Page 17 of It's Going to Be a Chrome Christmas
The knock on her door prevented her from responding to him. Cayden placed a quick kiss in her hair before striding over to the chair before her desk. He sat down casually, as if he’d been there the whole time, instead of draped around her.
It wasn’t until the second knock that she realized she was still frozen where he’d left her. “Come!” she shouted, walking towards her desk.
Jeff poked his head into her office. “Everyone’s here.”
She nodded and indicated for him to step in. Cayden stood, turning to meet her head mechanic. “Jeff Ingram, this is CaydenRusso. He’s going to be working on our security system. I’m also told he’s a hell of a mechanic, so we might be finding him work in the motor pool too.”
Jeff reached out his hand and clasped Cayden’s. “Good to meet you, son. Weren’t you here on Friday in the bay?”
Cayden nodded once. “Sure was. I had a bet to win.”
Trixie felt her cheeks flush, and she quickly turned towards her cabinet where she kept her coveralls. She took her time putting on a pair, trying to get her body back under control. She could hear Cayden and Jeff talking behind her, but she worked hard to ignore them. Maybe she should have taken that out Cayden had offered her on Friday. Was it too late to fire him now?
“Let’s go,” she snapped, walking out of her office without waiting for either of them.
Trixie walked down the hall to the stairs. Cayden was with Jeff, so he didn’t need to break any more of her security pads to gain access to the different areas. She’d switched her personal code to a random ten-digit number it had taken her all weekend to memorize. She was grateful not many employees were around on the weekends, so no one had witnessed her locking herself out of her own shop. If she hadn’t had her phone on her, she might have had to call a locksmith to let her into her own apartment. How embarrassing would that have been?
And yet, Cayden had still gotten in. Mind, he’d broken her keypad to do it. But he’d also been the first to enter this morning. If the keypad was truly broken, the others would have either noticed something was wrong or they wouldn’t have been able to get in too.
Men! Why were they so fucking frustrating?
Cayden was right, though; shedidwant him. She wanted him in all the places he’d announced he wanted her, and more. The idea of starting something with more meaning than a one-nighter was tempting. Really tempting. Like craving-in-her-loins tempting.
But the idea of a relationship? That freaked her out. She didn’t dorelationships. Despite the happiness and love she witnessed with the Wynns, Trixie didn’t have a good rapport with relationships. Hermadrehad walked out on herpapá, along with her and herhermanos. Her grandmother had died before she’d been born.
She’d watched AJ and Addy fall in love and then witnessed as that love had imploded on them. She’d watched as Marco and Lindsey exchanged vows that had proven unable to save either of them in the end. Lee was perpetually single, but she also didn’t know enough about his current life to know if that statement was still accurate.
Trixie had no intention of falling in love, but man, she craved it. Worse, she craved it with Cayden, Mr. Cocky Biker. So maybe working towards a relationship wouldn’t be such a bad thing with him. Maybe, when it ended, she could at least say she tried. Maybe knowing she’d put the effort in would make it less painful when he walked.
Because he would walk. They all walked.
Cayden didn’t know what was going through Trixie’s mind, and it was killing him. Jeff had interrupted them before he’d gotten any response out of her. He’d laid out his intentions to her, and he had no idea what her thoughts were. Stupid Jeff and his rotten timing.
In hindsight, Cayden probably could have picked a better time to all but profess his love for her. Cayden was under no illusions. He wasn’t in love with Trixie, but he knew it was onlya matter of time. She was perfect for him in every way, and he couldn’t risk her falling into another’s arms.Thatwould kill him faster than any bullet or shiv.
He wanted to stop her before she entered the breakroom. Heneededto know her thoughts. But Jeff was chatting away next to him, and there were others around. It would have to wait. He’d promised her he’d be professional outside her office, and he needed to keep that promise.
Finally admitting how much he wanted her and how often did get him thinking, though. He was clean. They tested him every six months while in prison. He also hadn’t had sex in roughly three years. He didn’t know if she was on any type of birth control, but he wouldn’t risk it regardless. The second he got her explicit permission, he would be inside her. Which meant he needed to pick up some condoms next time he was out.
That would be difficult. If he wasn’t at work, he was at the house. That was the terms of his parole. The only exception was if he was off property with either Mr. or Mrs. Wynn, who viewed Trixie as a daughter and were not oblivious to his attraction to her. Maybe he could get one of the other residents to pick up the condoms for him. Geordi was out, but maybe Paul. Definitely not Victor. He still hadn’t forgotten how the arsonist had stared at her last Sunday. He wasn’t familiar enough with any of the other residents to ask them for a favor so personal.
Paul had a furlough trip coming up with his wife. Mr. or Mrs. Wynn wouldn’t think twice about him picking up such supplies. Cayden would just have to make sure to slip Paul the necessary cash for the transaction. He had to bury his frustration that he needed someone else to purchase something as simple as a pack of condoms for him.
Plan set, Cayden followed Jeff into the employee breakroom. Jeff gestured for Cayden to follow him, but he shook his head. He was better in the back. He needed some space between himand Trixie, plus he wanted to watch how she interacted with her employees and how they interacted with her. There was a lot of temptation sitting outside those doors, and he might not be the only one with the skills to take it.
Trixie said she trusted her employees, but one of her trusted employees had also been easily conned into handing over the keys to an Aston Martin to Cayden last Friday.
Speaking of which, that employee—his embroidered coverall saidGary—shifted in his seat and caught sight of Cayden. Recognition set in before confusion. Cayden gave him a chin lift but didn’t offer up any information. It was up to Trixie to introduce Cayden.
Calling the meeting to order, Trixie sat on top of the far circular table, facing the rest of them. Around her table sat Jeff, a woman wearing a pantsuit, and a man who was far too attached to his cell phone. Cayden immediately had them pegged as her managers. Jeff was obviously her head mechanic, the woman and her manicured long fingernails was the head of sales, and the man and his quick thumbs was in charge of marketing.
There were three other round tables with six chairs each around the room. Directly in front of Cayden were the mechanics. Their coveralls and blue-collar appearance gave them away. To their left sat the sales team in their spiffy outfits and perfect hairdos. All the way over to the right was the mismatched table. He figured the woman in her thirties was in marketing, because her thumbs were in a clear contest with the man at Trixie’s table. There were two men whom Cayden had spied in the bay last week and knew they were painters. Then there was a young man who looked completely out of place surrounded by so many adults. He had a notebook and pen out, which Cayden found interesting. Who used pen and paper anymore?
Bringing his attention back to Trixie, Cayden surmised that she had a good crew. How each of them worked individually and with each other, Cayden didn’t know yet, but she had a decent size staff for her operation. He needed to make sure to compliment her on that. He was concerned for her business and personal security. He didn’t need her thinking he was coming in and taking over what she’d worked so hard to build.
The talking halted immediately as soon as Trixie sat down, as if planting her cute little ass on that table was equivalent to a judge’s gavel. Damn, now the image of Trixie in a sexy judge’s robes was stuck in his head.
He had to close his eyes and take several deep breaths. When he opened them, he tried to casually glance down as he silently ordered his cock to behave. Yeah, maybe telling her he would wait until she begged him to sleep with her wasn’t the brightest idea he’d ever had. In fact, right now, his dick was calling him all sorts of stupid.
