She pouted at her knees and then scowled at the hose before letting her boyfriend help her stand again. When she looked back up at me, I was right in front of her. Her full cheeks glowed red, and she laughed awkwardly. “That was embarrassing.”
The unwanted guy dropped to a squat in front of her and worked up her dress, revealing her perfect legs up to her thighs. He grunted when he saw her knees. “Babe. You’re a mess.”
I glared at the back of his head. “Opie shouldn’t have left his tools in the way. It’s not her fault.”
Winnie pushed at her dress and tugged the guy up. “Um, Gabe, get up. I’m okay.”
“Do you have a first aid kit? She’s a klutz, and if I didn’t clean up all of her wounds, she’d probably just be one giant scar by now.”
I narrowed my eyes at him as he leaned in and pressed a kiss to the side of her face. Then he turned to meet my gaze as he stretched his arm around her, letting his hand brush her tits as he did, before pulling her into his chest. My blood pressure went through the roof, and I was thinking about letting a car fall on the asshole.
Instead of addressing him, I nodded to Winnie. “Come on.”
I could feel her following me and could hear them whispering at each other. Leading them into my office, I motioned the guy to one of the chairs at the corner of the room and then motioned for Winnie to get on my desk.
“Um, Gabe can do it. That’s okay.”
“Gabe’s not doing shit. Get on the desk, Win.” I leaned forward with my fists braced on the desktop, ready for a fight. Gabe could try it if he wanted, but I had an unhealthy month of desire and a lot of rage on my side.
Gabe finally threw his head back and laughed. “Jesus. Winnie, put the man out of his misery.”
Since she wasn’t moving fast enough, I moved around to her and lifted her onto my desk, slowly raising her skirt until I could see her knees. With my fingers on the bare skin of her thighs, all my blood rushed to my dick and I struggled to make sense of what Gabe was talking about. It didn’t seem like Winnie was feeling motivated to spill the beans.
Gabe stood up and moved closer, patting me on the back. “I’d be more interested in you, mechanic man. Gabe. Winnifred Lane’s gay best friend and accomplice to make sure she didn’t get ripped off by some grimy mechanic. I can see now that the only thing getting ripped off are her panties. I’m going to go out and see if Opie is as curious as his eyes were.”
“Gabe!”
“Sorry, babe. This man wanted to kill me. I’m into rough sex, but not when the motivation is actual murder. Good luck, Winnie.” He stopped and narrowed his eyes at me. “Just because I’m putting you out of your misery right now doesn’t mean I won’t come to your house in the middle of the night and cut your tongue out if you hurt my best friend. Are we clear?”
My anger faded away completely and I slowly smiled. “We’re clear, Gabe.”
As soon as the door closed and I was alone with Winnie, I smiled down at her and rested my hands on her thighs. “Well, Winnifred Lane. You’ve been fucking with my brain for the last month, and now you’re in my office. What should I do with you?”
She pressed her hands to her cheeks and pulled down, stretching her face as she did. I’d seen my son, Henry, do the same thing about a million times while rolling his eyes at me. Instead of rolling her eyes, Winnie blew a raspberry. “I am so embarrassed.”
“Why? Because you didn’t think you were going to have to see me again? Was that your plan when you ran out of the church butt naked?” I grabbed the first aid kit from the wall, bitter to have to move away from her body for even a moment, and dropped it next to her thigh on my desk.
“I wasn’t butt naked.” Her voice was small, but when I looked up from her knees, her eyes held some of the fire I’d seen when she’d been bent over the desk. “But... yes. I didn’t exactly plan on running into you. I can’t go to the mechanic in town because he’s my ex-father-in-law, and Gabe pointed out that he’s a real creep. My car is making a weird noise, though, and I can’t keep turning the stereo up to ignore it because Birdie is over the oldies station, which is the only station that comes in clear.”
I planted both of my hands on her thighs and sighed. “I know you’re not kidding, but I’m going to tell myself you’re just fucking with me so that I don’t lose it right here and now.”
“What?”
“You’ve just been turning the stereo up to ignore whatever sound the car was making?”
She giggled, then stopped and made an exaggerated frowning face when she saw my scowl. “Sorry.”
11
Winnie
Jack’sthunderousexpressionshould’vealarmed me. Instead, it made me want to wiggle closer to him. I wasn’t doingthat, though. That was crazy… Right?
Jack kept one rough hand on me as he opened the first aid kit and went through it. He pulled out a few different things, and then looked up at me through his lashes. “This might burn.”
I gasped when he sprayed something on my knees and fire erupted across both of them. Wincing, I bit my lip and tried to remember that I was an adult. I should’ve been able to handle a little injury better than one of my students.
Jack squatted in front of me and gently blew his warm breath over my skin, easing the burn of my knees and igniting another burn entirely. He looked up at me from his position between my knees and smirked. “You keep looking at me like that and we’re going to scandalize everyone else in this shop.”