One of the Guys (7 page)

R
onnie couldn’t get enough
of Diego. Actually, they couldn’t get enough of each other.

For the most part they kept their hooking up low-key, but the men in the shop picked up on the relationship, mainly because of Diego’s drop-ins during the day, and every so often she and he sat in the parking lot on the tailgate of his truck, eating lunch together.

Her employees teased her mercilessly, making kissing sounds and reminding her of how much Diego annoyed her in the beginning.

“Live and learn,” was all she said and shrugged.

Almost every evening right before she closed the shop, he sauntered in and joined her in the office while she wrapped up paperwork. Each time she watched him walk through the door, she bit her lip and admired the slow, sexy walk he seemed to have mastered. No other man moved like him, with such casual confidence. And all the while, the memory of hot sex licked between her legs.

For their sexcapades they used the desk, or the only empty spot on the wall that didn’t have a piece of furniture pushed against it. She liked touching him. Every single part of him. If he wore a D&M Towing hat, Ronnie pushed it off his head and ran her fingers through his hair. At the earliest opportunity, she kissed his neck and slipped a hand under his shirt to touch warm skin and hard muscle.

But Diego was more than a handsome face and tight body. The similarities in their personalities attracted her to him, too. They were both very stubborn. They both worked hard to make their businesses succeed and wanted happy employees. Both enjoyed sports, although she questioned some of his choices in who he chose to root for.

They also liked to needle each other. His favorite thing to do was prop his feet on her desk. No matter how many times she told him not to. A surefire way to get Diego to do something was to tell him not to do it.

Ronnie was in the middle of writing checks for bills when Diego entered the office. “How about we grab a bite to eat after work tonight?”

She finished signing her name and looked up. The sight of him never failed to have the same effect each and every time. She caught her breath, and her heartbeat accelerated.

She couldn’t ever remember experiencing such breathless excitement in the presence of any man before. Every day she looked forward to seeing him, and when he went out on a call, she counted the minutes until his truck pulled into the parking lot.

“You want to go out?”

They’d never been out together. Their clandestine hookups remained restricted to the confines of the property.

“I have a taste for Chinese food.”

“I could go for Chinese,” Ronnie said.

“Good. I’ll drive.”

She walked around the desk, but instead of moving, Diego remained in the same position, blocking the door.

“Are you going to move?” she asked.

“Are you going to say excuse me?”

“I thought you had a taste for Chinese food?”

“I do. I have a taste for Veronica, too.”

He cupped her chin and gazed down into her eyes. Now that he had permission to touch her, he seemed to want to do so all the time. Her insides danced in anticipation. Every time he touched her she reacted in a visceral, instinctual way. The most innocuous of contact, such as placing a hand on her shoulder, caused her shoulder to tense. It wasn’t that he bothered her. It was just that he was a man and she was a woman, and whenever he touched her, she remembered that.

Diego kissed her slowly, as if he relished the taste of her mouth. Ronnie melted against him, and his hardening erection prodded her stomach.

“You’ve awakened
el Gigante
,” he said.

She laughed softly and playfully slapped his chest. He referred to his penis as the Sleeping Giant, or simply,
el Gigante
for short.

“Are you going to feed me or not?” She leaned into his sturdy chest.

He groaned and gave a quick suck of her neck. “I’ll feed you. You’re too cranky when you’re hungry.” He strolled off.

Something else they had in common. “Like you aren’t!” she shot back.

Instead of driving both vehicles, they agreed to take Diego’s truck the few miles to the restaurant.

He unlocked the passenger door, and when she started climbing into the truck, he placed a hand below her elbow.

Ronnie’s stomach gave way and she froze. She looked back at him.

A frown grooved his forehead. “Is something wrong?”

No stranger to hoisting heavy objects in the garage or climbing in and out of trucks, she didn’t need any help. But his strong, steady hand was surprisingly reassuring. She couldn’t possibly explain to him why such a simple gesture meant so much.

“No. Everything’s fine.”

She climbed up and his hand at her back helped her settle on the seat. The truck still carried that new-car smell. The supple leather seat cupped her derriere, and the wood grain interior shone like newly polished stone.

She watched him walk around to the driver’s side, his profile strong, his stride long and confident.

Before starting the vehicle, he turned a quizzical gaze on her. “You sure everything’s okay?”

“Yes. Can’t wait to eat.”

R
ed lanterns hung
from the red ceiling of the Chinese restaurant. The hostess seated Diego and Ronnie in a booth and took their drink orders. Then she left.

“What are you having?” Ronnie asked, reviewing the menu.

“I can tell you what I’d like to have,” Diego said, a slow smile coming over his face.

Heat surged in her blood. Whenever he looked at her with those sleepy, heat-filled eyes, she knew exactly what he wanted.

“I’m talking about what’s on the menu,” she said, tapping the laminated paper.

“Oh, what’s on the menu…” As if he didn’t know what she’d meant.

“Yes, what are you having?”

He snapped the menu shut and set it aside. “Mongolian beef.”

Ronnie trailed her gaze through the chicken and seafood options. “I’ll have the orange chicken. I haven’t eaten that in a while.”

She placed her menu on top of his. “So I see you sold the Corolla.”

A college-aged-looking young man had driven it off the lot late last week.

Diego nodded. “I need you to take a look at a Lexus, too. I should be able to make a pretty penny off that one.”

Ronnie squeezed lemon juice into her glass of water. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing, so far as I can tell, but I need you to give it the twenty-five-point inspection.”

“When do you think—”

The waitress chose that moment to come forward. Dressed in a traditional Chinese costume, including chopsticks in her hair, she smiled pleasantly and asked for their order. They told her their choices, but after she left, Ronnie didn’t get a chance to resume the conversation because a female police officer walked up to the table.

“Hello, Diego,” she said. Her honey-blonde hair was pulled into a neat up do under her hat.

Almost imperceptibly, Diego’s body tensed, which signaled to Ronnie right away that there was more to their acquaintance than simple friendship. Not to mention the officer practically ate him up with her eyes. Otherwise, he didn’t react much to the woman’s presence,

“Good to see you again,” she said.

“Good to see you, too.” He didn’t make any introductions, and after an awkward pause, the officer wished them a good night and walked away.

“What were you saying?” Diego sat casually in the chair, looking across the table at her as if he hadn’t skipped introducing the two women. Rather than call him on it, Ronnie behaved as if nothing unusual had occurred.

“When do you want me to look at the Lexus?” she asked.

“As soon as you can fit me in.”

Their food arrived, and they dug in. The conversation turned to sports, and he razzed her about the fact that the Hawks had been eliminated from the playoffs. They ended up in a spirited argument that took her mind off the lack of introduction with the police officer, when another woman wearing a figure-hugging black dress, which could only be described as glued to her thick frame, stopped at the table. Ronnie didn’t see how there was any way she got into the outfit without the aid of grease and an advanced pulley system.

“Hello Diego. I thought that was you.” She smiled at them both, but her eyes quickly shifted back to Diego.

Before he could reply, Ronnie stuck out her hand. The woman’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“Ronnie. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Sandra.” They shook hands.

“Diego, I hope we’ll see you again real soon.”

“You will.”

He returned to eating his food, and Sandra sashayed away.

“How do you know Sandra?” Ronnie asked, shoving chicken around on her plate.

“She works in the front office at Flower Power Plaza. I submitted a proposal to handle their towing.” His voice sounded suspiciously neutral. To Ronnie’s mind, overly so.

“I see. Did you sleep with her?”

His fork clattered to the plate when he dropped it. “Don’t—”

“Don’t what? Ask you questions about the women you’re screwing since you don’t seem very inclined to introduce them after you’re done?”

Why was she so upset? Those women didn’t matter, did they? Sure, she looked like a stick drawing next to their curvaceous forms, but Diego wanted her, Ronnie. He was sleeping with
her
.

For the moment.

In another month, maybe less, she’d be like the police officer and the front-office worker. Unworthy of introduction, treated to a simple hello and forced to dismiss herself at his lack of interest.

“Whatever you’re thinking—”

“I’m not thinking anything,” Ronnie snapped, glaring at him across the table.

She couldn’t eat another morsel. If she ate one more bite, she may puke everything onto the table. Ronnie pushed the plate to the side and sipped her water.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked in a stilted voice.

“Yes.”

A few minutes later, the waitress reappeared, and he called her over. She packed up Diego’s dinner, but Ronnie passed on hers.

They rode in utter silence to their workplace. Ronnie sat with her arms folded and stared out the window. As soon as he stopped the truck, she hopped out. He followed her to her vehicle, but when she tried to open the door, he came right behind her and held it shut, a strong forearm parallel to the corner of her eye.

“You’re very quiet.”

She wanted to argue but didn’t want to argue, worried about rocking the tenuous boat of their…She didn’t even know what they were doing. She felt possessive when she had no right to. They certainly weren’t in a relationship, and two weeks in was too soon to make demands.

She folded her arms. “You know a lot of women.”

“Not a lot.”

“Hah.”

“Look at me.”

She refused to turn around.

He lowered his lips beside her ear. “Those women are my past.”

Don’t do it. Don’t ask.

“And what am I?” Her brain and mouth were not in sync.

“What do you want to be?” he asked.

She turned to face him.

“Tell me what you want. You’ve spent enough time with men to know we don’t do that mind-reading bullshit.”

She stared at the streetlight over his shoulder. “I don’t want to just…hook up.”

“So what do you want?”

“Why are you trying to make me say it?”

“Because if you don’t say what you want, that’s a surefire way to make sure you never get it.”

“Fine! I don’t only want to screw in my office after work. I don’t want to grab a bite to eat. I want…I want to make actual plans and go on dates. I want to be courted.”

She was an emotional wreck. Tension burned her throat and her eyes dodged his. She awaited his response in the strained silence.

“We can do that.”

The tension in her throat eased, and her gaze found his.

“I thought
el Gigante
was all you needed, but I guess not.” He smiled a brilliant smile.

Ronnie shoved him away, but he bounced back, closer than before. His forearm flattened on the truck and brought him all up on her.

“See how easy that was? You tell me what you want and you get it.” He used a forefinger to tilt up her chin and forced her to look into his eyes. “We did things a little backwards. Of course it’s all
el Gigante
’s fault because he waited a whole year before he made any progress with you, and he was so excited when we finally kissed he wasted no time going from first base to sliding into home.”

“Stop talking about your penis like it’s a person.”

“Trust me, he has a mind of his own,” Diego said in a solemn voice.

Ronnie arched a brow and in return he flashed a lazy smile. “Saturday night I’m taking you on a date. We’ll go to a nice restaurant for dinner and do something else. Something different.”

“You don’t have to…”

Now it was his turn to raise a brow.

Ronnie giggled, suddenly giddy with excitement. “Okay, I’m lying.”

Diego traced a finger along her jaw. “I better go before
el Gigante
makes an appearance. He’s starting to get a little unruly in this parking lot, watching those gorgeous lips of yours smile.”