Flat-Out Sexy (25 page)

She jumped. “Hey!”

“Wow, you are cold.”

Tamara couldn’t help but laugh. That was such a guy thing to do.

Elec reached down and yanked the duvet up, folding it in half over them.

It only came to her waist, but it helped and she gave a yawn. “I’m tired.”

“Me, too.” Elec shifted his hand from her hip to her stomach and gave his own yawn in her ear.

The spot he was touching was her major jiggle spot, and Tamara felt herself tense, felt something akin to a panic attack that he would be residing right on top of her major flaw, and that with his hand there, there was no hiding it. But it clearly wasn’t bothering him, and she needed to get a grip, let it go. Closing her eyes, she used the technique of relaxing from her head down to her toes, one muscle group at a time. By the time she reached her feet, Elec was asleep, his even breathing rushing past her ear.

She dozed off, too, going in and out as the sun warmed her from her bedroom window and Elec’s body heat created a warm cocoon under the duvet.

Snapping awake for no obvious reason, Tamara had the sudden realization that between the shower sex and the talking and the napping, a fair amount of time must have gone by and her kids came home at three o’clock. Craning to see over Elec, she eyeballed the clock. Two forty-seven.

Oh, Lord. She could only be eternally grateful that her kids hadn’t discovered her exactly the way she was at the moment. They still had time but it was cutting it close.

“Elec,” she whispered.

He just sighed in his sleep.

“Elec.” Panicking a little, she shoved him and threw back the blanket. “Get up.”

“Why?” he muttered, his eyes still closed.

“The school bus gets here in ten minutes.”

“Oh, shit,” he said, eyes popping open. With a dexterity that both impressed and reared envy in her, he leaped off the bed and ran into the bathroom.

She was still struggling to disengage herself from the damn blanket, but she was grateful that he immediately understood the importance of the school bus arriving and how he couldn’t be there when it did. Her kids would find it weird that she was in her bathroom showering on a Monday at three o’clock, but she could explain that one away. Elec naked in the bed next to her? Not so easy to get around.

When she managed to get herself out of the bed, she yanked open a dresser drawer and pulled on some panties and a T-shirt, forgoing a bra for the moment. Dashing into her closet, she found a pair of jeans conveniently on the floor next to the hamper and she shoved herself into them. Then she went to find Elec, who was still in the bathroom. He was on his knees in his black underwear wiping puddles of water up off the floor with a towel.

“What are you doing?” And why was he still mostly naked?

“We made a mess, and it’s my fault, so I’m cleaning it up.”

While the movement did wonderful things to his butt muscles, she didn’t have time to drool over it. “Don’t worry about it. Get your pants on!”

“Done.” He tossed the towel aside and stood up with his jeans in his hand. He stepped into them, then jumped a little to get them into place.

Tamara tried to move around him to shoot her hair with the blow-dryer really quick and she misjudged and bumped him. Elec lost his balance since he was only half in his pants and he crashed into the wall.

“Oh, sorry!” she said, reaching out like somehow that was going to help him.

He started laughing as he finished pulling his jeans on. “This will be really funny if we don’t get caught.”

She grinned back, despite having one ear trained for the school bus roaring up the street. “The key here is not to get caught.”

“Should I climb out the window and shimmy down the trellis?” He pulled his shirt on and ran his hand through his hair.

“I don’t have a trellis.” Tamara dragged a hairbrush through her hair, towel dried it, and called it good. “And since your car is in the driveway, I don’t imagine going out the window will throw anyone off the scent.”

“Good point.” He looked around the bathroom. “I had shoes around here somewhere.”

“Here.” Tamara found them under her vanity and shoved them at him. “At least get downstairs. I can explain you in the family room. I can’t explain you in the bedroom.”

“I don’t think you can explain the wet hair, since it’s probably not at all believable that we just happened to go swimming. Don’t worry, I’m out of here.” Elec grabbed his shoes, kissed her hard. “Next Monday?”

She nodded, which was insane. They were on the verge of being severely busted by her children and she was agreeing to continue this madness?

“I’ll call you!” he said, and took off running.

He was across the bedroom in two seconds and she could hear his bare feet pounding down the steps. The front door flew open and a car door did likewise before she was even halfway down the stairs. Picking up her own pace, she made it to the front window in time to see him back up out of her driveway and head down the street. He passed the school bus three houses down the cul-de-sac.

She could only hope her kids weren’t the least bit observant.

Or that a major spit-wad fight had ensued on the bus right when Elec had driven by so they would not notice that a certain race car driver had just left their house.

Tamara twisted her wet hair around and around and rested her head on the windowpane.

Wasn’t she too old to be sneaking a boy out of her bed?

CHAPTER TWELVE

ELEC couldn’t get Tamara out of his mind all week, and knowing it was probably going to annoy her, he still couldn’t stop himself from calling her on Friday from his coach. Evan wasn’t back yet and he was feeling a little lonely.

“Hello?” she said, sounding breathless and surprised.

“Hi,” he said eloquently, settling back into his couch and trying not to smile in the empty room. It was a sign of how far gone he was that just the sound of her voice cheered him right up. “How are you doing?”

“I’m fine. Just put the kids to bed. How is Michigan?”

“Cold. It’s the first of June and I don’t think it got to be more than sixty-five degrees today at practice. Makes for an easier time in the car on the track, but tonight it makes me want to build a bonfire. Roast me some marshmallows.”

“You know I have a fire pit in my backyard but I’ve never used it. I’m not exactly firewood savvy. I grew up in Seattle, you know.”

“No, I didn’t know that. How’d you end up in Charlotte?”

“I came for the sociology program at the University of North Carolina and because I wanted an adventure. Considering how shy I was, that’s kind of a joke in retrospect, but I was proud of myself for moving all the way across the country.”

“You should be proud of that. That’s a big deal. So you came to school, and then you met Pete.”

“Yeah. So I stayed.”

Elec propped his feet up on the coffee table and crossed his free arm over his chest. He was glad that Tamara was willing to talk to him, that she hadn’t even questioned why he was calling. “So how long have you had the fire pit?”

“It was here when we bought the house, which was the year Petey was born, so nine years.”

“And you’ve never used it?”

“Well, at first the kids were babies, so it wasn’t safe. But like I said, I don’t see myself building a fire, and Pete’s schedule was intense. You know that schedule, you live it.”

“Yeah, I do.” The season ran thirty-six weeks a year and during those weeks he spent Thursdays flying to the next track. When he and Evan arrived, their coach was waiting for them, driven to the compound by their driver. Friday was for practices and last-minute adjustments to the car with his team, Saturday was qualifying, Sunday was racing. He flew back to Charlotte late Sunday night after the race and usually slept in on Mondays, his only real day off each week. Tuesdays and Wednesdays he had sponsor events, business meetings with his team and crew, discussions over the car he would be driving in the weeks ahead, and various other odds and ends to take care of. Then Thursday he started it all over again.

But he would still find time to light a bonfire for Tamara.

“Well, hell, it’s time we made that fire pit work for its keep. We’ll get a big old blaze going and have s’mores and beer, and when you’re giddy from alcohol and chocolate, I’ll take advantage of you.”

She laughed softly. “And where might my children be when we’re doing this?”

Good question. “I don’t know.” He wanted to say they could go to a sitter’s or her in-laws but that would sound like he was trying to farm her kids out, and he didn’t want her to think that he didn’t want them around, or that he didn’t appreciate her responsibilities.

Tamara sighed. “You know, Tuesday is the kids’ last day of school. Monday will be our last chance to meet during the day.”

He hadn’t even thought about that. “Damn, and we just got started on that.”

“I know, I wasn’t even thinking of that. But the school year is just about done. My students have already taken their final exams, and after Tuesday I’m spending two weeks at home with the kids, then I start summer classes, which are only part-time. And while I’m at summer classes, my kids stay at my house with my mother-in-law.”

Their schedules did seem damn near impossible. But Elec thought it would all go a hell of a lot easier if she didn’t insist their relationship be kept a secret.

“I guess we’ll have to make the most of this Monday and then see what we can do to sneak some time together.” Elec heard the door of the coach opening, but he had a point to make, and he didn’t care if Evan heard him or not. “I will be with you, Tamara. You can count on that.”

There was a pause, then she said softly, “What do you mean?”

“It means that no matter how complicated it is, I intend for us to be together.” He meant that, damn it. Maybe it was rushing things to tell her that, but he wanted to be honest about his feelings, and he had a lot of them when it came to Tamara.

His brother looked over at him, eyebrow raised in curiosity as he dropped his keys on the coffee table.

“Elec …”

She sounded like she was about to give him a laundry list of reasons why they wouldn’t work together and he didn’t want to hear them. “Tamara, my brother just walked in and he’s clearly got something he needs to talk about. I’ll see you on Monday, alright, gorgeous?”

Evan stopped on his way to the kitchen and scoffed.

“Okay.”

He dropped his voice to a whisper. “I can’t wait to see you.”

“Yeah,” she said, and her voice was a little raspy. “I feel the same way.”

“Good night.”

She said the same, and Elec hung up the phone and met the stare of his brother. “What?”

“I don’t have anything I want to talk about. Why are you using me as an excuse to get off the phone with your girlfriend?”

Girlfriend. He liked the sound of that. “Because she was about to give me a whole bunch of practical reasons why we shouldn’t be together and I didn’t feel like listening to them.”

“Like what reasons?”

“Oh, let’s see. Johnny Briggs hates our father, and now you, too, I’m sure, since you inadvertently insulted his dead son. Her two kids that she doesn’t want hurt if things don’t work out between us. Her work schedule. My work schedule. Our age difference. And I’m guessing she has a healthy dose of fear about being with a driver again since she lost Pete on the track.”

“How old is she?” Evan asked, like that was the only conflict in all those Elec had listed that really mattered.

“Thirty-two.”

“Oh, okay. I thought you were going to say she was pushing forty and I was going to be like, dude. Fifteen years is a bit much.”

“She doesn’t look forty.” Elec frowned at his brother.

“I don’t know what she looks like. I haven’t seen her since Pete’s funeral, and she looked terrible that day, with good reason. I didn’t think she was that old, but what do I know?”

“Obviously nothing.” Elec eyed a hole in the toe of his sock. “It’s friggin’ cold here,” he complained.

“And you’re a whiny ass. Just because you’re ‘in love’ doesn’t mean you own the right to sit on the couch and pout. You’ve been annoying as hell all week.” Evan rolled his eyes for emphasis as he made air quotation marks.

Elec dropped his feet to the floor. Evan’s words, joking or not, hit him hard, right in the chest, and he felt a little bit like he couldn’t breathe. “What makes you think I’m in love?”

“Dude.” Evan shot him a look of sympathy. “You are so gone. I hope you have a spare ten grand lying around.”

“What would I need ten grand for?” Was he in love? Elec pondered that thought. He couldn’t honestly say he’d ever been in love before, but he was fairly certain he wasn’t quite there yet. Almost. Falling hard and fast. But not quite yet.

“Mark my words, little brother. You’ll be forking over major cash for an engagement ring by Christmas.” Evan burped to punctuate his point.

“You’re disgusting. And why would I buy an engagement ring?” Though he had to admit, the thought had a weird and sudden appeal. Yellow gold was totally Tamara, classic and elegant. Elec frowned. He needed to halt those kinds of thoughts right there. It was ludicrous. “I just got done telling you all the reasons why she doesn’t even want to date me. There is no way she’d ever agree to marry me. And I never said I wanted to marry her.”