"Just the check when you get a minute, sweetheart." The older of the two smiled at me with a twinkle in his eyes and went right back to snapping off rapid-fire comments about the weight of a sled and the dirt pack—two topics that went right over my head. I was a racer, not a tractor pull fanatic.
I was halfway back to the counter when the door swung open and the whole room shifted. Garret waltzed in wearing his colors and a set of jeans that displayed the massive muscles of his thighs. He was cleaned up too—fresh shirt, collar open, jaw trimmed close. A couple of the regulars nodded at him as he slid onto a stool at the far end of the counter and dipped his head in my direction.
My chest fluttered and the nerves between my shoulder blades pinched. I wanted to rush right over and take his order, but Mom was already moving toward him, order pad in hand. She was cordial with the Gravehounds who came through, but she kept it professional and distant. Dad hated the idea that they came in, but I'd overheard one too many arguments about how turning them out based on their reputation would be bad for business.
And God knows if they stopped coming in, it'd be half the weekly business too. When the Black Anvil started serving pizza for a few months, Mom almost couldn’t afford to pay me.
"What can I get you?" she asked, cocking her head as she tapped her pen on the order pad.
"Lemonade," Garret said. "Please." His eyes locked with mine, making my cheeks burn, and I turned back toward the kitchen pass-through and pressed my lips together to keep myself from smiling.
It was his way of sending me a message that he was ready when I was. He'd order a lemonade and by the time he was done drinking it, I'd be in the shed waiting. Almost like Pavlov's dogs and the bell—it would make me drip while waiting. We'd had this little routine going for months now and it never got old.
"Sara," Mom said softly as she walked up beside me where I stood rinsing the coffee pot.
"Mmm," I hummed in as distant and uninterested a way as I possibly could.
"Go on and take your break, dear." She did this every time one of those bikers came in. She'd crowd the table, even if it was in my section, and then she'd send me on my break. I knew she did it because Dad hated them and wanted me as far away from them as possible, which only made what was going on between me and Garret harder.
Dad would hate it when I told him I loved Garret, but it had to be done, and soon. I didn't want to keep sneaking around. I deserved better than some clandestine affair of forbidden love with an older man. I deserved an out-in-the-open relationship with genuine stakes and a clear-cut future.
"Sure," I mumbled, letting my shoulders sag. As much as I wanted to rush out to meet Garret, I also wanted my parents to stop treating me like a child who wasn't old enough to see the R-rated film. At twenty-one, I'd earned the right simply by matter of my age to do what I wanted when I wanted.
"You alright, honey?" Mom pressed her hand to my forehead, and I sighed and smiled.
"Fine, just ready to go to break."
I walked past her through the kitchen, hanging my apron on a hook by the back door, which I let swing shut as I stepped into the September heat. With a glance over my shoulder to make sure she wasn’t watching, I jogged to the storage shed. It was unlocked like normal, and I slipped inside and quickly stripped out of my dark shorts and T-shirt, and I stood in nothing but my panties, waiting on Garret to sneak out here.
The door opened and when Garret stepped inside, his eyes went dark and he locked the door without looking away from me.
"Jesus Christ, Sara." He crossed the shed and his hands went straight to my waist, pulling me against his body. "You trying to kill me?"
"Just wanted to be ready." I reached for his cut, but he caught my wrists and pinned them above my head against the wall, making me grin.
"You're always ready for me, aren't you?" His mouth found my neck and he bit down hard, letting me feel his teeth scrape my flesh. "What if someone else had come in?"
"Garret, please." I snickered. "No one comes out here but me and you."
"So you only do this with me?" He released one of my wrists to slide his hand down my stomach, his fingers tracing theedge of my panties but not going any lower. "Am I special or something?"
"Something like that," I mewled as my hips pushed forward trying to get more contact, but he pulled his hand away.
Garret kissed down my neck to my collarbone, taking his time. "You're gonna wait for it until I'm good and ready to give it to you because you made me wait this long."
I arched into his touch and grinned as his free hand cupped my breast and his thumb brushed over my nipple until it hardened. I whimpered and strained against his grip but he wouldn't let go.
"Stay still." He bit my earlobe and I gasped. "Let me take my time with you." His mouth moved across my collarbone, down between my breasts, across my stomach. His hand mapped every inch of my skin while I squirmed and tried not to beg.
"Why are you torturing me? You know slow isn't my thing." When his mouth met mine, the kiss was searing, melding our tongues together in a frenzied dance that had our teeth clashing and his beard scraping my face raw.
"Because you're so beautiful." He finally released my wrist and both his hands went to my hips. "And I love teasing you to make you so desperate for me."
"Well, I am desperate." I grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back closer so he'd kiss me again while his fingers hooked into my panties and dragged them down slowly. I whimpered as his lips pulled away from mine, but he lowered to his knees and kissed a trail of fire down the center of my body until he was on his knees on the floor in front of me.
He lifted one of my legs over his shoulder, spreading me open. The first touch of his tongue made my knee buckle and I had to brace myself against the wall to stay upright, while grabbing his hair and letting my head fall back.
"Oh, God." The words came out broken as he licked me slowly, purposefully avoiding my clit and smiling against my mound. "Please don't tease me." We didn't have time for some long, drawn out session this time. I wanted to talk to him and if we spent the whole break screwing, I wouldn't get to.
