Vico met Deacon’s stare and flickered his eyebrows.
The cheeky bastard was challenging him. Deacon rose to it and pulled the poppers on his overall, flexing his muscles, drawing her gaze right back to him as he stripped it off.
When he was sure he had caught her attention, he winked.
All is fair in love and war, he told himself, right?
* * * *
“Climb in. You get a great view from up here.” The bloke called Deacon patted the seat next to him.
The other one, Vico, was at her back, standing with one arm up against the door of the pick-up truck, almost touching her. Astrid swayed, barely resisting the urge to take a step back and feel that limber, muscled body against her back. She glanced over her shoulder at him and smiled, then looked into the front seat of the truck and wondered how the hell she’d got herself into this situation. Twenty minutes ago she’d had to physically and mentally brace herself to approach the workshop, because dealing with mechanics unnerved her so badly. With all their brawn and secret knowledge they made her—a confident business woman—feel clumsy and stupid. Her regular mechanic was a mature gent who specialised in classics. Him, she could cope with. These two were something else. Walking in to their space had been like walking into an exotic foreign land, one that was redolent with masculinity.
They hadn’t made her feel stupid about the car needing attention, though, for which she was grateful. In fact they had both gone out of their way to be charming. And now, somehow, they had convinced her to get into a recovery truck, where she was apparently going to be squeezed into a bench seat between the pair of them. Talk about overload of testosterone. These two were positively oozing with it, and their bravado and charm meant she‘d been swept along easily with their suggestion.
Again Deacon patted the seat next to him. If she didn’t know better, she’d think the two of them were competing over her. That couldn’t be the case because they’d only just met. She shrugged the feeling off. They probably acted this way with all their customers, friendly and charming. She dropped her bag into the floor space and clambered in.
“Allow me.” Deacon reached across to strap her seat belt on.
She caught a breath of his cologne as he buckled her in and it made her think about rolling across a bed with him, naked. Where the hell had that come from? Her eyes flashed shut and then open, her spine straightening. Her pulse rate was already erratic and now it paced up, her entire body kindling. He was a good-looking bloke that was why. They both were. Deacon was built large and powerful, with massive shoulders and arms, like a weight lifter. He had dreamy blue eyes and closely cropped brown hair that made her want to run her hands over his head. Vico was sleeker—lean and hard, physically—and darker in colouring. He had longer hair and sharp features, dramatic cheekbones and a killer smile.
Deacon clicked the belt into place, and winked at her.
This was going to be a test of her ability to hold it together, she could tell. Once she’d agreed to the lift, they’d peeled off their overalls, washed up and closed up the workshop—inside the space of two minutes. They looked pretty damn good, too, in tight jeans and T-shirts.
When Vico climbed in behind her, she found herself squeezed on both sides by solid male thighs. Folding her arms around her waist, she wondered where she should put her hands and bit her lip to stop herself smiling when she realised the obvious place was one on each of those sculpted thighs.
Deacon switched on the engine and it roared into life. He nodded at the road. “Where to?”
“My appointment is about four minutes’ drive on the easterly road.”
Moments later they were roaring along the open country road out of town, and the height of the truck gave her a great view of her beloved Yorkshire Dales. The view and the company took the edge off her feeling about the appointment she had to attend. As she gave directions, she acknowledged the fact that these two were giving her beleaguered confidence a much-needed boost. It was the last thing she’d expected as she’d reluctantly headed over to their workshop, but with the event that lay ahead she was grateful for what their attention was doing for her, because she was dreading the party.
The event she was attending was her best friend’s engagement party. The problem wasn’t Lucia, her best friend since school days. The problem was that Lucia was engaged to Roger, Astrid’s ex. Two years it had been since he’d done the dirty on her, but it still hurt. It also meant she found it difficult to trust and get involved again. And now Roger was marrying her best buddy. Lucia knew what a bastard he’d been, but apparently that hadn’t stopped her getting involved. It was all horribly awkward, but she’d vowed to be polite and rise above her base emotions, for Lucia’s sake.
The truck drew to halt. Astrid glanced at the house. It was Lucia’s parents’ place. She’d visited many times in the past. Heart-shaped balloons decked the porch. The front door was open, music spilled out, and people were milling about in the hallway. She sighed, her spirits sinking.
“You don’t want to go to this party, do you?” It was Vico the gypsy-looking guy.
She shook her head. “Nope. Is it that obvious?”
He lifted one shoulder in a kind of lazy shrug.
“No. I don’t want to go, not really, but I have to.”
He drew her hand to his mouth and kissed the back of her fingers. The action sent a delicious shiver of anticipation through her, her body responding.
Glancing up at her as he kissed her, his eyes twinkled. “You have to go? That’s a shame. We could go get a drink otherwise.”
He really was flirting with her.
“Yes, the three of us could go get a drink.” Deacon had switched off the engine and was watching Vico flirt with a wry smile. “What’s the event?” he added.
“It’s my best friend’s engagement party. I was just going to show my face for twenty minutes.” As she glanced from one to the other of them, an idea occurred to her. “I don’t suppose you’d like to come in with me, just for a few minutes, get a drink and a canapé? The invitation said I could bring someone.”
Or two. There would be several cliques in there, and that was what she was dreading most of all. She’d feel much less like a sore thumb if she had company. Especially such good looking, sexy company. The very thought of it boosted her confidence and steadied her nerves. She smiled. When she did, they both reacted.
“Sounds great,” Deacon replied.