14. Corbin
CORBIN
I was grumpy as fuck the next morning. I’d hardly slept at all.
As soon as Beau left, I’d rushed upstairs to jerk off, but I kept imagining him scowling at me, telling me I was a bad boy who needed to be punished.
Of course, that only made me harder, but I wanted to be good.
I wanted to show him I could be disciplined, so I stopped myself.
I took a cold shower, then watched videos about disgusting things like giant cockroaches and those wasps that lay their eggs inside a living caterpillar.
I did everything I could to try and forget about how much I wanted Beau and how desperately I needed to come again, but as soon as I tried to go to sleep, I just tossed and turned, thrusting my hips against the mattress, then forcing myself to turn over on my back.
I wished he’d tied me up so I couldn’t touch myself. Why did he want me to do this on my own?
As soon as I fell asleep, I dreamed Beau was there, watching me, telling me he’d know whether I was a good boy or not. Why did I need to please him so badly when my first instinct had been to do everything I could to anger him?
Even now I didn’t want to completely surrender to him. I wasn’t usually so submissive, but I loved it when Beau took control. What did that even mean?
I might not be ready to displease him when he gave me orders in that husky voice after making me come harder than I ever had in my life, but I was sure as hell ready to protest if he thought I was going to be his cleanup boy all day.
Did he seriously expect me to attend mass like this? I dressed like he said. I didn’t want to give him any more excuses to punish me.
When he picked me up, the first thing out of his mouth was, “How’d you sleep?”
I glared at him. “Like shit, and you know it. Now I get to be tortured by you all day as if the night wasn’t enough.”
“You get to shadow me today.”
Great. I’d be around him all day, smelling him, watching sweat drip down his body.
He tended to spend at least part of the day with his coveralls tied around his waist, the tank he usually wore underneath exposing the bulging muscles of his shoulders and arms and the beautiful planes of his chest. Beau dirty and scruffy was a fantasy come to life.
“I hope the rest of your employees don’t mind that I’ll be hard the whole fucking day. ”
“I intend to teach you more today. Maybe you’ll actually be able to concentrate if you’re learning something new, not that I mind you ogling me like you were yesterday.”
“I don’t?—”
“Don’t lie to me. I warned you about that.”
How the hell did that harsh voice of his make me want him even more than I already did. I really had a fucking problem.
True to his word, Beau took us to a beautiful church near his shop. I waited to be struck down since even when I was kneeling at the altar I couldn’t stop thinking about Beau and how much I wanted him.
When we finally got to the shop, Beau had some office work to do, and he gave me papers to file. I grumbled about doing stupid paperwork, and he gave me a sharp look. “Is this how today is going to go?”
Last night, I’d decided I would show him how good I could be. I wanted to prove to him he couldn’t get to me, but here I was being a brat when I hadn’t even been at work for an hour. I was just proving him—and my brothers—right all over again.
I looked down at the floor and then up through my eyelashes. “No, sir.”
“Quit that,” he growled.
I intended to do better, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t tease.
While he was still watching me, I picked up the pile of papers and began to sort them.
A few moments later, I glanced over at him and caught him watching me with heat in his gaze.
I bit my lip to keep from laughing and went back to work.
Not more than ten minutes could have passed when Beau pushed away from his desk and stood. “Come on.”
“What are we doing now?”
“We’re going to work on the Ferrari.”
That shocked me. “You’re seriously going to let me help you with Remy’s car?”
“I’m going to let you watch, and then we’ll see.”
I’d never wanted to learn how to work on cars before, but I soaked up everything Beau wanted to teach me.
If somehow my family’s fortune disappeared, it was a damn good skill to have, not that I could really learn much in the next…
I froze. I only had two more days of working with Beau to pay off my debt.
What was going to happen after that? Would he be done with me?
No way. Last night was…
What? Hot. The best sex of my life. Was it more than that, though? It was for me, but had it been for him?
“Corbin? What are you doing?” I realized I was standing there in the middle of the shop floor. Beau was way ahead of me headed toward the door that would lead us outside.
“Sorry, I was just thinking about something. I…”
“If you’re that tired, maybe?—”
“No. I’m not tired. I’m fine.” I rushed to catch up with him.
He started the process of wet sanding a section of the scratches with very fine sandpaper.
After wiping it down with a rag, he used a power buffer and something called 10-cut compound to smooth out the micro scratches he’d made with the sanding.
Once he’d gone over the area a few times, the scratches had completely disappeared.
He turned to me with a huge smile on his face. “Now it’s your turn.”
“What? I can’t…”
“Corbin, you can do anything you want to do. Were you watching me?”
I couldn’t do car magic. “Yeah. You were amazing.”
His smile told me how much that pleased him. “Then go ahead and try it.”
“What if I fuck it up?”
He shrugged. “We’ll try again. It’s not going to kill you to fail on the first try. This process often has to be repeated. It’s taken me a lot of practice to know exactly how much sanding to do. Just start off slow.”
“Remington will kill me if I mess this up.”
“You’re not going to permanently screw up his car. Whatever happens, I can fix it.”
My hand shook as I took the sander from him and began to gently move it along the scratch and then in tiny circles.
When it was time to use the buffer, I tried to mimic the motions Beau had used.
I wiped the door down when Beau told me to stop.
The scratches were much improved. The surface wasn’t as perfect as the section Beau had done on his own, but I hadn’t fucked it up.
“See? You did a great job. Most people would need to do this in two or three passes.”
Warmth spread through my body as I sucked up his praise. “Thank you.”
“I knew you could learn easily.”
“But when we first met, you thought?—”
“I thought you were a stubborn brat. I never thought you weren’t intelligent.”
Beau helped me go over my section a second time, and it came out looking as flawless as the area he’d done. We took turns working our way down the length of the car. When we were finished, it looked absolutely perfect and as if the incident had never happened. “Wow. Remington really won’t know.”
“No, I don’t think he will unless he has some kind of sixth sense. He does seem very connected to this car.”
I studied Beau for a moment. “You don’t believe cars actually have spirits or souls or something do you?”
He laughed. “Nothing so woo-woo as that, but a man gets close to his machine. He knows every inch of it so he can detect any new noise or anything that feels different or doesn’t look like it did before.
“I think Remy just thinks it looks good and drives like a dream.”
“So be careful with it.”
“Yeah, I know. I just…”
“You just wanted people to see you in it. I get it. It’s a beautiful car.”
“So is yours. And this one.” I took a few steps toward the Lamborghini that was still in the bay where it had been before.
Beau grabbed my hand. “No touching.”
“Are you really not going to ever let me touch it?”
“Why don’t you just get yourself one? Surely you can have any kind of car you want.”
“Because…” The words stuck in my throat. I’d been vulnerable with him but not that vulnerable.
“Because what, baby?” he asked keeping his voice low and soft.
“You know how you said I needed to earn respect?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, my parents spoiled me growing up, but they think I need to earn my place in the business. Once I do that, I’ll have access to my own money, but right now, I just have what they give me. I guess you were right, and I really am still a kid.”
“No, you’re not. I’ve already seen you change just this week. I think your family might be very surprised the next time they work with you.”
I wanted to believe him. “You really mean that?”
“I haven’t said a damn thing to you I didn’t mean. I don’t go around puffing people up. That’s not my style.”
I thought of the things he’d said to me when we’d met. “I noticed that the first day.”
“And you hated it.”
“I hated it because you were so fucking spot on.”
“I knew you could do better. If I’d thought you were a lost cause, I wouldn’t have bothered confronting you. I would’ve told you when I could have your brother’s SUV ready and gone on with my business.”
“And when I came to you for help?”
He tossed the rag into the laundry bin and began to wash his hands at the large sink on the shop floor. “I would have charged you an exorbitant amount. You would’ve paid, and I would’ve been that much richer. Instead, I chose to challenge you because I saw what you could be.”
I’d never wanted him more than I did in that moment. What he was saying to me was soft and caring rather than hot and filthy like he’d been the night before, but somehow it stirred me up just as much.
“I need to go to the bathroom.”
He smiled and tilted his head in the right direction. “Go on.”
Once I closed the bathroom door, I braced myself on the sink and stared at my reflection. My face was flushed and covered in a sheen of sweat. My whole body felt tingly and alive.
I was pathetic, getting hard as fuck because a man actually showed that he cared about me. What was that about?