Seb Read online

  “I wouldn’t.” If anyone understood the importance of family, I did.

  “I’m a bit of an insomniac,” he said, chuckling. “Especially when I’m working on a big project. I just can’t shut my mind down.”

  “I know the feeling.” I was one of those crazy people who only needed a few hours of sleep to function, which was a good thing since I hadn’t been sleeping much since the doctor had informed us my uncle’s heart condition wasn’t responding well to medication.

  “My sister-in-law tells me I’m still a big kid, and I’m pretty sure she’s right.”

  Now I was curious. “How so?”

  “I love playing video games with my nephews and throwing them off the tube when I’m driving the boat.”

  I laughed at the picture he painted. “What else?”

  “I still get shit-faced with the boys every once in a while and pass out in my car.”

  I winced, thinking I’d probably worry about him every time he went out drinking. “Then you need to promise you’ll call me or take a cab home.”

  “Done.” He surprised me by whispering, “When I finally do fall in love, I know I’ll be all in. And Skylar…?”

  Goosebumps rose on my skin as his warm breath tickled my neck. “Yeah?”

  “I want that. I wanna be in love. I miss falling asleep with my woman in my arms.”

  “Is that so?” I was having trouble breathing as I tried to process what going all in with a guy like Seb would mean. He’d turn my boring, safe life upside down no doubt. Could I live with that? More importantly, could I live without experiencing that?

  “If you want me to take you home right now, I’ll understand. I’ll still work on your uncle’s car no matter what you decide.”

  “I don’t want to go, Seb.”

  He was on me so fast I yelped in surprise. Then his lips claimed mine in a kiss so possessive it made me feel as if I’d been kissing inexperienced boys before I met him.

  “I know it’s too soon,” he whispered, his breath tickling my lips. “But God, I wish you could spend the night with me.”

  I wanted that too, but he was right—it was too soon. And I had to get home to check on my uncle, to make sure that he’d taken his meds and had his oxygen nearby in case he needed it during the night.

  “Rain check?” I asked.

  One side of that sexy mouth tipped up before his warm palm curled around my cheek. “You can count on that, baby. Now let’s get you home before I forget everything my sweet mother taught me about being a gentleman.”

  Chapter Eight

  Seb

  Watching the way the guys stood up and took notice when Skylar crossed my shop floor bright and early on Monday morning made me feel stupidly possessive, as if I was back in high school and felt the need to stake my claim on the hot new girl before any of my meathead friends tried hitting on her.

  “Hey, beautiful.” I pulled Skylar in for a kiss. I heard a few sighs and grunts before the sounds of a dozen guys getting back to their jobs.

  Skylar’s cheeks were pink when she pulled back, and she set her hands against my chest before stealing a glance over her shoulder. “We can’t do this here.”

  I smiled. “Who says we can’t? I’m the boss. I can do whatever the hell I want.”

  “But what will your employees think?” she whispered, looking adorably self-conscious as she pursed her lips.

  “That I’m dating the hottest girl they’ve ever laid eyes on?” Last night we’d met for coffee after she made her uncle’s dinner, which marked our third night in a row together. I could definitely get used to starting and ending my day with her.

  “Be serious,” she said. “We have to be professional.”

  “Sorry,” I said, giving her my best hangdog expression. “I was out of line.” Though it didn’t matter anymore ‘cause I’d already achieved my goal. All the guys knew that she was mine. “Forgive me?”

  She propped her hand on her hip, shaking a finger at me. “You don’t look the least bit sorry.”

  I leaned in and whispered in her ear, “That’s ‘cause I’m not.”

  “You’re impossible,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Can I steal you away for a minute?”

  I wiggled my eyebrows suggestively. “That depends, baby. What’d you have in mind?”

  “Just work, Steele. Don’t get too excited.”

  “Damn,” I said, leaning in to brush my lips across her cheek. “You sure I can’t talk you into having a little fun?” I hadn’t been able to keep my hands off her since she told me she wasn’t scared off by my warnings. Something told me this girl could be the real deal, and I couldn’t wait to find out if our sexual chemistry would be as crazy-hot as I suspected.

  “Later,” she said, leading me up the back stairs to my office.

  Later. The promise lingered, making me wonder how much longer I would have to wait. I wasn’t expecting her to subscribe to the three-date rule, and I had no question she was worth waiting for, but months of celibacy were making me a little crazy.

  Once we were in my office, I slammed the door and backed her against it before I kissed her the way I’d wanted to downstairs.

  “Wow.” She sounded a little breathless as she patted my chest. “That was some welcome.”

  “What can I say?” I asked, nuzzling her neck. “I missed you.”

  “You just saw me last night,” she whispered, tipping her head back, inviting my exploration.

  “What’s your point?” I was being unfair, trying to entice her when there was no way we could seal the deal. When that day finally came, I wouldn’t bend her over the desk in my grungy office. I’d take her in my bed when I had hours to explore every inch of her beautiful body.

  “We have work to do.” Yet she pulled me close, letting me know I wasn’t the only one trying to beat lust into submission.

  “You’re right.” I pulled back with a heavy sigh. I took a step back, followed by another, because I couldn’t be within touching distance of her without giving in. I was a weak man when it came to her, and that scared me, but not enough to make me jump off this runaway train.

  “Do you mind if I make coffee?” she asked, gesturing to the coffee pot set up on a metal filing cabinet in the corner. I kept milk and cream in the bar fridge beside it.

  “Sure, help yourself.” I watched her cross the room and curled my hands into fists. She was wearing low-rise boot-cut jeans with high-heeled boots and a tight white V-neck shirt. Damn. My urge to touch her was getting stronger instead of weaker.

  “You want one?” she asked.

  What I want is you. “No, I’m good, thanks.” I took a seat behind my desk when I realized I ran the risk of embarrassing myself if I didn’t tear my eyes away from her sweet ass.

  She turned to face me, curling her hands around a large cardboard cup. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to tackle your office today.”

  I bit my lower lip when she sat on the edge of my desk, facing me. Did she want me to stroke out? ‘Cause she was making my blood pressure rise into the danger zone. “What’d you have in mind?” I asked when I realized she was waiting for a response.

  “I thought we’d start with a good cleaning and organizing,” she said, looking around the large, open space.

  “I have cleaners who come in every night,” I said, slightly embarrassed by the state of the place. Sure, we were a bunch of guys, with the exception of the front desk receptionist, and cars were our business, but that didn’t mean we had to live like slobs. “You don’t have to do that.”

  “What do they do?” she asked, looking amused.

  I shrugged. I’d been working late plenty of times while they worked around me, but I was usually so engrossed in my own tasks I barely noticed them. “The basics, I guess.”

  “I doubt they could do much of anything in here,” she teased, brushing her foot against my leg. “You can barely see the floor for all the boxes and stuff.”

  The stuff she was referring to was car parts. The
y didn’t belong in my office, but instead of taking them back downstairs where they belonged, I’d let things pile up.

  “Can I ask you a question?”

  Whenever she led with that question, I knew she was about to ask something personal that would probably make me uncomfortable, but I’d promised myself I’d be an open book with this girl. “Sure.”

  “Did your girlfriend, the one who worked for you, take care of stuff like this? You know, keeping you organized, your office tidy, stuff like that.”

  “Emma.” I hadn’t said her name in a long time, and I was almost testing myself to see if I still felt anything. I didn’t.

  “Excuse me?” She looked confused.

  “My ex-girlfriend’s name was Emma.”

  “Oh.” She brought the cup to her lips and fell silent for a minute. “So, uh, were those things part of Emma’s job description?”

  “Not really, but she took it upon herself to take care of them. Not because I asked her to. She wanted to.” Emma had been a real caretaker. I’d loved that about her and fooled myself into believing that trait would make her a great wife and mom someday.

  “If this is weird for you…” she said, sliding off the desk.

  I curled my hand around her thigh, holding her in place so she couldn’t get away. “It’s not. I don’t mind talking about her.” If anyone else, including my brothers, had asked about Emma, I would have shut them down, but I understood Skylar’s interest. I was curious about her ex too.

  She perched herself on the edge of my desk again, eyeing me over the rim of her cup as she sipped. “I’m just wondering if I could pick up the slack around here by managing some of the things she used to. I meant what I said about paying you back for the car restoration. I know your time is valuable, and I don’t expect something for nothing.”

  I sure as hell wouldn’t have objected to having her around every day, but I had to ask, “What about your uncle? I thought you had to quit your job so you could be there for him?”

  She nodded. “I didn’t have a lot of flexibility at my old job. They got pissed when I needed to take time off to take him to doctors’ appointments. They basically gave me an ultimatum: get a caregiver for my uncle, which I couldn’t afford, or they’d fire me. I chose to quit. Put my house on the market the same day. Thankfully it sold quickly and I had enough equity in it to give us the breathing room we needed.”

  I had no right to be proud of her, but I was. She’d made the best of a bad situation. It showed me that she was tough, stood up for what she believed in, and wouldn’t cave under pressure. I liked that.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked, lowering her gaze to look at me through a veil of ridiculously long lashes.

  “I was just thinking how incredible you are.”

  I’d spent my whole life looking for the kind of woman my brother Ryker had. Someone who would go to bat for me. No matter how tough things got, I’d know she had my back. For the first time, I felt as though I might have met someone who would fight instead of flee.

  “You’re delusional,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I’m afraid you look at me and see what you want to see, Seb. You’re going to be disappointed when you realize I’m just an ordinary girl. I don’t have any superpowers, you know.”

  “No, I don’t think you have superpowers, but I do think you’re pretty damn powerful. Your uncle is lucky to have you in his corner. I hope he realizes that.” I could just imagine her standing up to doctors, demanding answers they weren’t willing to give.

  “I think he does.” She licked her lips. “Thanks to you. I don’t know what you said to him, but he’s been like a different man since you two talked on the porch. He smiles more, watches TV less. He’s even started reading and going to the park with Mrs. R again.”

  “Just so long as he doesn’t stop watching my show,” I joked. “I need all the viewers I can get.”

  “Speaking of your show,” she said, “I’m surprised there aren’t any cameras here today.”

  I rubbed my hands over my face. “Oh, they’ll be here later.”

  “You don’t seem too happy about that.”

  “Honestly? I’m tired of the whole goddamn thing. I just wanna go back to doing my thing—rebuilding cars—without having to worry about whether the whole world is watching me do it.” I grimaced when she raised an eyebrow. “Sorry, I don’t mean to complain. My business has exploded since the show started. I can’t keep up with the demand really.”

  “And that’s a bad thing?” She drained her coffee cup before tossing it in the overflowing trash bin by my desk.

  “No, I just…” I didn’t know how to explain what I was feeling, but for Skylar, I wanted to try. “I never really wanted any of this. I mean, sure, I wanted to do what I loved and keep food on the table, but this whole thing just kind of got bigger than I ever expected.”

  “How’d that happen?” she asked, sounding genuinely interested.

  I shrugged. “I guess it was when I started going all in, you know, restoring really rare cars. When a car is worth a million bucks restored, you start attracting a certain type of clientele.”

  Her eyes widened. “I can imagine. Wow, I had no ideas classic cars could even cost that much.”

  “Yeah, I bought and restored a rare Mercedes Gullwing. It took me over a year to get it just right, but when it sold for over a million bucks, I knew I was on to something. I didn’t want to just restore cars anymore. I wanted to restore million-dollar cars. I guess that’s why I got so much attention from the magazines and networks. Lots of people restore classic cars, but not a lot of people specialize in the really high-end ones.”

  “That’s amazing,” she said, shaking her head. “Now I feel kind of silly asking you to restore my uncle’s car. I know it’s not worth much to anyone but him.”

  I smiled, thinking about how happy I was that she’d had the courage to walk into my shop and my life. It was crazy to think that had happened less than a week ago. It seemed like a lot longer, maybe because I’d been thinking about her almost nonstop since. “Working on your uncle’s car is a lot of fun for me. It’s a nice change of pace, a new challenge. I like that.”

  “So you like challenges, do you?” she asked with a flirty smile. “I’ll have to keep that in mind.”

  “Not too big of a challenge,” I said, frowning. “I don’t mind doing a little chasing as long as you promise to let me catch you in the end.”

  She giggled, sounding happier and more carefree, as though she’d forgotten for a split second that she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders.

  “Speaking of your uncle, will he be all right being home alone during the day while you’re here?”

  She nodded, her soft smile letting me know she was touched that I cared enough to ask. “Yeah, I thought I’d come in for a few hours in the morning, go home at lunch to check on him, and come back for a couple of hours in the afternoon… if that’s okay with you?”

  The more she was around, the happier I’d be. “Sure, whatever works for you.”

  “I know we initially talked about me just working on the website and stuff, but the truth is I’d like to get out of the house for a while, and it looks like you could use the help around here. Besides, the faster I can repay my debt, the faster you can be rid of me, right?”

  I could tell she was testing me, trying to decide how much things had changed since we entered into this agreement. I wondered if the day would ever come when I’d want her to walk out the door and never come back. I couldn’t imagine it. “I’m in no hurry to be rid of you.”

  “Good to know,” she said, smiling. She rubbed her hands together. “So I was thinking I could tackle your office first. That should take a couple of days. Then I’ll work on the website and your print materials. After that, we can sit down and create a list to outline my responsibilities around here. How does that sound?”

  She was so cute when she slipped into professional mode that I just had to remind her
I wanted to be her boyfriend, not just her boss. I grabbed her hand and tugged her into my lap.

  “Hey,” she said, slapping my shoulder playfully. “I have to get to work.”

  “Oh yeah?” I kissed her. “Well, your new boss is suggesting a little break.” My hand was moving up her thigh when I heard the click of the door.

  As soon as Skylar saw my brother Gabe standing in the doorway wearing a shit-eating grin, she scrambled to her feet and ran a shaky hand through the tousled hair I’d just had my hand fisted in when I kissed her.

  “Sorry to interrupt,” Gabe said. “I thought you were alone.”

  “You’re not sorry, asshole,” I muttered, earning a chastising look from Skylar.

  “You’re right. I’m not.” Gabe stepped forward, offering Skylar his hand. “Hi, I’m Gabe Steele.”

  “Oh,” Skylar said, slipping her hand into Gabe’s. “You’re one of Seb’s brothers?”

  “Unfortunately,” he said, still grinning. “But don’t hold that against me.”

  “My name’s Skylar, Skylar West. You’re the one who worked on his house, right? You did a great job.”

  “Thanks,” he said with a smug smile. “I like working with my hands.”

  His eyes roamed her tight little body, letting me know he wouldn’t mind getting his hands on Skylar. Over my dead body.

  “Did you just come here to break my balls?” I asked Gabe. “Or is there a purpose for this visit?”

  “Oh yeah,” Gabe said, turning to face me as though he’d forgotten I was there. “There’s a work thing I wanted to talk to you about.”

  Since Gabe was a firefighter, something I knew nothing about, I didn’t know why he thought I could help. But I was always willing to listen when he needed to bend my ear.

  “I’ll just go downstairs and shadow the girl at the front desk,” Skylar suggested to me. “I noticed you shut down for lunch. You wouldn’t have to do that if I learned how to fill in for her when she wants to take a break.”

  God, this girl would become indispensable around here if we weren’t careful. “Skylar, we didn’t talk about this earlier, but how are you going to find the time to get your own work done? You have clients, right?”