The car didn’t do a single thing. Not a click. Not the familiar gurgle chug vroom. Not a single freakin’ thing.
I stared at the dash in shock for all of two point five seconds before I lost it.
After the day I’d had, paired with having to sit first across from, then directly beside, the man of my dreams… everything was shot. I didn’t have anything left to be a normal human being.
“Shit!” I cried, slamming my hand down onto my steering wheel. “You stupid. Fucking. Whore! You piece of shit!”
A tap on my windshield had me glancing that way.
I looked up to see an amused-looking Haggard staring at me.
I threw the window down, cranking the bastard for all it was worth.
“What’s wrong with it?” he asked, his voice an amused rumble that sent liquid honey dancing through my veins.
I wanted to drown myself in that voice.
Instead, like the cool kid I was, I licked my lips, ignored the way the action caught his attention, and said, “I don’t know. It’s been a little weird lately. I, uh, brought it up to Dad. But he’s had other things on his mind and… I don’t know. I’m not a car person.”
In fact, I was so much not a car person that, at times, the only thing I knew to try was to add gas to it.
The light from the setting sun caught the amusement in Haggard’s light blue eyes.
“Hop out,” he ordered.
I did, tugging my skirt down as I moved.
His eyes lingered on the tops of my thighs before moving up the length of my body.
That was when I was painfully aware that I’d forgotten about my top.
I’d tugged it up at some point when I got into the car, and then had unbuttoned my skirt, because Mexican food. Okay?
His eyes lingered at the space, and I shrugged. “I was full, okay?”
He shook his head, as if he was mad at himself for looking, and then moved around me and the massive door to drop down into the car.
“Can’t believe you’re still driving this,” he admitted. “Your dad said a year ago he was going to get you a new one for your graduation present.”
I winced. “I haven’t graduated yet, though.”
He shrugged. “No, but he knew it was a POS—piece of shit—so I would’ve thought he’d have just given it to you.”
“Given?”
His mouth snapped shut, and he refused to say another word while my mind whirled.
Did my dad have another vehicle for me to drive? And if he did, why wasn’t I using it right now?
Instead of asking any of those questions that were on the tip of my tongue, I instead stayed quiet and watched him fiddle first inside, then outside under the hood.
And let me tell you something, folks.
Watching a man like Haggard underneath the hood of a car? It was like an aphrodisiac.
Haggard was sexy as hell, sitting idle. With his hands in an engine? It was like he was trying to get me to jump him.
He had no clue, either.
Just no clue how sexy he was, and how much I wanted him with every single cell in my body.
“Looks like it needs to be towed,” he admitted. “You can catch a ride with me.”
Oh. My. God.
Catch a ride with him.
I looked around us for I don’t know what and then settled on him.
“I’m wearing a skirt,” I blurted.
I wanted to ride with him.
So freakin’ bad.
Being pressed up against him while I rode down the road on the back of his bike? I couldn’t think of one single thing I’d rather do in this world than that.
“I’d never let anything hurt you,” he promised.
He’d made it a rule for Clem to never be on his bike, or anyone else’s, without the proper attire.
But today, he was breaking that rule for me.
I couldn’t decide if that meant he didn’t care about me as much as Clem, or if he wanted me there so much, he was willing to put aside his hard and fast rules. Ones he never broke.
Whatever the reason, it sent sparks of exhilaration through my body, and I smiled.
“I haven’t been on a bike ride in forever,” I admitted. “Jasper…”
Jasper used to take me all the time. But with him no longer here…
He cupped my face, and then I found myself in his arms for a brief, hard hug.
I closed my eyes as tears stung them and threatened to break free.
I sniffled, unable to stop myself, and waited for him to let me go before I said, “You’re seriously the best, Mr. C.”
He winked. “I thought we got rid of that a long time ago?”
We had.
It’d taken me almost a year and a half from when I met Clem, and when I was introduced to Haggard, to stop calling him that.
“Let’s ride.” He tugged a stray link of hair that’d fallen free of my messy bun—the only type of hairdo I seemed to wear nowadays.