Racing Outside the Line: A Love Story at 190 Mph (10 page)

I had been to the shop a few times in my life, but it was before I left for college and before they had moved to this much larger facility. The old shop was a hole in the wall when compared with this state-of-the-art building.

I looked over at Desmond and couldn’t miss how comfortable he was here. What a marvel he had become. Between his marketing ideas and his engineering research, he had become invaluable to the racing business. We walked up to a back door where Desmond took out a card and slid it through a machine that emitted a buzzing sound, which must have been a signal that it was unlocked. He held the door open for me and I walked into the building just as a big, blond-haired man came out carrying a big box.

"No shit?" he seemed genuinely surprised and impressed. "I thought your sis’ was a kid? Wait ‘til the boys get a load o’ her," he chuckled as he walked out of the building and let the door close behind him.

Not the kid thing here too? I turned on Desmond, "Didn’t you tell them I was away at COLLEGE, where adults go?"

"Of course I did, I’m not an idiot!" Desmond countered, and then looked thoughtful, and then guilty, "Well, I might have just said ‘school’; you were away at ‘school.’"

"School? That could be elementary school for all they know. Geez, Desmond."

"Hey, it’s not all my fault—Seth’s been running around here for years calling you the kid sister."

All I could do was shake my head as he put his hands on my shoulders and shoved me toward the front desk. "Sahara, can you pass me my badge, and this is my sister, Alexis, do you have her badge information ready?" Sahara was smiling, having clearly overheard the conversation between us.

Sahara passed Desmond his badge and said quite nicely to me, "Don’t worry hun, give it another ten minutes, and it’ll ‘ave spread like wildfire through this place that you are
definitely
not a child. News flies faster here than if it were a room full o’ teenage girls." Her congenial laugh and trustworthy eyes made me trust her. "Stand in front of that screen there so’s I can take your picture for your badge."

I stood in front of the screen, smiled when she said smile, and seconds later, I had a pretty new badge hanging from my neck that read "Alexis Winston, Full Clearance."

Desmond turned back to Sahara, "I’m not really here, I’m just taking my sister on a tour, but I don’t want to answer any phones or questions or anything, K?"

"Sure thing, hun, but I’m bettin you won’t make it ten minutes before someone interrupts you," Sahara gave Desmond a conspiratorial wink, then turned to me, "If any o’ those boys gives you trouble, you come back and let me know, I’ll take care o’ them but good."

I smiled and nodded. I really liked her. Desmond pushed me on my way again, down a narrow hallway. I had already noticed the very faint, but familiar aroma of grease, oil, and sweaty guys, but it was stronger as we left the entrance and toured the rest of the building. Everywhere we went, we got attention, or I should say, I got attention. I was beginning to feel uncomfortable with the constant assumption that I was Desmond’s new girlfriend, but since all these people thought Desmond’s sister was just a "kid" I couldn’t fault them in their logic.

At one point, I stopped to look at the engine of one of the cars when Desmond was pulled away by one of the guys. I leaned over the engine to get a better look, deeply interested in the differences between what I remembered and what I was looking at, when a guy who was similar in age, and half a head shorter than I am, came up and put his arm around me. He had his arm clamped hard onto my shoulders as he steered me away from the car.

I looked up at him to tell him to get his damn hands off me when he said, "You must be Desmond’s new flavor of the week, that car is beyond your clearance, sweetheart, so let’s move you on out of the way."

I looked up for Desmond, because as hard as I shrugged this guy was not letting loose of me, but I didn’t see him anywhere.

"Let me go!" I yelled angrily, but there was a lot of noise in the room, and everyone was working on something instead of noticing that this jerk was overstepping his bounds. My yell didn’t make him let go of me, but he did shift his hold on me to my upper arm. "I’m not his girlfriend, I’m…"

But he cut me off before I could finish my sentence, "I don’t really care who you are, darlin’, but you’re stickin’ your nose where it don’t belong. What was ya lookin’ for anyway?"

I could feel his fingers digging into my arm, and it definitely stung. "You’re hurting me," I said as loudly as I could manage.

He squeezed my arms even tighter, "you tryin’ to steal something?" He turned to look me over for stolen goods.

Who the hell was this guy? And I didn’t have a purse or anything, where the hell did he think I was going to put something even if I had stolen. I struggled to get out of his grasp when it looked as if he might pat me down himself. He picked up his other hand and was bringing it closer to my stomach when I heard a fumingly angry and vicious voice yell, "Jesse! Get your damn hands off her!"

I immediately recognized Seth pounding a threatening pace towards us. I would have been giddy to see him, if I hadn’t been busy being so relieved. The manhandler, whose name was apparently Jesse, still had his fingers biting into my arm, but his grip had loosened enough to allow me to wrench myself free. I launched myself toward Seth’s arms, which were already extended toward Jesse, and he wrapped them tightly around me. I don’t know why I was trembling. I wasn’t really afraid of Jesse, more frustrated, insulted, and I guess a little shaken. Coupled with the overwhelming warmth I felt being in Seth’s arms again, I couldn’t help but tremble a little.

Seth leaned down to look me in the eye and asked, loud enough for manhandling Jesse to hear him, "Are you okay?"

I assumed that most of the work had stopped the moment the whole building heard Seth yelling (he was a bit frightening). Everyone was staring at us and several of them had come over to question Mr. Manhandler about his behavior.

Everyone’s attention was on Jesse and trying to find out what had happened, so they hardly paid attention to Seth whispering in my ear, "then why are you shaking, baby?"

I leaned up on my tiptoes to whisper back in his ear, "I’m just a little shaken and a little…" I didn’t know exactly where we stood, so I wasn’t sure what kind of confessions I should be making. Finally, I followed my standard policy and settled for the truth. "Well, I, uh… I think it’s you… that’s making me tremble." I could feel his arms around me tighten just a little.

I could hear the twinkle in his suddenly seductive voice, "I’ll have to experiment with that new piece of information later." He was driving me insane with his exaggerated breaths against my ear and his nose nuzzling my earlobe. Thankfully, this intimacy was hidden behind my bouncy curls, or I think we would have given ourselves away in that moment. I didn’t want to leave his arms, but Desmond chose that moment to jump into the attack on Jesse, and his voice had the effect of buckets of ice being dropped on us. Seth let his arms drop, and the only part of us that remained touching were our eyes, which were locked on each other.

"Didn’t you see her badge?" Desmond stormed over. He stopped next to me, picking up my badge to show him, "Full Clearance." "She’s my sister!"

The young guy asked, "
She’s
your
sister
?" with yet another awkward and gawking look up and down my body. "I thought your sister was a kid?" he asked with genuine confusion.

I rolled my eyes in exasperation at Seth, "For Christ’s sake, I’m twenty-two years old, what is wrong with you two? Letting everyone think I’m a child?" I would have continued to be angry with Seth if he hadn’t taken that moment to let his own eyes wander over my body. Unlike the self-conscious exasperation I felt when every other guy in the building looked me over, having Seth’s eyes on me was seriously stimulating. A small corner of his mouth turned upward in a crooked grin that had my heart racing and heat coursing through my body. Well, at least I wasn’t angry anymore.

Desmond turned apologetically to me, which afforded the distraction I needed to prevent me from jumping Seth right then and there. "I’m sorry, Lex, I didn’t really pay attention to their ideas about you."

Conversation amongst the guys broke out as they walked away from the scene that had lost the drama they were hoping to see. "Shit, if I had a sister that looked half as good as she does, I’d try to hide her too!"

"Good! Let’s continue the tour. We’re done down here, the offices are upstairs, and I’m sure there will be less drama up there." Desmond grabbed my hand and began to lead me away from Seth when I turned my head back to implore Seth to come with me. He clearly saw what I wanted in my eyes, because he walked quickly to catch up with us.

"This is the second floor lobby. We just redecorated the year before last. I chose most of the décor, if you can believe that."

I raised my eyebrows at him in surprise. Desmond never had the best of taste. "Did you help?" I turned to look at Seth.

He smirked, "Sure." Yeah, okay, I could clearly take that as a "no.’" I looked around the lobby. It was nicely decorated and up-to-date. Windows were everywhere, and the light that filtered through the skylights in the ceiling gave it a natural and comfortable feeling. Turning back to Seth, I flashed him a smile, and Desmond walked forward missing the wink Seth sent my way.

Desmond showed me several impressively professional offices on the second floor and introduced me to everyone. While Desmond led me around, Seth followed behind, commenting every now and then on one office or another.

When we were nearly at the end of the hallway, the guys who had pulled Desmond away when we were downstairs, came running up to him, excitement all over their faces, "I put it on your desk, but you have to see it!"

Desmond turned to Seth and instructed him, "Show her your office and don’t take your eyes off of her for a second, not everyone has met her yet, and I don’t want her mauled again."

The smug smile in Seth's response was unmistakable, "Not a problem." He pushed me down the hallway and into his office, closing the door behind him.

He pulled the blinds in the vertical window beside the door and was kissing me less than a second later. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he picked me up until I wrapped my legs around his waist. The next thing I knew, I was sitting on the desk. Then, he proceeded to make love to me through our clothes. His kisses were bruising my lips, but I couldn’t make myself care. I tried to focus on getting Seth to make love to me right then and there, but I could hear voices in the hallway and knew that Desmond could walk in at any second.

Seth must have heard the voices too because he sensibly pulled back, "You’re gonna be the death of me one way or the other." He chuckled a little and kissed me again.

"Seth," I breathed, trying to get him to kiss me more deeply. He tried to pull away again, but my legs were strong enough to hold him to me.

He let out a loud groan and sighed as he let his forehead rest against my shoulder. "Lex, baby, you know I want you, but I really don’t want Des to kill me today, and if you don’t let me step away from you right now, he’ll have to kill me to stop me from making love to you right here on my desk."

I supposed he had a point. I unlocked my legs and fell back against his considerably clean desk, taking a moment to calm down by focusing on the ceiling. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him standing a few feet from me with his hands on his knees breathing deeply. I turned my head to look at him and lifted my right arm to place under my head. This left part of my stomach exposed, and I watched Seth’s eyes dart to the small section of exposed skin. He turned around and started taking deep breaths again.

"Something wrong?" I asked coyly, knowing full well what I must look like sprawled out on top of his desk.

"You’re evil," he accused through clenched teeth.

"Fine, I’ll be good," having no intention of doing just that. I was thrilled to have this power over him. I slid off his desk, and he walked over to sit in his chair. He was watching me intently as I walked to the chairs in front of his desk. "Mind if I sit down?"

"Course not, make yourself at home." He was looking down at a piece of paper on his desk when I walked over and threw myself onto his lap, straddling him as I had the night before. I expected him to push me away and tell me to behave again, but he surprised me by wrapping one arm around my waist and using the other to pull my hair away from my neck. He kissed my neck while his arm shifted position to allow his hand to massage my breast. I was breathless in seconds, but when I heard a voice outside his door, I was startled and jumped out of his lap. I could hear him chuckling behind me as the voice passed his door.

"You can’t fool me into thinking you aren’t just as fearful of being caught as I am. I know you too well. Are you going to behave now?" Urgh. I hated that he figured me out.