Page 20 of Lady Luck's Kiss
“Can I be myself? No games?”
“Heck, yes…please, no games,” she said with a happy sigh of relief and gave a loud squeak as Jack pulled her into his arms. His lips came down hard on hers like a starving man. The feel of his tongue made her purr deep in her throat and that seemed to encourage him on. His hands grasped at her waist, pulling her forward into his arms. He kissed her deeply for several minutes and then finally pulled away, tugging at her bottom lip.
“I adore your lips, Charlie,” she heard him whisper as she clung to his shoulders, weak in the knees. The man could knock her socks off and as she looked down at her bare feet, she giggled.
“Kissing me makes you laugh?”
“No, but it sure knocks my socks off,” she replied and heard him chuckle. “Actually, I didn’t come down with any, so…”
“So, I should try it again?”
“And often, I’m thinking,” she admitted softly, tracing the edge of his chin. “You’ve got a bit of red on your face again. Maybe I shouldn’t wear my lipstick anymore?”
“I’d be crushed,” he admitted tenderly. “Those pretty, red lips haunted my dreams last night.”
“Those red lips are staining yours… and making quite the mess on your sexy face.”
“I always knew you thought I was sexy,” he teased.
“I just met you two days ago.”
“No time frame, remember? No limits,” he said in a sultry voice. “No rules. Just what we want is the only thing that counts. Don’t clean off the red yet, I might be tempted to kiss you again and smear it around a bit more.”
“Want the grand tour or did you already look around?” she asked, swallowing hard at the intimacy in the room. She changed the subject. It was getting warm in here and she wasn’t quite ready to take the next step just yet. Kissing Jack would lead to the next step easily and while she said ‘no rules’, she did have one whopper-of-a-rule. She didn’t want to regret anything in her life and that included fooling around.
Pulling back, she showed him around the shop quickly and explained about the water pump. She then showed him the bill and, thankfully, he didn’t balk at it. She had really never discussed price because she wasn’t sure what would fix it yet.
“Who’s Camaro?”
“She’s mine.”
“Yours? Are you restoring her?”
“Working on it. I just got the motor running the other day. Someone had tossed her aside for scrap and there was so much zest, so much life waiting to come alive that I had to have her. I bought her for a couple hundred and towed her here years ago. She’s been my project ever since.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“Yes, she is. I feel odd calling it a ‘she’ but it feels right. All the chrome, all the lights? It reminds me of a woman’s jewelry. All she needs now is some pretty, black shoes.”
“Shoes? Like brake pads?”
“No, shoes like a woman. She needs new rims. The person that had her before had a set of steelies on her and it didn’t fit the aura she projects. This girl needs a set of aggressive black rims. When I do my taxes, I think I might buy them. Unless, I buy my a new cell phone first,” she admitted, grinning. “Stupid, I know,but that is why I was so surprised you called me Lady Luck. If I didn’t have bad luck, I wouldn’t have any.”
“I don’t think it’s stupid. Lots of people say that their cars have personalities. They even name their cars because it feels right. You care about the inanimate object when it’s named. That gives it life and a personality. So, what’s her name?” he asked casually.
“Martha Stewart.”
“What?” he exclaimed and burst out laughing. “You named your Camaro Martha Stewart?”
“No laughing and no judgement! Remember? Hear me out!” she countered, feeling extremely embarrassed by the moniker she had given the car.
“She’s a powerful, independent female that looks sharp, right? She’s got the jewelry, the kingdom, her universe, and owns it all - from sheets to sauce pans. The girl’sgot it, if you get my drift. She’s got italland rules like a queen. The name fits my car.” Beth had called her that a few times over the years and while she hated it, it kinda stuck to the car. Every young girl wanted to be a princess, but only a few became a queen… and her car, her shop, her mantra was to rule it all like her own little kingdom. The Camaro became Martha Stewart.
“Wow. I thought you were going to say something mundane, like Bandit or Onyx. I can honestly say that I wasn’t expecting Martha.”
“Meh,” Charlie said shrugging. “My rules, my car, my nickname.”
“So, it is,” he agreed, chuckling still at the name. “And I can tell you really adore it. It looks like you’ve put a lot of work into her.”
