Dilynne
And The Piercing Is…
I barely have a second to assess myself in the bathroom mirror before Laney, Elodie, and Vienna come scurrying in after me.
Elodie’s eyes are the widest among the three of them. “What the hell just happened out there?”
I meet her eyes in the mirror. “I have no fucking clue, but I’m pretty sure I need to change my underwear after that kiss.”
Vienna snorts. “Jesus, girl. Watching you guys got me all riled up too.”
Laney clears her throat. “But your brother wasn’t too pleased.”
I roll my eyes. “I could give a fuck about Henley right now.” Reaching up, I brush my fingers over my lips, still feeling Elliot’s mouth on mine, like a ghost that’s haunting me the longer I stand here. “I don’t even know what to think.”
“Listen to your vagina. That’s what you usually do,” Laney says with a smirk on her lips.
I turn to face her. “If I did that, I’d be taking Elliot out to my car and riding him in the front seat right now.”
Elodie folds her lips in to hide her smile. “Oh my God. Vienna was so right. He totally has a thing for you!”
Vienna shrugs. “I told you.”
Twisting around finally to face all three of them head-on, I search their faces. “Does he? I mean, what the hell happened to make him storm into the building and kiss me like that? It was so out of character, so…”
Laney holds her hands out to her side as she shrugs. “I have no clue, but obviously, he had no reservations about it. He came walking in with a purpose, like a romantic lead in a movie, hell-bent on getting the girl.”
“But this is all fake,” I counter. “He could have just done that to show people that we’re actually together…”
Vienna shakes her head. “There was no hesitation in what he just did, Dilynne. That man knew exactly what he wanted, and he took it.”
Yes. He. Did.
He took my breath, my sanity, and my resolve all with one kiss.
Dear God.
Elliot Thorne almost made me come with his kiss alone, and now I’m dying to know what other talents the man possesses.
This is a big fucking problem.
And speaking of big—that anaconda he’s hiding in his shorts is only fueling my desire to take that man for a test drive. The piercing was one thing, but now I’m dying to feel him in the back of my throat and bottomed out inside me.
I could sense his size the handful of times we’ve been pressed together in the past few weeks, but tonight? When he wrapped my leg around his waist, I truly felt him.
Wait. Did he lift my leg up or did I?
“I—I’m so confused right now.” My breaths become more shallow the longer I stand here, on the brink of a nervous breakdown. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. I’m not supposed to…”
“What if you do?” Laney cuts me off, her voice gentle as she rests her hand on my back, rubbing it in small circles. “What if you do let this happen, Dilynne?”
My eyes meet hers. “I cannot sleep with Elliot.”
“Based on that kiss, I think you most certainly could. And it would be hot,” Laney teases.
“But it’s…Elliot,” I say, bringing up the one thing that I think I’m struggling to wrap my head around the most.
The three of them burst into laughter, leaving me no closer to processing the myriad of emotions I’m feeling right now.
Elliot Thorne has somehow transformed from the man I vowed to hate to the man I hate that I want to kiss again, among other things.
Once Laney composes herself, she smiles over at me and shrugs.
“I’ve always thought there was something between you two, and tonight just proved it.
You don’t have to decide anything tonight.
Just stop pretending nothing’s there. Elliot opened the door to a physical connection, so maybe you explore that.
Lord knows that’s more your language, anyway. ”
“I figured we were going to have to kiss eventually, but that was…” Closing my eyes, I inhale deeply and blow it out. “Shit. I need another drink.”
Laney groans. “God, I miss wine. But that mocktail was really good.”
Vienna nods. “It was, but nothing beats the real thing.”
My mind instantly veers toward my drawer of sex toys that are getting more boring by the day.
And then I think about Elliot’s dick again.
Yup, Vienna is right.
Nothing beats the real thing, and now I think I might just need to find out how much further Elliot is willing to go.
***
My phone vibrates in my pocket for the fifth time in the past hour. When I pull it out and see another text message from Elliot, I roll my eyes, turn the phone on silent, slide it back into my pocket, and then get back to tinkering with the electrical wires in the dashboard of the Porsche.
I have one more week left to finish up the car before the transportation crew is scheduled to come pick her up.
Betty is almost ready to make her Motorlux debut, and right now, I’m grateful for this distraction because it allows me to focus on something else other than Elliot and that freaking kiss last night.
The texts he’s been sending me echo the memory as I tighten the screw I’m focused on.
Elliot: How’s it going?
Elliot: I can see that you’ve read my text, Dilynne.
Elliot: Oh, so now you’re just going to ignore me?
Elliot: We need to talk.
Elliot: Pretty sure communication is vital in any relationship, even a fake one.
It’s that last one that has made me even more resolved to ignore him until I get my head on straight.
After speaking with the girls in the bathroom at the winery last night, I returned to the main tasting room, hung out for a little longer while avoiding Elliot’s gaze, and then made up a stomach ache to leave so I didn’t have to be there any longer.
The truth is, my stomach was in knots. Still is.
And try as I might today, I haven’t gone longer than ten minutes without thinking about that kiss.
Once the adrenaline wore off last night, something else replaced it though—fear.
I know I was riled up while talking with the girls, but once the fog lifted, reality settled in.
Elliot is one of my brother’s best friends.
He’s also the guy that made me doubt myself at a very young age—not in my abilities, but in the ability to find a guy who would accept me for who I am.
He’s annoyed me for years, pissed me off more times than I can count, and has made me consider becoming a lesbian a time or two.
But now…
Wait. Now he’s…standing outside of my garage, waving his phone around?
Peering through the front windshield of the Porsche, I see Elliot’s face in one of the small rectangular windows on the steel bay doors straight across from me.
My eyes dart over to my Camaro that’s parked inside the garage, wondering how the hell Elliot knew I was here.
But then again, I guess it wouldn’t take him long to track me down.
I stand from the Porsche and head over to the bay door, pulling on the chain that lifts it from the ground just high enough for Elliot to walk through.
“So, you are alive.” With his phone still in hand, he takes a few steps further into the space while I slowly lower the door back down.
Twisting to face him with my hands on my hips, I say, “Yup. Still breathing. And now that you’ve confirmed that, you can go.”
“You wouldn’t answer my texts.”
“Well, maybe there was a reason.”
He crosses his arms over his chest. “Which is?”
I fan my hand out toward the Porsche. “I’m busy, Elliot. I told you that when I’m here, I need you to respect my time.”
He turns to glance at the car and then back at me, narrowing his eyes. “No, I don’t think it’s just that.”
Sighing, I take a step around him and head back to the car. “Look, I don’t have time for this tonight, all right? I need to get things done before we pick up the gauges this weekend, which is the last thing I have to do before the car is picked up.”
He follows me slowly, tucking his phone away and sliding his hands into the pockets of his gray slacks.
He’s wearing a white button-down shirt with the top two buttons undone and a black leather belt.
I only have one of the fluorescent lights on in the garage right above the Porsche, which makes the shadows of the lines on his face more pronounced.
Dark stubble dusts the curves of his jaw and lips, and for one split second, I feel my pulse spike with the desire to feel him kiss me again.
But I quickly snap myself back out of it.
“Looks like you’re on the finishing touches,” he says, attempting to argue with my reasons for ignoring him. “You can’t have that much more to go.”
“I’m sorry. Did you become a car expert overnight or are you just speculating?”
He huffs out a laugh. “You know I don’t know jack shit about cars, Dilynne.”
“Trust me, I’m very much aware,” I say, leaning into the car to retrieve my tools that I left on the seat so they don’t poke a hole in the fresh leather.
“I’d like to learn one day, though.”
I pop back up and meet his gaze. “Really?”
“Yeah. I mean, it’s kind of embarrassing that I don’t even have some basic knowledge. I tried to change a tire once when I was in high school, but it didn’t go over well.”
My smirk is instant. “God, I wish I could have witnessed that. It would have given me more to hold over your head.”
“More?” he asks, but I ignore his question.
“It’s actually more common than you think. I mean, I went on a date with a guy when I was nineteen, and we got a flat tire. I got down on my knees in the dirt while wearing a skirt and changed the tire because he had no idea what he was doing. Let’s just say there wasn’t a second date.”
Elliot pushes a hand through his hair, his hair that is normally combed back and styled without one piece out of place. But that’s when I notice that it looks like he might have been messing with it all day from how tousled it looks. “Yeah, that’s never happened to me, thank God.”
I round the hood of the Porsche and lay my tools inside my toolbox, the bright red steel container resting against the back wall. “There’s still time.”
“Maybe you can teach me,” he says, his voice low and much closer than it was before. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up as I feel him come up behind me, not touching me, but barely a few inches from doing so.
“I’m sort of busy.”