If You Only Knew (Harper Falls #3) Read online

  “Wait.” Jack stopped him before he could hang up. “Can you see the parking area from where you are?”

  “I guess. Why?”

  “Look for a red truck, it’s the only one. Near the south end.”

  The phone went silent but not for long.

  “Goddamn, mother fucking son of a bitch.”

  Jack smiled at Tyler. “I think he sees us.”

  “Is he mad?” Not that it would matter; Tyler was prepared for a fight. She just wanted to know the degree of mad she would be dealing with.

  Jack refrained from wincing as Drew let off another string of colorful swear words.

  “Mad? Not really. He’s just a little surprised, that’s all. He’s on his way over as we speak.”

  “What the hell were you thinking, Jack?” Drew continued to yell at Jack over the phone. “Bringing Tyler to a place like this? And who the hell dressed her? These animals are going to be on her like white on rice.”

  “That’s a whole lot of questions, my friend. Why don’t you ask her yourself?” Jack waved when he saw a very pissed off Drew barreling down on them. He turned slightly and whispered, “Tone it down a little. If you go off on Tyler, I’ll be the one kicking your ass, understood?”

  “Shut the fuck up.”

  Tyler continued to search until she finally saw Drew. He dodged his way through the crowd, still talking on the phone, his eyes pinned on her. She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting to feel when she saw him, but the burst of raw sexual attraction knocked her for a loop.

  Over the years when she would close her eyes and think of Drew, and that happened more often than she liked to admit, Tyler pictured him several different ways. Happy — his smile always sent a zing through her. Tender — that moment just after sex when his eyes filled with wonder and a bit of concern — he always wanted to be sure she enjoyed it as much as he did.

  Sometimes, when she was in the mood for a little emotional torture, she thought of how he would say I love you. Never a hesitation, never a doubt. It was enough to make a girl’s heart sing — and a woman’s heart break all over again.

  This Drew, obviously pissed off and ready for a fight, was a new animal altogether.

  He was an overheated, dirty mess. He was the sexiest thing Tyler had ever laid eyes on.

  The ends of his hair curled slightly, his face damp, one cheek smudged with grease. The black t-shirt he wore hugged his muscled torso like a second skin outlining a body filled out to perfection.

  Then there were his arms. When he was eighteen, they were lean. He had been in good shape and strong for his age. Now, his biceps bulged with power, barely contained in the sleeves of his sweat-dampened shirt.

  Tyler wanted to unbutton those worn jeans from his trim waist, lowering them until she had an unobstructed view of the bulge between his legs. First, though, she prayed he would turn around. That ass had to be as amazing as the rest of him. She could go down on her knees, kiss the firm, round cheeks, and fondle his hard cock all at the same time.

  “Are you okay?” Hearing her slight moan, Jack glanced Tyler’s way. He thought the combination of heat and worry might have gotten to her.

  “Hmm? Did you say something?”

  Jack looked closer. Flushed face, lips slightly parted. Her gray eyes the darkest he’d ever seen them. He grinned. It wasn’t the heat that had gotten to Tyler. Unless he was completely off base, Drew’s sexual dry spell was going to come to an end — soon.

  “Tyler, get your ass back in that truck. And Jack.” Drew reined himself in before he punched his best friend.

  “Now, Drew…”

  “I don’t want to hear it. Get her back to Harper Falls before this crowd of rutting boars stops drooling and rushes her all at once.”

  “Our girl is drawing a fair bit of attention.”

  “This woman doesn’t appreciate being talked about like she isn’t standing three feet away.”

  “You want me to talk to you?” Drew rounded on her, making Tyler gasp. Standing this close, she could smell the musk, feel the heat. Saliva pooled in her mouth and she swayed towards him, her body drawn into his erotic orbit.

  “Steady.” Drew reached out, afraid Tyler might faint. “The heat can creep up on you. You should be wearing a hat.”

  “Honestly?” Jack shook his head. Clueless idiot. “She doesn’t need a hat, she needs a good… Ah, hell. Look at her eyes, asshole.”

  Frowning, Drew did what Jack suggested. Her pupils were dilated, the gray so dark her eyes appeared to be almost black. If it were any other woman, Drew would have thought she was on drugs. Tyler didn’t do that crap. Taking a deep breath, he realized her problem and he felt his body tighten in response.

  “There you go,” Jack chuckled. “Not so stupid after all.”

  “Kiss me.”

  “What?”

  “Kiss me, now.” Tyler licked her lips. She hadn’t meant it to be provocative; they were just dry. It was just a happy bonus that Drew’s eyes followed the path of her tongue like a starving man.

  “I’m not going to kiss you, Tyler. Not with this audience.”

  “That’s the point. I read that guys at these races respect a man’s old lady. Kiss me, let them know I’m with you, and I’ll be safe. It’s the perfect solution.”

  Drew looked at her mouth again. He was tempted. Leaning closer, breathing in her unique scent. He could almost forget where they were. Almost, but not quite.

  “You getting out of here is a better solution.”

  “You were slow at seventeen, Drew Harper. I guess some things never change.”

  Tyler didn’t give Drew a chance to stop her. She threw her arms around his neck and glued her lips to his.

  He could have pulled away. He could have let the catcalls and wolf whistles penetrate the sexual fog that enveloped his brain the second her mouth met his. He could have done a million things to stop her. Instead, he did what came naturally — he kissed her back.

  Jack only watched for a second before he got in the rented truck and drove away. Tyler would be safe with Drew. Hopefully, this would be their start back to each other. He’d done his part; getting Tyler safely delivered. The rest was up to them.

  DREW PULLED TYLER close until nothing but two thin layers of clothing separated them. The heels on her ridiculous shoes brought their mouths to the same level, making it easy to devour her warm, sweetness. She had a taste he craved, his drug of choice. He’d been too long without a fix.

  Tyler drowned. The air around them was brutally dry, but she sunk into a glorious pool of hot, sexy man. She didn’t need water. She didn’t need to breathe. She only needed Drew.

  Their tongues explored, rediscovering. Tyler had almost forgotten how much better this was with Drew. Now that she remembered, she never wanted it to end.

  Drew angled his mouth across Tyler’s, licking at her full, bottom lip before his teeth bit, harder than he had intended. Her moan of approval was almost his undoing. He bit again, a little softer, then soothed with his tongue before taking her mouth again.

  His hands began to stray. He slipped under her shirt, reveling in the feel of her soft skin against the rough pads of his fingertips. He wasn’t so far gone that he didn’t remember where they were, though it was a close thing. A few more minutes and he would have had her naked and up against the nearest car, their audience be damned.

  “I think we’ve proven our point.”

  Reluctantly, Drew stood back. He didn’t drop his arms; Tyler felt too good and he wasn’t crazy.

  “Point?”

  Tyler felt wonderfully dazed. It had been too long since she had been in a Drew haze. She wanted to savor every moment.

  “We wanted to establish that you’re with me. We did that, and then some.”

  “Right.”

  Tyler stumbled back, batting his hand away when he would have steadied her. What had she been thinking? For a few heady moments, she’d let the past blur the present. She wasn’t Drew’s woman. He had no proble
m remembering that even when she let her lust-glazed brain forget.

  It seemed so real. Hadn’t he felt it? Even a little bit. Maybe she was a masochist but she had to ask.

  “Was that just an act for the crowd, Drew?”

  Hell, no. Drew looked around at the eager, interested spectators. He wasn’t playing this out in front of a bunch of strangers. Leaning close, he whispered so only she could hear.

  “I want you more than my next breath. What I don’t want is a bunch of bubbas and bubbettes getting their vicarious thrills off us.”

  Tyler didn’t answer. Drew had said everything that was necessary. She held out her hand, smiling when he took it. Eyes locked on hers, he raised the back to his mouth.

  “I’m still angry that you’re here.”

  “But kind of glad, too?”

  “Maybe. A little.”

  “Maybe tomorrow you’ll be a lot glad.”

  If that kiss was a prelude to getting naked, Drew had no doubt he’d be ecstatic. He was just mad enough not to share that with her.

  “Come on.” Drew pulled her towards his improvised pit area. “I left my crew battling valve problems.”

  “With all this dust, I imagine they get clogged easily.”

  Blocking her body with his, Drew guided Tyler through a sea of potential gropers. In this bunch, it wasn’t just the men who could get handsy. In the past, he’d gotten more than a few pinches and butt slaps. Mostly from women, though he never paused to find out.

  “Since when do you know about engines?”

  “You’d be surprised what I’ve learned in the past ten years.” She leaned closer. “About a lot of things.”

  Drew suppressed a groan. If she were trying to get a rise out of him, she could stop, immediately. His erection sprang to life the second he saw her. Being sexy came naturally to Tyler. Dressed in those Daisy Dukes? She was off the charts.

  “I plan on asking about that — later.”

  When Drew had called these guys a crew, she’d pictured the kind of professional pit crews that she saw on TV. His “crew” consisted of two men and an old mangy dog. Tripper and Al nodded when Drew introduced her. No one introduced the dog. She hoped they fit the cliché don’t judge a book by its cover. Otherwise, she was even more worried about Drew’s safety than before.

  “I don’t know about this, Boss. We’ve tried blowing out the valves. The engine is coughing like crazy.”

  “Have you tried reprogramming the EGR valve judgment criteria?”

  The three men looked at Tyler as if she had grown a second head. She just shrugged.

  “Hey, I’m not just another Pit Lizard.”

  Tyler enjoyed seeing Drew wince. The flight to Mexico had given her plenty of time to research this world Drew occasionally inhabited. It was scary, dangerous and like Jack said, exciting. Finding the term for a racing groupie had been pure coincidence. As it turned out, a happy one. His reaction was priceless.

  “Jesus, Ty, you aren’t a Pit Lizard, and where the hell did you even hear that term?”

  “Around,” she said, shrugging with a wide-eyed, innocent look.

  “And the valve reprogramming?”

  “I read a lot of stuff. Some of it sticks, some of it doesn’t. I guess that stuck.”

  She could tell Drew wasn’t buying it. He was right though; she wasn’t going to admit anything.

  Back when they dated, Tyler became an encyclopedia of car knowledge. She wanted to talk to him about his favorite subject. Why she remembered some obscure valve procedure was a complete mystery. The brain sometimes popped out useful information at the strangest times.

  “Since you weren’t invited, I have no intention of entertaining you. Sit over there in the shade and behave. There is water and juice in the red cooler, the blue has sandwiches.” Drew pinned her with a serious look. “Don’t go wandering off. It isn’t safe for a woman on her own. Hell, it’s fifty/fifty for a man.”

  “What about that woman over there?”

  Drew glanced to where Tyler pointed. A woman, dressed similarly to Tyler, made her way through the crowd. She paused every now and then to flirt and flaunt her cleavage.

  “She wants to find trouble.”

  “Oh, so she is a Pit Lizard.” Tyler looked closer, fascinated. If she could have five minutes with that woman, imagine the tales she could tell. Never mind the internet, there was her fountain of information.

  “No. Absolutely not.”

  “What?” Tyler innocently batted her eyes.

  Drew grabbed Tyler’s hand and pulled her over to the makeshift tent. It wasn’t much, but it did provide some welcome shade when they were on a break.

  “Sit.” He pushed her into a canvas director’s chair. “Drink.” He handed her an icy cold bottle of water. “And do not move.”

  “Drew.”

  “Yes?”

  “I know you’re pissed. I just needed—”

  “We’ll talk later, Ty.”

  She watched him go back to his crew and sighed. He couldn’t be too angry if he called her Ty. It had always been a term of affection between them.

  Tyler rummaged through her bag until she found her phone. It didn’t seem likely that there would be service out here in the middle of Hell’s neighbor. Still, it never hurt to try. She scrolled to Rose’s number and hit dial. When it started ringing, Tyler grinned. Well, what do you know?

  “Tyler. We weren’t expecting to hear from you so soon. Let me put you on speaker so Dani can get in on this.”

  “Hey,” Dani chimed in a few seconds later. “How goes it in purgatory.”

  “You’ve spoken with Jack.”

  “He called right after he left you. Is it as bad as he described?”

  “Nah. It’s a vacation getaway. I can see the brochures now. Tired of cool mountain breezes and pristine beach resorts? Come to Sepsis City, we’re a disease waiting to happen.”

  “Take pictures,” Dani said. “They are worth a thousand words. From the sound of it, you’ll need them all.”

  “I don’t plan on being here long enough to write a book. Or even a short story. Now if I could only talk to Miss Pit Lizard 2015, I might consider it.”

  “What is a Pit Lizard?”

  “Google it.” Tyler ran the bottle of water over her neck in a futile attempt to cool down. “I don’t know how he stands this. The heat alone would send me over the edge.”

  “Some people thrive on it. In Afghanistan, I would see natives out working away during the hottest part of the day. Others would stay inside three or four hours until it cooled down. Everybody is different.”

  “Mmm. I don’t know about different, but Drew’s ass looks amazing in those jeans.”

  Bending over to check something under the hood, the material stretched over the curve of two very nicely formed cheeks. And Tyler thought the heat was bad before. Add sexual frustration and she felt like her skin was going to burn off.

  Thinking quickly, she opened the water and poured the contents over her head and down her body. Her sigh of relief was loud and long.

  “Did you just orgasm looking at a butt?”

  Tyler laughed with her friends.

  “Cold water; hot body. And now wet jokes. I’d like to think we’re above such things.”

  “True.” Tyler could almost see Dani nodding with a twinkle in her green eyes. “We’re much too sophisticated for low-brow humor. Maybe Drew is thirsty. Your cup is overflowing; give him a drink.”

  “Ha, ha. Not bad for off the cuff. Rose? You want to chime in before I say goodbye.”

  “I wish. I’ve got nothing. Be safe and keep your powder dry.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “No idea. I was trying to link dry with wet vagina. Instead, I got an obscure World War II reference. The be safe part goes, though. Any idea when you’ll be back?”

  “Drew is having engine trouble. If I’m lucky, he’ll have to pull out and I won’t need to use my feminine wiles to talk him out of it.”

&n
bsp; “Keep us informed. Love you.”

  “Love you back.”

  Tyler put her phone away, her eyes still on Drew. The more she watched, the less she thought this race thing was about his screwed up state of mind. He was having a great time. Maybe he did need something to conquer. If that was the case, she wasn’t going to be able to sex him out of racing tomorrow. She would keep her fingers crossed that the car would be her unexpected ally.

  She took a book out of her bag and a bottle of juice from the cooler. She didn’t know how long Drew would be. Luckily, she came prepared. Settling back, she relaxed with some welcome old friends. It didn’t take long for her to tune out the noise around her and immerse herself in the lives of the March family.

  Every time she read Little Women, she talked herself into believing Beth would survive. This time it would be different. Of course, that never happened. The outcome was a foregone conclusion. Beth’s tragic end couldn’t be changed no matter how hard she wished.

  She glanced up from her book. Drew still worked in the blazing sun, sweat covering his face. Were they like a book, she wondered? Had the chapters already been put down in permanent ink? Or could they rip out the pages and start again?

  Drew looked up as though sensing her interest. He waved, a half-smile on his face. Tyler felt a surge of hope. They still had time. Nothing had been etched in stone.

  She went back to her book. The author chose the direction of her characters’ lives. She and she alone manipulated who died and who had a happy ending.

  Ten years ago, Tyler stood by and watched as others dictated a very important part of her life. She was determined never to let anyone write her ending, not this time.

  CHAPTER NINE

  TYLER DIDN’T KNOW how it was possible, but somewhere between Jo meeting her Professor Bhaer and Laurie marrying Amy, she dozed off.

  Between the noise and the heat, she wouldn’t have thought sleep possible. Now here she floated in a dream.

  “Relax.”

  Drew played leading man. Nothing new there. She could almost feel his arms around her. The problem was she always woke up alone. Her dreams were a big, fat tease, always ending in frustration.