Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
JAKE
I drag my arse out of bed on Monday morning, already feeling like crap.
Fuck, how I hate Mondays. After having a shower, I get ready for work, pull on my coveralls, and stop off at the servo for a coffee.
It tastes like shit, but it’s caffeine. By the time I get into Doc’s at seven AM, Chase, Asher, and José are all already there.
“Look what the cat dragged in,” Chase jokes as I walk in.
I level him with a glare. “Don’t. It’s too fucking early for your bullshit.”
He smirks, completely unfazed. “Only because you asked so fucking nicely.” He jerks his chin toward the far side of the workshop. “Come on, it’s toolbox catch-up time. We’ve got to run through the day’s jobs before everyone starts tearing into the wrong shit again.”
It’s essentially just a way for us to be filled in on what projects we have this week and what we need to be doing. Blah, blah, blah.
I’ve worked at Doc’s for over three years, was here before Chase started working here, saw him through his accelerated apprenticeship, and watched him and Arden buy the business.
It was the best thing that ever happened to this place because, as much as I love Doc, that old man was running this business into the ground.
We have a reputation to uphold, so it’s been nice to have some fresh faces with new ideas.
Honestly, someone who wants to see this shop succeed.
I follow him over and stand around with the boys.
“All right, so first things first on the agenda, Arden’s hired a new admin person.”
The collective groan can’t be missed.
“Really? Another one?” Asher asks.
Chase chuckles. “Yes, another one. We need someone here, and he’s made me promise that we will try not to scare her off.” He throws a glare at José, who’s well-known for scaring our receptionists away, then looks at me. “Keep it in your pants.”
I hold my hands up in mock surrender. “Hey, hey, hey, it wasn’t my fault that you hired that chick who wanted to bang me.”
“Jake, you pursued her.”
“Yes, but she started it,” I cringe at the memory.
He rolls his eyes and crosses his arms over his chest. “Just behave yourself, please.”
I think back to the receptionist he’s talking about.
This was two years ago, but the woman in question was never going to last. We all knew she wouldn’t.
But in my defence, she came on to me, and it was a one-and-done thing, but apparently that was only on my end because she fell in love.
She caused a whole bunch of drama and ended up leaving because I “ruined her life.” It was always supposed to just be fun, and if I’m honest, it was a mistake I probably shouldn’t have made. I was drunk, horny, and she was there.
“Fine,” I grunt back to Chase.
“Good. So let’s all agree to be nice to her.
There is one other thing Arden mentioned—Stella’s Doc’s niece, and she and Doc are not on speaking terms. So, if you have anything scheduled with Doc that he needs to come in to oversee.
.. Obviously the old geezer’s retired, but we still need him from time to time, especially on projects he used to work on.
So, if you need him here, it needs to be on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday morning.
We don’t want to cause any extra conflict for her, and it’s part of the conditions of her contract that we don’t have Doc here while she’s working.
At the moment, she’s only going to be part-time because she works somewhere on the days I just mentioned, so we’ll have her here in the afternoons those three days, and then all-day Thursday and Friday. ”
“Right. We’ll see how long this one lasts,” Asher tosses out before picking up his coffee and shaking his head at the rest of us, who nod in agreement.
“All right, now we have to finish the Chev this week. Asher, you good with finishing up prep for paint?”
“Yep, on it. I should be done by Wednesday and ready to go.”
Chase turns to me. “Jake, the engine rebuild—how’s it going?”
“Almost done. A couple of fine-tuning tweaks, and then it’ll be ready for you to look over and for us to talk with the engineer to make sure everything’s on track.”
“Great. I’ll schedule the engineer for Friday.”
“That works for me.” I pick up my notebook and start jotting down the list of things I need to do to get the car ready.
“José, you know what you need to do?”
“Yes, boss,” he says with an attitude that makes us all laugh.
“What did I tell you about the boss comments?”
“Not to call you boss, boss,” he says, sarcasm dripping from his voice.
“You’re an idiot,” Chase grumbles, then turns towards the toolbox to start getting things ready. “All right then, we know what we need to do. Let me know if you need any help, but like I said, please be nice to the new girl.”
Once we finish our chat and catch-up, we all head to our respective workspaces, and that’s when I register what Chase said.
Stella’s coming.
Fuck my life.
I’ve never met Stella.
Well, not officially, but I sort of have.
She doesn’t know that I know who she was when we met. And I had no idea I’d meet her the way I did.
My mind flashes back to that night at Grumpy’s three months ago, a masquerade party, the girl in the hallway with fiery red hair and legs that went on for days in those heels.
The girl I waited for in the darkened corridor, then she let me finger fuck her.
The girl who referred to me as “Batman’s kinky cousin.
” Her moans still replay on repeat in my mind every night when I’m jerking off, or when I wake up from fantasies about being balls deep in her tight, wet pussy. Her walls squeezing my cock.
Fuck.
I knew it was her at the bar because I’d seen a photo of her in Doc’s office when he was still working here. I knew she was his niece, but he’d told me they don’t speak and that he has a lot of regret about it, and I never pushed for more information.
All I knew was that she was hot as fuck, and that photo did not do her justice. So, when I saw her that night at Grumpy’s, I knew I had to take a shot. Given that it was a masquerade party and we’d never met before, I figured, what the hell—what’s the worst that could happen?
She would either go for it or run off scared.
I was not planning to do what I did, but just the sight of her in the flesh fucked me up in the head.
It took my fucking breath away that she let me sink inside her tight little body.
It made me so hard that I had to get the fuck out of there quickly for fear that I’d go back over to her and drag her home with me.
I haven’t seen her since. I know she works at The Enchanted Bean and given that coffee is my drug of choice—I can’t live without it, multiple cups a day—I’ve been avoiding that coffee shop for three months.
Choosing servo coffee over proper barista-made coffee fucking kills me but knowing that she’s coming here and going to be working with us in close proximity has my cock hardening again.
Fuck.
Should have fucked her and been done with it. If I had, she would have never unknowingly wedged herself under my skin.
I push all thoughts of Stella aside as I make my way through my list of things I need to do today. I have my head buried in the engine bay when I hear heels clicking on the concrete floor behind me.
It’s her.
She timed her introduction right since we’ve all just come back from lunch. Let’s hope she doesn’t scatter out of here after meeting us.
“Guys!” Chase gets everyone’s attention, cutting over the music that’s always playing in the workshop. “Just a moment, please.”
We all stop what we’re doing. I wipe my hands on a rag and head over to where they’re standing in the doorway.
Fuck me dead.
She’s stunning.
Stella is wearing a plaid skirt that lands a few inches above her knees, office-appropriate heels that somehow look even hotter than the ones she wore that night, and green-framed glasses that match the mask she was wearing.
They make her hair pop and pull off the sexy as fuck librarian look.
I suppress my groan and try to adjust myself discreetly.
This is going to be an even bigger fucking problem than I originally thought.
“Everyone, this is Stella. Stella, this is José, Asher, and Jake,” Chase says, pointing us all out.
The boys all say hello, do the nice-to-meet-you thing, but I can’t talk. Cat’s got my tongue for the first time in forever.
She looks at me, but there’s no sign that she knows who I am. I let out the breath I’m holding. This might be easier than I thought. She doesn’t remember who I am, doesn’t know that the guy that night was me. Maybe I can have some fun with this.
“Nice to meet you, darl,” I say, letting the last word draw out, seeing if there’s a spark of recognition in her eyes.
She stops. Lifts her perfectly arched brows and places a hand on one of those lush hips, studying me. She looks me up and down, and she looks hot as hell when she does it. But as quickly as the moment of recognition seems to flicker in her eyes, it passes. Maybe she doesn’t know.
Okay, then let’s see how far I can go with this. Chase’s warning about not banging the new girl just went out the fucking window, because there’s nothing more I’d like to do than bend her over my workbench and let her milk my cock.
Stella spends most of the afternoon in the office, trying to sort through paperwork and the clutter that the previous staff have left behind. But by four o’clock, I can’t stay away. I need to speak to her, so I head into the office.
“Thought you could use a coffee,” I announce before waltzing through the shop’s office door. It’s my reason for coming in here: a cup of coffee from the instant pot we have in the kitchen. It’s nothing compared to what I’m sure she could whip up with a decent machine, but it’s my gesture.
My olive branch.
My way of testing the waters to see where we’re at.
“Thank you,” she says, looking up from her desk, glasses perched perfectly on her nose. “It’s Jake, right?”