Falling Free ( Falling Fast #3) Page 3

  He pulled her close and kissed her deeper this time. Her mouth opened to his, and she tasted the smoky tang of whiskey on his tongue. His kiss was slow and languid, not a means to an end but the journey itself. His hand slid up her spine, where he gently squeezed her neck before finishing the kiss. “Trust me, babe, that had nothing to do with pity.”

  Her body came alive, and not only where their pelvises pressed against each other or where his hand tangled in her hair. Everywhere—fire in her blood, warmth in her heart, and heat in places that had been tepid for years. She kissed him this time, her hands sliding up and down his back, hungry to feel all of him. There was an urgency now, a breathless anticipation.

  “Where’s your hotel?” she asked. “We’ve been walking for a long time.”

  “We passed it about twenty minutes ago.”

  That made her step back. “We…passed it?”

  “Yeah. We were enjoying the beach. I figured, no hurry. We have all night, right?”

  She knew he was, ah, engaged. Interested. Yet he’d passed his hotel because he was enjoying simply walking down the beach with her. Suddenly she wanted to know more about this man, everything about him. The real stuff, like what he did for a living, did he believe in God, and did he recycle, all the way down to stupid little things like whether he liked his bacon crispy or floppy. What was his family like, his childhood? He didn’t know his real mother, or had lost her when he was young, and she wanted to dig deeper into that, his hurts, his losses.

  She needed to feel his body wrapped around hers, all hot muscle and slick skin, and lose herself in him. Like a huge chasm that she’d fall into and never find her way out of. Because she didn’t want to just screw him; she wanted to make love, sinuously, luxuriously, hot, mad, and then cuddle and talk, maybe a nap, and then more of the same. All night, all day—

  “I have to go,” she whispered, the words ragged.

  Of all the things she’d said, the outrageous lies she’d told, only this statement put surprise on his face. “What? Why?”

  She snatched her shoes from his finger. You’re too perfect, too fun, a little bit silly, a whole lot sexy, and a man who’s going to break my heart. What’s left of it, anyway. Not because you’re bad but because I’m weak.

  She didn’t answer, couldn’t find a single logical argument in her attorney’s mind for rushing away from what would no doubt have been the best night she’d ever had. Because she would want more, more, more. She ran up the beach toward the next hotel and never looked back, knowing that she would regret it for a long, long time.

  Chapter 2

  Artemis Tanner had just outlined the proposed drift course for the Chambliss Speedway as he and track owners Pax Sullivan and Wade Thornton walked the X in the center of the oval track.

  As they reached a metal building just off the track, Pax flung out his hand toward it. “This is Raleigh’s garage. We have a full-service shop onsite, which can sure come in handy during events.”

  “That’s beyond handy. It’s—” His gaze skipped over the modified race car in one bay and settled on the baby-blue T-bird with the BIRDIE license plate sitting in the next one. It took his brain exactly one nanosecond to place that car in his memory, and less than that for his heart rate to blow like a shredded tire. He swallowed his reaction and tried to ask all casual like, “Does this car belong to a lady named Grace?”

  “Yep,” Raleigh said, clearly seeing that Tanner was anything but casual. “I’ve been working on getting it ready to sell, if that crazy-interested look means you’re jonesing for a car like this. Which would be a bit of fate, really, because until last week she wouldn’t have considered selling. Her dad left it to her, so it has sentimental value. I guess she decided it was time to move on.”

  “Fate.” Tanner rubbed his mouth with his fingertips. “I’m not crazy interested in the car. The owner, however…” How much to tell them without compromising her privacy. “Tell me about her.”

  “Why do you want to know?” Pax asked, an edge to his voice.

  Which told Tanner that he would have to open up a bit if he was going to get any information. “Met her at a bar in PCB a few days ago.”

  “Ah,” Pax said, giving Raleigh a knowing look. “She pretty wild, sitting on the bar and the like?”

  “Not at all. She was shooting back tequila shots and looking lost. I couldn’t resist trying to make her smile.” He smiled at the memory. “And I did, but damn, it wasn’t easy. The only thing she’d tell me about herself was her first name. We connected. Then she did a Cinderella on me, but I didn’t even get a shoe. Or a phone number.”

  Pax winced. “Ouch. When a chick hits the road after you tangle in the sheets…”

  “That hurts,” Raleigh said.

  Tanner nodded in agreement, but he needed to clarify. “It would have dinged my ego if I hadn’t been so sure she felt the connection, too. And we didn’t even get to the tangle part.” He gazed off into the distance, those few hours coming right back to him. “I meet women here and there, have a good time and move on, no big deal. Grace was different. We got so caught up in talking and laughing that we weren’t in any hurry to, you know, go on to other things. All of a sudden, she got this panicky look on her face and said she had to go.” He stroked the side of her car, remembering the feel of her skin. “I want to see her again.”

  Pax’s eyebrows furrowed. “Did you do something to scare her?”

  “Kissed her, but she was just as into it as I was.” In fact, she had kissed him right before she’d run off. “Is she flaky like that?”

  Both men laughed. “Grace, flaky? No way,” Raleigh said.

  Pax was shaking his head. “Not even close.”

  She hadn’t struck Tanner that way either, so her aberrant behavior indicated deeper issues. Or at least a bigger reaction to their connection. He tapped his chest. “You know how you meet someone, and they just stick here?”

  Pax glanced toward three women who were headed their way, his expression softening. “Don’t I know it.” He reached for the petite blonde, pulling her against his side. “Gemma, this is Tanner. He’s on board.”

  “Awesome. Nice to meet you.”

  Tanner shook her hand. “Nice to meet you, too.” Then he was introduced to Janey, Pax’s sister, and Mia, Raleigh’s fiancée.

  “Mia, Gemma, you’ve been hanging out with Grace lately,” Pax said. “She and Tanner met at a bar a few days ago. They clicked big-time, and then she did a Cinderella on him. Any ideas why?”

  Gemma shook her head. “No, but while she’s very, er, mouthy when it comes to other people’s affairs she’s coy about her own stuff. But I can tell you, when we talked a couple of weeks ago her recent dates had been pretty bad, with undertones of just plain strange.” She did one of those perusal things on Tanner. “I can’t think of any reason. In fact, you look like just the kind of guy to spice up her life.”

  Before Tanner could wholeheartedly agree, Pax asked, “Think she’d mind accidentally seeing him again?”

  Tanner liked the smiles that spread across Gemma’s and Mia’s faces. Gemma gave an exaggerated shake of her head. “I’d say she’s more than ready.”

  Raleigh also had a sly smile. “And she’s coming in later today to pick up her car.”

  Tanner had to fight his own giveaway grin. Though Pax, Raleigh, and their girlfriends seemed supportive in bringing him and Grace back together “accidentally,” Tanner sensed a protectiveness that had him straddling the line between overly and not too interested. Thing was, the Grace he’d met seemed vastly different from the one they knew, and it intrigued the hell out of him. Tanner doubted that they knew why she looked so lost or why she was letting go of her father’s precious car. He wasn’t going to mention any of that. Because now he could maybe, possibly, find out for himself.

  He and Pax left the rest of the group to continue plotting the course and how an actual event would work. But Tanner’s gaze kept wandering back to Birdie. Fate, kismet, call it whatever
, finding his Cinderella’s car had been a-stounding, as Pax liked to say. How would he approach her? What would her reaction be?

  Pax waved his hand in front of Tanner’s face. “Earth to Tanner.”

  Yep, he’d been staring at her car again. “Sorry.”

  “Hey, I get it. When a woman snags your interest, she’s all you can think about. Even when you shouldn’t. Grace is a nice gal. Tenacious, ballsy, but with a good heart. Don’t go breaking it, y’hear?”

  Pax had laid that out there with a smile, but Tanner sensed the hard core of the order nonetheless. “I hear. Mostly I just want to find out if I inadvertently did something to scare her away.” Not the whole truth, but if he had to settle for that he would. “She’s never been married, has she?” He was pretty sure the bigamous-husband tale was just that.

  “Not that I know of. We all just recently became friends, so I don’t know a lot about her history. And she’s not one of those people who blab about their lives, as Gemma said.”

  “Yeah, I definitely got that.” If Grace wanted him to know, she’d tell him. He was patient. Mostly. “What does she do?”

  “She’s a criminal-defense attorney.”

  “No shit.” Hadn’t he guessed that she was a lawyer, though? But he’d been kidding, really. “Well, that goes well with tenacious and ballsy.”

  “She saved Raleigh’s ass when my dad, the sheriff, tried to railroad him for murder. And she helped the real murderer get a reduced charge, because the victim was a scumbag who deserved to die. She’ll only take a case when she believes her client is innocent. Grace, she fights for the underdog.”

  Tanner liked her even more. “The underdog is why I got into drifting, so I can appreciate that. I liked that a guy with an old Nissan 240SX could beat a guy with a Viper. Back then, I could only dream of having the Nissan.”

  “I have a feeling you could be the guy with the Viper nowadays.”

  Tanner let the unspoken question slide with a shrug. Yeah, he could afford the Viper. “I spoke with my friend who’s connected with Formula Drift this morning. He said they’d be open to setting up your track as a Pro-Am Affiliate once you get your drift program in place and run some successful events. Pro-Am is the third tier of FD, where the top amateurs show their mettle and earn their Pro2 license. It’s basically a way to feed the best upcoming drivers into the second-tier professional rank.”

  Pax’s expression reminded him of a kid’s on Christmas morning. “That would be a-mazing! I appreciate you doing that.”

  “And I appreciate you letting me practice here.”

  Pax was doing Tanner as much of a favor as Tanner was doing him. Renting track time could run as high as five hundred dollars an hour. And giving drifters a new place to compete and play, well, he’d do that for free anytime.

  “Let’s get out of this heat and I’ll sketch out a course and an implementation plan,” Tanner said. He nodded toward Raleigh’s office. Which had air-conditioning. A small desk. And close proximity to Grace’s car.

  Once he and Pax were seated, he drew the figure eight on a blank piece of paper Pax had snagged from the printer. With a blue highlighter, he sketched out the course, indicating the outside zones and the inside clips. “We start with open drifting, draw in local drivers, and whip up some excitement for the program. Then we move on to actual events that will bring in drivers from farther afield. You can sell ride-alongs, which also generates income for your track. I’m happy to participate if I’m here.”

  “That would be a huge draw. You’re a celebrity in the drifting world.”

  Tanner lifted his shoulders in an I guess so way. Some drivers relished that part of being a pro, but he could take it or leave it. He did enjoy encouraging the young, new drifters, though; they were dazzled by the pros but daunted by the learning curve and the cost of the sport. He valued how drifting had helped keep him out of trouble. “I’ll put it out on my social-media pages, hype it up. Jenni, the wife of one of my crew, is a social- media whiz. She’s always posting vids and pics, announcements. Later, we can sell the events as having Pro and Pro2 drivers on hand to answer questions.”

  Pax held out his hand and they did a clasp shake. “You are awesome, my friend.”

  “Happy to help a smaller track come alive and thrive.”

  Pax nodded toward the sketch. “Why don’t you hang in here, come up with some plans?” Pax winked and tipped his head toward the garage. “Might make it easier to catch one of the customers.”

  “I think I’ll do just that.”

  Tanner outlined a plan, consulting the calendar. The track was nearly ready for open drifting, which didn’t require the same structure as actual events. They could put one together for late next week, knowing that participants would be sparse. But they’d tell their friends, and there would be more at the next one. Not a lot of tracks welcomed drifting, so word would spread fast.

  What if they made it an event to benefit a couple of nonprofits? People were always more open to attending something that helped good organizations. Having been to a few charity events, he had a pretty good handle on how they were run. Inspired by the idea, he made a call.

  The sounds coming from the garage were familiar, comforting. Air gun. The whine of eighteen hundred RPMs revving on the dyno. Rock and roll pounding from the speakers.

  His gaze kept drifting to the glass window in the door leading out to the shop. From that angle, he could see the front end of her car. The car in the closest bay was up on a lift, which would enable him to come out without her seeing him.

  He wasn’t sure why she’d captured his interest so completely. The drifting life didn’t lend itself to relationships; add in his own nature, and there was room for only transient affairs. Grace was too good for transience. So why pursue her? Even Pax had warned him about breaking her heart, which meant that she had one. Of course, he’d seen it that night. Hurting. Shielded, except for a tiny sliver through which he’d glimpsed hunger, need.

  He would not pursue her. There, he’d decided. She could pick up her car and go without even knowing he was there, and he’d never see her again.

  But it burned in his chest like a chili dog from one of those vendor trucks that sometimes inhabited the outlying areas of race events. He had let her go once, and it haunted him. It would haunt him even more if she was just a few yards away and he remained in the office.

  All right, he’d say hello, find out what he’d done to scare her off. Apologize, if necessary.

  The music in the garage lowered, and Tanner glanced up to see Grace approaching the bay. His throat went dry, and the burning in his chest had nothing to do with regret, or chili dogs. The breeze blew her dark-brown hair across her face, and she brushed it back as she looked at his ride, parked in the shade and ready for a practice run later. Then she turned and smiled at Raleigh. Damn, that smile drilled right down into Tanner’s gut, just as it had that day at the bar. She had white, perfect teeth and endearing dimples. And her laugh was even better, full-out and gusty.

  He stepped out of the office, hidden from her view by the car on the lift. All he could see of her was a wide leather belt at her waist and the soft drape of a silk shirt tucked into dress pants.

  “Birdie’s ready to go,” Raleigh said.

  “It’s not Birdie anymore,” she said in a tight voice. “In fact, I want to take the license plate off. Give me a screwdriver, will you?”

  She wasn’t just ready to move on from a painful, sentimental reminder; she was angry. Interesting.

  “I’ll do it. Don’t want you to get your blouse dirty.” Raleigh glanced over at Tanner as he knelt to unscrew the plate.

  “Thank you. Speaking of getting dirty,” she said. “You know how I always muse that I’d like to learn how to fix my own car? Well, I’ve been thinking about that more lately. Really…learning. I’m going to have more spare time in the off hours and I need something to fill it. Maybe I could help you here, in exchange for you showing me how this works.”

&nbs
p; “Sure. After what you did for me, for Rose, anything you want.” He handed her the license plate.

  “Great. Thanks.”

  She walked over to a garbage can in the corner and tossed the plate in with a little more force than necessary. Oh, yeah, something about the car was emotionally charged. Tanner wanted to know what it was.

  “Newer cars are a lot more complicated when it comes to maintenance.” Raleigh stroked the side of the car. “Nothing like these old babies. You sure you want to sell Bir—the T-bird?”

  “Positive.”

  “I’ll buy it.” Tanner stepped into view, his hands in his pockets, trying for casual. Probably failing. “How much you asking?”

  He studied her reaction to seeing him again. Surprise was a given, but would it be pleasant or unpleasant? He saw a mixture of both, but the spark of interest in her brown eyes was unmistakable as she took him in.

  “Artemis.” She said his name softly, a shocked smile breaking out on her face. Then it faded, replaced by suspicion. “What…are you doing here?”

  “Not stalking you, I promise.”

  Raleigh stepped in, obviously to assuage her growing concern now that she’d likely considered the unlikelihood of Tanner’s showing up here. “Tanner’s a pro drifter, which is kind of like racing. That’s his car out there. He’s helping Pax set up a drifting program here at the track.”

  Grace nodded, but her gaze had stayed on Tanner. “Tanner? I thought your name was Artemis.”

  Well, at least she remembered his name. “It is. Tanner’s my last name. Most people call me that, but I could tell you weren’t most people.”

  Her mouth twitched in a smile wannabe, but the slightly freaked-out expression returned. “But how are you here?” She pointed to where he stood.

  “I recognized your car. Raleigh said you were picking it up today, so I wanted to make sure I was around.”