It takes at least an hour for Holly to explain the set-up of all the paper documents and then another hour before I can even begin making sense of their system. No wonder this business is going to shit. There’s not even an accurate way to track the expenses. Apparently there are also shoeboxes full of receipts that Bill has never gotten around to adding into the budget. This is so not good. Updating the computers alone in this place is going to cost a pretty penny. I can only imagine what the track looks like. I’ll have to look into that tomorrow.
Holly interlocks her fingers and stretches her arms above her head, allowing the gray uniform top she’s wearing to ride up and bit and give me a peek at her toned stomach. “I need a break. What about you?”
I fold the page over in the book I’m reading through and rub my eyes. “I’m starving. Where’s a good place to eat around here?”
“If you drive into town, there are a few places.”
I tilt my head. “You don’t want to come with me?”
She shakes her head. “There’s stuff to make peanut butter sandwiches in the house.”
I knit my brow in confusion. “Peanut butter sandwiches for dinner?”
“Why not? It’s cheap and filling,” she argues.
I stand and find that my ass is all sweaty from sitting on the black, plastic stool for such a long period of time. “You aren’t eating that. Get your ass up. You’re coming to dinner with me.”
She frowns. “Really, I can’t go. I can’t afford it.”
Now I feel like a total jackass. “My treat. I’ve been a jerk to you since I got here. The least I can do is buy you dinner to make up for it. We can go anywhere you want.”
She drops her eyes to the counter while she thinks it over. “Okay. But this doesn’t change what I said earlier. I still won’t sleep with you.”
“I haven’t asked you to, have I?”
“Well…not in those exact words, but your actions—”
I grab her arm and haul her up off the stool. “Like I told you, if I intended on fucking you, you’d know it. Now quit talking nonsense and come on. I’m so hungry I’m about to gnaw my arm off.”
I don’t give her much choice in the matter. The caveman in me comes out and I pull her behind me out the door.
The sun setting over the mountainside helps cool down the intense September heat, but it doesn’t change it that drastically. Now instead of one hundred and five degrees, it’s a balmy eighty-eight. Whoever told me the high temperatures in Arizona were a different kind of heat to Kentucky was fucking loony. Eighty-eight is still fucking eighty-eight. It’s the kind of heat where it feels like a furnace is blowing directly on you and your balls stick to your leg. It’s fucking uncomfortable.
I continue to pull Holly along until we reach a black Mustang parked around back.
“WOW! How much do you make working for this investor? That car is beautiful.” Holly twists out of my hold and begins walking around the car slowly. “Is this a two thousand fourteen—a V-8?”
She runs her hand along the hood, caressing the sleek paint job. “I think so. It’s not mine. It’s a rental. I’m not much of a car fanatic. As long as it’s fast, I like it.”
Her head snaps up in my direction and her eyes widen. “Most guys won’t let anyone touch their baby, but since it’s not technically yours, will you let me drive it? I’ve always wanted to test one of these babies out.”
The gleam in her eye is the same one I get when I get a new set of drums, or find a hot piece of ass. When something you really want is within your grasp it’s easy to get that look of awe on your face. Fuck me. I never imagined a car would turn her on. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a woman get hot and bothered by a car.
“Sure.” I toss the keys over the hood and she catches them with quick, nimble fingers. “Anything to relieve that lady-boner of yours.”
“I should say you’re a perv for that remark, but since you’re letting me drive this beautiful machine, I’ll let that one slide.” A genuine smile toys with her lips and it’s nice to feel like we can actually be friends. “I can’t believe you’re letting me drive it. Do you know how much these things cost?”
I open my mouth to tell her money really isn’t a big deal for me but quickly close it, remembering this is the same girl that didn’t want to go out to grab a dinner with me because she didn’t have the money for a proper meal.
I shrug and play it cool. “No clue, but I’ve got insurance. Besides, if you scratch it, I can find more creative ways for you to pay me back.”
She rolls her eyes as she opens the driver’s door. “If you want to make it through the next month with your nuts fully intact, I suggest you cut all your bullshit and quit trying to get in my pants.”
I flop down in the passenger seat and glance over in her direction as she cranks the engine. As much as I know she’s right—nothing can ever happen between us—it doesn’t deter my normal, overly sexual personality. It’s just the way I communicate with women. They always respond the way I want them to.
Well, they usually do.
Holly is an entirely new breed of woman for me. She doesn’t give in easily to my bullshit lines, which is both frustrating and intriguing at the same time. It doesn’t help that she’s fucking beautiful, and I’ve tasted those perfect lips before.
I lean my head back against the headrest and allow my eyes to trace over every inch of her as she revs the motor and shifts gears. “You can drive stick. I’m impressed.”
Holly’s eyes cut towards me. “Why?”
“I guess it fits working on a track and all, but most hot girls can’t do it. I think they’re afraid they’ll break a nail or some shit.”
The tires bark as they meet the blacktop of the main stretch of road. “Not me. I love anything fast.”
The bare skin showing on her thighs as her shorts ride up while she works the clutch is nearly enough to make me go out of my mind. They’re so tanned and toned. I imagine her wrapping them around my waist and I have to restrain myself from biting my own knuckle and letting out a, “God damn”.
Holly notices me staring at her as she slides her eyes towards me. “What are you looking at?”
I smirk as I think about telling her the truth and trying one more time to get in her pants, but then remember I love my balls far too much to push her much more. So, I do what any respectable guy caught in my position would do, lie. “Just wondering why someone like you doesn’t have a boyfriend?”
Her brow furrows and her pretty pink lips twist. “Who says I don’t have one?”
I chuckle. “No one has to tell me. It’s obvious you don’t.”
Her heads whips to the right. “Yes…I mean no. Yes, someone had to tell you because no, it’s not obvious.”
I’ve flustered her. Maybe I can actually tap into what makes this girl tick. It would be nice to find common ground and make my relationship with her a little more pleasant. After all, if I have to deal with her indefinitely, I’d at least like us to be friendly.
I shrug. “I know you don’t for two reasons. Number one, I’ve been with you most of the day and you haven’t gotten one phone call or text from a guy.” She opens her mouth to argue with me, but I cut her off. “Believe me, if I had a girl like you, I’d be calling all the time. And the second thing, no guy in their right mind would be okay letting his girl go anywhere with me. Women are defenseless against my sexiness. You should know that.”
She laughs. “Oh. My. God. You are so full of yourself. I’ve never met anyone like you. If I hadn’t been drunk last night, you wouldn’t have got that far with me.”
“Kid yourself all you want, sweetness. You liked it.” I grin. “As for the comment about meeting anyone like me, I’ll take it as a compliment.”
“You shouldn’t, because I didn’t mean it as one.”
“Well, however you meant it, I like standing out. You’re talking to a guy who dyes his hair to do just that, remember?”
She smiles and nods. “Touche. Very true.”
We ride in silence for a few more minutes and my mind drifts back to the topic of Holly and a boyfriend. I know she’s kind of a bitch, or at least likes to come off as one, but I can’t imagine one of these local yahoos couldn’t overlook that to tap her fine ass on a regular basis. It’s driving me nuts. “Really, I have to know. Why don’t you have a boyfriend?”
She sighs. “I had one until recently, but he turned into kind of an asshole. So now I’m waiting until I find a guy who meets all the requirements on my checklist.”
