Page 20 of Tiger Betrayal

No deeper.

Just fun.

It felt safer like this anyway.

She could do that. She could be tougher.

Chapter Eight

“What did you do over the weekend?” Murph asked. But his tone was weird.

Laramie turned to look at him. He was staring at her over his glasses, while he was peeking out from behind his computer monitor.

“I relaxed. Ate good food. Slept.”

“Okay, keep your secrets.”

“What secrets?” she asked, knowing dang-well what he was really asking about.

“If you’re starting an in-office romance with my most volatile employee, I need to know.”

Laramie turned back to her computer and finished inputting the last customer’s order. “If you are speaking of Stellan, we are just friends.” Friends who boned four times this weekend.

“He’s a walking red flag,” Murph warned her.

“And that’s why we are just friends,” she sang back to him.

“Listen, I can’t have you messing with his head. This entire shop runs on his back. It’s hard enough to control his attitude on any given day. I don’t need you messing with his head and making it harder to manage him.”

Stellan chose that moment to come in the front door. He was fifteen minutes early for his shift. “Hey Murph,” he greeted their boss. He didn’t say anything to Laramie, but he did wink at her as he passed by to head to the break room.

“I don’t think he’s ever said hello to me before,” Murph muttered.

Laramie offered a private smile and went back to sending the notes on the customer’s want for leveling his truck to the service center computer system. She was starting to get all this down.

Stellan came out of the break room zipping up his coveralls and tossed her another gold-eyed look that damn near melted her insides. He disappeared through the service doors to start work.

This morning he’d sent her a good morning text. Kind of. He texted her, Wake up, L. We have shit to accomplish today and then afterward, I’m going to find a place to bend you over. I woke up hungry for you. I made you a sandwich so you have plenty of energy.

And you know, it wasn’t the most romantic good morning text, but she was beginning to understand Stellan’s language. One, he liked to feed her. That was his language of affection as far as she could tell. He hadn’t let her contribute a penny to their food all weekend and they’d met up three times. And second, the fact that he’d woken up and immediately thought of her was a step in the right direction for that man.

Work sped by because they were so busy. Murph assured her that every Monday was like this, since the company was closed on Sundays. It wasn’t until Craig came back from his lunch break and told her, “Have fun with Loverboy,” that she realized it was breaktime.

She had a line of three customers, so she closed them all out before she let Murph take over her station though. Stellan was slammed too, and when she glanced out the service window, he was unloading tires from a Toyota Tacoma at a speed that was absolutely inhuman. The guys must’ve been used to it, because they were just staying out of his way and working on other cars. The music was turned up loud out in the service center today, blasting some heavy metal. Stellan was in his groove, so she knocked on the window. When he looked up, she gestured to the break room. “Can I get a sandwich?” she asked at normal volume.

He held up five fingers. Five minutes, he mouthed as he loaded a tire onto a big machine. Be right there.

Perfect. She would get them all set up. She bought two sodas out of the vending machine, but it gave her the wrong ones. Today’s drinks were orange soda and grape soda. She grabbed the bag of lunch and headed out the front door, aiming for the picnic table tucked just behind the tree line, when a gargantuan man stepping out of a big black pickup truck caught her attention.

At first, she thought she was imagining it. He looked just like Stellan, but when he locked eyes with her, his eyes were bright blue.

He was headed for the front door.

“Hey, I know you,” she said.

“I bet you don’t,” he said gruffly as he reached for the door.

“No, I really do. You’re…you’re…” What had Stellan said his name was? The blue-eyed brother.