****
“And beer, don’t forget the beer and jerky.”
Colton’s words played through Jace’s head as he headed into town. He came into town limits, and turned on the main strip of road, the traffic thick because of the weekend and the time of day. The turn had a stack of papers he’d had on the passenger seat falling off to the floor. Although he should have left them because he was driving, he reached down to grab them. Contracts were mixed amongst them, and getting them shitty when they had to be signed and sent back to the clients wasn’t very professional.
His fingers barely rushed the edge of the papers, and he glanced at it for only a second. When he lifted his head it was to feel his heart jump in his throat and his whole body tense. He slammed on his brakes, held onto the steering wheel with both hands, but he still rear-ended the car in front of him. He jerked forward from the force, and saw the car in front of him—a tiny fucking thing compared to his truck—lurch forward from the impact. For a second all Jace did was sit there, stunned, not hurt, but still shocked. And then he was moving into action. He got out of the truck and rushed over to the driver’s side door to see if the passenger was okay. The door flung open before he reached it, and the woman that got out had his heart stopping.
“What the fuck?” She hollered out, rubbing her neck and glaring at the ground. “You rammed right into me—” Her words stopped when she looked right at him. They didn’t speak for several moments, and then he walked up to her.
“I’m so damn sorry,” he said and looked her up and down. There was no blood, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t hurt, even if he didn’t rear-end her that hard. “Are you okay? I should call an ambulance.” He went to get his cell out of his pocket, but she lifted her hand and shook her head.
“I don’t need an ambulance. I’m fine.” She still rubbed her neck.
“I think it would be better if you were checked out. You could have some problems that aren’t noticeable right now.” He had his cell in hand, ready to dial.
“No, please, don’t call. I’m fine, really.”
He looked at her for a second, knowing he shouldn’t let her have this, that he should call, should make her go, but the expression on her face had his lowering his arm to his side.
“I’m fine, really, but thank you for wanting to make sure.” She walked past him and to the back of her car. “Well, shit,” she said under her breath.
“I’ll get it fixed, don’t worry.”
She looked at him, lifted her arm, and shielded her eyes from the sun. “I hope so since you slammed into me like a bat out of hell.” She smiled, and his gut tightened. They’d pulled off to the side, but this stretch of road was pretty quiet anyway.
“Do you want to exchange insurance—”
“Damn, even though you hit me my insurance will still go up.”
He looked at the back of her car. The bumper and one side were pretty banged up. He looked at his truck. Aside from some paint coming off it was fine. His truck was older and built like a tank, whereas her car was one of those small ones that was like a tin can on wheels. “Or, if you want, I can fix your car and we don’t have to get the insurance involved.”
She was silent for a moment and then rubbed her head. “Is it wrong if I don’t think I need to call my agent?”
He smiled and shook his head. “I fucked up, Lexi.” He saw her throat work as she swallowed. “So this is all your call, but I do think you should get seen, just to make sure you’re okay.”
She looked at her car, ran her hand over the bumper, and exhaled. “Physically I’m fine. But my poor car.” She chuckled, but it sounded a little distant.
He didn’t mention it looked worse for wear before the accident, because it didn’t matter because he’d get it taken care of for her. This was his fault. She bent over to look at the bottom of the bumper, and like a dick his gaze went straight to her ass. It was big, round, and the pants she wore curved around the globes perfectly.
“She was rough around the edges before, but I guess now she really has some style.”
He should have chuckled, because what she said was humorous, but her ass … fuck, her ass was right there. His hands twitched, the image of reaching out and smacking those big globes having his cock start to harden.
Oh, fuck no.
He cleared his throat just as she straightened and turned to face him. “I’ll have Richie tow the car to his shop.”
“I’m sure it’s drivable,” she said and smiled. “I can just go over there.” She narrowed her eyes for a second. “But will they have time to fix it? I mean without an appointment—”
“It’s fine. I know Richie, and he owes me a handful of favors. But maybe we should have it towed just in case.”
She was already shaking her head before he could finish.
“Seriously, I can drive over there.” She was heading toward the driver’s side of her car before he could argue. Lexi was a spitfire that was for damn sure.
“Okay then,” he said and headed to his truck when she was already in her car with the engine started. Damn, she’d been on his mind since he saw her at the bar, and a week later here they were, in this shitty situation, but Jace wanting her still just as fucking badly. He was in for trouble where Lexi was concerned.
****
Lexi watched Jace and Richie talk, and although she was in the office, she could see them through the large windows. Jace, God, Jace stood there speaking, his body big, muscular, but relaxed. He’d been sincere about his worry for her when he’d rear-ended her, and how could she get mad at him when he been so kind and was helping fix her car right away?
Richie was nodding and pointing to her car, her beat up as hell, old and falling apart car. It wasn’t the prettiest, but she’d had it for longer than she even wanted to admit, and it had been good to her. Jace looked at her, and she felt her heart rate increase. His blond hair was short but messy, and even from the distance she saw the brightness of his blue eyes. Her breath stalled, her entire body became alert, and she knew there was no way she could just push Jace out of her mind. Hell, she’d had a tough time with that growing up and having a major crush on him. But after their encounter in the bar, and for the whole week afterward, he’d occupied space in her head. She hated it, but couldn’t help it either.
He stepped into Richie’s office, and she smoothed her hands down her pants, hoping to seem like she wasn’t as nervous as she was.
“Bad and good news.”
She nodded. “Get the good out there first.”
“Richie has no problem fixing your car.”
“Okay, and the bad?”
“There are a few bad things, actually.”
She slumped her shoulders, fearing that would have been what happened. It was just her luck.
“It’s going to take a couple of weeks just to get the parts in that he needs to fix it.”
“And…” She knew there was more.
“He found a few other issues with the car that need to be fixed.”
“It was driving good, though.”
He nodded. “Yeah, he said any day now your alternator and water pump would have gone out.”
“Shit.” She didn’t have extra money to replace these things, but she didn’t tell him that. “I can’t go a couple of weeks without a car. I have to get to work.” Without contacting her insurance she didn’t have the extra money to rent a car for a couple of weeks. She exhaled, rubbed her forehead since a nice little twitch started right behind her eye, and tried to figure out how in the hell this was all going to work. The soft touch on her shoulder had her dropping her arm to her side and looking up into Jace’s blue eyes. He was so close, the scent of him strong, clean, like a man. She parted her lips, sucking in more air as everything inside of her tightened. Here she was, in a shitty situation, and all she could think about in this moment was the touch Jace had on her.
“It’ll all work out. I’ll take you to work every day until your car is fixed. I’ll take you wherever you need to go until it’s done from the shop, okay?” His voice was soft but deep, and a little shiver worked up her spine.
She licked her lips, her throat feeling like a lump was in it, making her unable to speak, unable to form any coherent words. After she cleared her throat and nodded, she knew she was acting ridiculous right now.
“This was my fault, Lexi, and I’ll take care of you.”
Take care of me?
That shouldn’t have sounded as good as it did.
“Everything will be okay, so don’t worry about it.” He gave her a half smile, and damn did it look good on him. “Now, can I buy you some lunch?”
She had originally been on her way to the store, but going shopping didn’t sound that appealing right now. Before she could answer her stomach gave a resounding growl, making her face heat with embarrassment.
“So, how about it? Can I buy you lunch?”
Like she was going to say no to Jace Sterling.
“Yeah, sure.”
His smile grew, and for a second they just looked at each other. He led them out of the body shop and over to his truck. It was older, with peeling paint, but she did notice it was sturdy. He didn’t even have a dent from when he’d rammed into her.