The Set Up (44 page)

Very deliberately, I let my eyes roam all over him just to let him know how much I like what I see.

He shakes his head and bends to resume his position under the hood. “You’re very distracting, do you know that?”

Feeling like being a little naughty, I peer back at him, my eyes round with mock innocence. “And here I thought I was being helpful. You say screwdriver, I hand you the screwdriver.”

His grin is so wide now I can barely stand myself. “That’s the only tool you got right.”

I shrug. “I’m good at other things.”

His brow raises and his chest starts to rise and fall a little more rapidly.

Crossing my legs, I offer him my bottle. “Water?”

Again I get that look.

“What? I’m trying to be helpful.”

He takes it. Sips it. Hands it back. Wipes his mouth. Then a kind of smugness crosses his face and slowly, very slowly, he rips his T-shirt off.

God, I want to lick him.

Acting like it’s nothing, he gets busy removing something that has a cone-like shape. He grunts a little. Makes some more noises. A few more. And then it sounds like he might have figured something out.

I’m still here staring at him. All of him. Thinking about how every time his abs and pecs ripple, I want to run my tongue over them, along the rim of his ribs, around his belly button, and yes, even farther down. Then I moan a little, and that really wasn’t intentional.

He’s around the hood with his hands on my thighs so fast I wish I’d moaned sooner. “Do you have any idea how much I want to take you into the woods right now and strip you bare?”

I push the hair from his eyes. “Do you have any idea how much I want you to?”

The heat in his gaze singes me. “Fuck,” he mutters. “You’re killing me. Really killing me.”

Sharp teeth bite at that spot on my neck that he knows drives me wild. “We’re leaving as soon as I figure out the problem, and then we’re going to spend the rest of the night locked in the bedroom.”

Shivers run down my spine. “If that’s a threat, I’m good with it.”

“Your place or mine?”

I shrug.

“You decide.”

With my hands in his hair, I push his head harder against my neck. “I’ll let you know.”

His reply comes with a stroke up my thigh. “You, Charlotte Lane, have no idea what you do to me.”

Catching his hands, practically panting, I hold them right where they are. Grease or not, I don’t care. “I hope you can tell me all about it tonight after I wash the grease off you.”

He groans again, slides his tongue up my neck, kisses me hard on the lips, and then whispers in my ear, “I’m going to do more than tell you.”

Perhaps fanning the flames any further isn’t the best idea. He’s back at work doing whatever it is he is doing and I’m sitting here with trembling legs, fantasizing about him pushing me against a tree and taking me hard and fast.

“So what do you think? Does she need a rebuild?” Hank shouts from the driveway.

Jasper looks up, seeming happy to see him. “I don’t think so. There’s transmission fluid in the radiator. I just can’t find the leak. How’s my mother?”

Hank walks over. “She’s sleeping. She wants you to call her tomorrow.”

Jasper nods.

“Let me see what you found,” Hank says, moving to stand beside Jasper.

With his finger, Jasper points to something under the hood. “Right here.”

“I see it. Good catch, Jasper. We need to pull the whole thing apart to fix it. It’s an all-day job, though, and I have to leave right now. What do you say we do it together next Sunday?”

Jasper blinks in surprise. “Yeah, that would be great.”

“I’ll look forward to it. And Jasper, your mother is going to be fine. She’s worried about you but she knows you are innocent. Just promise me you’ll keep her in the loop.”

Jasper nods. “I’ll try, Hank, but sometimes she’s hard to talk to.”

“That doesn’t mean she doesn’t love you.”

My cell rings and I turn around to grab it out of my purse, which is on the workbench. I can’t believe it, but it’s Vince from
The Detroit Scene.
I’d called him earlier in the week but he hadn’t called me back, so I didn’t think he would.

“Hello?” I whisper.

“Hey, Charlotte, it’s Vince. I’m sorry I haven’t called you back yet.”

“That’s okay. I figured either you didn’t know anything or didn’t want to get involved.”

He brings his voice down to a whisper. “Well, when you called I didn’t know anything.”

“Hold on just a minute. Okay?”

“Yeah, sure.”

I hop off the stool and walk toward the back of the garage, leaving Jasper and Hank in deep discussion. As I move, my eyes circle my surroundings: bare walls, empty workbenches. It’s a barren garage except for the one giant red toolbox. It’s as if Mrs. Storm is saving the space for something, something that will never come—Mr. Storm’s return.

The thought makes me weak.

“Charlotte, you there?”

“Yes, yes, sorry. Go on.”

“The police came to the office and searched both your desk and Eve’s. They also asked Cole if they could search his office. When they did, they confiscated his laptop.”

“Why would they take his laptop?”

“At the time I didn’t know, but early this afternoon I came into the office to finish up a story I want to post tomorrow and overheard him yelling at the guy from tech support about why those emails weren’t wiped out of his account when he was told to get rid of them last week.”

He couldn’t have been talking about the emails from Eve because I had deleted those. “What emails?”

“I’m pretty certain they were personal in nature, if you know what I mean.”

I did.

“They were having an affair,” he tells me.

I knew this but say nothing.

“Don’t tell anyone this, but one day last month when I was leaving work I saw them in the garage. They were arguing. I couldn’t hear what it was about. But she slapped him so hard that blood dripped from his mouth, and he smiled at her when she did it. Then he grabbed her and at first I thought he was choking her but then he let her go, pushed her up against his car, and kissed her.”

“Did you tell the police?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t want to get involved. This is my livelihood here, and I don’t want to lose my job.”

“I get it.”

“Listen, there’s more. The police were just here with a warrant to impound his vehicle.”

“They took his car?”

“Yep, and he’s madder than a bat out of hell. Has an attorney on his way to the office right now.”

“The mud in his car,” I mutter.

“What?”

“Nothing, just talking to myself. Hey, did Cole ever talk to you about doing an exposé on Jasper Storm?”

“Yeah, he mentioned it a while back, but he assigned it to Eve.”

I knew it.

“Listen, I have to go—he’s coming out of his office. I just wanted to let you know.”

I twirl a piece of hair around my finger. “Thanks, Vince, I appreciate it. Let me know if you hear anything else.”

“I will. And Charlotte, for whatever it means, I don’t care what your last name is. I miss you in the office.”

Sadness creeps over me. “I miss you, too, Vince,” I tell him and hit End.

Warm hands are on my hips. “Is Vince someone I should be worried about?”

A delicious shiver ripples over me as his breath whispers across my cheek. Loving the feel of him so close, I twist in his hold so I can face him and look up into his brown, brown eyes. “Jasper Storm, you are the only man occupying my every thought lately. There is no room for anyone else.”

Slowly, he backs me up until I’m pressed against the workbench and instead of laughing like I thought he would, he becomes super serious. “I’m glad to hear that, because listening to you say
I miss you
to another man is making me a little crazy here.”

I put my hands on his chest. “Jasper, he’s just a guy I used to work with.”

Stepping even closer so that there’s no space between us, he takes my face in his hands and looks at me with those eyes that make me melt. “Tell me you’re mine.”

I suck in a breath, my world spinning at how fast this thing between us is developing and at how much I want it. So much so that the words just spill out of me without thought. “I only want you, but I worry a girl like me isn’t enough for you.”

Jasper shifts a little and moves his hands so that his arms cage me in. “You’re wrong. So wrong. You’re more than enough for me. Sometimes I think too much.” His chest heaves with emotion. “I can’t get enough of you. I want you all the time.” His voice is guttural, with so much feeling it makes me ache deep inside my chest. “Every time I look at you. Every time you walk into the room. Every single time I see you, I want you. Even when I’m not with you, you’re all I can think about. And that worries me. It worries me because just yesterday you were going to walk away from this and I don’t want to lose you. Not when I just found you again.”

Friendship, intimacy, we have that—but even if I am enough for him, can we overcome the tragedy of our past? For now, I have to believe we can because if I don’t, it might just shatter us both. So with my hands shaking, I take his face in my hands. My sweet, sweet, adorable friend who is no longer a boy, but now a man that I, too, can’t get enough of. I tell him what he wants to hear. “I’m not going anywhere unless you ask me to. I promise.”

“Never going to happen,” he practically growls, and then suddenly his arms are around me and his mouth is on mine.

His kiss isn’t gentle.

It’s wild.

Wanton.

Primal.

His lips press harder against mine, his tongue now licking and stroking mine in the wettest, deepest kiss that I can feel all the way to my toes. And with my declaration, I cling to him, kissing him back just as passionately, until I’m breathless and have to stop for air. When this happens, I bite playfully at his lip. “I have to tell you what I just found out.”

He groans into my mouth. “Is this about Vince?”

I laugh. “Yes, but I already told you he’s just a guy I worked with.”

Jasper presses harder against me and I can feel every inch of him. Every. Single. Inch. “I’m listening.”

I tilt my head back to look at him. “This caveman thing is a turn-on, but I have some information I think you’ll find interesting.”

“Caveman,” he mutters, and I can hear the amusement in his voice as he effortlessly hoists me up onto the workbench and then looks up at me with a grin. “Talk, woman.”

Laughter bubbles out of me. I guess I deserve that. Now that I have his barbaric attention, I tell him everything that Vince told me.

“Fuck me, do you think he really could have been the one that killed her?”

“I don’t know, but with what Vince just told me, it would seem they had a volatile relationship.”

“You have to convince him to tell the police.”

“I can’t do that. He doesn’t want to be involved.”

“Then you have to go to Detective Hill and tell him what Vince told you.”

“I can’t do that either.”

“Why not?”

“Because he won’t believe me.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do. I already told you I didn’t tell him about Eve and Cole’s affair when he asked me if I knew about any of her relationships. If I go there now and tell him this, he’s going to know I lied before or he’s going to think I’m lying now.”

Bracing his strong hands on my shoulders, Jasper says, “You didn’t lie. You just weren’t forthcoming. Let me call Todd tomorrow and get his advice. Get him to help us figure out the best way to handle this.”

“Jasper, I can’t afford an attorney.”

He runs his fingertips down my bare arms. “You don’t have to.”

I’ve never been in a situation like this before and I hate it. “You are not paying for my stupidity.”

Jasper’s palms land on my thighs and he spreads my legs apart so he can step closer. “It wasn’t stupidity. It was loyalty, and Cole Reynolds could learn a thing or two about it.”

“Call it what you want, that doesn’t change the situation I’m in and you are not—”

Lips slam against mine. “No more talking about this, Charlotte. You’re my girlfriend and I’m going to take care of you.”

At that I give in and kiss him back. I have to. He’s just too hard to resist.

Girlfriend?

I’m his girlfriend?

That means he’s my boyfriend.

My boyfriend.

My heart swells so big I can see it beating.

Hear it pounding.

Feel it growing a little more whole.