Desperate Measures(108)

 

He opened the door and exited the vehicle, gesturing at the seat. “Would you like to sit in her?”

 

“You’re damn straight I would,” she said, feeling like she was going into mild shock. She’d drooled over this car for years, dreaming that someday, maybe, she’d get to ride in one. She never kidded herself about actually owning one. They were about a hundred grand out of her price range. She was a savvy enough investor to know that when she had a hundred grand, it needed to go into real estate or stocks - not hot cars. But, oh, how she would have loved to have one of these.

 

She sat on the smooth leather seat and inhaled deeply. “Oh, God, it still smells new!”

 

“Gorgeous, right?” he said, leaning in and smiling over her shoulder. “Press that.”

 

She did as she was told and watched the GPS come out of the dash. “Damn. I need one of those.”

 

“Want to give it a test drive?”

 

Her eyes took on a mad gleam. She whispered, “Are you serious?”

 

“I’ll trade you. One Audi R8 test drive for one sixty nine, numbers-matching restored Camaro test drive. One … from here to Dean’s.”

 

“Dean’s?” she asked.

 

“The popcorn store. Over by the mall.”

 

She laughed. “You’re on. Keys are in the ignition.” She shooed him away so she could shut the door, pressing on the accelerator a bit and reveling in the roar of the engine. She paid no attention to the answering growl from her Camaro, now coming from behind her. She was too absorbed in the awesomeness of Brent’s ride.

 

She tried not to giggle with mad glee as she pulled out of the parking lot and into the empty streets of downtown Orlando at nine-thirty at night. The engine purred, and she marveled at the smooth yet solid shifting mechanism she controlled with ease. The seat and pedals were in perfect position. This car was made for her.

 

Ten minutes later, she pulled up to the darkened windows of the popcorn store. Brent drove up and stopped beside her, awkwardly rolling down the passenger side window. “I guess they’re closed. I know another place, if you’re not tired of driving the Audi.”

 

“Lead on!” she said recklessly. Anything to give her more time in the car. At this point she trusted him. No guy, no matter how rich or cool he was, would let just anyone drive his R8. He obviously considered her special. She just prayed he wouldn’t change his mind when he finally figured out who she really was.

 

The second place offering popcorn in town turned out to be his apartment, located in a high-rise on the edge of downtown. She followed him into the underground garage and waited for him to lift the gate for her, since it closed after each car. She parked next to him in a designated guest spot. She noticed he took one with the number 2001.

 

She got out of the car and waited for him to come over. They exchanged keys, and she smiled. “That was amazing. Thank you so much.”

 

“I thought you’d like that,” he said, taking her by the elbow. “I got it a few months ago. I’m still not off cloud nine when I drive it around.”

 

“Aren’t you worried about what people will think when they see you in it?”

 

He pushed the code buttons giving them access to the lobby. “What do you mean?”

 

“You know,” Kiki said, trying not to be too impressed with all the marble and glass around her. “That you’re overcompensating.”

 

“I never worry about that kind of thing,” he said, in a dangerously low voice - dangerous because it was laced with a seductive tone that seemed to pull out emotions from her that she wasn’t yet willing to share. He led her to an elevator and pushed the button for the twentieth floor, inserting a key at the same time and turning it to the right.

 

“Good,” she said, suddenly at a loss for words and feeling not nearly as supremely confident as she had ten minutes earlier.

 

The door opened up into his condo. He had the entire floor. She had to force her mouth not to drop open at the view and the fact that she was standing in the middle of luxury like she’d never seen before except in her magazines. “Are you a drug dealer or what?” she asked, moving into the penthouse apartment to go stand at the floor to ceiling windows that looked out over the city.

 

“You could say that.”

 

She whipped around to look at him and could see from his expression that he was messing with her. “Ha, ha, very funny.”

 

“Actually, I do mergers and acquisitions for pharmaceutical companies. So in a way, it wasn’t a joke.”