“Whoa, hold up, Sassy. If King told you to bring it in, he musta meant to fix it within your price range, all right? Stay here. I’ll get ‘im.”
I realized that I was pouting and pulled my curled lower lip between my teeth before I nodded. The stranger smiled, wiped his dirty hands on his dirty navy blue mechanic overalls and extended it to me.
“Bat Stevens.”
I stared at his outstretched fingers and corded forearm, covered in an inked flurry of bats.
“You must love bats,” I deadpanned as I shook his hand.
His lips quirked, softening the hard lines of his face and his overall badassery. “Hate ‘em, but I make myself live with them.”
I frowned after him as he turned away to find King. He wore the standard black jumpsuit of a mechanic but I knew without having to ask that Bat Stevens was a one percenter and I didn’t know if it said good things about me that I was astonished by his parting words of wisdom. Could a biker really be a philosopher or was he just tripping on something and I was so desperate for insight that I was looking for it in unlikely places?
“Babe,” the already familiar boyish huskiness of King’s voice called to me from across the asphalt.
I looked up with a nervous smile that immediately fell off my face as I took in all that was King as he approached me. He was wearing another tee, this one a dark navy that set his eyes to the color of Arctic blue, and his signature low-riding, totally worn out jeans over ridiculously sexy motorcycle boots. I watched as he wiped his grease-covered hands on an even greasier rag before slipping it into a back pocket. His hair was messy, a chaos of golden kinks around his wide-smiling face. He looked like a freaking angel.
My heart stopped for a long pause. Restarted with a clunking thunk that made me think I was dying.
He slowed as he reached me, his smile twisting into something less pure, corrupted with the arrogance he felt when he saw how much he affected me. I tried to be annoyed but it was hard when his beauty literally made it difficult for me to breath.
How a man could exist who looked like him in real life was really beyond my comprehension.
“Babe,” he repeated, this time quietly but his voice was filled with laughter.
“King,” I said, my voice cracking. Heat sluiced from the top of my head to my toes and I knew I was blushing but I cleared my throat and powered on. “You told me to bring my car in so here I am.”
“Here you are,” he agreed as his eyes dragged like a physical touch over my body. “Lookin’ fucking gorgeous. I can’t believe the guys have left you alone.”
“I haven’t been here long,” I admitted.
“Yeah, that must be it.”
We stood staring at each other and I worried it was awkward but I couldn’t bring myself to stop staring at him. He seemed to be experiencing the same problem.
“Still determined to stay away from me?” he asked with that signature cocky grin I was already helpless against.
“It’s for the best.”
“I gotta disagree with you there, babe.”
I watched him lean against my car, one booted foot crossed over the other, his arms folded so that the fabric of his shirt pulled tight over all those lean muscles in his chest. He was so beautiful but so cliché, I had to laugh.
“You are such a rebel without a cause,” I teased.
His eyes lit as they raked me up and down. “I got a cause, babe. Gettin’ you on the back of my bike and gettin’ you to stay there.”
My laughter died in my throat, clogging it like road kill. I swallowed thickly. “You’re tenacious, I’ll give you that.”
“You should give me a lot more but I’m willing to earn it. Just need the chance.”
I threw my hands up. “You don’t even know me, King. Why in the world are you trying so hard?”
His eyes narrowed and the cocky, boyish charm he usually exuded fell away like a wolf its sheep-shorn disguise. I took a step back, which was a mistake because he was on me, so close but not touching, rangy arms bracketing my body against the car and bent slightly so that he could bring his face close to mine.
All I could see were those silver blue eyes, wolf bright.
“Attraction ain’t something you can fake, babe, and soon as I saw your sweet self across the parking lot that day, my breath left my body like a punch to the gut. Never seen someone or anything so beautiful as you.”
“Beauty isn’t everything,” I protested weakly.
His eyes remained somber but there was twitch in his lips that told me he fought a smile. “Nah, it’s not. Lucky for you, I also happen to like dorky, sweet librarian types with a hidden wealth of sass.”