The Desire to Touch (31 page)

I look up at him, “Choose what?”

He kisses me on the lips and then his tongue enters my mouth searching for mine, I go weak at the knees and inadvertently groan as the current is there again pulsating through my body. I place my hands on to his chest and I hear his breathing become shallow and a feral growl rumbles in his throat.

“Eww, get a room,” Meagan laughs.

“I have missed you and these beautiful lips of yours,” he whispers pulling away.

I am speechless again, rendered mute, my eyes are still closed and I’m reliving the kiss for as long as I can.

“Choose what?” I croak out smiling, slowly opening my eyes.

“To new beginning’s,” he turns around and behind him are five sparkling brand new cars.

“You want me to choose a car?” I ask stunned.

“Well I’m down by three now so yeah I want you to help choose them.”

“But why?”

“After that night I realised you were right, you can’t move forward whilst looking back eh? So a fresh start means new things that aren’t tainted by my old ways.” He turns back to me, “I meant it when I said I would prove to you we could work at it.”

I smile at him and my heart beats rapidly deep in my chest.

“Do we get to drive them?” Lacey squeals.

“No,” Trey laughs, “Well, you can.” He raises his eyebrow at me.

“Not on your life,” I shake my head stunned by the magnificence of the five beauties that stand before us.

“Surely you know what ones you want?” I ask walking around the first car, which is a Ferrari.

Meagan and lacey are sitting in the other cars laughing to each other.

“No,” Trey shakes his head, “I told Cole I was looking for some new cars and he arranged to have some for me to look at. But I want you to help me choose, I like all of these.”

I open the door and sit inside the beautifully polished beast.
“This costs more than I will see in my life Trey, I can’t choose for you.” I shake my head in disbelief.

“Sure you can,” He kneels down beside me smiling his beautiful ear-to-ear smile.

I look back at the perfectly crafted interior of the car, “Well this one’s…nice?”

Trey laughs and walks over to look at one of the other cars, the passenger door of the Ferrari opens and Meagan jumps in next to me.

“Oh my God! Can you believe we’re here, looking at these cars? Tell you what, I’m savoring this moment as it’s as close as I’ll ever get to one in my life.”

“It’s all a bit surreal and I know jack about cars,” I look at her and cringe.

Meagan stops stroking the seat she’s sat in then she looks at me, “I found out why he donated his cars to the AACR.”

“Right?”

She looks around then leans in, “Because of Aunty Sue.”

“Mum? But why?”

She shrugs her shoulder, “Nice gesture and to be fair I think it’s a really nice thing to do.”

I remember back to our brief conversation in the lift the first night we met and I told Trey about my mum, he really is trying and that makes my heart melt more. I look through the windscreen and see him talking to Michael looking over the other cars.

I agree with her with a nod and a sigh.

“He is beautiful,” Meagan sighs.

I look at her then realise she is looking at Michael, who in turn is looking back at her and just idly nodding along with whatever Trey is saying to him.

“Yeah about Michael, while he’s working he needs to keep his attention on Trey and the area around. His job is to keep him safe, Trey is worried that he likes you and he’ll lose focus doing what he’s done for years and been so good at.”

“He likes me?” She scream-whispers.

“You got that from everything I said?” I laugh.

“Wow he likes me and…”

“No Meagan listen,” I grab her hand to draw her attention away from Michael, “If Michael can’t focus on his job then Trey will have to let him go because he’ll be no use. It’s fine that you two like each other but you need to not distract him so much.”

“Oh I see, he’d get fired?”

I nod, “He has tomorrow night off though.” I wink.

A smile spreads across her face and she jumps out of the car.

“Meagan!” I call after her, I know how flighty she can be and I need to make sure she’s at least heard some of what’s been said.

She leans her head back in the car, “Yes, don’t worry, I know, tone it down.” Her smile grows and she runs off to see Lacey who is sprawled across another one of the cars.

I look over at Trey and our eyes meet again, I smile a coy smile and look away to hide my embarrassment.

Personally I don’t have a clue about cars, this one looks nice and the silver 4x4 looks ok, oh I don’t know I’ll just close my eyes and point if that’s what he really wants.

I climb out of the car and pull my cuffs down over my hands, I can see Cole is on the phone in his office but he looks out of the window and smiles at me. I return his smile and walk over to Trey and Michael. As I reach them Trey turns to me and smiles, he places his arm around me and keeps me held in his embrace while he resumes the conversation with Michael about the cars.

“So what do you think?” Trey asks.

“Well I know nothing about cars but the Ferrari is pretty and that silver BMW 4x4 is nice too.”

Trey laughs, “The pretty Ferrari and the shiny BMW it is,” he looks at Michael and they smile at each other, “Have you decided on the third car?”

“No, I think you should let those two choose, they seem to enjoy cars more than I do.” I point to Meagan and Lacey who are taking a multitude of posed pictures using the cars as props.

Trey signals to Cole that we are done and he exits his office removing the hands free headset from his ear.

My phone starts to ring and I reach into my bag to pull it out,

“You won’t get much reception in here,” Cole says smiling.

“Oh ok,” I look at the phone and see it’s Brendan calling, “I’ll just pop outside and call him back, I won’t be a minute.” I say to Trey whilst turning for the door.

“Michael will come with you.” Trey offers.

“No, honestly I’m only going out the front, I’ll be five minutes then I’ll come back in.”

“There’s an intercom by the main door, buzz and I’ll let you back in.”

“Thank you,” I say to Cole and head for the door.

I walk through the eerily dark, deserted car showroom to the glass doors and exit out into the cool evening air. I walk away from the building and try to redial Brendan to see what he wanted but the phone just rings out, well if it had been that important surely he would’ve left a message?

I take a deep breath in and fill my lungs with the crisp air, then the chill starts to penetrate my jumper, why do I always forget to bring a coat with me. I turn to head back into the building and my phone starts ringing again, I see it’s Brendan so I answer,

“Hi, everything ok?”

“Yeah just ringing to see why all the windows are open in the apartment?”

“Oh I don’t know, Meagan cooked dinner so it may have been before we left that she decided to air the place out.”

“Ahh well if Meagan cooked then that explains it. Are you all ok?”

“Yes we’re fine, I have just popped outside to ring you back because there’s no signal in the building.”

“Are you alone?”

“No,” I know he’ll get angry after the little conversation we had earlier, “Michael, Treys bodyguard is with me.”

“Ok,” I hear him relax, “Ok well I’ll see you later on.”

“Ok bye.”

“Bye.” He hangs up.

I turn around to head back towards the building when a man’s voice calls to me from the road, “It’s very cold and dark to be out here alone.”

I turn back to see two men walking into the lot, Shit!

“Are you ok?” The man asks again and I hear that he has a British accent.

The men draw closer,
under the dimmed streetlight they approach, “Yes I’m ok thanks I’m just heading back in.”

“Ahh a fellow Brit, here to see Cole and his emporium of cars?”

Well he knows the man inside, this puts me at ease, “I’m with a friend who’s looking for a new car.”

“Well please let me escort you inside, as I said it’s very dark out here.” The man says. His friend appears to hang back behind him.

“Honestly I think I’ll be ok it’s only ten steps to the door.” I smile, hoping I can blow him off.

“No. I won’t hear of it.” He orders.

We walk towards the door, which isn’t far away, but the closer we get the further away it seems to be. I press the buzzer as per Cole’s instruction.

“So where are you originally from?” The man asks.

“Southeast England.” I answer quickly hoping for the door to be released soon.

“Ah I know the county well, whereabouts? I’m from Kent.”

Oh no, he’s offering information which suggests he wants a full-on conversation. He seems ok though, if he was going to abduct me surely he would’ve done it by now and not walked me back to where my friends are?

“A town in Surrey
,” I try to be as vague as possible.

“I used to go out drinking around there years ago,” he chuckles, “Fond memories and always a pleasure to meet a fellow Brit.”

“Are you looking for a new car?” Why am I engaging on the conversation? I inwardly curse myself.

“Cole has one on order for me and its due for pickup today.” He replies.

So that would explain his not so chatty friends presence, the man moves his head to look through the glass, “Try the buzzer again.” He orders.

I follow the order and press the button waiting for Cole to respond but nothing happens.

I get my phone out to call Trey but I remember there’s no signal here, the two men walk away from the window front and the man gets his phone out,

“I’ll call Cole, he’s probably too busy with your friend to buzz you in.” He puts his phone to his ear and walks further away from the building and me.

I grab my bangle and start saying a little prayer for someone to open the goddamn door.

Suddenly the door bursts open and Trey is standing there looking worried.

“What happened?”              

“I’ve been buzzing for ages, we’ve been trying to get in.” I say trying to calm him.

“We?” He asks.

“Ye
s, these two men have an appointment with Cole too.” I shrug

The man walks up behind me and I turn to him, “We can get in now.” I say smiling.

“So we can,” he says returning my smile.

I step into the now lit showroom and the men follow behind me, Trey’s face drops.

“Trey, always a pleasure.” the man says holding out his hand.

“Tristan,” Trey’s face is stern and I can see him clenching his jaw, he shakes Tristan’s hand.

“Not very wise to leave such a lovely young lady outside in the dark on her own,” Tristan remarks and then turns to me, “I’m sorry I didn’t introduce myself, I’m Tristan King.”

“Hi, I’m Ellie,” I smile and shake his proffered hand. In the light I can see he’s not very old maybe mid to late thirties with short, dark hair that has a very slight tinge of grey on his temples.

“Well again, it was a pleasure to meet you,” Tristan says releasing my hand, at that point Treys arm slips around my back and he pulls me in tight, taking me by surprise. The air has turned blue and the tension can be cut with a knife.

“We need to get back in there,” Trey snaps and we turn towards the door, more like I’m being dragged anyway.

I smile at Tristan as we make our way through to the warehouse at the back where everyone else is waiting for us.

We enter through the door and I see Michael turn quickly to see us, he smiles at Trey and then me. Tristan walks in behind us and Michaels face drops.

“Mr. King, apologies I was on another call, I have the paper work and your car is waiting for you to take.” Cole says running up to shake Tristan’s hand.

“The cars are on order now, let’s get out of here,” Trey whispers in my ear and squeezes me tightly with his arm still holding me against him.

Meagan and Lacey are hovering around Michael and Trey gives them the nod that we’re leaving.

“Thank you again Mr. Thomas, it should be about eight days but I’ll give you a call when they are ready for delivery.”

“Thank you Cole, I’ll see you soon.” Trey answers shaking Cole’s hand.

Cole turns on his heel and heads for his office, with Tristan and his friend close behind.

We leave the building rather quickly and the mood has turned sour, I look at Meagan and Lacey who are exchanging glances.

We get to the car and Trey whispers something to Michael, Michael pulls the car keys out of his
pocket and hands them to Trey. Michael climbs into the back of the car and Meagan is quick to follow squashing up next to him.

“Oh great I’m the odd one out,” Lacey rolls her eyes, “Any chance you can fix me up with a friend?” She looks to Trey.