Page 103 of Down & Dirty

“And leave your ass to fend for yourself?” I scoffed, smacking him on the shoulder. “Never.”

Billy rolled his eyes. “Please. Don’t act like I couldn’t trade up likethat,” he said, snapping his fingers for emphasis.

“I’m sure of it. But there’s no way they’d be as good looking, and you’d get sick of staring at an ugly mug.”

Billy nodded, turning back to his work. “Yeah, it’s definitely been your roughish good looks and boyish charm all these years that have kept me coming back for more.” He spun his laptop so I could see the screen, shifting seamlessly back into the work. “I think if we tweak the throttle a little bit, you might get more consistency out of it and not bog down so much in the corners.”

I looked at him, smirking. “Did you even go home for Thanksgiving?”

He whipped his head up. “Yeah. I went to my sister’s in Sacramento. Why?”

“Cause you look like a mad scientist right now, and I’m afraid all you did was work all weekend.” Billy was as passionate about his job as I had been about racing when I first started. Out of the two of us, his devotion was still pure.

“Nah, her kids wouldn’t let me,” he laughed. “Miles, the youngest, had me help him build a rocket. Nearly took our heads off, but damn was it fun.”

“Nice. Pays to have an uncle with crazy tech skills.”

“Those kits have come a long way,” he shook his head. “How about you? You and the missus have fun?”

I froze. No one knew Sky and I had tied the knot, so Billy was just being Billy, but I regarded him for an extra second as I remembered that.

“We had a great time. I think she enjoyed herself.”

I dipped my head, trying to hide the smirk I knew would be all too easy for my friend to read. Visions of just how muchfunwe’d had were quick to spring to mind.

Sky in nothing but that silky red bra.

Water slipping over her breasts as she rode my cock.

Her hair wrapped around my hand when I’d taken her again the next morning, bending her over my bed and covering her mouth so her cries wouldn’t wake the old man.

Yeah, we’d had fun.

Sure enough, when I looked back up, Billy’s eyes were narrowed at me with a suspicious grin.

“Jesus, you two are really doing it, huh? This thing is actually working?”

I understood his doubt, but it still rubbed at me. “Why wouldn’t it?”

“Ellis, man, no shade. I think it’s great.”

My shoulders dropped. Billy was the last person to be a dick about this, even if he might rib me from time to time.

“She’s different,” I said, trying and failing to offer some sort of explanation for how I felt.

“She must be.” His hand landed on my shoulder reassuringly. “Cause you’ve sure as hell never looked like that.”

Without a mirror I was left guessing just what had given me away. But ever since waking up with Sky in my arms that first morning, I’d felt powerless to stop my feelings about her from taking me over. And then to get to finally touch her, to be with her, to uncoil all that sexy, fiery energy. I’d been fighting a hard on nearly every minute I was around her since. The flight home yesterday was brutal, and dropping her off at her place had been a special kind of torture. I hadn’t wanted to let her go.

I’d developed an irrepressible urge to hold her, listen to her, take care of her. I was starting to feel off balance when she wasn’t with me, like she was the ballast of my ship and when I wasn’t around her, I couldn’t quite right myself.

“See,” Billy said, poking me in the chest. “That right there. What the hell is this woman doing to you?”

I sniffed, thinking better of telling him the truth; healing me, givingme hope, inspiring a vision of the future I’d never even wanted before. Instead, I winked at him lightheartedly.

“She’s just shaking things up, man. Even this old dog can learn new tricks.”

He tipped his head back with a laugh. “Well, let’s see if that applies to bikes as much as to women, hot shot.”

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