Shifting Gears: The Complete Series (Sports Bad Boy Romance) (22 page)

Mick shrugs. “I honestly
couldn’t tell you.”

“Okay,” I say, “so you
heard a rumor that Jax owns a restaurant in town, but you don’t know which one
it is, and in order to find out whether I’m in the right one or not, I’m going
to have to check-”

“No, no,” Mick says.
“I’ve heard the name, I just can’t pronounce it. It’s some French word or
French words. There can’t be too many places like that around here, can there?”

“You’re joking,” I scoff.

“That’s what I heard. How
am I supposed to know if it’s true? I’ve never really had the urge to try to
track Jax down for anything.”

I put my hand to my
forehead. “No, I think I know the place,” I tell him. I let out a chuckle. “You
don’t happen to know if he’s a Twisted Sister fan or not, do you?”

The Chevelle’s a
liability on public roads and Maye’s flatbed would never get me out of there in
time if things go sour. It takes a minute, but I eventually convince Mick to
let me take his car.

The closer I get to Soeur
Torsadée, the more ridiculous this all seems. Sure, you never know what kind of
music a person’s going to like, but starting up a full-blown theme restaurant
doesn’t seem like a move someone like Jax would make.

Still, when I get to the
restaurant, I don’t drive past it; I park.

I get out of the car and
into the restaurant and the hostess—whose name I’m almost certain is not
Nikki—asks if it’s just me.

“I need to talk to Jax,”
I interrupt.

The hostess’s eyes go
wide, but she says, “I’m sorry, is Jax a customer?”

She gives a quick glance
toward the back of the restaurant, and I don’t wait for any more confirmation.
I just start walking.

There’s a hallway at the
back of the restaurant and I walk down it, finding a large metal door near the
end.

I’m not even in the room
before there’s the cold metal of a gun resting against my temple.

“You opened the wrong
door,” the bodyguard speaks.

My hands are up and my
mouth is dry. I did not think this through.

“It appears our old
friend Ransom has decided to grace us with his presence,” that cold voice comes
from further in the room. “Ty, lower your piece.”

The gun lowers, and I
finally take a breath.

“Come in,” Jax says. “Sit
down. I imagine if you’re here, we must have much to discuss.”

My more reasonable senses
are telling me to just apologize and get out of here, but I’m not feeling
particularly reasonable at the moment.

“I get that you’re trying
to get into my head, but you risked an innocent woman’s life today, and I’m
here to see that you answer for it,” I tell him.

Jax smiles. It’s a big,
white, toothy, emotionless smile that disappears just as fast as it came.

“It has been some time
since someone has had the nerve to come into the private room of my own restaurant
and threaten me,” he says. “How, oh dear Eli Ransom Faust, do you intend to
make me answer for it?”

The next second, the
guard who’d had his gun to my head spins me around and pushes me up against the
wall. Kicking my feet apart, he frisks me for a weapon.

I didn’t bring one.

The guard nods and Jax
speaks again, prodding, “Well?”

“I want your word that
neither you nor any of your guys comes near her,” I tell him. “If you can’t
give me that, I guess I’ll have to figure out a stronger bargaining position.”

I glance toward the gun
now in the back of the guard’s pants.

A different kind of smile
comes over Jax’s face. “I will make you a proposition,” he says. “I will agree
to your terms if you will agree to mine.”

“What?”

He scratches his chin,
saying, “As you may have heard, I intend to profit from my little tournament.”

“I heard you’ve been
taking pink slips,” I respond.

Jax shrugs. “For an
opportunity to win a quarter of a million dollars, people will risk a lot,” he
says. “I wonder if you are prepared for such a risk.”

“You’re probably going to
have to get to a point eventually, otherwise we might never know,” I answer.

Jax tilts his head from
side to side, his neck cracking loudly.

“I have collected four
cars through my own races, my people have collected a few more. What I keep
hearing, though, is that yours is the only one in town that has consistently
evaded the police. Is it the driver or is it the car, I wonder.”

It doesn’t sound like a
compliment. “So you want my car?” I ask. “In exchange for what?”

“Firstly,” he starts, “I
will abide by your wishes and not only ensure the safety and autonomy of
Kathryn, but you, as well. There will be no further attempts at intimidation
and I will chastise the individual who played so carelessly with the wellbeing
of you both.”

“You said ‘firstly,’” I
observe. “What’s secondly?”

“Secondly,” Jax says, “I
will give you the option of simply handing over the keys to your vehicle as
well as transferring legal ownership of the same to me for the price of $1—as
otherwise it would be viewed as a gift when it comes time to do taxes—or,
should you so insist, we can race for it and I can take it from you that way.”

I’m wondering how a
scumbag like this guy ended up so educated.

“So, basically, either I
just give you the car, or I have to throw the race?” I ask. “What happens if I
say no?”

“You misunderstand,” Jax
says, holding up his hand. “Whether you enter the race or not is of no matter.
I do not just want the second half of the pack, though,” he says. “Three is
better than two.”

“What happens if you
lose?”

Jax smiles again.“In such
an unlikely event, I would naturally demand only the pink slips of those cars
behind me. In fact,” he says, laughing, “if you can beat me, you can have
my
car.”

He’s still laughing.

I’m not quite so amused.

“I don’t understand,” I
tell him. “That seems like a fair trade. Why did you have your guy try to run
us into a wall?” I ask.

“I thought it might get
your attention,” Jax says. “As I am sure you can understand I cannot very well
just take these cars without their owners’ permission. There must be an
agreement. Without that, I would have to resort to less savory ways of shifting
my new collection and that is simply more trouble than it is worth, assuming
there is another option.”

“So, if I agree to give
up my car if I lose,” I start, “you’ll back off and we’ll have a fair race.”

He smiles.

“Fine,” I tell him, “but
if you or
anyone
comes near Kate or
contacts her in any way-”

“It may be best if we end
our conversation while we are still on pleasant terms,” Jax interrupts.

Looking around the room,
the guard next to me isn’t the only person with a gun. I decide to quit while
I’m ahead.

So I nod to Jax and walk
out the door, and while the deal sounds good to me, the only thought going
through my head right now is, “That was too easy.”

Chapter
Twenty-One

Breaking Through

Kate

“So you think he’s
cheating on you?” Paz asks.

“No,” I tell her. “I
really don’t, but I know he’s keeping something from me.”

“You know what I’d do?”
Paz starts and I tune out.

I’ve heard enough of her
solutions to know whatever she’s going to say, it’s going to have something to
do with breaking Eli’s legs. She tends toward the dramatic.

I don’t even know that
there’s really a problem, but ever since that day at the track—I don’t know, it
just feels like he’s holding something back from me. We talk and we spend time
together, but he’s been distant.

Tomorrow’s the final race
in Eli’s tournament. He might just be psyching himself up for it. If that were
the case, though, why wouldn’t he just tell me that?

“Or, you could just break
his legs,” Paz says, coming to the end of whatever horror show she was
describing.

“I don’t know,” I tell
her. “This doesn’t feel like before when my mom got to him and he just wouldn’t
talk to me. It’s almost like he’s scared of something.”

Paz brings a forkful of
mashed potatoes to her mouth and consumes it. She hums her satisfaction,
staring at her plate. “What’s the name of this place again?” she asks. “These
potatoes are fantastic.”

“It’s called Soeur
Torsadée,” I tell her. “Eli and I picked up some dessert from here the first
time we went out together. Good stuff, huh?”

“Mmm hmm,” she says.

“Anyway, I don’t know, I
guess what I need to do is just talk to him about it,” I continue. “It may be
nothing, or it could be something big. I’m done wasting time with avoidance.”

“Good for you,” Paz says,
though from the intensity with which she’s cutting her eggplant, I’m not sure
that she heard anything I said.

“Excuse me, Kate?” a
man’s voice comes, and I look over to find a tall, bald man with a goatee and a
very expensive-looking suit standing over us.

“Yes?” I ask.

The man looks over at Paz
and doesn’t look away.

“Can I help you?” I ask
him, but he just continues glaring at Paz, unblinking, until my friend says
something about a bathroom and excuses herself from the table.

The man takes Paz’s seat.

“What was that about?” I
ask. “What’s your problem?”

“No problem,” the man
says. “I merely wished to discuss a matter of some delicacy with you, and I
believed it would be best done in private.”

“I don’t know who you’re
looking for,” I tell him, “but I don’t know you. You’ve got the wrong person.”

“You are not Kathryn
Chavez, daughter of the Doctors Chavez?”

I grip my fork.

“Who are you?” I ask.
“What do you want?”

“I only wish to talk,”
the man says. “I am concerned about your significant other, Eli.”

“Concerned?” I ask.
“Why?”

“I believe he may have
gotten himself in over his head,” the man says. “Recently, he barged into my
private room and began threatening me. I did what I could to appease him by
loosening some of the rules of my tournament, but-”

“You’re Jax,” I
interrupt.

He smiles. “I see our
reputations precede us both.”

“You’re the one that
tried to kill me and Eli at the track,” I seethe.

Jax shakes his head. “No,
no, no,” he says. “I was not there, first of all. Second of all, I have no
intention of seeing either of you come to harm. That is why I am here.”

“What’s the problem?”

“I fear your boyfriend
has already agreed to give me his vehicle, pending my victory, of course,” Jax
says. “Seeing him the other day only convinced me that he is not of a proper
mindset for such a demanding race. I am afraid he may make a critical error,
and I certainly would not want to see him hurt.”

This is it. This is the reason
Eli’s been acting so funny around me. He knows how freaked I was when that car
came at us. He was trying to protect me.

“What do you suggest I do
about it?” I ask.

“The price for loss is
the same as the price of forfeiture. Were your boyfriend to simply pay his
debt, we could be sure that he would not risk his safety or his life in pursuit
of something he has no chance of attaining.”

“His debt being the car
that you haven’t won?” I ask.

Jax grits his teeth, but
forces a smile. “It is only a matter of time,” he says. “I only wished to offer
a way out for him. If he insists on risking his life only to come in second, I
will not stop him.”

“You know,” I tell him,
“I get that you don’t want to actually get off your butt and put your money
where your mouth is, but I never figured you for a coward.”

Jax’s eyes narrow, his
face scrunches up. “In what way am I a coward?”

“You’re not here because
you care about Eli,” I tell him. “You’re here because you think you might lose,
and instead of taking this to Eli, you take it to me. Now, it’s all nice and
terrifying that you know who I am and where to find me, but if you’re not man
enough to race against someone, maybe you should be the one to drop out.”

“You are making an
enormous mistake,” he says and gets up.

“Oh, one more thing
before you go,” I tell him. “I know you think dropping contractions from your
vocabulary makes you come across as wise or mysterious or whatever, but it
actually just makes you sound like an idiot who’s trying too hard.”

He stands there for a
moment, and I’m starting to think that my newfound confidence may have just
ended my life. But he smiles, a wide, toothy grin. “I like you,” he says.

“Yeah, whatever,” I
respond. “Now, are you just going to stand there, or are you going to leave me
alone so my friend can come back?”

He rolls his eyes and
shakes his head. “It will be sad to see the legend of Eli Ransom Faust die so
soon,” Jax says. “After he loses, I suggest you both leave town.”

With that, he turns and
walks away.

*
*
       
*

I get to Eli’s place and
my heart is banging against my ribcage. His new and surprisingly fuel-efficient
sedan is parked out front.

The walk to his building
is difficult. It’s hard to breathe.

When I get to the door, I
ring the bell.

“Just a minute!” Eli
calls from inside. He opens the door a second later and I push past him before
he can say anything, flipping the living room light back on as I pass.

“There’s something you
and I need to talk about,” I tell him.

“Okay,” Eli says,
shifting his weight from one leg to the other. “What’s on your mind?”

I start, “I ran into our
mutual friend today at Soeur Torsadée-”

“Oh my God,” he says. “I
thought I told you not to go in there anymore.”

“Yeah, but when you
didn’t give me a good reason, I ignored you,” I tell him. “Anyway, he told me
about your arrangement, and he wanted me to try to talk you out of racing, but
that’s when I realized something.”

“What’s that?”

“From the beginning,
you’ve always tried to protect me,” I say. “It hasn’t always worked out the way
you planned, but you’re the one that bailed me out of jail—I’m still going to
want to know how you knew I was in there in the first place, by the way.”

“Police scanner,” he
says. “A buddy of mine heard the report and gave me a call.”

“And then when Mick
crossed the line—not that I condone violence,” I tell him.

“I know,” he says with a
smile.

Am I really doing this?

“Ever since that day at
the track, you’ve been hiding something from me, but it wasn’t until Jax sat
down at the table that I understood why,” I say.

“I didn’t want you to be
scared,” he says.

Suddenly, the words don’t
matter so much. Slowly, I step toward Eli and I rest my arms on his shoulders
as we kiss.

I tighten my grip on him,
and without giving warning, I jump up, wrapping my legs around his waist. Of
course, Eli’s not expecting it. He tries to keep his balance, but after a few
wobbly steps, he falls backward onto the couch.

We’re laughing and
kissing, and I’m still too chicken to say what I came here to say.

He tugs at the bottom of
my shirt, bringing the fabric up and over my head. I’m pushing his shirt up
with both hands, kissing his stomach, then his chest on my way.

The moment the shirt is
over his head my hands descend over the top of his pants, which I unfasten
before unzipping and pulling the pants off and tossing them onto the floor
behind me.

His throbbing erection
strains against the fabric of his plaid boxers and I coax his part from inside
as I’m pulling his boxers down. I stop pulling against the boxers somewhere
around Eli’s knees, and I guide his tip into my waiting mouth, sucking him
gently.

I lift my head off of him
just long enough to say, “In the future, though, don’t keep things from me. I’d
rather know if I’m in danger than walk around like a naïve idiot.”

“Okay,” he breathes, nodding
his head, and I take him into my mouth once more.

As I pull back, I slide
my tongue down the length of Eli’s hard-on, tasting the clean, earthy delights
of his skin.

I reach his base, and
while I stroke him, I run my tongue over his sensitive orbs, softly taking one
and then the other into my mouth. His skin is soft, hot.

“Come here,” he says, and
he runs his fingers through my short hair.

I kiss his shaft from
bottom to top before rising and crawling over him.

“Yes?” I ask, shaking my
butt.

He chuckles and pulls me
toward him, kissing me with a fiery intensity that makes me want to melt. He
wraps his arms around me, and I look down at his gorgeous body.

Eli doesn’t say anything;
he only smiles as he reaches down my front, grazing my nipples on his way, and
undoes my pants. I wiggle my butt a little bit more to encourage the fabric to
come off easily.

By the time I’ve kicked
my pants off, I’m tired of waiting. Moving the fabric of my panties off to one
side, I settle over Eli and lower myself onto him, his thick shaft sliding
easily into my wetness.

Feeling him inside me
now, knowing what I know, it feels different. Every sensation comes through my
body with an intensity I hadn’t expected, much less was prepared for.

Eli runs his hand through
the hair at the back of my head and pulls me closer, kissing me deeply, and my
legs are already starting to shake as I tell him what’s on my mind.

“I love you,” I whisper
as I pull away from his lips.

The moment the words are
out, I feel my whole body growing warmer with a mixture of thrill and
embarrassment.

“I love you, too,” he
says, and he pulls me so close, our bodies moving in perfect rhythm with each
other.

I gasp as my senses
propel me past the point my body would normally dissolve into orgasm, and the
feeling just keeps rising.

I’m trying to say
something, but the words won’t come out as that first jolt hits and I’m riding
Eli hard as I come with such force I’m a little afraid I might pass out, though
I don’t.

His eyes are piercing as
he watches me, and right when it feels like my body’s given all it can, his
arms tighten around me, and he rises with me, first sitting and now standing as
I cling to him.

His hands slide down my
back and under my butt, and he lifts me up and down his shaft.

I lean back to look him
in the eyes, my hands caressing his hair, his stubbly face. His arms are so
strong, supporting me.

With me still cradled in
his arms, Eli carries me from the living room into his bedroom, and he lies me
down on the bed.

“Mind if I…” he starts,
glancing down at my panties.

I nod as he pulls out of
me slowly. It only takes a few seconds before he’s slid my panties off of me,
but in that time, my core aches for his return.

Eli runs the palm of one
hand down between my breasts, and he presses himself into me again as I stretch
my arms over the soft fabric of his duvet.

There’s a light breeze
coming through the open window, and it offers a perfect contrast against the
heat of our sweating bodies.

The cool air hardens my
nipples, though Eli’s quick to warm them up again with his hot mouth. Not that
that softens them any.

I drape my arms loosely
over his shoulders, just letting myself be consumed by the force of the passion
between us.

The muscles across his
shoulders begin to tense and his tempo increases. I’m kissing him on the mouth,
one hand on each side of his head as I adore this beautiful man, my protector,
my love.