Last Virgin In California (Mills & Boon Desire) (14 page)

He inhaled slowly, deeply, grateful to have survived. Hell, he’d been in combat zones and felt more optimistic about living through the day.

Now that their mad rush through traffic was over, he turned his head and gaped at her. “You drive like a maniac.”

She grinned, clearly unoffended. “That’s what my dad used to say.”

“Smart man,” Davis managed to grind out. “How about I deal with him, instead?”

She sobered quickly. “I wish you could. But he passed away two years ago.”

“Oh. Sorry.” He heard the echo of pain in her voice and knew that she still missed him.

“You couldn’t have known,” Marie told him. “So,” she added, “do you want me to fix this baby for you or not?”

Spotting a problem and knowing how to fix it were two different things. Besides, if her car-repair skills were as reckless as her driving, he could be asking for trouble here. “How do I know you
can
fix it?”

She leaned one forearm across the top of the steering wheel and shifted in her seat, turning to face him. “I guess you don’t, Sergeant. You’ll just have to take a chance.”

“I just took enough chances for a lifetime.”

Her grin widened. “I thought you marines liked a little risk now and then.”

“Lady, I’m just glad you don’t drive a tank.”

“Me, too,” she said, then added, “though I’d like to give it a try someday.”

Davis laughed shortly. “I bet you would.”

If he wasn’t careful, he could get to like this woman. She was damned unusual, though. No open flirting. No coy smiles. Just confidence and a take-no-prisoners attitude. She had a great laugh, amazing eyes and a figure that would be able to thaw the polar ice caps. Damn, if he wasn’t responding to her in a big way.

“So? Are you going to trust me with your baby?”

A challenge gleamed in her eyes and he automatically responded to it. But what marine wouldn’t?

“Okay, Car Surgeon,” he said, “you’re on.”

She nodded. “Come on into the shop, I’ll write it up.”

He watched her as she climbed out of the Mustang, cheeks flushed, eyes bright, her long, lean limbs carrying her in an easy stride toward the office. And Davis knew he’d never think of mechanics in the same way again.

M
arie felt his gaze on her as surely as she would have his touch. At
that
thought, a small shiver of anticipation rattled along her spine even as the still-rational corner of her mind told her to forget it.

Guys like him were never interested in women like her.

Behind her, she heard his car door open, then close. The soft crunch of his footsteps on the gravel drive heralded his approach. Her mouth went dry. Ridiculous. She was way too old to get butterflies just because some man gave her a second look. Some
gorgeous
man, she silently corrected. She stepped behind the counter, picked up a pen and started filling out the work order.

He walked into the office and stopped directly opposite her.

“So,” she asked, with what she hoped was a professionally casual tone, “I need your name and address and a phone number where you can be reached.”

He nodded and took the pen from her, his fingers brushing hers lightly in the process. Her skin tingled and she shrugged it off as static electricity. The fact that no one else had ever given her a spark like that in the office was beside the point. As he filled in the form, he asked, “How long is this going to take? I need my car.”

Ah, she thought, there was definitely safety in sticking to business.

“Everybody does,” she pointed out. “But I’m pretty open right now. Shouldn’t take more than a couple of days.”

He glanced at her. “You do all the work yourself?”

Was he still hoping there’d be a man overseeing her work? A bit defensive, she said, “Yes, it’s just me. Well, except for Tommy Doyle who comes in three afternoons a week. Does that worry you?”

“That depends. Who’s Tommy Doyle, and is he going to be working on my car?”

“Tommy’s sixteen, and no, he’s not.” She waved one hand at the open doorway leading into the
service bay. “He cleans up and gives me a hand sometimes.”

His expression clearly said, “Keep that kid away from my car.”

“Look, Sergeant—”

“Call me Davis.”

Oh, she didn’t think so. No point in getting on a first-name basis with the man. Better she keep this professional. As she knew it would stay. He might give her behind and her legs the once-over, but when it came right down to it, men just weren’t interested in dating their mechanic.

“
Sergeant
, I can fix your car. If you want to leave it here, I can give you a loaner for a couple of days.”

His eyebrows lifted. “A loaner?”

“Yeah,” she said, knowing he was thinking that a business as small as hers wouldn’t have anything so civilized as loaner cars. But she had a few. Of course, they didn’t look like much, since she tended to buy old junkers and get them into running condition for just such situations. “You can take the Bug out there.”

He glanced over his shoulder at the battered gray-and-red Volkswagen. Dents dotted its surface and splotches of primer paint made it look as though it had a skin condition.

She noted his expression and fought down a smile. “It’s not a beauty,” she admitted, “but it will get you back and forth to the base.”

“Will it get me to a restaurant, too?” he asked, sliding his gaze back to her.

“Wherever you aim it, it will go,” she assured him. “Though the valets at the Five Crowns might not want to park it for you.”

Just the thought of her poor little Bug cruising up the elegant drive of the best restaurant on the coast brought a smile to her face. That smile faded when he spoke again.

“I was thinking more along the lines of that coffee shop I passed on my way here—if I could buy you some lunch.”

Her stomach skittered nervously and she didn’t like it. She much preferred being in control. And as long as she was being Marie the mechanic, she was. But heck, nobody ever asked her out. Men didn’t usually look past her skills with tools to search for the woman within.

And now that it had happened, she wasn’t real sure how to respond. So she settled for what felt natural—making a joke.

“At three o’clock in the afternoon?” She forced a laugh she didn’t feel to let him know she wasn’t taking him seriously and so he shouldn’t worry about a thing. “A little late for lunch.”

“And early for dinner,” he agreed. “But they’d probably serve us anyway.”

“Uh…thanks,” she said, shaking her head and
taking the completed form from him. “But I’ve got work to do and besides, I don’t date—”

“Marines?” he finished for her.

“Customers,” she corrected, though if she wanted to, she could have told him her sentence had been pretty much complete the first time. She didn’t date. Period. In fact, Marie couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a real date.

No. Wait a minute. That was wrong. She could remember. She’d just made a conscious effort to forget the experience. As any sane woman would.

Two years ago it was, just before Papa died. And the night had ended early as soon as her date blew a tire. He didn’t know how to fix the flat and had wanted to call the auto club. But since they were already late for the movie, Marie had fixed it herself.

Judging from her date’s expression as he rolled past her house fifteen minutes later and practically shoved her out the door, she’d committed a sin the equivalent of a girl beating up the bully picking on her boyfriend.

“Well, then,” he said with another of those slow smiles, “we’ll just have to wait until my car is officially off your lot and I’m no longer a customer.”

Where was all this coming from? she wondered. On the test drive, he’d looked like he wanted to strangle her. Now he’s all smiles and invites? Why?

And why did that gleam in his eyes make her as
nervous as she’d been the first time she’d done a brake job on her own? Man. Spending your growing-up years in a garage with your dad really didn’t prepare you much for the whole man-woman game.

“Is it a deal?” he asked.

She was saved from having to answer him by the sound of a car pulling into her driveway. Marie looked past Davis’s shoulder and almost sighed with relief. The cavalry was here. Her little sister, Gina, could always be counted on to monopolize a conversation when a man was around.

Gina jumped out of her compact, slammed the door and ran across the gravel drive to the garage. Dressed in white jeans, a deep green T-shirt and girly sandals that were no more than tiny straps attached to paper-thin soles and completely inappropriate for the weather, she looked like an ad for summer in the middle of the Christmas season. Her short, dark brown hair curled around her head in careless waves that Marie knew took her sister at least an hour to create. Gina’s brown eyes lit with undisguised interest as she spotted the sergeant.

“Hi, Marie,” she said, never glancing at her sister. “I came to tell you we’re going to miss all the good sales if you don’t close up now.”

Saved! She’d forgotten all about promising to take their nephew Christmas shopping. Grateful for an excuse to get Davis Garvey moving along, she said, “Right. I’ll be ready in a second.”

“Aren’t you going to introduce me?” Gina practically purred, apparently forgetting about the big rush to leave. She didn’t bother waiting for an introduction as she walked up to Davis, held her hand out like a Southern belle at a debutante ball and said, “Gina Santini. And you are…?”

“Davis Garvey.” He took her hand briefly and gave her a distracted smile.

“You’re a marine, aren’t you?” Gina asked, smiling.

“That’s right.” He didn’t even look surprised that she’d known his identity as easily as Marie had.

A part of Marie watched in envy as Gina turned on her charm. Honestly, she didn’t know how her younger-by-two-years sister did it. Flirting came as easily as breathing to Gina. Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully as she noted the practiced moves. A light touch on Davis’s arm. Flipping her hair back with a subtle movement. A ripple of laughter that floated out around them musically.

Marie had been witness to Gina’s flirting hundreds of times over the years, and she’d always enjoyed watching the hapless target of her intentions stumble over his tongue. But for some reason, she didn’t particularly want to see Davis Garvey reduced to a puddle of drooling male. In fact, for the first time ever, Marie felt a surprising spurt of resentment at her little sister’s quick moves.

Honestly, you’d think the girl could have a little
self-control. Did she really have to make a conquest wherever she went?

At least though, Marie told herself, the sergeant wouldn’t be pretending interest in
her
. Who would, when faced with Gina’s more obvious charms?

But, he managed to surprise her again. Far from succumbing to Gina, Davis was actually looking
past
the tiny bundle of dynamite to stare at Marie instead.

A small curl of pure, feminine pleasure floated through her. And when she met Davis’s steady gaze, that pleasant feeling thickened and warmed inside her. Good heavens, the man had amazing eyes. And the rest of him wasn’t bad, either.

When Gina paused for breath, he said, “If you’ll give me the keys to the loaner, I’ll leave you my car and you can take off for your shopping.”

“Okay.” She should have been ashamed of herself. There was a small part of her that was really enjoying Gina’s stunned surprise at being overlooked. Smiling, Marie opened a drawer and grabbed up a set of keys.

As he took the keys from her, his fingertips scraped the palm of her hand, sending new bolts of electricity along her nerve endings. Marie curled her fingers into a tight fist and fought to ignore the sensation.

It wasn’t easy.

Smiling as if he knew just what she was feeling,
he dropped his own keys onto the workbench. “You’ll take good care of my car?”

Did his voice really have to take on such an intimate note? Or was she reading more into it than he’d intended? Opting for the latter, and struggling to get her imagination under control, she quipped, “I’ll sing it to sleep every night and tuck it in personally.”

His eyebrows lifted and one corner of his mouth twitched. “Lucky car.”

Her stomach flipped again. Oh, for heaven’s sake.

“Two days?” he asked.

“Uh…yes. Two days.”

“I’ll see you then.” Turning, he walked past Gina with a nod. Then he stopped, looked at Marie and said, “Think about lunch.”

As he walked slowly to the Volkswagen, Gina stepped up beside her sister. Both women watched him as he fired up the little car and pulled out of the drive onto the street that would take him back to the base.

“Lunch?” Gina asked.

“Yeah.”

“He asked you to lunch?”

Why did she say that in the same tone someone would ask, “You were abducted by aliens?”

“Yes, he asked me to lunch.” She turned to glare at Gina. “Is that really so hard to believe?”

“’Course not,” Gina said, giving her a pat on the shoulder. “You’re going, aren’t you?”

“No.”

“Why not? He’s gorgeous.”

“He’s a customer.”

“That is so medieval.” Gina crossed to the far corner of the counter, opened a drawer and pulled out one of the candy bars Marie kept stocked there. As she unwrapped the chocolate, she muttered, “You really need to get a life.”

“I have a life, thanks.” Marie told her and locked the connecting door to the service bay. Then she led her sister outside and walked to Davis’s car. She had to pull it into the garage and lock it up. Wouldn’t do to take chances with the sergeant’s car. After she’d parked the Mustang alongside an ancient Fiat in for a brake job, she got out of the car to discover Gina still talking.

“Okay, then, at the very least, you need glasses. Did you see the way he looked at you?”

“He had to look at me to talk,” Marie said briskly. “It’s polite.”

“Polite had nothing to do with it.”

“Cut it out, Gina.”

“Me?” She took a bite of candy and waved one hand in the air. “Heck, I gave him my best smile and even fluttered my big baby browns at him and it was like I wasn’t there.”

Marie smiled and shook her head. “Just because
you’re slipping doesn’t mean he was interested in me.”

“Honey,” Gina said, “any man who looks at you like that, despite the fact that you’re a
mechanic
of all things, is
not
just being polite.”

Pleasure whirled through Marie briefly at the thought. But a moment later, she firmly stomped it into oblivion. She wasn’t going to play that game again. Convince herself that a man was interested in her. Indulge in daydreams and wicked fantasies and then have to pick her heart up off the garage floor when reality kicked in.

No, thanks. Been there, done that. Way too many times. Not lately, of course. But her memories of splintered crushes and hurt feelings were vivid.

“Honestly, Marie, don’t you
like
men?”

“What’s not to like?” she asked, again retreating into humor that was comfortable. Safe.

“Then for pity’s sake, make an effort.”

“What do you want me to do, little sister? Hit some guy over the head with a socket wrench and drag him into the garage?”

“A woman’s gotta do what a woman’s gotta do.”

“Gina,” she said as she keyed in the code in the electric alarm system, pushed her sister out the garage doors, closed them and firmly set the padlock in place, “give it a rest, okay? I’m perfectly happy. Believe it or not, you do not
need
a man to make your life complete.”

“Doesn’t hurt,” Gina mumbled as she finished the candy and stuffed the wrapper into her jeans pocket.

Sure it did, Marie thought. It hurt plenty. Every time she took a chance, only to be flattened by the fist of love, it hurt.

“There’s nothing—” she paused for effect “—repeat
nothing
going on here. The sergeant just wants his engine worked on.”

Gina’s eyebrows wiggled and she grinned at her sister. “I bet it’s a real nice engine, too.”

A heartbeat passed before Marie laughed. “Good God, girl,” she said with a shake of her head, “take a pill. Your hormones are in overdrive again.”

“Better overdrive than stalled.”

This is what she had to put up with because she’d loaned her car to Mama. Putting up with Gina should be enough to curb future bouts of generosity.