Hard and Fast (28 page)

“You’re good with her,” Imogen told him.

He just shrugged. “I like kids. They’re impulsive and honest.”

“Much like you?”

“Maybe.” He grinned. “Would it be impulsive to drag you away to my coach right now?”

“Inappropriate more so than impulsive.”

“I’m paralyzed,” he said. “I can’t think of a single thing to do right now that isn’t inappropriate in front of kids.”

She had to really admit she loved the way he wanted her, the way he acted like it was a serious struggle to contain his desire around her. It was something entirely new for her, to have a man so passionate about her that every encounter resulted in sex. In her experience, most of her previous boyfriends had been perfectly content with once a week, and they had never allowed lust to enter their eyes in public.

Maybe she could place it in the category of “Poor Taste” and be ashamed of herself, but she liked that Ty didn’t care who saw his interest.

“We could talk,” she told him, feeling a smile creep over her face.

“No matter what you say, I’ll take it dirty,” he said. “I can’t help it. Even hearing the words
erectile dysfunction
come out of your mouth gave me a boner.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

His hand brushed across her hair. “What’s ridiculous is that we’re still standing here. We could have been naked by now.”

Hunter suddenly wiggled in between them. “Can you take me to the garage? Elec says Mom needs to take a nap.”

Imogen would bet her own mother’s life that Tamara was not the least bit sleepy. She glanced over at Elec, who was trying to look innocent and failing miserably.

“Oh, really?” Ty asked Hunter, then turned to Elec. “You should be ashamed of yourself.”

“Tamara said she needs to lie down. I can’t argue with that. It was a long flight.”

Imogen saw Tamara clear her throat, her cheeks pink.

Elec held his hands out. “I told Hunter she could watch TV for a while, but she’d rather hang out with you.”

“I haven’t seen Imogen in four days,” Ty said pointedly. “When was the last time you
saw
Tammy?”

They stared at each other in a battle of libidos.

“Three days ago,” Elec finally admitted. “But you can see Imogen whenever you want all weekend.
Our
ability to see each other is hampered.”

“Fair enough,” Ty said. “But you owe me.”

Elec grinned. “Whatever you want.”

“Is that okay?” Ty asked Imogen. “You want to go to the garage with me?”

“Sure. I’d love to.” Like Elec said, they had all weekend to see each other. Even if her inner thighs wanted to be seen immediately, if not sooner.

“Alright, if your last name is Briggs, you’re going with me,” Ty said loudly. He pointed to Hunter and Pete. “That means you and you. Let’s move ’em out.”

“Whoop, whoop,” Hunter said, doing a victory dance. She ran up and gave Elec a kiss. “Love you! See you later.” She then hugged her mother’s legs and said, “Have a good nap, Mom.”

Tamara hugged her back and said, “Have fun, baby. Listen to Ty and don’t touch anything.” She touched her son’s shoulder. “You, too, sweetie. Have fun. Thank you, Ty. And you, too, Imogen.”

“Sure thing, Tammy. Where are the passes?” Ty asked. “Do I have to go get them? You know they’ll give me crap if you’re not standing right there.”

Elec handed a bundle over to him.

“You were just all sorts of prepared, weren’t you?” Ty asked, his eyebrows raised.

“Just efficient,” Elec said.

“Uh-huh.” Ty reached for Imogen’s hand, but Hunter popped up between them and took his hand in her left and Imogen’s in her right.

“Let’s go.”

Ty shot Imogen a look of frustration over Hunter’s head, but Imogen just smiled. The man was a nice guy, and that did interesting and thought-provoking things to her insides. Being with him, with Tamara and her family, it all felt so right, so normal. Imogen had never thought of herself as lonely, but this was something she definitely enjoyed.

“When we’re done at the garage, I’m definitely going to need a nap,” Ty said, wearing a smirk as they walked.

“Then you can do that while I go interview some of the other drivers,” Imogen said with a smirk of her own.

Smart-ass
, he mouthed to her.

Imogen just laughed, feeling more carefree than perhaps she ever had in her entire life.

 

 

 

TY was proud of her. That’s the thought he had as he walked the kids and Imogen around the garage, introducing her to his crew members. He felt proud and smug to have such a classy, beautiful woman there beside him, letting him claim her as his.

The first time he trotted out the term
girlfriend
when introducing her to his crew chief, she had shot him a curious look, but hell, that’s what she was, right? After that damned uncomfortable conversation where he’d stumbled over the confession he didn’t want to date anyone else, and she had agreed, he figured that gave him the right to tag her as his in public. And he really was damn proud that someone as intelligent and interesting as Imogen wanted to be with him. He had never realized how much he’d been spinning his wheels with women like Nikki. The most she’d ever made him feel at the track when she had visited him was a mild embarrassment every time she said something not so bright, or inadvertently offended someone.

Imogen was in a whole different ballpark. She wanted to understand everything and everyone, and she asked questions out of pure curiosity, not because she was looking for an angle or a way to get ahead. Fame and fortune meant nothing to her, he was sure of it, and every inch of her was real, untouched by plastic surgeons. Hell, she wore glasses, and how damn sexy was that?

He had it bad. There was no denying it, and while he loved Tammy’s kids, he was counting the minutes until he could reasonably haul their butts back to their parents.

The need to get Imogen alone and naked was urgent, and he hadn’t been boning up on Shakespeare for the past ten days for nothing. He had listened to two more plays on tape and had painful discussions on them with Toni, and he wanted to show Imogen he was capable of culture. Truth was, the plays were entertaining, it was just deciphering the language that was so difficult. But he was man enough to admit there was something cool about the dead playwright’s words.

Ty watched Hunter inspecting his engine, while Imogen talked to his crew chief.

“It’s just amazing how much science and engineering go into these cars,” Imogen said. “I’m in awe of your experience and knowledge.”

“Thanks,” Sam said, looking at Imogen like he might fall in love. “We do put a lot of effort into winning.”

If Ty wasn’t sure that Imogen was merely curious, not at all interested in Sam, he might have felt a little bit jealous. Regardless of how married Sam was, and how much interest Imogen showed in Ty, he did still find himself edging just a bit closer to her.

“What is the process for becoming a crew chief? Do you learn via hands-on experience, or is there a formal training program?”

“A lot of the guys have mechanical engineering degrees . . .”

Ty completely tuned out what Sam was saying, focusing instead on the way the soft dress Imogen wore clung to her ass.

“Isn’t that right, Ty?” Sam asked him a minute later.

“Yeah, absolutely,” he said with no clue as to what he was agreeing with.

Given the look Sam gave him, he hadn’t fooled his crew chief.

And he didn’t care. He was in love and at the moment nothing else seemed to matter quite as much as that did.

Ty stared at Imogen, his chest tight, his mood elated, knowing he could just watch and watch her indefinitely . . . that she made him happy. God, he
was
in love with her. It was true. When you knew, you
knew
.

“We need to leave,” he said suddenly, interrupting Sam mid-sentence in whatever he was saying to Imogen.

Both Sam and Imogen swung their heads to stare at him.

“Are you okay?” Imogen asked him, her eyes filled with concern.

“I’m fine. Great. I just realized there’s something I need to do.” What he needed to do was get her alone and tell her how he felt, because now that he knew, he felt fairly bursting with the knowledge.

“Okay. I’ll catch up with you later,” Sam said. “Nice to meet you, Imogen.”

Imogen said her good-byes, then they were rounding up the kids and hustling them back to their parents. At least Ty was hustling. Imogen didn’t seem in a hurry and the kids were downright dragging their feet, which was making him agitated.

By the time they got to his coach, he was about to crawl out of his own skin. It felt like his whole life had just shifted in an instant and he needed to share that with Imogen, the first woman he had ever truly fallen in love with, the woman he wanted to spend every moment with, the woman he wanted to wake up next to.

“What on earth is wrong with you?” she asked as he threw open the door with a fair amount of force and strode into the coach.

Ty just turned around. “Close the door behind you.”

“I did.” She put her hands on her hips, the gesture bunching the fabric of her soft blue dress. “Did you drink too much coffee, Ty? You’re acting like you’re hopped up on caffeine or amphetamines. It’s a little unnerving.”

He took a deep breath, then twined both of her hands through his. “I’m fine. I just wanted to be alone with you.”

She smiled. “You are incorrigible and oversexed.”

“Not today. I haven’t had sex at all today.” He leaned forward and kissed her, closing his eyes briefly.

“Very funny.”

“Hey, Emma Jean?”

“Yes?”

“Do you recognize this quote? ‘When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew.’ ”

There was a pause, and she looked at him puzzled. “Yes. That’s Shakespeare, of course. Why?”

“Because that’s the way I feel. I think the first day I met you I fell just a little bit in love with you, and you knew. Something has drawn us together from the beginning, don’t you think?”

“It sort of seems that way,” she whispered.

“We’ve both been attracted to each other for months, but we didn’t do anything about it, and now that we have, well, it’s so good. It’s better than good. It’s . . . amazing.”

She nodded. “It is. I’m very happy with you.”

God love an honest woman who played no games. It was one more reason he adored her.

So he squeezed her hands more tightly in his, locked eyes with her, and said, “I love you.”

Her eyes went wide. “What?”

“I love you. I am in love with you. I’m both of those, and I want to be with you.”

The corner of her mouth lifted in a small, sweet smile. “Oh, Ty, I love you, too. I do. It’s not logical to feel so much so soon, but I do. I truly love you.”

Those were the sweetest, most poetic words he’d ever heard in his life.

 

 

 

TY loved her.

He loved her.

Her.

Imogen was stunned, thrilled, inflated with her own overwhelming feelings of love for him, and when he kissed her, she kissed him back with fervor. That was it. The big It. Love.

The very concept amazed her.

It was beautiful and overwhelming, and she poured her heart into the kiss, feeling that her words were inadequate, that she needed him to understand.

His hands raced across her breasts, then down her hips to her thighs, hiking up her babydoll dress. It didn’t surprise her. Ty liked sex, and she loved that about him, too. Anticipating that he would shove her up against the nearest wall or toss her onto the couch, Imogen was startled when he dropped to his knees.

“What are you doing?” He was sliding her panties down and she already had a good idea of what he was planning, but for some reason it surprised her.

“I just want to taste you . . . I want you to hold my head while I satisfy you.”

Her dress was bunched around her waist and his mouth was already on her, nipping and licking and sucking. Her hands did wind up on his head, gripping his hair tightly as the passion, the pure physical delight, intermingled with the emotion of realizing that she loved him. Ty flicked his tongue over her, in her, and she came quickly, overwhelmed by everything she was feeling.

“Oh!” she said. “Oh, my God, I only lasted about thirty seconds . . . I should be embarrassed.”

He smiled as he stood up. “I’m choosing to take it as a compliment. Come to the bedroom.”

They went down the narrow hall to the small room, which was like a more claustrophobic version of his bedroom at home, and Imogen marveled at the look on Ty’s face. There was lust in his eyes, no question about it, but mostly, he was staring at her with so much tenderness, so much love, that she wanted to pinch herself, wanted to suck it in and hold on to it, wanted to bask in the feeling of serenity and pleasure she experienced with him.

And when he peeled her clothes off slowly and carefully, and laid her down gently on his bed, Imogen felt tears pool in her eyes. While she loved Ty’s dominating tendencies, while she really, really enjoyed when he took her hard and fast, when he teased and tormented her with his dragging their pleasure out, she thought this was the perfect way to make love in this moment.

Brushing her hair off her face, he paused to drag his finger across her bottom lip. Then he eased into her until he filled her completely.

As Ty started to move slowly, pushing deeply inside her, his eyes trained on her, Imogen wrapped her legs around his waist. “I love you,” she told him, in case he hadn’t believed her the first time she’d said it.

Ty sighed. “Damn, I like the sound of that, Emma Jean. And I love you, too. They were right, you know. I just looked at you today, and I knew.”

“It’s indescribable, isn’t it?”