Revving Her Up(8)

Cole stuck his head through the kitchen’s pass-through window, his raised eyebrows saying are you kidding? more effectively than words. “How about some white wine? It’s already chilled.”

“Sure. That would be great.”

What kind of snobbery was that? So she liked light beer. She resisted the urge to stick out her tongue when he turned away.

The clink of glass was followed by the sound of liquid being poured. She wandered into the living room, her heels sinking into the soft moss green carpet. Framed photographs covered much of the walls, but she was too distracted to see the images.

Cole approached with a dark brown beer bottle in one hand, a glass of wine in the other. When he handed her the glass their fingers touched. She steadied hers with effort. She was about to take a sip when Cole raised his bottle in a toast. “To revving your engine and fixing what ails you.”

His words echoed her plan precisely. But was he going to get with the program or not?

Sarah took a sip of the wine. It was good. Very good. Crisp and dry, the way she liked it.

Luxurious house. Good wine. The man was full of surprises. As if to prove her point, he stepped forward, so close that she had to tilt her head all the way back to look in his face. Her body reacted instantly, every nerve going on high alert.

Was he going to kiss her?

He bent his head. Pleasure shimmered through her and her knees almost buckled. She closed her eyes—

—and nearly jumped out of her skin when a horn blasted outside. Cole put a hand on her arms to steady her.

“That’d be Mike.” He released her and stepped back. Her body swayed forward, drawn to his like a lodestone to the north. The horn sounded again. She opened her eyes and muttered a curse under her breath.

“I’ll go tend to your car.”

His voice was even, but Sarah caught him shifting from foot to foot. Adjusting the sudden tightness in the front of his jeans? She wasn’t the only one affected by their almost-kiss regardless of how cool he acted.

He headed down a hallway waving an arm toward the living room. “Make yourself at home. Shouldn’t take long.”

She watched his beautiful behind until he disappeared through a heavy door at the end, then finished her wine in a single gulp.

What the hell had just happened?



Cole closed the door to the garage behind him and took a deep breath. What had he been doing back there? After Natalie, he’d put that world behind him and resolved to stay away from women like that, but here he was hitting on the first city slicker to drive into town.

Sharp beeps sounded from outside as Mike backed the tow truck into the drive. Cole hit a switch on the wall and the garage’s door started to rise, bringing the Porsche into view. Why had he agreed to help again? Austin would have understood if Cole had said he was too busy. The racing season was starting in a couple of weeks and he had better things to do than fix a damned sports car.

Then he had to offer his own lift. Like she wasn’t dangerous enough to his sanity in public.

Mike lowered the Porsche to the ground and ran around to unhook it from the truck’s cable. Cole could have offered to help but the other man seemed to have it under control. Besides, this was probably the closest Mike had ever been to a Porsche—why spoil the man’s fun?

Mike drove the car over the waiting lift, got out and handed Cole the keys. “Nice car, eh? Never thought I’d like one of these foreign jobs, but I got to admit it feels pretty good.” He gestured at the racecars that filled two of the other bays. “Not as nice as those, of course, but not too bad.”

“No, not too bad.”

Cole bit back a smile and popped the trunk, which was in the front on a Porsche. He pulled out the pair of matching travel bags sitting there. After closing the trunk, he set the bags under a table and nodded to Mike, who flipped a switch on the wall behind him. The Porsche rose into the air.

Mike stepped away from the moving car and looked around the shop. “Man, you must be busy. Sure was nice of you to bring her car out here.” He looked back at the Porsche. “I hope she appreciates it.”

Cole snorted softly. She appreciated it all right. Cole hadn’t missed the way Sarah’s face had lit up when she saw his house. He shook his head. It always came down to money with women like that. Well, he’d learned his lesson—the next woman he got involved with was going to accept all parts of him, racing, Rapture and all.

“That one’s a looker, eh?” Mike asked and for a moment Cole wasn’t sure if he meant the car or its driver. But the next sentence cleared up his confusion. “Reminds me of that babe you brought around a while back. What was her name?”