Hard and Fast(12)

"Yes. Though I'm not sure why you want to know how to win yourself the heart of a race car driver."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Ty frowned.

"It's a dating manual on how to win a race car driver in six easy steps. The end goal is marriage."

"Are you freaking kidding me?" Ty was shocked. What the hell did that mean? Why would Imogen have a book like that?

"I am not kidding you. Where did you get it from anyway?"

"From a friend."

"A female friend? Was it Nikki? Because that would not surprise me in the least."

"No, not Nikki. We're done. It was someone else, a sort of new friend."

"Well, it looks like your, ahem, friend is on the prowl for a driver. Careful, Ty."

"I don't think she is." That seemed nothing like Imogen, frankly, and  hadn't they talked about marriage after the disaster with Nikki? Imogen  wasn't the type to try to hook a man based on a dating book. He was sure  of that.

"I've been flipping through it. It's interesting. The first step is all  about eating healthy, exercising, and learning about stock car racing.  So if you spot her at the gym, look out." There was a startled yelp from  across the gym and Ty glanced up, distracted.

What he saw made his jaw drop. It was Imogen, flying backward off a treadmill and landing on her ass on the gym floor.

"Oh, now you've really got to be freaking kidding me," he repeated,  absolutely appalled. It had to be coincidence. It had to be. Right?

"No, I'm not kidding you," Toni said. "Are you sure you want me to buy  this thing for you? I can probably still cancel the order before it  ships."

"Yes." Ty watched as Evan Monroe helped Imogen up off the floor. "In  fact, I might not want to wait until the audio arrives. I might just  have you read out loud to me, sweetheart." Normally, he hated to have  Toni read things out loud to him, but watching Imogen fuss with her hair  and her glasses and move around on the balls of her feet as she chatted  to Evan, Ty had a sudden burning desire to know exactly what the hell  was in the book he had borrowed from Imogen.

And why she had it.

"Oh, goodie. That sounds like fun for both of us," Toni said, her voice dry.

Yeah. Fun. That's exactly what he was having.

Feeling the undeniable sensation of jealousy crawling up his spine and  settling in his gut and temples and fists as he watched Evan lean closer  to Imogen, Ty took a deep breath.

Then got the hell out of there before he did something stupider than what he'd done the night before.















BY six o'clock Ty had fulfilled all of his business obligations for the  day and had forced Toni to read him Chapter One of the book he had  borrowed from Imogen. Not only did it have advice to the would-be bride  on maintaining a healthy and attractive appearance, what to wear, and  how to research stock car racing, it listed the gym he worked out at as a  possible place to spot drivers.                       
       
           



       

Toni looked up at him, her reading glasses sliding down her nose, her  lips in a smirk. "Did you see any new girls at the gym today? Like maybe  your new friend?"

"Of course not," he lied, not willing to admit the truth. It was just  too embarrassing and too confusing to make any sense of it all yet, and  he didn't need Toni's ribbing.

He crossed his arms across his chest, rubbing the cotton of his T-shirt  in distraction as he tried to sort it all out. What was Imogen doing?

If their roles were reversed, he had no doubt Imogen would just ask him  straight out, but Ty wasn't sure he wanted to do that. What if he hated  the answer? What if she said she wanted to marry a driver, any driver,  and was willing to follow a book to get that result?

He just couldn't believe it.

"Does it suggest anywhere in there that you should have sex with a  driver right after you meet him?" Toni's dark eyebrow shot up, but she  didn't say anything. She just licked the tip of her finger and turned  the page. After a few minutes of flipping through the book, she said,  "Actually, it says you shouldn't have sex until a commitment is firmly  established. The whole ‘don't give it away for free' adage." Her brown  eyes pinned him. "Why?"

"No reason. Just curious." It was strangely satisfying to know that  Imogen had fully intended to sleep with him, despite what that book said  and why she might have it.

He suddenly felt the irrational regret that he should have taken her to  bed. That he should have stripped her naked, licked and touched and  sucked every inch of her, until she could no longer think, and she was  his. All his. Only his.

"Alright, that's good, thanks, Toni. I'm going to make a phone call."

"You're done learning how to win a race car driver? Who knows what little gems might be in Chapter Two."

Rolling his eyes at her, Ty said, "It's so nice to have an assistant who  is a comedienne." With that, he stood up and went into the interior  office that was his personal space. It was actually smaller than Toni's  office, because he had no paperwork, no calendar, no computer. He had  long ago perfected the art of memorization, and once Toni told him his  schedule verbally, he remembered it. He programmed alerts onto his phone  as an added reminder, eternally grateful that technology had gone the  route of using picture icons for menus.

Mostly his office was a place for him to relax between doing whatever  Toni told him to do, and he had a minifridge and a TV with video games  in there. He had no desk, just a couch and an easy chair, and he flopped  down on it now and dialed Imogen's number. He wasn't really sure what  her schedule was like, but he knew she was a grad student, so hopefully  her classes were done for the day.

She answered on the third ring, but her hello was wary.

Sinking back in the chair, he said, "Hello, Emma Jean. How are you doing  today?" There was a slight pause. "Fine. How are you, Ty?"

"Full of regrets."

"About what?"

No sense in beating around the bush. "About you getting upset last  night. I was just trying to do the right thing. Make sure you didn't  have any regrets this morning. But it seems like we both do."

"I'm sure you were right," she said carefully.

"Maybe I should have trusted you to know what was right for you and we  should have gone forward with it and had wild, boot-stomping sex." He  hadn't intended to say anything like that, but the very idea of Imogen  trolling the gym for other drivers, following some goddamn manual to win  a man, had his skin tight and his gut twisted in knots.







"Maybe we should have," she said with the honesty he appreciated in her.  "But it's irrelevant at this point. I think, unfortunately, when two  people rush the traditional mating process, it results in awkwardness  whether there was any extreme physical relationship or not. I don't see  where we could go forward in any capacity now that there is confusion  and reservations on both our parts." Damn, her logic turned him on.  Every time Imogen started in on one of her declarations of how it had to  be, he got hard as a rock, and determined to prove her wrong.

"I don't have any reservations. I still want to peel your clothes off  and make love to you all night long, just like I did yesterday."

She cleared her throat and Ty grinned.

"Can you give me a brief overview of the history of stock car racing and  how the season works?" He blinked. That wasn't quite the response he'd  been hoping for. "Come again?"

"I'm trying to learn about the sport, and I assume you're a reliable  source." So she could woo some other driver with her knowledge about his  job? Ty felt the muscle in his jaw twitch.                       
       
           



       

"Why, of course, gorgeous. Why don't you meet me at my house for a drink, and I'll teach you anything you want to know."

He may not have a fancy degree from some university but there were two  things he considered himself an expert in-stock car racing and sex.

And she was going to get both from him.

CHAPTER SIX





IMOGEN didn't know what in the world she was doing driving over to Ty's  house in her ancient and temperamental car. But she hadn't been able to  say no.

It had surprised her when he had called. For some reason, she had  thought, regardless of what he'd said the night before, that they were  done. He wasn't going to want to see her again. That she had bungled the  situation too badly and he was going to decide she was more work than  was worth it.

Understanding his motives and intent was more than a little challenging.  So her curiosity had gotten the best of her yet again, and she had  agreed to come over in person to question him on the ins and outs of  racing. No doubt she could have asked him anything over the phone, but  he wanted to see her, and she wanted to see his reaction to her in  person. She also wanted to ask for her dating manual back and see if she  could ferret out why he had actually taken it in the first place.