Page 17 of Secretary Crush
He steps behind the dumpster and nods for me to follow. The butterflies in my stomach begin to flutter their excited little wings. I’m thankful this isn’t the kind of business that leaves the dumpster stinky 'cause right now, we’re going to get too close and personal.
When I step around the dumpster, he grabs me and picks me up against him as his mouth crashes into mine. My arms and legs wrap around him, holding on for dear life as I live in these few moments where his lips are against mine.
“It took everything I had to stay out of that office at lunch,” he says against my lips. “But I knew if I went in there, I’d never be able to keep my hands to myself.”
“Then don’t,” I reply, smashing my mouth back to his. His hands firmly grasp my ass, and my blood begins to boil. I’m thankful that the forest lines the back of the building, and nobody can see us because I’m about three seconds away from tugging him into those woods and having my way with him. I wonder if anyone would notice us gone.
“El?” one of the guys yells.
Yep, I think they’d notice.
“El? Where’d you go?” he says again, this time his voice sounding closer. He’s walking over!
Hudson quickly puts me on my feet, and his eyes are full of panic as he looks around us for something to use as an excuse. At our feet is a broken tube light from the shop. He bends down and starts picking up the broken glass, and out of panic, I do the same.
Zane walks around the dumpster. “What are you guys doing out here?” he asks, leaning against the metal dumpster.
Hudson looks up. “El knocked over a light when she brought the trash out. I was helping her clean up the glass. What’s up?”
“Oh, the parts store is on the phone for El. They have a question about something she ordered.”
“Oh,” I say, standing. “Thanks for the help, Hudson,” I say, rushing back into the building. I practically run into the office, and I close the door behind me. The cold air in the room has goose bumps prickling my skin from the dramatic change of the outside heat and the fire that was just coursing my veins.
I take my seat at my desk and pick up the phone. “This is El.”
The dayfinally comes to an end, and I take my time closing up the office in hopes of being left alone with Hudson again. I do one final check of my emails and phone messages before shutting down the computer. I turn off the desk light, the bathroom light, the window A/C unit, and then finally the big overhead light. I exit and close the door behind me.
Only Hudson and Tony are left in the shop, but it looks like Tony is putting his tools away now. I only have to waste a couple more minutes before he’ll be gone too. I walk to the farthest bay door and hit the button to lower it. When it’s down, I take more time than needed to put the padlock on. I move to the next door and the next, doing the same steps. About the time I get to the exterior door, Tony is walking over.
“Walk you out?”
“Oh, you go ahead. I just remembered I have to lock up the back door, and I gotta ask Hudson if there is anything he needs before I take off. He’s always staying so late…I hate leaving him here by himself.”
Tony waves me off. “This place is his pride and joy. He’s married to it.” Without another word, he walks out the door, and I turn and lock it behind him. Before making my way over to Hudson, I go to the back door and lock it for the night. Finally, I walk over to his station. He’s bent down, staring at the side of the motor. When he sees me approaching, he stands and takes a few steps toward me. His hand reaches out and catches mine, then he pulls me against him. Our lips meet, and he kisses me soft and slow as our bodies begin to sway back and forth to the beat of the soft music playing through the garage.
12
HUDSON
El and I have been keeping this thing we’re doing a secret for almost a month now. It’s harder than we both thought it’d be. Our town is small, and everyone knows everyone’s business. We can’t just go out for dinner without everyone finding out what we’re doing, and things are going so well with us that neither of us wants to jinx anything by coming out to the public and the guys at work too soon. We both feel that us being together is our business. It’s our little secret, and bringing others in will only complicate things.
We have to hide here at work. We can’t go out and about around town either. The only place we’re allowed to be ourselves is at her place or mine, or the shop after everyone has left. We’ve escaped to the neighboring towns a few times, but even that gets tricky because it’s not unusual to run into someone you know. If you want a fast food restaurant, a Walmart, or a mall, you go to the next town over.
So, I’ve finally figured out where we can go to just be ourselves with little chance of us getting caught. It’s a Friday, and we’re packing our bags to go on a trip and spend the whole weekend together. I’ve attached the small bike trailer to the back of my bike, and I’ve got it loaded down with everything we’ll need. We climb onto my bike, her with her big helmet to hide her face, and the two of us make our way out of town. About an hour and a half later, we’re pulling up to the campsite I reserved right next to the lake.
I park the bike, and the two of us climb off.
“We’re camping?” she asks.
I smile and nod. “I hope that’s okay.”
She smiles wide. “I’ve never camped before. I don’t know how to do this.”
“Good thing you’re with a pro,” I tell her, moving around to the back where I start to unload the trailer. Out of nowhere, she jumps into my arms and presses her lips against mine. I kiss her breathless. “I’ll take that to mean this is okay.”
“Mm-hmm,” she says, nodding as her lips move back to mine.
A little while later,I have everything set up. The tent is erected with the air mattress blown up and inside. The warm fire lights up the darkness. The two coolers are loaded with food and drinks, and all the dry goods are in a tote to stay hidden from the critters. We both have our folding chairs right next to the fire, and her hand is in mine as we sit in silence, watching the flames dance before us. The crickets are chirping, and a light breeze has the water rippling. It’s all so relaxing. It’s been entirely way too long since I’ve camped like this.
