Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Wheels
The basement looked worse every time I came down here.
It stretched beneath the entire clubhouse in one massive open space that smelled like old lumber, dust, and machine oil.
Shelving lined three walls, packed with boxes nobody had bothered labeling when we’d moved in.
Half of them were still taped shut. The other half had been opened, rummaged through, and shoved somewhere else.
At the time we’d moved, every one of us had said the same thing. We’ll deal with it later.
Later had turned into over a month, and then we’d started searching for tunnels.
Now it looked like a tornado had ripped through the place. Boxes sat open. Old furniture leaned against support posts. Pieces of drywall, crates, old club records, broken tools, and enough random junk to fill another building had been shifted from one side of the basement to the other.
And right in the middle of all of it... Goldie.
She stood with a folded map in one hand and a flashlight in the other. Her reading glasses rested low on her nose while she looked from the paper to the concrete floor.
“No...” she muttered. She took three slow steps to the left and looked down, back at the map, then at the ceiling. “It doesn’t make sense.”
I leaned against an old workbench, folded my arms, and watched her.
Hodge sat upstairs at the top of the basement steps. He couldn’t see us from where he was, but Twister had insisted someone stay nearby while Goldie worked. None of us were taking chances anymore.
Goldie barely seemed to notice anyone else existed.
She crouched beside a crack in the floor before standing again.
“The measurements are right...” Another glance at the map.
“...but if they’re right...” She slowly turned in a circle.
“...then this should be right.” She sounded more confused than confident.
I smiled to myself. Watching her work was something else. The rest of us had charged around down here moving boxes and looking for hidden doors.
She studied. She noticed. She questioned everything.
I’d never met anyone whose brain worked quite like hers. The morning kiss drifted back into my head before I could stop it.
I’d kissed women before. Plenty.
But none of them had stayed with me the way kissing Goldie had. I’d spent half the day catching myself smiling like some damn fool.
She sighed loudly. “No...” The map drooped at her side. “I know I’m missing something.” She pinched the bridge of her nose before pulling off her reading glasses. Frustration settled across her face and I pushed to the side of the workbench and patted the edge of it. “Come here.”
She looked over.
“I should keep—”
“You’ve been staring at those maps for hours,” I cut her off.
“I know.”
“They’ll still be there in five minutes.”
She hesitated before finally walking over and stopping right in front of me. She let the map hang at her side. “They’re driving me crazy.”
“Yeah?”
“They make perfect sense one second.” She shook her head. “Then the next they don’t make any sense at all.”
I reached out slowly and rested one hand against her waist. I didn’t pull. Didn’t assume. Just gave her the chance to decide.
For one heartbeat, she stayed perfectly still, then she stepped closer.
A grin tugged at my mouth. I spread my knees enough for her to stand comfortably between them while I rested my other hand against her waist.
Her palms settled against my chest, warm and comfortable, like she’d always belonged there.
“I think,” I said quietly, “it’s time for a break.”
“Oh yeah?” One corner of her mouth lifted. “And what exactly are we supposed to do on this break?”
“I’ve got a couple ideas.”
She laughed softly. “I was afraid you were going to say more paperwork.”
“I don’t think that’s much of a break.”
“No.”
“It definitely isn’t.”
For a second, we simply looked at each other.
The basement faded away, and none of it mattered.
I brushed a loose strand of blonde hair behind her ear, and she leaned into the touch just enough to make my pulse kick.
“You keep doing that,” she whispered.
“Doing what?”
“Looking at me like that.”
“Can’t help it,” I confessed.
Her cheeks turned the faintest shade of pink. “I still haven’t figured out why.”
“I have.”
Her eyes searched mine.
“Because you’re amazing.”
She laughed under her breath. “I don’t think anyone’s ever called me that.”
“They’ve been blind.”
She shook her head. “You say the sweetest things.”
“I say true things.”
Before she could answer or argue more, I closed the distance between us and kissed her. Slowly. No rush. No urgency. Just enough to feel her smile against my mouth.
Then deeper. Her lips parted under mine, and I took the invitation, tasting her, exploring her with my tongue.
She made a small sound in her throat, and it went straight through me.
My hands tightened at her waist, pulling her closer, and she came willingly, her body flush against mine.
I groaned against her mouth, and she answered by pressing harder, her tongue meeting mine, hot and sure.
I kissed my way down her jaw, her throat, lingering where her pulse beat frantic and fast. She tilted her head back, giving me access, and I took it, trailing open-mouthed kisses over her collarbone, tasting salt and heat.
Her hands moved restlessly over my back, my shoulders, like she couldn’t get enough.
I found her mouth again, and we lost ourselves there, kissing and kissing, breathing each other in. Her hips rolled against mine, seeking friction, and I met her, my hands sliding down to grip her ass and pull her closer still.
She gasped my name, and I said hers against her lips, her throat, anywhere I could reach. We were tangled together, hands and mouths and wanting, the maps forgotten, the world narrowed to this, to her, to the heat building between us.
When we finally separated, I struggled to catch my breath.
She rested her forehead against mine, breathing hard, her fingers still hooked in my shirt. “I was trying to solve a mystery, and you do that. I don’t think you’re helping,” she laughed.
“I disagree.”
“Oh?”
“I think your brain needed a reset.”
She laughed again, the sound echoing softly through the basement. “You might actually be right.”
“I usually am.”
“Confident.”
“Very.”
She rolled her eyes before stealing another quick kiss. Then another. Each one a little longer than the last.
When we finally pulled apart again, both of us were smiling.
“Still better than you thought it would be?” I asked.
She laughed outright before pressing one last kiss against my lips. “I’d say that’s the best break I’ve ever had.”
“I aim to please.”
“I thought your job was protecting me.”
I winked and trailed my fingers down her cheek. “That too.”
Before I could say anything else, Hodge’s voice echoed down the stairwell. “Everything good down there?”
Goldie buried her face against my chest with a groan before laughing. “I completely forgot he was up there.”
I couldn’t help laughing with her. “We’re good!” I called.
“Tempi’s makin’ tacos,” Hodge hollered back. “Shouldn’t be much longer.”
Goldie lifted her head. “Well...” She smiled. “I think that means we’re done for the day.”
“Oh?”
“I refuse to miss taco night.”
“I don’t think anyone could blame you.”
She picked her glasses back up, folded the map, and slipped both under one arm.
I reached for her hand, and she took it without hesitation. We shared one more lingering kiss before she gave my fingers a gentle squeeze. “C’mon,” she said. “Let’s go eat.”
I followed her toward the stairs, watching as she climbed ahead of me with a confidence she hadn’t had when she’d first arrived at the clubhouse.
Somewhere between running for her life and searching dusty maps in our basement, it started to feel like she belonged here.