Fully Restored (20 page)

I walk slowly over to where the ‘Cuda sat on a tow bed connected to my truck and unhooked it before starting the drive home. If this new relationship was going to have any chance, I needed to move much closer or this commute would end things before they even began. Traffic into Denver was killer; thankfully I was still on a high from that amazing kiss I got from Teagan. Unexpected, hell yes. Loved, bet your ass it was. And as I drove and formed the plan, I knew it and more would happen soon.

*****

The shop was crazy the next morning with cars and delivery trucks working their way in and out of the area either picking up or leaving items for opening. Each man and woman (yep- women had flocked to work with Teagan looking for that sense of equality I’m sure they don’t get from other shops) was rapidly working on setting their area as specific as they wanted it. When I walked through the shop, it was interesting to see how each person treated their work bay differently.

Some of the people organized by tool, others by alphabetical order, and some seemed to have no order whatsoever. It’s amazing, since I’ve been in a shop now for over a year and I’m just looking at the people around me. Seeing them as friends and not just people on the outskirts of my life. Now I’m looking and seeing the baby photos on the walls at some stations, the military medals at others. At some, wedding photos, others, obituaries from the war. Whereas in
Sub Zero Steele
I was just a worker, here, I was one of them. I wanted to know about them and be a part of them. Meeting and getting to know Teagan had changed me in more ways than just one. I wasn’t a one-man world anymore.

I stopped at Joe’s booth. He was an older man in his 60’s who was excellent at restoration because these were the cars he grew up on. I had chatted for a while with him when we were hiring him and learned that he was a family man; now, seeing his station, I noticed that his son was in the military and away somewhere. When he looked up, I shook his hand and told him thank you and thanks for his son. He teared up and shook it off before getting back to work and I continued my circuit around, shaking hands and getting names.

Technically I wasn’t “boss” like Teagan, but she had named me Vice President so I could have power to make decisions on things and men that were difficult or rude to her, could be dealt with by me.

After checking the progress in the shop I headed outside where I found a pair of black boots and old carhart covered legs sticking out from under the ‘Cuda. Teagan was currently working on the struts and basically all of the driving parts of the car. She was determined to get
Phoebe
as close to finished as she could this week. Thankfully her office and station had been done since she formed the concept for the shop, if the mess in both was any sense of timeline.

I stopped and kneeled down, admiring the effort she was putting in. The bolts and angles you work with under the car fucking suck. It’s fucking hard. She had one lip in her teeth as she focused on tightening various bolts while dealing with the wiring that also had to go through the same area. She had neatly taped and labeled the wiring to know what went with what, AC etc.

“Got another roll?”

Her cute, face popped out from the undercarriage and she threw the one she had in her hand at me. “PLEASE! Do the engine. Please. Keeping all this wiring organized is gonna take me ages.”

I took the tape and went to work on the frame, using the drop cloth rolls she had placed next to the car as I went. I had covered the windows and lights perfectly by the time the light outside had faded so much I could no longer see what I was doing for sure.

Ripping a final piece of tape, I walked to where Teagan was now taping in the engine and stopped, admiring her ass. It was a stellar ass.

“Teagan?”

She didn’t react.

“Teagan. Hey… babe.” I tried again, this time reaching out and touching her on the shoulder gently to let her know of my presence. She startled and jumped up, nearly nailing her head on the hood.

Quickly I snapped my hand out to pad the impact.

She turned to look at me, taking a moment to focus, and then looked up. “Oh. I guess I was so focused I lost track of time.” She stepped back to see what I had done.

“This looks amazing Brock. Thank you so much. It would have taken me days to do this alone.” She tilted her head and gazed at me, “We work well together.” That last part was more said for her own benefit. I already knew we worked well together.

“Yeah. We do.” I confirmed.

She looked at me with a weird face. I wonder what that was all about.

I watched as she mentally changed directions, her eyes losing a little light, and picked up all of the parts we had lugged out during the day. Stooping to grab up what she couldn’t get, I followed her in the shop and helped her put the supplies where she wanted them, with easy access for tomorrow.

When everything was where she wanted it, she took a deep breath and turned to me. “Thank you for today. For everything, getting the shop staffed and such. I…obviously I needed help. So, thank you for that.” She blushed. Teagan wanted to do this on her own and admitting she needed help was humbling for her. I just nodded, because of course I would help. I would help her with everything, for the rest of my life, if she let me.

“I’m gonna lock up and head home. It’s late and I’m exhausted and need to get started early tomorrow.” Nodding like she was approving what she said, she turned, expecting me to get my shit and follow her out. I did. But I didn’t head to my car. Instead I stood and waited for her as she locked up and set the alarm.

When she turned around and saw me, her eyes widened. “What are you doing? It’s late. You’ve got a drive. I need you back early. You should be going.”

She was right. I had a long drive home and if I hoped to get any sleep at all I really needed to get going, but I wasn’t comfortable letting her walk home, alone, in the dark.

“I’m just gonna walk you home. Make sure you are safe and then I’ll head home myself, okay? I know Evergreen is like, the safest place in Colorado, but it would make me sleep better if you let me do this, okay?”

She nodded and started walking home.

Fifteen minutes later, when I heard the click of her door, I was determined to make it so the next time I heard that click, I was on the other side of that door.

Chapter Twenty

Teagan

T
o say I was in a fog for the rest of the week was putting it mildly. I was focused and working fine, but with Brock this close, this often, I felt like I was crawling out of my skin by the time the weekend rolled around.

We worked well together.
Phoebe
’s engine was fully in and her electrical work was done so she would be out front within a few weeks of the grand opening. Somehow Brock had arranged for a client of his to have a Super Bee he had done out in front of the shop until
Phoebe
was running. This did not suck. This was actually awesome. And sweet. And messing with my head.

He was so, just, there. All the time. Helping in the background with everyone. Not just me. He was friends with everyone. This was a Brock I almost didn’t recognize. At Sub Zero, he had stuck to himself. Sure, he joked with the guys, as guys will do. But he didn’t “know” them. Now, he asked about the kids and the wives, or how they were doing post- something or other. Stuff I didn’t know. I was the boss and he knew the company better than I did.

The fog I was in was impeding my ability to do anything other than work. Emotions seemed…off. I was so sexually strung up that anything, a slow gust of air over my face, caused my thoughts to divert to Brock’s breath while making love. I was a mess. Something had to give.

He was working so hard to show me the man he was now. How far different he was from the boy I continued to force him to be in my mind. He wasn’t. That boy was firmly gone. It was me that needed to move on now. It was just, was I ready?

After one final look around the shop and one final run through the paperwork, I stood at the front of the shop, staring at my dream. This was it. It was as ready as it would be. Sure, there would be bumps and hiccups in the start-up, but hopefully I had planned for as much as I could.

Before I flipped the lights off and locked the door, I took a moment to bask in the reality that even if the shop tanked; that even if the shop failed so spectacularly I became a cautionary tale in the car world, I had done this myself. I had worked my ass off to make my dream a reality and that felt damn good. My whole body buzzed with the knowledge that I was doing this. I was going to be living my dream.

Well, most of the dream anyway. The man portion of the dream was much more a work in progress than the shop portion. While the shop was basically set, the man was… well, I’m sure he was set too. It’s just me who’s still sitting on the fence.

I needed to get off the fence. I needed to decide whether or not I was going to do something,
anything
, about this sexual tension or let him go. Because if I had learned anything in the last week it was that this new Brock was a good man. A man who didn’t deserve to be pulled back and forth by my unstable emotions. I knew what I wanted. I wanted him. I just needed to woman the fuck up and take him.

And just like that, everything clicked into place. My heart, already feeling light in the knowledge of the completion of the shop, felt like it would float away now that I had given it the ability to love. Freed it to feel again. And feel it did. I wanted Brock with a passion I hadn’t had before. The love, the feeling’s from before, they were nice. But the love and emotions I felt now, working with the man, watching him in his connections with the people around him, his confidence in his work and relationships now, had deepened what I felt. It had…matured.

I smiled and turned to walk home.

I don’t know why I was shocked to see the man I had just been thinking about waiting for me by the parking lot sign. Leaning on it in that way that made my body light up with need. His smirk said he saw the change in my body and knew what I was thinking.

“Walking me home again, I presume?” I asked, knowing the answer was the same as it had been for the last week.

He just stepped away from the post and nodded, turning to walk in the direction we knew so well we could do it blindfolded by now. Which was a good thing since neither of us was paying attention to where we were walking.

In the dim light I could see how tight his facial features were. The want. The need for me written across his whole body. He was strung tight. If I was hurting for it, he was worse.

When I unlocked the door, I turned to tell him not goodbye this time, but to tell him that I wanted him. That I needed him. He pre-empted my move, tossing the keys from my hand to the dish and walking me backwards towards the bedroom without hitting a single light, hell object, on the way. His focus was entirely on me. That kind of focus, from this kind of man, was fucking heady. It made my head spin and my heart try to beat out of my chest.

I wasn’t scared. Fuck that. I knew this man now, I trusted him with me. I was just worried about his reaction to the new additions to my body. I didn’t want him to feel guilty anymore. I was the one who couldn’t deal. Who let a persons’ careless words change me to the marrow of my bones. He wasn’t that person anymore. I needed him to know that.

When we got to the room and Brock kicked the door shut, I took the time to take a breath. I needed to talk to him before we did this. I needed him to move on like I had. To know I had.

When he advanced on me, I put my hand up, stopping him. His face went confused, afraid almost.

“I’m not stopping this Brock.”

His breath came in a whoosh and his stance loosened as he stepped forward again, making for the hem of my shirt. He ran his fingers back and forth along my back where my pants left my skin open for him.

This time he waited.

“I’m not stopping this. You were right. It is you for me. It’s always been you for me. That silly little boy, had he done things differently, would have had me then, I know this now.” I could see the hurt and shame in the knowledge that the lost time and pain of his actions had caused us.

I reached up and framed his beautiful face with my hands, tracing his jaw line and running my thumb across his gorgeous lips. “It’s us. It will always be us. But, to do this, we both need to let go. Let go of the hurt, the pain, the tears, the time. We’re new now. Stronger, different people than we were before. I know I certainly am. I would’ve never stepped out of my comfort zone had it not been for the actions of our past. It hurt. It was shitty. But it’s past us now. The new, stronger Teagan- she wants this new, amazing, free Brock.

“I’ve watch you this week. You’re connecting with people again Brock. Where you used to have a wall up, being man vs the world, you now work with people. You care for them. You care for me. Not just me, but all that is related to me. I see it. The new Brock and new Teagan, we have baggage, but that baggage, it’s made us who we are and I like what I see when I look at me now. When I look at you.

“I want this Brock. I want you and me. I want this shop to be us.”

I paused to take a breath and make sure he was looking me in the eyes before I continued.

“I know when you see me now, you will see the new scars and feel shame. But baby, I don’t. I don’t feel shame for them because they are proof that I survived. I don’t want them gone. I don’t want you to see them and wish them gone either, okay? I want you to see them as I do, as a sign of my strength and my new self. New skin, new person.  Can you do this? Look beyond the marks and see me, as I am now, for you? Only you Brock.

“I still see my therapist. I probably always will, on and off, to deal with my self-esteem issues. But I am working. I acknowledge them and I face them. I’m not hiding from them anymore. And I’m not hiding from you. Or the world. This is me. This me wants you. Question is, does this new Brock want me?”

I stopped. Waited. Stared. Breathed.

It could have been minutes. Hours maybe before he moved. But when he did, it was with a purpose I’ve never felt with him before. Before, he wanted me. Now, he was claiming me. His lips slammed against mine, his mouth taking mine and claiming my very breath.

When he picked me up by the hips and tossed me on my bed, his eyes consumed me.  His pupils were blown such that the color was gone and want was all that was left. And love. I could see that now. He loved me. Now that I loved me, it was easier to take that someone else loved me. Someone who didn’t
have
to love me, like a father did. He devoured me with his gaze. His eyes traveled the length of my body, eating up everything, clothes and all.

I reached to pull the shirt over my head and he stopped me.

“I want to do this. I want to uncover you, inch after inch, and relearn this new you. Love every inch of the new you. Show you how much this means and how much I will treasure it for the rest of my life. Because baby, that’s what this is. The rest of our lives. You are mine. You have been and you will be. Now, let me love you.”

Nodding, out of breath from the conviction behind his words, I lay back and waited. Waited for him to claim me. To make us, us. To move us from the past to the future. I was ready. So very very ready. For the first time, I was not only looking at my future, I was ready for it. Embracing it. Loving it.

I breathed deep, let it go, and fell head first into us.

Brock

I couldn’t breathe. There was air, I knew there was air. But I couldn’t find it. All I could find was her. Teagan. She was my air. I needed her to breath. I knelt over her prone body on the bed and lifted the simple shop shirt over her head, drawing the soft cotton up slowly as I went, revealing her to me slowly. I was removing the old and claiming the new. The past had no place in this bed with us.

When I had the shirt off, I leaned in and kissed her perfect lips. There was the air. Now I could breathe. I kissed her slowly this time, taking my time exploring her mouth, nipping her lips, breathing her air.

For the first time in a long time, I was breathing free air. There was no past hanging over me. No fear of what would come. This was all new to me. It felt like I was a virgin all over again and in a way I guess I was. This time, with Teagan, I was a free man in every sense of the word. My past discretions held no more power over me, over us, over our future. Sure, we would have growing pains and the past would dictate how we reacted at times, but this time, we could use it. Grow from it. Move forward again instead of backwards.

Still kissing her I snaked my hands under her back, causing her to arch her beautiful breasts into my chest and making me moan when I felt the firm tips of her nipples. I unlatched her bra and let the straps fall down her arms before tossing it wherever the hell it went. Kissing down her jaw, behind her ear and down her neck I paused, pulling back to look at the flushed skin beneath me.

Teagan’s breasts were absolute perfection.  Big enough that when laying down they spread to the sides some but absolutely the perfect size to take in my hands. And so I did. I leaned over and pulled a nipple into my mouth, teasing it with my lips and teeth until she was moaning and undulating under me. Nipping one last time, more firmly, she yelped and I moved to the other to give it the same attention.

I continued down her belly, unbuttoning and removing her pants in one swift stop but getting caught up in her shoes momentarily. Seeing my frustration at the situation, she giggled and how I loved that sound. Before, her giggles were nice. Now, they were everything. Once I finally got her shoes off, and removed her pants I went back to work, re-learning this body I so craved.  Loving the softness that was so feminine in her. I knew she felt the softness was ugly, a weakness, but I found it stunning. Part of the sublimity that was her. I kissed down, by passing her pussy for her thighs and heard her let out a groan of pure frustration.

She carded her fingers through my hair and tried to pull me in to where she wanted me but I was content to relearn every part of her for now. I kissed down her legs, behind her knees, feeling her quiver with that and tucking it away for the future.

By the time I went back and locked my lips on her small clit, the firm suction pulled her under and she came fiercely for me. I smiled, backing off and gently kissing her while she recovered, but not content to let it go with that one. Oh no. There were many more to come before I entered her.

When I licked her again, she was ready, fingers firmly in my hair pushing my face where she wanted it and I let her. Hell, I wanted it too. So much so. Like a starved man at his first meal. Her tangy taste was all I craved. I ate at her until she was nearly crying with need to come again. Now, I was ready.

I leaned back and stood off the bed, removing my clothes in a show meant only for her. Only ever for her again. Once naked I removed a condom from the wallet in my jeans before tossing them with the ever growing pile of our clothes and laid back down over her.

She let out a whimper when our bodies were fully touching, skin to skin from top to toes. Completion.

I handed her the condom and tearing it open, with fingers trembling from want, and emotion, she sheathed me. My cock jerked in her hand, wanting more contact from her. I was now worried I wasn’t going to last. Shit. Talk about feeling like a virgin. In more ways than one apparently.

Trying to think of anything to get my mind off the need to come now, I leaned in and kissed her, slowly running my cock up and down her slit, collecting the wetness, feeling her preparedness for me.

When I felt like I was in some semblance of control again, I pulled back from kissing her, and stared into her dazzling eyes. The eyes that had entranced me from the start. Eyes now so full of emotion and love that it nearly caused me to stop momentarily just to take it all in. My dick had other ideas though and I slowly pushed into her, taking her to the hilt, feeling my balls hit her spectacular ass.

Lacing my fingers in hers and placing our hands above her head, I let my hips rock- slowly at first, needing to relearn that tightness that was purely Teagan. She keened underneath me, writhing and twisting, wanting more but less at the same time. Fully alive with feeling for the first time. Feeling from me. For me. Damn if that didn’t have my balls pulling in and the tingling of release building at the base of my spine. I needed to get her off fast or I was going to lose it before she did.

I sped up the pace of my hips, our skin making sounds as it connected over and over, our breathing speeding up and skin slicking with sweat. This was making love. I thought I knew what that was until now. Now, with our souls open and clear, this was love. Free. I was free.  Completely and in every way.