Fast Lane (5 page)

“Holy crap, do I have to pee! All that iced tea I drank at lunch just hit me all of a sudden. Be right back.”

I’m sitting on the edge of the tattoo table with my back turned to the rest of the studio. Kicking my feet, I put my shirt back on and check out all of Josh’s crazy drawings and strange art pieces that he collects. There’s a shrunken head (which I hope is fake) and a preserved rattlesnake in a bottle of some sort of orangey-yellow colored liquid.

I hear footsteps.

“It’s about time you got off the phone, Chatty.” I say, thinking it's Josh finally back with our change. I freeze when he replies.

“Who are you calling Chatty, Sweet Cheeks?” 

It’s Coen. That deep, melodic voice is unmistakable. It vibrates through me, deep into my bones, and makes me quiver and quake in ways I never knew were possible. Patrick never made me feel that way. But why won’t Coen leave me alone? Do I 
want
 him to leave me alone? 

Yes, Lexi, you do. No time for boys. Boys are assholes. But Coen is definitely not a boy. He is all man. All six foot whatever feet and 200 plus pounds of muscular, tattooed flesh of him. And God, he smells so damn good.

Snapping back to reality, I whip my head around and look up at Coen. He looks so fucking sexy with his thumbs resting on the edges of the pockets of his dark jeans.  His eyes are a gorgeous sea green. 

“I thought you were Josh,” I say, reaching over my shoulder, pretending to make sure the tape is still on my tattoo. Really, I’m just nervous as hell talking to him, so I’m fidgeting. “And don’t call me Sweet Cheeks, Stalker.”

“Stalker? You know, name calling isn’t really the best way to treat a new friend,” Coen says furrowing his brow. “For the record, Lexi, I’m not stalking you. It’s pure coincidence that we’ve ended up in the same place twice today. I’m not trying to put any moves on you. I just want to be friends. That’s all.” He says with a look in his eyes that tells me differently. Yet I can’t figure out why. 

“Look, Coen.” I stand up and grab my things. Brea is taking entirely too long in the bathroom, and I’m starting to think Josh is lost, too. “Whatever your intentions may be, friends, dating, stalking, or anything else, I’m not interested. I just got out of a kinda shitty relationship.  I’m not looking to spend time with men for any reason right now.”

Just as I finish speaking, Josh comes over and hands me my change. “I take offense to that remark.” He says, looking wounded. He’s so full of crap. It takes a lot more than that to hurt his feelings.

“You’re my only exception, Josh, you know that,” I say, slapping him on the shoulder and handing him a tip for my tattoo. He takes it and gives me a quick hug, careful not to bump my fresh ink. Brea finally comes back not long after Josh does. I lift one eyebrow at her, wondering what took her so long. She just smiles, looking so innocent, but so guilty at the same time.
I’ll pry whatever she’s hiding out of her later.

Coen clears his throat, and I think I catch him smirk briefly in Brea’s direction. I knew it. Typical guy. Flirts with every girl he sees. “I have an idea,” he says. “Why don’t you two ladies meet me at the quarter mile straight stretch at the end of town? There’s a little get together of sorts tonight. Bring friends if you want, no pressure. No date. Just hangin’ out and chillin’. What do ya say?” he asks.

Before I can even open my mouth, Brea pops up and says, “We’ll be there. What time?”

He flashes that sly, sexy smirk of his again, and those dimples are enough to melt me into a puddle. He’s oh so pleased with Brea’s answer. I cross my arms in a huff, and give them both a dissatisfied look. I’m not happy about this at all. How am I supposed to deny the fact that this guy sends chills through every fiber of my body when I can’t seem to keep him at arm’s length long enough? This was NOT how I planned on my day going. At all.

But you’ll get to see this gorgeous man again, so buck up, buttercup. You can show up until he sees that you’re there, then turn around and leave. End of story. You can be done with him forever.

But do I
want
to be done with him forever? I roll my eyes. “Thanks, Josh, for the ink. Chat with you soon. And Coen, I guess we’ll see you tonight, but don’t expect us to stick around long.” I turn to leave. His hand grips my elbow as I go to walk past him. Strong enough to stop me, but not hurt me. He leans in close to my ear and whispers,

“I’m looking forward to it, Lexi.”

I suddenly feel the blood rushing to my cheeks and turn to Brea, “Come on, miss ten-minute-potty-break, let’s go,” I say as I quickly head out the door.

I LEAVE THE TATTOO
shop and go straight to my buddy Derek’s house feeling even more confused. Why does my brain scream, “Stay the fuck away from her you idiot. You’ll only get hurt.” but every muscle and bone in the rest of my body urges, “You need to have this one. At least one time.”

What the hell does my dick know, anyways?

My eyes know that Lexi is unlike any other woman I’ve ever seen. Her hair is a gorgeous dark cherry red, like that hot Camaro I bet last week. Too bad we weren’t racing for pink slips. They both would look hot underneath me.

Her eyes are brown, with little tiny hints of green. Her tits look like they’d fit in my hands perfectly. And those hips and that ass of hers are just curvy enough in all the right places. My strong, firm hands would look so hot on that waist while I’m helping her ride my long, hard cock. Up and down. Slow at first, thrusting my hips, making sure to hit every. Perfect. Spot. To drive her insane until she’s begging to ride me harder.

Fucking hell, I’m sitting in a lawn chair on Derek’s front porch, waiting for him to get home so I can ask for his help to get my car ready for tonight’s race, and now I have a raging hard on. I adjust myself, and think about how I’m going to pull off this win. Losing is not an option. I’ve invited Lexi and her friend, Brea, I think her name was. No guy in his right mind would want to lose in front of two hot chicks. I’m trying to get Lexi to like me, not make her think I’m some loser. And that isn’t like me at all. At least, not anymore. There’s no point in getting her to really like me if I’m not going to keep her around for long. Fuck, if there isn’t something between us, though. It doesn’t matter how much I deny it: my dick has a mind of its own when Lexi is around. I sit forward in the lawn chair and grab my phone from my pocket, resting my elbow on my knees. As I’m just about ready to dial Derek’s number to find out where the hell he is, he finally pulls up.

He hops out of his truck and shuts the door. “Hey, man! What’s up? Car running okay?” I’ve known Derek since we were about ten years old. We met at the skate park one day after school. Two jock type guys, a couple years older than us, were giving Derek a hard time. He was short and a little pudgy back then. I couldn’t just stand there and watch them pick on the poor kid. I ended up punching them both square in the nose, and we ran back to my aunt’s place. Derek can mostly definitely take care of himself now. He’s no longer that short chubby kid that was always bullied. He’s put on some muscle over the years since I started teaching him to stick up for himself. We’ve always had each other’s back since that day. Derek’s basically been the only real family I’ve had since my parents were taken from me.

“Yeah, dude, I was just wondering if you would give her a once-over to make sure I’m good for tonight. I know we usually tune her up at my place, but I was in the neighborhood.” I run my finger across the hood. “Do you mind to help me shine her up too?”

Derek looks at me with a mischievous grin and raises an eyebrow. “Who are we trying to impress, Romeo?”

“I just want my car looking her best, Fucker. Why do you automatically assume I want to impress someone?” I grab two beers from the fridge in the garage and toss one at Derek. “Heads up.”

He catches it and says, “Because we just detailed the bitch like four days ago,
Fucker
,” taunting me with the same tone I just used. “There isn’t even any road dust on it yet. So, who’s the broad?”

Damn it. I can’t get anything by him.
I blow out a forced breath and run my hand through my hair. “Just some chick I ran into twice today. She’s hot and a little sassy, and she handles getting a tattoo better than some grown men I’ve seen. I invited her and her friend out to the race tonight. I just don’t want to look like a total loser, that’s all.” I take a few swigs from my beer and pop open the hood of my 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat. She’s Bacardi Hurricane Blue and goes zero to sixty in three point five seconds.

I set my beer down on the work bench and start cleaning the Hellcat while Derek makes sure everything is good to go under the hood.

Derek grabs an oil rag, wipes his hands clean, and sits down on the porch to finish his beer. I head over to join him. Sitting down in the chair, I finish what little bit was left of my beer and notice music coming from across the street from a black 2014 Shelby GT500. Whoever this chick is, she doesn’t sing half bad.

I nod my head toward the house across the street. “Who’s the hot piece hanging out of the Shelby and singing like nobody’s listening? I haven’t noticed her over there before,” I say to Derek, eyeing up the view of some chick’s ass as she wipes down the seats of her car.

“Ah, that’s just Lexi, my neighbor. She works a lot, so she’s usually not home when you’re here,” Derek answers.

I start to nod my head in acknowledgment, but then his words finally sink in. “Did you just say her name is Lexi?” I don’t take my eyes off of her.

“Yeah, man, why?” Derek asks, looking puzzled. And then I see her silky red hair as she steps back out of the car, continuing to shake her ass and sing along to Mötley Crüe as she gathers up her cleaning supplies.

Must’ve been a good day to clean a car.

My heart starts racing about as fast as my Hellcat. This girl does things to me that I haven’t felt in a really long time, and that scares the living shit out of me. But I can’t stay away. Running into a person three times in one day can’t be a coincidence. I’m starting to believe the higher powers of this universe are trying to tell me something. Who am I to ignore that?

I set my empty bottle down on the porch railing. Eyes still focused across the street. Fuck, if Lexi keeps shaking her ass like that…

“Earth to Coen! You wanna come back from outer space, dude? What’s the big deal about Lexi? You act like you haven’t seen a hot little inked up redhead with a nice ass before.” Derek breaks through my dirty thoughts. I stand up and adjust my semi-hard cock through my jeans.
Down boy. Save it for later.

“Man, that’s the chick I was telling you about. I’m gonna go talk to her. Thanks for your help again with the car, bro,” I say, gripping Derek’s shoulder. “I’ll meet you at the race later.”

“No prob, Romeo. I’m going in to get showered and have something eat. See ya later.”

Derek heads inside his house and I start walking across the street to Lexi’s place. It looks like she’s about to go inside. The music has stopped, and she’s sitting in the driver’s seat with the door open and one leg outside the car. Just as I approach the end of her driveway, “Come with Me Now” by the Kongos starts blasting through the Shelby’s speakers.

I clear my throat to make my presence known. “Nice ride you got here, Legs.”

Lexi yelps like someone just pinched her ass.

I’d love to do more than pinch it.

“What the fuck? You really are a fucking stalker aren’t you?”

“Sorry, sweetness, didn’t mean to scare you. And to answer your question, no, I’m not. Believe it or not, my buddy Derek lives across the street. He was helping me tune and clean up my car. I was getting ready to leave when I noticed you over here, singing and swaying that sexy ass of yours, so I figured I would come say hello.”

She stands up and looks up at me with those big brown eyes. I can’t help but wonder what’s going through her head. I can’t tell if she wants to kick me in the balls or suck me off.
I hope it’s the latter.

“For one, Coen, I told you my name is Lexi, so you can stop it with the pet names. I’m not your girl, nor do I have any desire to be. And two, you didn’t
scare
me. You just caught me off guard a little.”

“I’m not a bad guy, Lex. Is it really so wrong that I’m interested in you?” I stare down into her eyes and slowly bring my hand up to cup her face. Her breathing hitches, and she gradually drags her top teeth across her bottom lip. She may say she isn’t interested, but her body is giving away all of her secrets. “We’ve managed to end up in the same place three different times today. I don’t know about you, Lexi, but I don’t really believe in coincidences.” I nod my head toward her car. “Mind if I take a look? My old man used to have a Shelby.”

She steps aside and folds her arms in front of her. “Have at ‘er.”

I sit down in the driver’s seat and pretend like I’m checking out her stereo system and interior. What I’m really doing is trying to buy more time. Time to convince her that she needs to give me a chance. I notice a neon green spot next to the handle on the passenger door.