Shifting Gears (11 page)

And then he pulled his lips from hers, bent … and swirled his tongue around the circle of her left areola.

She nearly melted. His mouth was perfect. Warm and wet and it felt—oh, God, it felt so good. She let her head hang back, her breasts pushing forward, giving him access to more of her, until she was nearly whimpering with need.

“Grady,” she pleaded. “Please. I can't wait any more.”

He stopped abruptly and brought his face up to look her in the eye, studying her in silence. After a moment, he asked, “Are you sure?”

She nodded. “I'm sure.”

It took a matter of seconds for him to finish undressing her. Her bra fell to the floor, the coveralls pushed off her hips along with her panties. He ripped his own shirt over his head, and she barely had time to appreciate the lines of his muscles before he was unzipping his pants and sliding everything down—

“
Wow.
” She couldn't stop herself from saying it. Grady's cock was so big and hard that it was difficult not to feel a little intimidated by it.

His mouth twisted in a wry smile. “Is that a good
wow
or a bad one?”

“Good.” She said it before she could think too hard about it, then added a more confident, “Definitely good.”

He smiled, then stepped back between her legs, bending to kiss her again as he stroked his hands over her body, rubbing her breasts, her stomach, the tops of her thighs. She could feel his erection against her leg, so hot that she found herself trying to pull him to her, inside of her, just to get more of his warmth.

She needed him, now. But—oh, this was awkward. She wasn't sure how to say it.

Just say it. Be brave!

“I've got—there's a, um—” she wiggled her fingers toward the coveralls she'd been wearing, that were now crumpled in a pile on the floor. “In the pocket…”

Maybe you still need to work on that bravery thing.

But Grady didn't make her say anything more. He leaned down and scooped up her discarded coveralls, rummaging in the side pocket for a second before pulling out a condom. He dropped the coveralls again and held up the foil packet, grinning.

“Well, I'll be damned. Annabelle Murray. Did you plan this?”

She bit her lip and nodded.

He let out a low growl and ripped open the packet, sliding the condom on but watching her all the while. This time, when he stepped back between her legs, he was closer. Close enough that she could feel the tip of him at her entrance. But he didn't push inside. Not yet. Instead, he gripped her thighs, pushing them ever so slightly further apart, and paused, staring down at her.

“Positive?”

Was she?

She nodded.

And then he thrust.

“Oh my God!” The size of him, the power—it felt so good that she clenched around him in response, feeling the pleasure start to increase with an intensity that hadn't been there before.

“Is it okay?” He gritted the words out, his jaw set tight.

“Yes,” she panted. “Don't stop.
Please.
”

That seemed to be all he needed, because he didn't hesitate another second before thrusting deeper, opening her wider, making her pick up her legs and wrap them around his hips, clinging to his strength. He went deep, all the way in, grinding against her savagely before pulling out halfway, then plunging again. Over and over, in and out, he worked her body, until she could feel herself on the edge.

She started to shake, straining hard toward her climax, and he read her perfectly, speeding up his thrusts until—

“Grady!” she shouted, her orgasm shooting through her, inner muscles pulsing around his cock as he pushed into her one last time and held himself there, groaning out his own release.

Chapter 8

That was …

Well, Grady couldn't even think of a word for what that had been. The best sex he'd ever had, definitely. Mind-blowing, absolutely. But there was something else about it, that made it so much
more
than he could explain, that was the reason why he never wanted to get up from this cold workbench. Never pull out of and away from Annabelle.

But condoms weren't exactly designed to take his wishes into account. He regrettably pushed himself up from where he'd collapsed on top of her, dropped one last kiss on her swollen, slack mouth, and slid out of her.

She grunted as he left her body, and the sound filled him with an odd pride. He was the one who'd gotten her all soft and relaxed like that. He was the one who'd made her come so hard. He was the one she'd
planned
to seduce.

Damn, but she'd definitely succeeded.

He pulled the condom off and tied it, then moved closer to her again to help her up and off the bench. As much as he hated to end their closeness, it was starting to get close to the time that the others would be coming in to work. He didn't care if anyone knew they were involved—he wasn't ashamed of Annabelle—but he didn't want her to feel embarrassed.

“It's ten to eight,” was all he said, and she got the message, dressing quickly. Within a minute, she was all covered up again and he was buttoning his shirt before tucking it back into his pants.

Her hair had come loose, and she started gathering it back again into a ponytail. He took a step toward her and she smiled up at him.

“Grady, I—”

Bang!

The door on the far side of the garage swung open, startling the two of them and cutting off Annabelle. A second later, Kerri's voice echoed through the garage. “Morning! Is it someone's birthday or something?”

What was Kerri talking about?
He frowned at Annabelle, confused.

She blushed. “I bake when I'm stressed. Or I guess, in the case of last night, frustrated. I ended up with a lot more cookies than I could eat myself, so I brought them in.”

That was all she said before Kerri approached, whistling. “I sure as hell hope y'all have a party planned, 'cause I don't see how we'll be able to eat a hundred cookies otherwise. They're almost too pretty to eat, though.” But then she stopped, her eyes narrowing as her gaze moved from Grady to Annabelle. “What are you guys doing here so early, anyway?”

Great. Now she sounded suspicious. Thank God he'd picked up the condom from the floor and put it in his pocket before his eagle-eyed sister had arrived.

Of course, it didn't help that Annabelle was blushing again.

“Ah.” Kerri said slowly. “Well. Right. So, um, I'm just gonna go, um, eat a cookie. Don't mind me.”

With that, she turned and practically ran off.

So much for keeping it quiet.

*   *   *

Later that morning, Annabelle found herself sitting on a folding chair in the middle of the practice track, trying to focus. It wasn't easy, with Grady sitting right next to her. What had happened between them this morning … it had been incredible. She'd never known sex could be like that.

Now, though, she wasn't sure what happened next. She'd done something
significant.
She'd seduced him. And she was proud of herself. Maybe more proud than she had a right to be.

But while she liked Grady, and she liked sex with Grady, she was still afraid. What if he wanted more from her than what she could give right now? What if he expected her to give up her independence before she'd even fully gotten it?

They hadn't had a chance to talk after Kerri had found them. Shortly afterward, the rest of the crew came filtering in, and Bit had given her the go-ahead to take over the crew chief spot for this weekend's race.

They were scheduled to fly out that night to Dover, to get things set up and ready for Saturday's race, so now Grady was working with her on the practice track, getting her up to speed on some of the specifics of their team. They were standing in the middle of the track while Lee did laps in his truck.

Kerri's car had left this morning, since it would take the transport driver a full day to get up to Dover. The crew would land tonight, unpack, and set up all day tomorrow; then Kerri had qualifying rounds and the race on Saturday.

Three nights in a hotel with Grady. The possibility that these three nights would be an opportunity she shouldn't pass by was distracting her. After all, it wasn't like she could invite him home with her, and she didn't want to go to his place.

That felt too … dependent.

But Grady was saying something and she had to pay attention, not daydream about being wild with him in Dover.

“…gotta get to know their driving styles. You went over Kerri's car yesterday, right?”

He turned to look at her, and she snapped to attention, but she couldn't control her blush.

She nodded, swallowing hard at the burning intensity of his gaze. Was he thinking about this morning, too? She hoped so.

He stared for just a second too long, but then turned away and nodded, too. “Good. So you at least have an idea of how it'll perform.”

Annabelle thought about what she'd learned. Yesterday afternoon, before they'd brought in the sedan, Bit had asked her to help out while they made changes to Kerri's car right before it got shipped up to Dover. She'd helped on everything, learning as much as she could. Though a lot of things were familiar, race cars were a different kind of challenge from commercially available models. The learning curve was intense, but she'd sworn to overcome it. She was going to be as prepared as she could be for the race on Saturday.

She nodded. “Yes. It's in as good of shape as it can be. Next week, after we get the results from Guzmán, hopefully it'll be even better.”

Grady's jaw went tight for a second, probably thinking about the way Blue had cheated them, but after a second he nodded. “Good. So, back to driving style.”

Grady raised an arm and pointed out at the truck, which was going into the far curve. “For next weekend's race, remember that Lee is great on curves. He knows how to handle them like a pro. But he gets lazy on the straights, so you have to be on his ass—er, sorry—”

That was the second time he'd excused himself for his language, and she didn't like it. She knew Grady still saw her as that reserved, proper thing she'd been as a teen, but she wasn't that girl anymore, and she didn't like being treated like she was a prude. “It's okay. Really. I don't mind.” Annabelle reached out and put her hand on Grady's arm in reassurance.

Oh. That was a mistake.

That touch reminded her of the way his arms had felt when they'd been braced on either side of her body as he'd thrust into her. Annabelle broke out in a sweat.

She should really yank her hand away.

But instead, she kept talking. “It's okay to use dirty words with me.”

Oh, God, did she really just say that?

“I mean,
around
me. I'm trying to say that I won't tell you to watch your mouth…”

Darn it. Now she was staring at his mouth. Mistake.

Just shut up, Annabelle!

She was terrible at this kind of thing. How was she going to concentrate on the race this weekend?

And she still wasn't letting go of his arm.

But he wasn't pulling away, either.

She took a deep breath. “You were saying about Lee on the straights?”

Her fingers stroked down his arm, then circled around his wrist.

“Uh.” The sound came low and rough out of Grady, and she followed his gaze to where her hand held his wrist.

Wow, that's hot.

“Yeah. Lee. Straights.” The words were coming from him in single-syllable grunts, and it went straight to the spot between her legs.

“Y'all know I can hear you, right?” Lee's voice sounded in her ears through the headphones, and she and Grady jumped apart, startled.

She hadn't even realized they'd been leaning toward one another … mouths about to meet.

Lee laughed. “Look, Kerri said you two were getting close and all, and I don't mind if y'all want to make out in the middle of the field, but at least cut the line so I don't have to listen. I'll just hang out here and waste fuel while I'm minding my own business.”

But Grady shook his head, his mouth tightening. “No. We've got to get Annabelle up to speed.”

“You're definitely gettin' up to something over there,” Lee retorted. “But it's not—”

“Shut up and drive, Lee,” Grady snapped into the mic. “I know it's not your race this weekend, but we still have to win.”

Annabelle sighed. Grady was right. They had a race to win this weekend. And she was going to give it her all.

Chapter 9

Temptation, thy name was Annabelle Murray.

Being around Annabelle back at the garage was one thing.

Being at a race with her? It was killing him. They'd flown in the night before, but even before that they'd been working almost nonstop since that morning in the garage. Despite the opportunity to be alone last night, when everyone had turned in early to get ready for today's race, Grady had taken one look at the dark circles under Annabelle's eyes and ordered her to go to sleep immediately.

He'd wanted to invite her to sleep with him, but he was pretty sure where that would end up leading. This was her first race, and she needed the rest. Still … sending her off to bed alone had been the hardest thing he'd done in quite some time.

Now it was Saturday morning and they'd just arrived on the track at Dover, and Grady was having a hard time not staring at her. She looked fresh and rested and incredibly sexy. They'd gotten a shirt for her with their sponsors' logos, but since it was a rush job, the sizing hadn't been quite right. The shirt was a little on the tight side. Not obscene or anything, but just … distracting.

And she'd paired it with tight black pants and knee-high boots. Standard crew chief colors, but with a twist.