Chasing Aubrey (4 page)

Chapter 6

I never thought it would actually work! I couldn’t believe Tanner was going to trust me with a hundred thousand dollar car and he didn’t even really know me. And he thought his friend had too much money. You didn’t just hand a Jag over to a stranger if you weren’t ridiculously wealthy. Not that it made a difference to me. I already liked him for his sharp sense of humor and his effortless flirting.

We climbed into the car and I was immediately overwhelmed with the new car smell. Leather and expensive wood veneers dressed the interior. This was a car meant to be
driven
. I inserted the key and the car purred to life. A wave of anxious nervousness bubbled up in my chest. This was a really expensive car. My family could pay for it, obviously, but I would be in a world of hurt if anything were to happen to it. It didn’t even make a difference if it was insured or not. If my parents, or even Chester, found out about my little hobby, my entire cover would be blown. But I couldn’t pass up this opportunity.

I loved my ‘Stang, but she was no Jag.

No, a Jag was a marvel of engineering. The peak of luxury and function meeting together in a beautiful union. I couldn’t believe that I was going to be the one to drive her.

I pulled down the long driveway to the mostly abandoned access road. Even on the unpaved driveway, the ride was smooth and far too good to be true.

Once we got to the road, I headed off in the direction away from the city. I didn’t want anyone around while I was admiring this beauty.

“How much do you trust me?” I asked with a sly grin.

Tanner smiled and shook his head.

“Why do you ask?”

The Jag was so responsive to me, she was just begging to be treated like the special lady she was. She wanted to run. She wanted me to open her up and let her go.

“Oh, I just wanted to see what this baby can really do, but if you’re too scared…” I taunted. He was fully within his rights to deny me. I would be a little disappointed, but I would completely understand.

“Go for it.” His answer surprised me, but I wasn’t going to ask twice. If he wanted me to open her up, then damn it, that’s what I was gonna do.

I accelerated and shifted gears; the speedometer edged upwards, past 80, past 90, past 100, flawlessly. The transitions were smooth and easy.

“You call yourself a racer?” It was his turn to taunt me.

I cast my eyes in his direction, meeting his challenging gaze.

“Hey, it’s your car,” I said.

“I didn’t even have this car this morning. It’s not like I’m attached to it. I trust you.”

Hearing those three words from him sent a strange jolt of pleasure through me. Why did I feel so proud at possessing his trust? It didn’t make sense.

130. He still looked cool as a cucumber. The world raced by us in a blur. There was no one on this road, no one around for miles and miles. It was the perfect drag strip.

150 and the Jag still purred and accelerated effortlessly. Go big or go home. I was going to push her to her limit. I may never get another chance, so why not?

165. She was nearing her limit. Still, there were no complaints from the passenger seat. He looked like he was having the time of his life. Hell, maybe he was.

170. Only one tick off from top speed and I couldn’t believe how fluid the gear shifts were, how quiet the engine was even at its max. My heart raced in my chest, the adrenaline rush from being behind the wheel and opening up like this was nearly overwhelming. It was addicting and habit-forming. I could do this every day and never get sick of it.

We finally hit top speed and I started shifting down to bring her back down. I knew she was happy with me and looking at the expression on Tanner’s face, so was he.

We were finally back down to about 50MPH when he turned to me with a mischievous gleam in his hazel eyes.

“So, why don’t you turn around and do that again… like you mean it this time.”

I couldn’t stop the loud laughter that bubbled out of my mouth.

“Hey, I just didn’t want to make you piss your pants or anything. If you want the real deal, I’ll give it to you,” I quipped.

“Oh, you can give it to me anytime, sweetheart.”

The sexual promise in his voice made butterflies crop up in my stomach. He made me more nervous than a big race and I didn’t know why.

“Well, I hope you’ve got a spare pair of panties, mister,” I teased, turning the car around and bringing it to a stop.

“So, I think the specs say this thing can get from 0 to 60 in around five seconds. Wanna test that out?”

Tanner grinned, pulling his cell phone out of his jacket pocket. He pulled up his stopwatch app and looked over at me.

“Way ahead of you. On your mark, get set…” He paused for a long moment; my body was already ready, the Jag was ready for her test and he was teasing us.

I cast an exasperated glance in his direction, clearly saying ‘don’t tease me about this right now, just say go’. He snickered and turned his eyes back to his phone.

“Go!”

I floored it, shifting up again and again. The needle inched toward 60 and Tanner’s eyes flicked back from the speedometer to the phone and back again.

“Come on sweetheart, you can do it,” I cooed to the car.

“Time!” I shouted, still accelerating, trying to see how long it would take me to get to top speed.

“4.9 seconds. Not bad at all,” he answered with a grin.

“Was there ever any doubt?”

“Not even for a moment. I believed you knew what you were doing.”

Again, we were pushing 100 and still climbing. It was the most exhilarating feeling.

I raced down the road like it was a real event. I didn’t know why I felt like I had something to prove to him, but I did. I wanted him to respect me. I’d never been able to show off my talents to anyone that wasn’t a competitor. Marilee knew about my racing, but she never wanted to go to any of my races, she said that she would be too nervous. I teased her about it occasionally, but she never budged.

As much as I loved racing, I always wanted someone to share it with. It was so hard to be so passionate about something and have to keep it a secret.

Sometimes my parents tried to give me a hard time for not being more socially active. I wanted to scream at them. I had my hobbies; they weren’t hobbies that my parents approved of, so I had to keep them to myself. That didn’t mean that I was free to parade around like their little trophy. I had my own things to do and it seemed like they were never going to understand that.

We topped out again and Tanner actually gave me a little bit of applause. I didn’t know if it was mocking or genuine, so I didn’t say anything.

“You deserve this car a hell of a lot more than I do. I love fast cars, but you could out-drive me any day of the week.”

I grinned from ear-to-ear. Most men would never admit to something like that. I’d been made to feel inferior so many times by men that thought they had an advantage just by virtue of having a Y chromosome. The fact that Tanner wasn’t like that, that he was willing to readily admit that a woman could best him at something, only made him more endearing to me.

I didn’t really know how to react to him. I wanted him, but I knew it was something that I shouldn’t even consider.

Regardless, I was suddenly aware of how close we were to one another and though I longed to be even closer to him, I tried to mentally distance myself from him.

“How would you feel about not going back to the wedding?” He asked.

I looked back at him, confused. We were hurtling down the road at a more respectable 100MPH and driving was more natural to me than walking at this point, so I took a moment to study his face, looking for any hints of his real intentions.

“Aren’t you the best man? Shouldn’t you be there?”

He shrugged.

“I did my part. They’ll be fine without me. Besides, you don’t really belong there anyway.”

My eyes grew exponentially.

“What? How did you know?”

He smirked, sinking back into his seat and propped his feet up on the dash.

“I didn’t. But thanks for confirming my suspicions.”

I clenched my teeth, cursing myself for speaking too quickly.

“All right. So what did you have in mind?” I didn’t want to invite him to ask any more questions about why I was there.

Part of me knew I should go back to the wedding to try to figure out who Rex was; I knew that the blowback from not meeting him would be severe, at least on Twitter. I looked at Tanner and couldn’t find the energy to care about Rex any more. I wanted to see where this was going.

“Let’s go into the city,” he answered.

“What’s in the city?” I pressed.

He answered with the cockiest grin I think I’ve ever seen.

“My place.”

Chapter 7

I couldn’t believe she was really going along with this. When I made the suggestion of going to my place, it had been more or less a joke. I mean, I obviously actually wanted it, but I didn’t expect it to be that easy. I didn’t know what was going through her mind. I wished I did, but she didn’t seem to be very forthcoming with that information.

There was no denying her sex appeal. The woman was a beast behind the wheel. She handled a car the way you should handle a lover, gently and with as much care and affection as possible. Her tenacity impressed me, but even more than that, her casual confidence made me want her more than I’d ever wanted anyone. She knew she was the shit and she wasn’t ashamed of it for even a moment.

On the dance floor, talking about her life and her family, she was a completely different person. She was still funny and charming, but she also had a sadness about her. The moment her eyes landed on this Jag, that all melted away. She came alive. Her face glowed with pure joy and I was so glad that I was the one that could give her that feeling.

I only hoped that she wasn’t agreeing to go back to my place because she felt obligated to. I let her drive my car, but I really didn’t care. I loved the gift and was grateful to Marcie and Bryce for their generosity, but I would never get the enjoyment out of it that Aubrey did. It only seemed right to let her drive it. Anything else would be pure selfishness on my part. I learned a long time ago that I didn’t have to be selfish if I wasn’t starving to death. Doing things for other people made me feel much better about myself than doing things for myself. Typically, the person I was doing things for was Bryce — or more recently his daughter — but I could definitely see myself spoiling Aubrey if she’d give me the chance.

“Where do you live?” She asked, the car slowing gradually as she neared the outskirts of the city. She really was magnificent. I saw the fierce gleam in her eyes when I challenged her to drive like she meant it. I wanted to bring that side of her out in the bedroom. I wanted to make her moan and scream my name. I wanted to do terrible dirty things to that beautiful body and I wanted to kiss those pouty lips until she was dizzy.

I still didn’t know if I’d have my chance to do any of that. I knew that once I got her in my place my odds would be drastically increased, but there was still no guarantee. Even if we didn’t sleep together, I would be happy to spend the time with her. She was fascinating, intriguing and inspiring. I was lucky to be in her presence. Even more lucky that she seemed to want to hang out with a schmuck like me.

“Downtown, the Faraday Tower,” I answered.

“Ooooh, fancy,” she teased.

I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah, another gift from my benevolent best friend,” I said.

“Jeez, where do I get a friend like that?” She joked. I wanted to tell her the truth, but it wasn’t something that I typically offered up to new people… or anyone at all.

I shrugged instead of telling her the real story behind how Bryce and I had become friends.

“Luck, I guess.”

“So… what do you do?” She asked. I figured it was a fair question since I’d asked her the same thing earlier.

“Mostly I find people that don’t want to be found.”

I saw her visibly tense at that answer and it made me wonder if she was hiding something. That was ridiculous I reassured myself. Aubrey was classy, well-off and insanely talented. Then again, she was crashing a wedding with no explanation… maybe there was more to her than meets the eye.

As much as I wanted to dwell on the matter, I couldn’t. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her and the practiced ease she implemented when handling this magnificent vehicle.

“So, you’re like a private investigator?” I wasn’t sure why she sounded nervous suddenly. Her driving was even less fluid, jerkier. Something was up.

“Not exactly? Bryce keeps me on payroll in case he needs to know something about someone. Maybe it’s more akin to corporate espionage. I don’t really have a title. I’m just good at finding paper trails that others can’t. Is there something wrong with that?” I didn’t mean to sound as defensive as I did. I didn’t want this to make our night take a turn for the worse.

She shook her head, though she didn’t appear to be relaxing any.

“No, nothing wrong with that. It’s interesting. I’m sure it’s always different.”

She wasn’t looking at me and it made me suspicious.

“What aren’t you telling me Aubrey?”

She turned to me, the look on her face the same as a deer in headlights. Something spooked her and I wanted to know what it was. Despite my new apprehensions, I wanted to take away her fears and soothe her worries.

“Me? Oh, I’m just trying to remember the way to the Faraday,” she answered with a lie. I knew it was a lie because it was my job to be able to see those things: the subtle tremble in her voice, her fidgeting hands, the way she wouldn’t look at me – all tell-tale signs.

I noticed the way her knuckles were white on the steering wheel. I noticed the tension in her jaw and the way she avoided making eye contact. I saw the slight nervous jitters in her leg and noticed how her breathing quickened when I pressed her for answers. Something was definitely up, but she wasn’t going to tell me anything so I decided to drop it for the night. She’d made me suspicious enough that I knew I would have to look into it more tomorrow, but for tonight, I just wanted to look at her. I’m fully aware of how cheesy that makes me sound, but I didn’t care at all. She captivated me, invaded my brain and wouldn’t let go. Her presence was all consuming and I was certain that if I could just sleep with her, it would get her out of my head.

“Left on Elm and a right on 29th,” I answered, pretending that I believed her.

“Oh, right. How could I have forgotten?”

After a few minutes of silence, we pulled into the parking garage and I directed her to my permanently reserved parking spot.

She pulled in, parked and heaved a big sigh.

“Aubrey,” I whispered, “whatever it is, it’s okay.”

She turned to me and I could see the fear and sadness in those gorgeous honey eyes. I wanted to take all of her troubles away. I understood what it was like to feel like you didn’t belong. I started to wonder if maybe she wasn’t as well-off as she seemed. Maybe she was trying to hide the fact that she wasn’t from a wealthy family and that’s why she got so nervous about my particular trade.

I decided that had to be it. It made me feel a lot better to think she was just someone that was poor, rather than someone with a real secret. I knew I was jumping to conclusions, but I only had so much to go off of.

She shook her head, and I could see her eyes were sparkling with emotion that she refused to let out. She was stronger than I even thought and it still just made me want her more.

“No, it’s not. I’m sorry. I really shouldn’t do this. I know that’s terrible to say at this point. I’ve really loved spending time with you, but I can’t…”

I frowned, sensing yet again that there was more to the story than she was telling me.

“Are you dating someone? Are you married?”

She looked down at her lap and examined her manicured fingernails closely, not making eye contact with me.

“No, not exactly.”

“Are you secretly a man? In love with someone else? On the run from the law?”

She laughed and I had to give her a smile of encouragement.

“No, nothing like that…”

“Then what’s the problem?”

She lifted her head and looked me in the eyes. The intangible connection I felt with her was incredible, monumental and completely foreign to me. Without another thought, I leaned in for a kiss.

Our lips met in a fiery embrace; it’s probably cliché to say that there were sparks, but there’s no other way to describe the sensation that coursed through me when we kissed.

She didn’t resist me. Instead, she was pliant and willing. Her mouth parted on a moan and I took the opportunity to slip my tongue past her perfectly aligned teeth into the welcoming depths of her mouth. Our tongues tangled in an erotic dance; stroking, caressing, tasting and exploring one another as much as we could. I couldn’t get enough of her. She tasted like fine wine and chamomile tea. It was an odd combination but it somehow worked. Her tongue was timid, tracing over my lips, teasing the edge of my tongue. Her inexperienced kisses drove me wild. I’d been with some of the skankiest kinkiest girls California had to offer (and that’s saying something) but none of them compared to this shy naive girl.

I finally broke the kiss, not wanting to finish this in the car — even if it did need a christening.

“Let’s take this upstairs, shall we?”

She nodded without a word and I escorted her to the elevator that led up into the tower.