Until then? Will knew he’d be going crazy with anticipation.
And if he’d played his cards right in her kitchen, hopefully Harper would be going more than a little crazy, too.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
As the Saturday of their next visit to Will’s garage finally dawned and Jeremy’s enthusiasm knew no bounds, Harper tried to keep her anticipation at seeing Will again at bay.
Jeremy had been so excited when Will told him about the Maserati kit and had asked her to take him out to purchase a new notebook in which he’d written furiously and also pasted numerous pictures. Making notes, he’d said, but they were a secret. Just for Will and him. Still, even if she couldn’t help but worry about Jeremy, she also couldn’t bring herself to crush his enjoyment.
As for herself...she shook her head as she put on the brakes for a stoplight in the thick Saturday traffic. She’d never been the kind of woman to go all gooey just from thinking about a guy. But every time she thought about Will, both her brain and her body went topsy-turvy.
“I like Will,” Jeremy said from the passenger seat with his usual big-hearted cheerfulness.
Harper couldn’t deny the truth. “I like him, too.”
And it wasn’t just Will’s sex appeal that drew her to him like moth to flame. It was all the little things that added up—his patience with Jeremy, the tin of caviar he’d given Mama Cannelli, and the genuine empathy on his face and in his touch when she’d told him about the car crash, the rich teen getting away with near murder, and then their parents’ passing.
“I brought drinks and sandwiches for when we get hungry.” She didn’t want to assume that Will would feed them. “Your favorite, PB and J.”
“I can’t wait to get there!” Jeremy said. “This is going to be the best day ever.”
Jeremy had clearly been swept away by Will. And the problem was, no matter how much she’d tried to deny it over the past ten days, Harper kept secretly fantasizing about being swept away by him, too. Will had an irresistible magnetism, much as she’d been reminding herself that she had to resist.
The way he’d turned her inside out in her kitchen with nothing but words was something her body couldn’t forget. Not when deep inside, she knew how good—how amazing—it would feel to be taken by him.
I intend to kiss you so slowly, so thoroughly, that you’ll be begging me to never, ever stop.
All of his sexy, crazy, wild intentions came back to her deep in the middle of the night when she couldn’t sleep. They were why she couldn’t sleep. Because she wanted so badly everything he was offering.
But again and again over the past few days, she’d wondered—what if she took her eye off the ball in her quest for even a small, but heady, taste of wildness, and something happened to her brother? What if she went in for a few perfect gulps of the thrills that Will was offering her and ended up putting the safe little life she’d created for herself and Jeremy at risk? Especially when, despite how kind Will had been to both of them so far, she didn’t know very much about him at all. He hadn’t shared anything about who he was or where he’d come from. In fact, he’d skillfully avoided revealing himself.
They pulled up at the top of the driveway, and as she came to a stop, Jeremy all but threw himself out of the car when Will appeared in one of the open roll-up doors. Harper opted for a more reasonable pace, yet her heart was beating wildly. God only knew why, since Will was covered in the long white overalls she’d seen hanging in the garage.
How can a man look that sexy in overalls?
“Where is it, Will?” Jeremy asked in an excited voice.
“Up in the barn.” Will pointed to the hill beyond the garages. “That’s my workshop for major projects.” He gestured to the two garage buildings where they were standing. “This place is just for tune-ups, oil changes, and regular maintenance.”
Stepping back into the garage, he reached for a pair of blue overalls. “Better put these on, Jeremy, or your sister will have my head for creating more laundry.” From the curve of his lips as he said it, she knew he was remembering the baskets of unfolded clothing in the family room.
She blushed as he tossed the overalls to Jeremy. Who missed.
Her brother scrambled to grab them up off the concrete. “Do I have to take my clothes off?”
Will shook his head. “Nope. The legs should be wide enough to fit over your sneakers and jeans.”
Harper liked that he didn’t make a big deal out of Jeremy not knowing what to do.
“Okay. I have to sit down.” Jeremy sat on the concrete and tried stuffing his feet into the legs.
Will didn’t help him, and Harper liked that, too, since she tried not to let herself help Jeremy unless he asked for it.
Still fighting the overalls onto his legs, rolling onto his back and pulling at them, her brother called, “Doesn’t Harper need these, too?”
Will eyed her, giving her a long, slow look—which Jeremy was too involved with his overalls to notice. The heat in Will’s gaze told her he’d taken in her tank top and capris. And liked what he saw. “Oh no. I want Harper just the way she is.”
Even if he couldn’t possibly mean that the way it sounded, it still managed to be the sweetest thing any man had ever said to her.
Jeremy finally got the blue overalls on his legs, then scooched his bottom to pull them over his hips. Rolling to his hands and knees, he pushed himself up. While her brother put on the overalls, Will had reduced the distance between himself and Harper to two steps.
He was close enough to touch her now, but he didn’t. That in itself was another tease, something that Will was just too good at.
“Ready?” Will directed the question to Jeremy, who’d finally zipped up his overalls.
“Yes!” her brother yelled.
Then Will finally did what she’d been secretly dying for. He put his hand on her bare back between the straps of her tank top, guiding her toward the garage, making her acutely aware of him with the caress of his fingers above the line of the tank.
And, even if she shouldn’t, she couldn’t help but love every second of it.
* * *
Harper had pulled her hair up into a sexy, messy knot held by a butterfly clip. Loose tendrils flirted with her seductively bare shoulders. But it was the silver toe ring on the middle toe of her right foot that really got Will going.
It should have been unexpected. To anyone else, it might even seem out of character. But not to him. Because he already knew about the secret wildness inside her that was practically bursting to come out. Even if she clearly thought she needed to keep it firmly tamped down.
“Pile in.” He pointed to the golf cart parked just inside the roll-up door.
“Cool, I can’t believe we’re going to ride in that!” Everything excited Jeremy, from overalls to golf carts.
“Makes it easier to come back down the hill if I need something here.” Although Will had outfitted the barn with everything he could possibly need when he was building the Cobra, the golf cart and the path he’d built made it easier to travel back and forth.
“I almost forgot.” Harper backed off so that his hand fell away from the heat of her skin. “I brought lunch. And drinks. I hope you like peanut butter and jelly.”
He’d planned on having his housekeeper, Mrs. Taylor, bring up a tray around noon, but it was sweet that Harper had planned ahead. “My favorite,” he told her. He hadn’t eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich since Susan made them for lunch every day when she’d sent them all off to school, but back then it really had been his favorite. At least, when he hadn’t been getting into too much trouble to eat lunch.
“Climb into the backseat,” he told Jeremy, then jetted the golf cart out to Harper, swinging it around so that she could climb in beside him.
She carried a six-pack of water bottles and an insulated lunch bag. As soon as she was seated, he couldn’t resist reaching out to brush away a lock of hair from her gorgeous mouth. Once the strand was gone, however, he let his hand linger on her soft skin, appreciating the way her eyes dilated slightly with an awareness she couldn’t hide.
“Thank you for taking care of us, Harper. Guys working on cars don’t think to stop and eat. But we’re going to need our sustenance.” Then he added over his shoulder, “Isn’t that right, Jeremy?”
“Right, Will.”
He moved his hand from her cheek to rest lightly over hers as he whisked them up the hill, feeling Harper’s gaze on him.
“Stop teasing,” she said softly.
“Teasing?” He lifted one eyebrow. “I’m perfectly serious.”
And he was. He intended to make her crazy. As crazy for him as he already was for her. The prospect already had his blood rushing.
She tried to look stern. “You know what I mean.”
He knew exactly what she meant. And he had a lot more planned for her. Touching, teasing, flirting—anything that would remind her of every single wicked intention he’d whispered against her skin in her kitchen a week and a half ago.
He wanted the woman who’d grabbed his shirt and dragged his mouth down to hers out by the old aqueduct. And since something told him she was secretly dying for that, too, he’d do whatever he could to bring out that thrill-seeking side of her again.