Off Limits (Secrets Kept 1)

“Uh-oh. Who is she?” Bryson teased.

“He.” I wasn’t in the closet, but I hadn’t dated anyone since moving back home, so it never came up with Bryson. He was the newest mechanic I’d hired, had just started about two weeks before. It always gave me a slight uptick in my pulse to tell someone because I never knew how they would respond. I didn’t have time in my life for homophobes. I had no problem cutting ties for that, but it sucked to have to.

“Oh shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t know. Who is he?” Bryson smiled, and I relaxed.

“I don’t even know where to start, man. He’s trouble, is what he is. What did you need?”

He asked me a couple of questions about the schedule and a car we got a call about, and then, as he headed back toward another bay, he stopped and asked, “Is he worth it? The trouble?”

“Yes,” I replied without hesitation. Hutch was what I hadn’t known I was looking for, what I hadn’t known I needed. “But…it’s complicated, and worse for him than for me. I don’t want shit to get fucked up for him.”

“That’s on him to decide, though, isn’t it? He’s a grown man. He gets to choose what’s worth the risk to him, just like you do for you. Hopefully, the two of you pick the same answer. If so…fucking magic.” Bryson winked, then turned and got back to work.

Fucking magic. I liked that.

I forced myself to concentrate on the Toyota. It was just after lunchtime when my phone buzzed.

Hutch: Dinner at my place? We should talk.

I didn’t know whether to be excited or nervous, because I didn’t know where he’d land on this—on us.

Me: I’ll be there.

Hutch didn’t text back.

I knocked on Hutch’s door five minutes early—or what I assumed was five minutes early. He hadn’t given me a time, but I figured it was the same as always. He answered a few moments later, wearing a pair of jeans and no shirt. Droplets of water clung to his chest hair as he rubbed a towel over his head. It was on the tip of my tongue to flirt with him, to tell him what I wanted to do to him, how good he looked, and oh, maybe get on my knees for him, but I wasn’t sure where we stood.

“You keep looking at me like that, and we’re going to have a problem.” He let the towel rest across his shoulders.

Hearing the teasing innuendo in his voice gave me the green light to do the same. “What kind of problem? I think I’m gonna need you to spell it out for me.”

“The kind that ends with you bent over my couch the way you were over yours last night.”

And yep, I was already hard. Fuck, this man did it for me. I wasn’t going to let him know he had the upper hand, though, so I stepped forward, all up in his space, rubbed my nose along his jaw, and said, “You’re under the impression that because I let you take control once, it’ll always be like that. I won’t make it easy on you again.” I nipped his earlobe and tugged.

“I would expect nothing less.” Hutch sighed then, and I felt the air get heavier, knew the tone had shifted. His hands went to my hips. “I thought about you all day.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Hutch tugged the towel off, and it fell to the floor. He grazed my jaw with his lips, so soft, just a gentle caress against my scruff, working his way to my lips. “Naturally.” He grinned, mouth on mine now, making my damn breath hitch. “I heard that. You must really like me.”

“You’re all right.”

He laughed, his breath puffing against my face, before I took a step forward, easing him back with my body. Once we cleared the door, Hutch kicked it closed, then pushed me against it, leaving me wedged between him and it. I leaned in to kiss him, at the last minute dodging his lips, then turning him, so it was Hutch in the position I’d just been in.

“This is such a bad idea,” Hutch said.

“The worst.” I hardly got that out before our mouths crushed together. The kiss was hungry, devouring, our tongues swiping at one another, alternating, his plunging into my mouth, then mine in his, while our bodies rutted together. Hutch went straight to my head, gave me this natural high I hadn’t known I’d been missing my whole life. It was like not realizing you weren’t intact, and then suddenly you were, and the whole damn world made sense when you hadn’t known it was out of whack before.

Jesus, that was mushy, but it was true.

His hands went to my ass, then shoved up under my shirt, Hutch’s teeth nibbling at my lip before I forced myself to pull away. “Wait. Shit. We need to slow down.”