Page 29 of Wolf.e

I’m just about to get back to it when what sounds like a loud backfire echoes outside the garage. It makes us both flinch and drop what we’re working on. I shut off the compressor my airbrush is hooked up to and stalk toward the half open, overhead door. I pull it up wide, knowing it won’t be anything too threatening since we’re in the middle of downtown Harmony.

I can’t say what I was expecting to find in my yard, but anything else isn’t comparable in the slightest to what actually greets me.

My little hummingbird. In the tightest cutoff jean shorts she could mold to her body and a loose black tank top. She’s focused and struggling to lift the hood of a rusted-out piece of shit Ford.

She might as well be wearing a big red bow and a gift tag addressed just to me.

I hold my hand out across Kai’s chest to block his fast approach. I don’t fucking think so.

He smirks and chuckles before turning around and heading back inside. Brinley gets the hood up miraculously and pins it in place. I watch as she waves smoke out and her tank blows around the dip of her curvy waist, enticing me to rip the shorts from her body and devour the fucking sweetest pussy I’ve ever tasted. And I would do it right here in the middle of my parking lot.

I stand for a minute while she doesn’t realize I’m here just watching her, wondering who the fuck’s truck this is. It’s not in that bad of shape for being original but it definitely needs some work. I pull my mask down from my forehead and let it dangle around my neck, wiping the sweat from my brow with the sleeve of my t-shirt.

I’ve seen enough of the back of her, now I want to see the front, so I clear my throat.

She spins around instantly and when she realizes it's me, her mouth falls slack.

Her hair is in a high ponytail and her pretty heart-shaped face is center stage.

Motherfucking thunderstruck.

Brinley makes an effort to close her pouty lips. Shame.

She’s a goddamn smoke show.

“What the… seriously?” she asks under her breath as she puts her phone in her back pocket, her breathing shallow.

Her polite annoyance fuels me further. I fucking love how flustered she is.

I want more.

“I just…” I watch the pink start to creep up her throat and I almost feel her pulse start to increase. “I barely got this thing here. How are you everywhere?” she asks,

“If by everywhere, you mean the town I live in and the business I own, I think it’s obvious,” I deadpan.

“Right, my neighbor said you were the best,” she says as she folds her hands in front of her. I’m starting to recognize this is Brinley’s way of centering herself when she feels like she’s overstepped or when she’s nervous, another thing she’s probably been trained to do.

I can’t wait to retrain her to never fucking apologize.

“We are,” I tell her. “Custom body work and paint—which you clearly need. Next door, Big Mike’s does everything on the inside, which you also seem to need,” I say, eyeing her steaming truck.

“I don’t think… I can just take it to Taylor’s. That’s where my dad went, I only came here because Mr. Kennedy seems reliable—”

“Taylor’s doesn’t do body work anymore,” I interrupt her. “And why wouldn’t you want the best?”

“It’s just, well… dammit.” Brinley straightens her shoulders before speaking like she’s answering a question in a beauty pageant. “In case you haven’t noticed, this isn’t easy for me. I don’t do things like what we did last night. And I don’t have a lot of money.” Her eyes meet mine and I shamelessly stare. “Plus…” she starts.

I let her stumble over her words.

“I need the work done on this truck to be above board,” Brinley says, looking up at me, interrupting my hungry roam of her body with my gaze.

I raise an eyebrow and pull my gloves off, moving toward her, eating up the ten feet between us to get a closer look at her truck and fuck, I just want to smell her.

Brinley backs against the hood as I approach, not knowing what to do, the pink starting to return. I breathe in her jasmine scent and reach out, grabbing her belt loops with my first two fingers, tugging her to me. Her mouth pops open and I almost turn savage with the need to stick my tongue into it.

The fuck? Get it together. Jesus Christ.

I wait a few seconds just enjoying her struggle then drop my hand.

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