tone paired with his intense stare sends a jolt through my chest. Okay, now I’m pissed. “Back up, buddy. I am not your—”
“See this?” he gestures toward a small box, brushing blue flakes off the lid. “That’s battery acid, and it’s leaking everywhere. Your battery should’ve been replaced years ago.”
Shame bubbles up my throat at his scorn. “That’s not my fault.”
“It is, though.”
“No, it’s not.”
“I don’t mean to get your panties in a twist, but you should’ve known to replace the battery every four years.”
This guy is unbelievable. “Why are you giving me such a hard time?”
“‘Cause you’re calling your car your baby.” He points under the hood. “Look at this.”
I look at the incomprehensible maze, gritting my teeth. “I don’t know what I’m looking at.”
“Your car is filthy. There’s battery acid all over the place. If there’s one thing that grinds my gears, it’s people who don’t take care of their cars.”
I can’t believe I’m being chewed out by this asshole. Who the hell does he think he is? “I go to the dealership every year to get it checked out, and they never once told me to replace it.”
He laughs, crossing his huge biceps over his chest. “Every responsible owner knows to change the battery. That’s on you.”
“Are you going to fix my car or not?”
He shrugs. “Maybe I won’t.”
“Why the hell not?”
Another dark look from him stills my breath. “At the very least, it would teach you a lesson.”
Tendrils of white-hot heat wrap around my neck. “Or I just go to some other shop and you lose business to a competitor.”
The catlike smile reappears. “You’re welcome to do that. The closest auto repair is thirty miles away.”
And he turns around, throwing his flannel shirt over his shoulder as he walks off. I watch his boots crunch the concrete, my head pounding with the blazing sun. Hope fizzes out like the tail end of a firework. Rage billowing up inside me, I march after him and grab his upper arm.
“Wait!”
He moves with very little resistance into the circle of my arms, the smirk still tugging at his lips. There’s annoyance in his eyes, but heat as well. “What?”
“You’ve got to do this for me.”
“Actually, I don’t have to do anything.”
“You’re being unreasonable! I’m a paying customer, for God’s sake!”
“Don’t care.”
I ball my hands into fists. “How could you not care about your business?”
His gorgeous eyes roll into his head. “Do I look like I need much to get by? I don’t have to take on clients that piss me off.”
“How many times do I have to say it’s not my fault?”
“It’s not my fault,” he mimics my voice in a high-pitched tone. “God, you city people annoy me.”
Take a good look at yourself, asshole. “I’m not some spoiled brat who regularly trashes cars. I’ve had her since I was seventeen. And what the hell is wrong with being from San Francisco?”
“Because you’re all entitled jerks,” he says in a louder voice. “I’m willing to help you, but you’re not getting off easy.”
Wow. “What the hell does that mean?”
“It means stop whining and take my punishment, or go somewhere else.”
Take your punishment.
A wild image of my naked body splayed over Gage’s lap, his rough palm striking my ass, burns in my mind.
Oh my God, how hot would that be?
No, another voice says. You’re a feminist. Jesus! This man is beyond inappropriate.
I release his arm as though burned. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”
Yes. Better.
“I think I’m the owner, and I do whatever the hell I want.”
“That doesn’t excuse sexual harassment!”
The anger radiating from Gage’s body cools as a look of extreme shock hits his face. Then it cracks with an evil grin. “I was thinking of giving you a shitty loaner car. What did you think I meant?”
Oh.
I can feel the seconds ticking into eons as my head fills with the sound of my heartbeat, resolutely drowning out my reply. “Nothing.”
The grin widens. “Now I’m curious. What sort of punishment were you imagining?”
“Don’t be an ass.”
“Did it involve one of us without clothes? Shit, I think I like your idea better.”
“You’re way out of line!”
“You’re the one with the dirty imagination.”
Heat blazing up my chest, I turn from his infuriating presence. “Go to Hell.”
Screw him. I’ll call a tow truck to drag me thirty miles away even though it’s a major inconvenience. Dealing with him isn’t worth it.
I stalk from him, diving my hand into my purse to grab my cell, only to find a black, lifeless