that we didn't send this through the trailer, will you?" she asked, extricating herself from the vehicle as Andy went around to check the front.
"It's fine, not a scratch on—"
"Hey!"
They both turned to see Charlie and several staff in purple walking toward them.
"Hi Charlie," she said without any trace of enthusiasm. His trick about not letting Andy sit in the seat she had gotten for him had rankled her more than she cared to admit.
"What's he doing here?" he said, pointing at Andy.
"Helping me load the car up," she said slowly, trying to figure out if Charlie had truly gone dumb.
"No, I mean, what is he doing back here," Charlie sneered at her, waving a hand around the backstage area. "I don't see a staff shirt or any other sort of pass on him."
Andy started to come forward, but she shook her head slightly. This was her battle, she could fight it.
"I don't see one on you either, Charlie. So I guess these gentlemen," she said, making a mockery of the word as she glared at the two men on either side of her boss, "should be escorting you out, as well."
"Shut up, Robyn," he spat, turning to face Andy, who had taken another step forward. He was now looming rather impressively over Charlie, who did not seem fazed in the slightest by how monstrously outmuscled he was, even before factoring in that Andy was a bear shifter.
"You need to leave. Now." He tried to say the last word like a command, but Andy simply arched an eyebrow at him, then turned away, completely undoing any sense of authority Charlie had been gathering.
"Are you ready to go?" he growled. She recognized the anger as it infused his words with enough force to drive the two men in purple and gold shirts back several steps. They, at least, knew better.
"Absolutely. We have work to do." She pushed past Charlie, who didn't bother to say a thing, though she noted in the side mirror that he was still red with rage as they pulled away.
The drive over flew by. Even after they had located a new engine and removed the old one, she still couldn't believe what had happened. "I know why he was so pissed," she said suddenly as they were hooking up the new engine several hours later.
"What?"
"Charlie. He was pissed because normally he comes over and asks me out to dinner. So this time, with you around, he couldn't do that. So he was trying to get rid of you so he could talk to me. Talk about a backfire!" She laughed, as did Andy.
The way his face lit up each time he chuckled gave her butterflies in her stomach. She didn't want to think about it, but her bear was becoming more insistent. There was something she was missing that it was trying to tell her. She wracked her brain, coming up with all manner of things. Until she hit it, or so she thought.
"Andy, I need to repay you for this. I can't accept outright generosity. How can I do that?" she said all of a sudden, the seriousness in her voice killing any quip Andy may have had.
He thought about it for a short time before responding. "Can you teach me some things about aggressive driving? I can handle a car just fine, but the way you were using the handbrake, sliding around the track. That's advanced level stuff that I've never had the opportunity to try. You've had to learn it, now maybe you could teach some of it to me?"
"I can do that," she said slowly, not realizing that it was something he would have been interested in. "Can you take learning from a girl?"
"No, but I can take learning from you," he said smoothly, his eyes catching and holding hers. He was trying to tell her something with that look, she was sure. His eyes were certainly enjoyable enough to stare into. Just like the rest of him.
Unbidden, her eyes wandered down his face, eyeing the outlines of muscles under his shirt, and past his waist until they settled on the obvious bulge in his pants. She swallowed hard at the thought of what was beyond.
Suddenly aware of where she was staring, she looked back at the car, grabbing a random wrench and pretending to tighten something down out of sight on her side.
"I need a break. We've been working hard and there isn't too much left to do. Why don't we go for a walk?" he suggested, heading out toward the forest behind his house.
"A walk?" she said, confused. Following him she turned the corner just in time to see a massive grizzly bear burst from within him. One moment it was Andy walking forward, the next an oversized bear was padding around on four legs, claws leaving deep furrows in the ground as it stretched and turned back to face her.
Even though the face wasn't human, she could see the expectant look on its face. With a grin she ran after him. Andy wasn't the only one able to shift on the move. She didn't stop running as she let her bear out— the smaller, but still large dark-brown grizzly bursting forth as she barreled forward into Andy's side, the two rolling around in the dirt.
He rolled over until she fell off, and then with a mischievous look, took off into the forest at full speed. Robyn was stunned, but quickly set off in pursuit, not wanting to be left behind. Whatever Andy was doing, she was sure he had a point to it.
Her bear sang as they stretched their legs, heading into the forest with each other.
She had to admit, it felt great.
Chapter Five
Andy
The duo raced through the forest, moving at a smooth, quick shuffle. Their long, powerful legs carried them over fallen brush as they careened
around trees and even climbed up and over a huge boulder that lay in their way. The warm sunlight penetrated the canopy, making the fall air practically vibrate with warmth.
Andy growled as Robyn nipped at his heels, putting on a bit more speed as he burst through a particularly thick bit of underbrush and out into his favorite place to go. He turned back, chuffing softly as Robyn followed him in and stopped in amazement. It was picturesque in the fall.
Golden yellow, orange, and red leaves were hanging off majestic oak and maple trees, interspersed with several pines to bring in the green. The little meadow was covered in a thick blanket of such leaves, dry and crunching under their paws as they moved to the center of the clearing.
Bunches of wildflowers grew near the top of the small rise, growing around several large stones that were settled there. He climbed up on one before shifting back to his human form. Robyn joined him swiftly, and once she saw that he had shifted, she shivered and put her bear away as well, sitting down on one of the other rocks to face him.
The stone was warmed by the sun, and after the exertion of earlier the soothing heat was welcome. The pair lay back on their rocks, simply enjoying the moment in nature. It had been a few days since Andy had last been out to the meadow, and he was thrilled to be back.
"What do you think?" he asked softly, not wanting to spoil the moment.
"It's beautiful," came the hushed reply, her voice tinged with awe.
Risking a quick glance over at her, he noticed she was looking around, taking in all the sights and sounds. Over the wind the sound of birds chirping their songs was the most predominant, but in the distance he heard the call from a bird of prey, and somewhere in the distance a wolf or a coyote began to howl, despite the early time.
"Why did you bring me here?"
"I thought you could use the relaxation," he replied without missing a beat.
"Is that all?"
"I," he paused, thinking. Why had he brought her here? What had been his motivation in showing her this place? Was it simply for her benefit, to help her calm down and prepare for tomorrow? Or, was he doing this for another reason...
