Tack’s lips twitched.
I went on, “There’s a fourteen thousand dollar diamond engagement ring somewhere in my backyard.”
Tack’s lips stopped twitching because they curved upwards.
“Do you know where I can rent a metal detector?” I queried.
The curve turned into his sexy grin before he stated, “I’ll get one of my boys to find it.”
“That would be good considering she can hock that ring and add a room onto her house, make it a shrine to all the reasons she hates Elliott Belova.”
The sexy grin turned into a bigger, sexier smile that included the lines radiating from his eyes deepening and his face looking like he was fighting laughter.
It was a seriously good look and I got so lost in it, I didn’t notice it start to fade until his gentle voice came at me.
“You seem better.”
I pulled in breath through my nose. Then I told him, “I’m better because she’s going to survive and my hard part is done. Now I just have to offer support and that’s easy.”
He studied me again, his eyes moving over my face before they caught mine.
“You need sleep or you wanna know about this guy?” he asked.
I needed sleep. It had to be well beyond midnight and although my boss probably would understand if I called off and hung with my best friend the next day seeing as he was intimately involved in this drama, now that I was getting the hang of it, my job was pretty busy. Not to mention, the mechanics and body shop guys would not be good on their own. They needed direction. They also needed a listening ear. They further needed coffee and donuts. I missed donuts one day and I thought there was going to be a revolt. I had to get into Ride.
But I still wanted to know about Elliott.
“I wanna know about Elliott,” I told him.
He nodded and gave me a squeeze. “Get ready for bed, baby, I gotta make a call. I’ll meet you there and we’ll talk before we sleep.”
I blinked at him as he let me go, turned and walked out the door, closing it behind him.
What did he mean, get ready for bed, and I’ll meet you there and we’ll talk before we sleep?
The getting ready for bed part I could do. My getting ready for bed left me in nearly the same outfit I was in when Tack left the room. Except it was drawstring pajama shorts rather than jean shorts and there was no bra under my camisole. Therefore I did that part.
I was sitting cross-legged on my covers, rubbing hand cream in my hands when Tack returned, again closing the door behind him.
“Tack, maybe we should –”
I stopped speaking when his hands immediately went to the hem of his tee. Then it was up and gone and I had a full on view of his wide chest, tight abs and array of tattoos.
Holy heck. I forgot what a great chest he had. How broad his shoulders were. How much I really liked the definition of his collarbone. How much more I liked the ridges of his six pack. And how stupefyingly fascinating his tats were.
He’d undone his belt and two buttons of his jeans by the time I pulled it together but I lost it again when he turned and sat on the bed to pull off his boots and I caught sight of his back. Tack’s back was tattooed too, from shoulder blade to shoulder blade, spanning his ribs and down his spine. It was an insignia I saw a lot around Ride and included wings, flames, the profile of an eagle and the American flag with a waving banner that spanned his waist in which, in old style, old West writing it said, simply, “Chaos”.
It was an unbelievably cool tattoo.
I hadn’t recovered from it by the time he had his boots off and stood. It was then I snapped to, opened my mouth to suggest we talk in the living room prior to his leaving for the night and then his jeans were gone.
My breath caught and my eyes glazed over and before I knew it, Tack swept the covers down, climbed into bed, grabbed my hand, pulled me forward so I went up on my knees then toppled down on him. Finally, he swept the covers over us both.
I lifted my head and chest and stared down at him.
“Uh…” I mumbled.
“Elliott Belova is in some serious bad shit and I say that knowin’ he was in serious bad shit before. The shit he’s actually in is serious,” Tack started the conversation and I snapped my mouth shut.