Slide(Boosted Hearts Book 3)(6)

A memory rushed him and took hold before he could lock it down.

“Beer?”

Adam looked up from the engine bay at Lucy’s outstretched hand. “You brother know you drink?”

She shrugged. “You want one or not?”

He took it and did his best to keep his eyes on her face. Agreeing to service Lucy’s car before she left for school in a couple of days, since Hugh and Joe were out of town trying to track down their old man, had seemed like the right thing to do at the time. But faced with a barely dressed, fresh-faced, insanely sweet, incredibly sexy Lucy Colton, he was having second thoughts.

He also felt like a sick, perverted bastard. She was eighteen years old, for fuck’s sake. He was twenty-seven. That put him into dirty old man territory.

He took a swig of his beer, put it on the workbench, then got back to work—anything to avoid looking at her.

Which was damn near impossible because in a fucked-up twist of fate, it turned out Lucy Colton, his best friends’ little sister, was everything he’d ever wanted, everything he’d secretly dreamed of. Everything he could never have.

Shutting that shit down, he got back to work and tried to pretend she wasn’t there. Easier said than done when she moved up beside him and leaned in.

“Have you always wanted to work on cars?”

Her voice was soft and had this little husky rasp to it that lifted the hair at the back of his neck. And she smelled…fuck, she smelled like honey and spring blossoms, like the ones his mom used to have in the garden. Lucy smelled like heaven.

“Ah…” He cleared his throat so he could talk. “Yeah, I guess.”

“I can tell.”

When he glanced at her, there was this little knowing smile on her face, then she lifted her bottle and took a sip of beer. Soft lips pressed to the opening, slender throat working.

He needed to get the fuck out of there. “How’s that?”

Why are you still talking, asshole? Get in your car and get the hell out of there.

She lowered the bottle. “You get this…I don’t know…” She lifted one shoulder and let it drop. “This look. All focused, eyes intense”—her eyes dropped to his lips—“mouth kinda firm.”

She licked hers and his cock surged in his jeans.

“Only someone that likes what they’re doing would get a look like that.” She rested her hip against the front of the car beside him. “It makes me happy that you have that, that you’re so passionate about something.”

“Yeah?” Somehow, she’d gotten closer and he realized her eyes weren’t just green, they were like emeralds. So many facets he could stare into them for days and not see all the shades. Shit, he’d heard it, read it before, and it was corny as fuck, but he could get lost in those eyes.

If that happened he’d happily stay that way.

“Yeah,” she repeated. “After your mom passed away…I didn’t think…I thought you might…”

Adam jerked back, the mention of his mother like a bucket of ice water down his back. This girl, this kid that he had no damn right looking at or thinking about—she pitied him, felt sorry for him. He fucking hated it. Didn’t want it.

Taking a step back, he forced a grin. “Thanks for the concern, Luce. It’s nice you care, but—”

Her hand came down on his arm, her soft fingers curling around his forearm.

“I do care. A lot.”

He lifted his gaze from her hand and locked on those exquisite eyes. That’s when he saw it. A whole lot of lust.

Lucy wanted him.

Tits brushing his arm, she moved closer.

He gritted his teeth. The two of them? It could never happen, for so many reasons. And if he didn’t stop this now, he’d lose the only good thing he had left in his life that meant something. For a long time Hugh, Joe, and their business were the only things that kept him going. He couldn’t betray them like this. Couldn’t hurt Lucy, which is what would happen if he went there with her.

She was just a kid; she didn’t know what she wanted. But he did. He knew exactly what his future held, and she couldn’t be in it, not in the way he suspected she wanted to be.

He had to put an end to this now.

The chuckle he forced was rusty as hell. “Nice of you to worry, baby girl, but I don’t need your sympathy.”

“That’s not…I just hate the idea of you being alone.”

He turned into her and picked up a lock of hair from her shoulder, rubbing it between his fingers. “You don’t have to worry about that either, sweetheart. I have plenty of women willing to warm my bed at night.”

She blinked up at him, and he felt sick to his stomach when her eyes went bright and she bit her lip, taking a hasty step back.