Chapter 7 #3
Wind rushed around me, chilling my skin and making my eyes tear up.
But I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.
Nothing I’d ever done could compare to this.
It was like the world’s best and most exclusive rollercoaster.
Unable to help myself, I laughed, a childlike burst of joy I hadn’t made since I’d been a kid.
Jackson, somehow hearing me over the roar of the wind, turned his head back, his serpentine neck twisting so he could see me.
Our eyes met, and I again saw that strange dragon grin on his lips.
He turned forward again, and dived in a swooping motion that drew a yelp of surprise from me.
Latching my hands onto the horns again, I watched, in a strange mix of abject horror and heart-soaring happiness, as the highway system rushed toward us.
At a thousand feet, he banked, then rose into the sky again.
The entire thing had taken less than fifteen seconds, but the adrenaline continued to pulse in my veins as we ascended toward the heavens.
He went still higher until we were right below the clouds, where the air grew frigid.
Leaning down, I pressed my chest and stomach against him, the heat radiating up and spreading through me, making me comfortable even in the cold.
It was like something out of a dream, and when we eventually descended toward the ground, I was filled with a bittersweet melancholy—happy to have had the experience, but sad it was over.
Jackson landed behind an abandoned strip mall half a mile from my shop. I climbed off him, my legs weak and wobbly. Once I was free of him, he quickly shifted back.
“I think you enjoyed that,” Jackson said.
“It was amazing.” The word didn’t come close to describing what had happened.
Jackson pointed to the side of the building that would lead to the sidewalk. “I guess you need to get to work, huh?”
“I do,” I said, though it pained me to say it.
All I really wanted to do was keep living in this fantasy.
Everything from the moment I opened that garage door to find Jackson standing outside had been like one long movie or a daydream of epic proportions that I could hardly believe actually happened.
In fact, the only thing that might have made it better was if the sexy dragon millionaire had tried to get a little frisky with me.
Though, Jackson appeared to be a shining example of a gentleman.
Besides a few looks and subtle innuendos, he hadn’t tried anything with me.
Usually, I’d have been really happy about that, but there was something about him.
Standing there in that parking lot, looking into his eyes, I could be honest with myself.
Had he come to my room the night before and, perhaps, pulled my covers aside and sat beside me, I was almost certain as to what would have happened.
Something I would have been more than happy to have experienced, and that was a startling realization.
I wasn’t one to jump in the sack with a pretty face after a couple hours of knowing them, but Jackson was different in a way I couldn’t quite articulate, even to myself.
It felt as though we’d already known each other for years at this point.
“See you tonight?” Jackson asked, looking hopeful.
“Yup. We’ve got a crime to commit together,” I said.
“True.” He laughed, but I got the feeling he didn’t want to leave either.
Finally, after a few awkward beats, I took the first step, making my way to the side of the building to walk to work. “Until tonight, then,” I said.
Before I’d gone more than a few feet, Jackson appeared at my side, again showing that unbelievable speed. I flinched in surprise.
“Sorry,” he said. “I just…” He looked at me as if trying to see all the way to my soul. My breath caught in my throat. Had he been having the same thoughts about last night?
“You just what?” I asked a little breathlessly.
A dozen emotions seemed to play out over his face in the next few seconds, and then he finally came to some sort of decision, smiling sadly.
“Just wanted to tell you I had a good time last night.” He smirked. “I mean, other than being kicked in the balls.”
Heat rose to my cheeks, and I smiled. “I had a good time, too. It was—”
Jackson pressed his lips to mine in a chaste kiss that was over in a single second, lips brushing again lips in a way that satiated nothing, and only served to inflame the thoughts and fantasies flooding my mind.
Even with that quick kiss, I could taste him on my tongue—salty sweet and with a muskiness that I couldn’t even describe.
Jackson stepped back, grinning at me, and before I could say anything more, he shifted and leaped into the sky, leaving me gazing up at the sky, but of course, I couldn’t see him with his camouflage.
I brushed my fingertips over my lips, relishing the pleasant buzz that surged through them. For one quick second, I imagined what it might have been like last night if things had gone the way of imagination rather than reality.
Jackson, naked and sheened in sweat, his strong hands grasping my hips, fingers digging into my flesh as he pulled me to him with each thrust. Our skin clapping each time my thighs made contact with his hips.
His thick cock ramming into me, gliding through the dripping wetness of my pussy.
Head thrown back, my mouth wide, crying out in pleasure as he fucked me.
Sucking in a breath, I shook my head, throwing off that mental image.
“Okay,” I said to the empty parking lot. “Enough of that. Time for work.”
“Well, well, well, look who finally decided to show up for the day,” Reggie called as I stepped through the open garage door.
The space was filled with the buzz-snap of pneumatic impact wrenches, the hiss of pressurized air filling tires, and the constant thud of boots walking. This was my comfort place, the one spot where I could simply exist and enjoy the day. The combined smell of rubber and oil was strangely pleasant.
“Some of us have lives,” I said. “Unlike you, Reggie.”
He clutched his hands to his chest, his dark brown skin already smeared with grease. “You wound me, my lady. I’ll have you know, I spent an eventful evening alone with a gorgeous date.”
“Is that what you call your left hand now? Interesting,” I said.
The other men let out hoots of laughter, and even Reggie had to nod along, acknowledging that I’d landed one.
“Looks like sleeping in did wonders for your sense of humor,” he said before getting back to work.
As I walked through the garage to the office, I nearly tripped and fell when I spotted the bathroom door.
There was a brand-new door on the hinges, and all remnants of the old had been removed.
It had even been painted the same exact color.
It was like nothing had ever happened. Had he done this when he’d come back the night before?
He must have. Jeez, he must not have had a minute’s sleep.
“You need to take a dump, boss?” Brent asked, eyeing me as I stared at the bathroom.
“What?”
“You’re eyeballing that bathroom like you ate a dozen hot wings and a bean burrito last night,” he said.
“Eww! Gross.” I grimaced. “Get to work.”
For the rest of the day, no one else mentioned my late arrival, and I was able to fully immerse myself in work.
That was good, since it took my mind off the spectacularly dreamlike evening I’d had the night before.
Carlo and I worked on the timing belt of a Chrysler minivan.
Brent spent the better part of the early afternoon replacing an alternator and wiring harness for a ninety-four Mitsubishi Eclipse that looked like it had already driven a million miles since production.
When Carlo finished the minivan, he and Reggie worked in the paint room, sanding down an eighties Corvette a customer had purchased dirt cheap through an auction.
That’s where I found Reggie late that afternoon before we closed up for the night.
“Sup boss lady,” he said as I walked in, pulling off his respirator mask.
Looking at Carlo, I tilted my head toward the door. “Hey, give us a minute?”
Carlo looked from me to Reggie and back again. “Ooooooh,” he said. “Someone’s in trouble.”
Reggie pulled a rag from his pocket and snapped it at the other man, catching him on his calf.
“Ouch!” Carlo cried, rubbing his leg.
“Ha!” Reggie pointed at him, a big grin on his face. “That’ll teach you to talk back to your elders.”
Carlo rolled his eyes. “I’m older than you, pendejo.”
“Hey, you know I don’t speak taco, man. I don’t know that word,” Reggie said.
Carlo flipped off Reggie, who then flipped off Carlo, followed by them laughing their asses off and agreeing to grab a beer after work. Men were so strange.
“Anyway,” I said with a sigh after Carlo finally left. “Can you do me a favor? It’s gonna sound weird.”
“I love weird,” Reggie said with a grin, then frowned, “Except for that one time I dated the stripper with the face tattoo. She was hot, but…damn…weird as hell. You know this one time she asked me to put my—”
“If you say one more word, I’ll scream. Please don’t give me any insight into your romantic life,” I said dryly.
“Fair enough.” He shrugged. “What you got?”
Pulling out my phone, I skimmed to a close-up shot of the Lamborghini I’d taken that morning. “Can you mix me up this color?”
He gazed at the photo for a second, brows furrowed as he studied the color, then smiled.
“Fire Red Pearl,” he said with so much confidence that I blinked in surprise.
“You know this color on sight?” I gaped at him. “By name?”
He crossed his arms and kept grinning. “Some of us are students of our trade, Miss Shyanne. I may play a dumb blond jock on TV, but I’m actually quite brilliant, in case you haven’t noticed.”