0-69 in 5 Minutes (2 page)

Digging in her bag once again, she pulled
out a business card and passed it to him. Wanda’s Astrological
Readings. The woman was here to promote her business, not find a
date.

“
Any time you want me to
finish your reading, give me a call, handsome.” She winked at
him.

Did she really think her talk about danger
and love would make him run to her office or spend hard earned cash
for a load of bull? Of course people fall in love and hearts get
broken. And who didn’t lie in this day and age?

“
Switch,” the coordinator
called out, and the men moved down the line like pro-stocks in the
staging lanes.

Should he line up and follow the crowd, or
keep walking out the door? Why not meet a few more women, but what
could anyone learn about someone in five minutes? He was tired of
the blind dates his sister set him up on. The bar scenes weren’t
much better. Co-workers were out of the question since he worked
with all guys in his auto shop. Sometimes women clients came in,
but what woman desired a man covered in grease and oil? Women
wanted their men to at least smell attractive.

Oh, he could get a date. That wasn’t the
problem. The problem was finding the right woman to settle down
with, start a family. He wanted more than he’d had with all his
other relationships.

He worked his way down the line of tables.
As he sat across from an elderly lady propositioning him, he
thought about the last couple of women. They seemed nice. At least
they weren’t selling a service, but they just didn’t do it for him.
Whatever the reason, he couldn’t describe it. No one generated the
spark he’d looked for all his life. Maybe he wanted something that
didn’t exist. He didn’t bother with getting either of their numbers
nor the lady old enough to be his mother who wanted him to “get it
up” for her.

“
Switch.”

He gladly moved to the next table. Before
him sat a natural beauty. Shoulder length chestnut hair, soft bangs
swept to one side, hazel eyes and a white radiant smile. She was
toned as if she worked out. Sitting down, he couldn’t make out her
curves on the bottom half, but her breasts filled out her low cut
blouse.

“
Hello, I’m Noah Kittler.”
He flashed a smile, hoping to charm her.

“
That’s a nice set of
dimples you have there, Noah. I’m Valerie Jordan.” She leaned in
close, propped her elbows on the table and her chin on her right
hand.

If she moved any closer, he feared she would
pinch his cheeks as his grandma and aunts did. He felt his face
flush. In his experience, the boy-next-door smile turned women off.
They saw him as a big brother. No matter how hard he worked, how
much weight he lifted, he couldn’t rid himself of the little bit of
fat on his cheeks.

“
It’s nice to meet you,
Valerie.” He held his face still, refusing to play the big brother
role. If he kept his dimples in check, he could act the sexy hero
instead.

“
Please, call me Val.” She
changed her gaze and stared into his eyes.

His plan worked.

Maybe his sister’s idea
wasn’t so bad after all. He brushed his leg against hers. She
tilted her head and smiled with her full, sensuous lips. What was
he doing? Rushing things again. Hell, all he knew was her
name.
And she has glorious breasts I’d
love to see naked. Stop it!

“
Tell me about yourself,
Val.” He swallowed hard as she ran her foot up his leg. Did she
come here looking for sex? Sex was fine, but he could get that from
the women at the racetrack who wanted a ride in his ‘65 GTO. He
wanted something more out of life. Someone who wanted to be with
him, build a family, grow old together.
Then stop looking at her breasts.

In her defense, he had started the game. To
her favor, she had started his engine. Made his blood run straight
to his cock with one brush of her silky smooth foot.

“
I’m a
twenty-eight-year-old, never been married, manicurist. Live here in
town and operate my business from my home.” She rushed through her
speech as if she’d been rehearsing it for days.

“
Interesting.” His back
stiffened as he hid his grease stained hands under the table. The
embarrassment of his hands lingered in the back of his mind most of
the time, but knowing she cared for them as her profession,
increased his anxiety. Would she notice them? Be turned off by
them? Could he spend the evening with her on a date? The whole time
worrying over his hands?

“
What about you?” She took
a sip of her champagne.

He cleared his throat. “I live outside of
town. Have my own business, too, and I drag race on the
weekend.”

Hazel eyes twinkled in the candle light.
“Interesting.” She used his word back at him, but it sounded sexy
rolling off her lips. “Have you ever been married?”

The dreaded question. Usually it took a few
dates before he had to confess and come clean. At least she asked a
simple yes or no question. He could avoid the whole truth for a
while. “Yes, I have, but I’m divorced now.”

The answer seemed to please her. She smiled
and leaned toward the table. Would she be so pleased to find out he
had impulsively married four times before? None lasted longer than
a good oil change. And the ink had barely dried on the divorce
papers to his last wife. Her shit still cluttered his place.

She continued her questions like a
to-do-list needing to be checked off.

“
Do you have any
kids?”

“
No, no kids.” Sadly he’d
never been blessed with children. Perhaps they’d been spared from
the drama in his life. Still, he’d love to have a couple running
around in the yard.

“
Well then, Noah, I have a
proposition for you. How would you like to make yourself an easy
grand for two weeks’ work?”

He slumped his shoulders and relaxed his
hands. She had been too easy, too pretty, too right. There had to
be a catch to her and here it was.

Crazy.

The dame was down right crazy. Did she want
him to rob a bank? Kill an ex-lover? Well, whatever she had
planned, he could live without it.

On second thought, it would be nice to know
what he would have to do for the grand. If it wasn’t illegal, he
could make some much-needed upgrades to his GTO.

“
What’s the
job?”

* * * *

Oh, he was perfect. His blue eyes had
twinkled when she rubbed her foot on his muscled leg. He must have
thought she was an easy score, but she had to know if his legs were
as toned as his arms. Of course, they were.

His dimples were divine. For some odd
reason, she loved a dimpled face. Her heart had flipped when she
saw them. Two identical indentions on his cheeks. She wondered what
his other set of cheeks looked like. How they would feel in her
hands.

Slow down before you run
him off.
The advice might work in normal
circumstances, but she didn’t have time to slow down. She needed a
boyfriend who all but lived at her house and had advanced to the
meet-the-parents stage in a relationship.

After a deep breath, she gathered her nerve.
“All you have to do is pretend you’re my boyfriend and attend my
high school reunion. Of course, we’ll have to become very
acquainted with each other, and we only have two weeks. Afterwards,
I’ll tell my family we broke up, and you’ll get your grand.”

He stared at her in disbelief. “That’s all?
I don’t have to kill anyone or anything?”

She laughed, then stifled her amusement when
she noticed his seriousness. “No. You don’t have to kill anyone,
physically. Emotionally, I hope my ex cries for days after he sees
me in the best shape of my life and with a man sexier than he could
ever hope to be.”

Had she really confessed her attraction to
him out loud? Minutes ago she’d scoffed at the hornballs in the
room. Now drool threatened to drip from the corner of her
mouth.

The coordinator’s voice boomed over the
microphone, “Switch.”

Oh, no!
Her time was up, and he hadn’t answered. Months
of searching for the perfect man and he was about to move out of
her life. Well, maybe just move to the next table, but what if he
found a better offer a few seats down? There were a lot of
attractive women here tonight.

“
Move buddy, I’ve been
waiting to talk to number five all night.” A man wearing a wife
beater and ripped jeans nudged Noah over to the next
table.

Noah inched over without answering her
question. A lump formed in her throat. The man of her dreams… or
lies, however you wanted to phrase it, left her waiting for his
reply.

The next guy in line sat down. Dip bulged in
his lower lip, and he held an empty soda bottle to spit in. She
wrinkled up her nose and inched away from the table. His breath
overtook her when he opened his mouth and introduced himself.

“
Hello, hot momma. I’ve
been waiting to get in your panties since I saw you walk in the
door.” He spat in his bottle. Dip juice ran down his chin, and he
growled at her.

Gross!
She looked at Noah as he sat down with the woman next to her.
He hadn’t said yes, but he hadn’t taken his eyes off her
either.

“
Forget about him,
darlin’. He had his chance. I’ll be your man for two weeks. When
that times up though, you’ll be begging me to stay. I’ll satisfy
you like no other can.” He touched her hand, and she jerked back.
“What’s wrong, sugar britches? Afraid of a real man?” He reached
across the table again, seized her wrist and squeezed.

She tired to free her arm, but he tightened
his grip. Blood throbbed where he pressed and her fingers tingled
from the loss of oxygen.

“
Get your hands off my
woman.” Noah jumped up, grabbed the man’s arm and twisted it behind
his back until the man screamed out.

“
Quit, quit! I’ll leave
her alone.”

Quiet rushed through the room, and people
stopped to stare. Things happened so fast.

Noah let go with a light shove. “It’s a game
we play. You know, like go to the bar and act like you’re picking
up a woman when the woman is already your wife.”

“
Hey, buddy. Calm down. I
didn’t know.” The man rubbed his arm where Noah had twisted
it.

The coordinator and a few large guys with
Staff t-shirts hurried over. “Sir, we’re going to have to ask you
to leave.” The lady spoke in a soft voice to Noah, probably afraid
to upset the other daters and have them ask for a refund.

“
No problem, we were going
anyway.” Noah held out his hand to her.

She couldn’t leave him hanging there, make
him look bad in front of everyone after he’d defended her, but did
he always have such a hot temper? Maybe she should walk out with
him, tell him thanks and then politely excuse herself. But then
she’d be back to square one. Noah might be the only guy to fit her
description and it was a mere two weeks of her life.

While everyone stared, she took his hand and
exited the convention room with Noah. Once they were in the hotel
lobby, her feet and tongue froze. She started to plan her escape,
but thought twice before she said anything to ruin her chance to
pull off her lie.

“
I’m sorry about that
jerk. A man should never put his hands on a lady! In fact, I
wouldn’t call someone who did that a man. Are you all right?” He
took her wrist and tenderly rubbed. “Did he hurt you?”

“
No, I’m fine. Just a bit
shook up.” Maybe he did have a slight temper, but he’d used it to
defend her. Didn’t he say men shouldn’t hurt women? His outburst
seemed understandable.

“
I’m sorry about what I
said.” He released her wrist.

She wrinkled her brow, confused. What had he
said to apologize for?

“
About you being my woman.
It popped into my mind first.” He blushed a light pink, like he had
when she’d commented on his dimples.

Comfort washed over her as
his temper died down and concern took over. “Well, I did ask you to
be my man for two weeks. So…” She looked down at her feet. The nail
polish she’d expertly applied today looked stunning.
Oh, stop stalling and just ask.
“What do you say? Would you like to be my
lover?”

Chapter 2

Hell yeah, Noah wanted to be her lover.
Seeing the full length of her, he wanted her more than before.

Her short skirt skimmed the curves of her
hips and showed off a round firm ass. Shaped and toned legs went on
for days, making her close to eye level with him. Boobs were nice
to look at and touch, but he’d always been a leg man.

He watched her bite her
lower lip as she waited for his answer. How was he to tell her he
wanted to rent a room and drag her upstairs right now, when he
didn’t think she meant the word
lover
in the same fashion he did?
Pity. Because he’d love to get those well-toned thighs around his
waist.

On the other hand, if he played his cards
right, he might change her meaning before the two weeks were
through. “I would be honored to accompany you to your reunion and
spend the next two weeks getting to know you.”

Her shoulders relaxed and her eyes lit up.
He didn’t say yes for the money, but for the sheer pleasure of
knowing her dirty little secrets. And by the twinkle in her eyes,
those secrets must be juicy.

“
Where should we
start?”
A suite? His car? Or right here,
right now?

She waved her hand toward the bar. “How
about a drink?”