Page 22 of Drive Me Wild
“Nothing. Um, do you need some privacy?”
I pull out the chair across from her. “Privacy for what?”
“To finish getting ready. I just barged in on you and—” She reaches for her backpack, and I stand up and grab her wrist.
“You already saw me naked, so no. I don’t need privacy.” I can feel her pulse hammering under the skin of her wrist and see a blush that has bloomed across her cheeks. The asshole in me wants to kiss her pulse, breathe in her fresh vanilla scent, and make her blush all over. The guy who’s trying to be good and noble lets her hand drop.
“Hey. No big deal. Plenty of people have seen me naked.”
She flinches, and I realize how bad that sounds. How it makes me sound like all the gossip is true. And it is. Maybe I should accept that fact and stop trying to be something I’m not. Sure would be a lot easier than keeping this damn promise to myself.
But when I’m near her, I know I can’t give up. Not if it means I might be good enough for her one day.
Chapter Eleven: Zoe
My lady parts won’t settle down after seeing Caleb naked. I think about going home and taking care of myself, but I have a ton of work to do, finishing designs and uploading new products to my online shop.
I finish around lunchtime and head down the stairs leading to the garage. I peek inside to see that the coast is clear—no one is in the garage who I need to sneak around.
Caleb isn’t in the front, so I look toward the back area, where I assume his office is. I see him with a welder’s mask on, working on some chunks of metal. I catch his attention, and he shuts off the torch. I walk into the back area where he’s working.
He pulls off the mask and leather gloves and wipes the sweat from his brow, and I can’t help but notice the flex of his arm muscles as he moves.
Get a grip, girl.
“What are you doing?”
“It’s called a biomechanical sculpture.”
“What does that mean?”
“We’ll see when I’m finished. But it’s supposed to be a moveable sculpture. Kind of like a robot has moving parts. Only these aren’t operated with computers for brains.”
“So what operates them?”
He waves his hands in the air, and I gulp. His hands are big, and I imagine them roving over my body.
Okay, seriously, get a grip- he’s not the guy for you.
“These do. That’s part of the fun. They’re more like a toy than a modern robot.”
“Why are you making it?”
“Just messing around, I guess.”
I notice bits and pieces of old machines surrounding him, chunks of metal that obviously served some other purpose before he disassembled them.
“I thought you like to fix broken things.”
“I do.”
“It looks more like you took a bunch apart.” I gesture to the odd piles.
“Sometimes things need to be made into something completely new in order to find purpose.”
He’s looking at me with an intensity I’ve never noticed, and I wonder if he’s talking about the metal pieces or himself.
“Well, I think it’s cool, Caleb. Thanks for showing me.”
