Just Dare Me.... Stephanie Bond

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      He wet his lips, and she knew he could sense the pheromones he’d stirred in her body. He leaned in until their lips were mere inches apart. “What now?” he murmured. “We seem to be…stranded.”

      At the brush of his breath against her mouth, panic shot through her stomach. Certainly he didn’t intend to kiss her. Maybe she had something in her eye…a leaf in her hair…Yet he seemed to be looking at her mouth, and wasn’t this just how she’d always fantasized it would be between her and Dell? That he would look into her eyes and fall in love with her? That he would kiss her and realize she was the one?

      Her breasts grew heavy and she forgot to breathe until her lungs contracted and she had to gasp for air. The shock to her system jarred her back to reality and into motion. “Stranded?” she said, turning back to the exposed engine. “Not necessarily.”

      With renewed focus, she used her teeth to tear off a foot-long piece of the black electrical tape and reached in to tightly wrap the damaged hose. Retrieving the bottle of water, she said, “Stand back.”

      He did, watching intently. She carefully poured the rest of the water into the radiator, pulling back until the steam slowed, then replaced the cap loosely. “Start it up,” she said.

      Looking doubtful, he climbed in and started the engine. She checked to make sure the hose was holding and left the radiator cap loose in case pressure built up again, then lowered the hood and wiped her hands on her pants.

      She climbed back inside and settled into her seat, trying to put their close encounter out of her mind. “Drive slowly to the next service station.” She blew her nose again—the brief time outside had sent her allergies into overdrive.

      “Thanks,” Dell said. “That was…impressive.”

      “Next time you might want to put as much thought into a roadside repair kit as you do your makeout kit,” she mumbled, stuffing the condoms and body lube back into the glove compartment, and pulling out another wad of paper napkins. Her foggy head was making her bold, she realized, and she hoped the flush on her cheeks could be attributed to the heat. With everything at stake, she couldn’t believe that she’d almost succumbed to his indiscriminate sex appeal.

      And worse…how utterly lame was it that she knew more about how to fix a radiator hose than how to put on a condom?

      

      DELL STARED at the slip of a woman slumped in the passenger seat, carsick, her nose and eyes red from unseen allergens. She’d just saved their asses…and had given him the best—or should he say worst—hard-on in recent memory.

      What other surprises did Gabby have up her prim little sleeve?

      He pulled back onto the road and drove slowly, keeping an eye out for the engine light to come back on. Soft snores sounded and he looked over to see Gabby’s mouth slack in sleep, her face a becoming shade of pink. The allergy attack must have zapped her, he realized, still marveling over her ingenuity and feeling a little upstaged by her preparedness.

      A tiny blip of alarm zigzagged through his chest. Was this a foreboding of how the competition would play out?

      Then he laughed at his own musings. A road repair that she’d learned in a women’s magazine article was one thing, but surviving in the elements was quite another. Her snoring escalated and he smirked. After all, the mere drive to the competition had put her under.

      But it gave him a chance to study the puzzling young woman—the elegant, understated lines of her face, her long, graceful hands and feet, her slender figure and the lush curve of her breasts. In between teasing her in the hallways at the office, how had her quiet beauty escaped him all these years?

      Because he typically went for the obvious beauties, like Courtney, he realized. Because he knew what to expect from women like Courtney-fun and fleeting involvement, with no strings. But a quiet little bird like Gabby was likely inexperienced with relationships and would probably misconstrue sex with something crazy, like love.

      Dell flexed his bandaged hand. He did not need the complication of love in his life, not when his career was bulleting up and he already had less free time than he’d like to pursue the outdoor sports he enjoyed.

      He forced his attention from the slender beauty back to the road. For the meantime, he’d stick to the obvious.

      A few miles later, he pulled into a mom-and-pop service station and still Gabby didn’t awaken. He introduced himself to a skinny young guy named Walt who wore overalls over a shirtless, bony chest. “Can you replace a radiator hose?”

      The man spat in the dirt. “No problem. Pull ’er in.”

      Dell pulled the SUV into the place the man indicated, frowning when he saw the guy staring at Gabby through the window.

      “Pretty girl,” Walt said when Dell climbed out to oversee the work. “Daughter?”

      “No,” Dell said sharply. Christ, did she look that young, and he that old? “Girlfriend,” he felt compelled to add firmly, to divert the man’s attention.

      Walt grunted and lifted the hood. “Hmm, nice repair job.”

      “Thanks,” Dell said, further rankled.

      “This’ll take me a few minutes.” Walt stopped and wrote something on a slip. “Take this to the cashier and she’ll ring you up.”

      Dell opened the driver-side door to crack the windows in the SUV, his glance landing on Gabby’s heart-shaped face, flushed from the heat, long, golden lashes resting on high cheekbones, surrounded by curls that had sprung loose from her ponytail in the humidity. She did look more like a teenager than a woman he should be lusting after, but the swell of her breasts beneath her T-shirt and the memory of her breathless arousal when they had almost kissed under the hood proved that she was every ounce a woman.

      A woman smart enough not to let him kiss her.

      He frowned and locked the doors of the SUV, then walked into the area where sundries were sold to pay the cashier for the repair. While he was there, he bought a package of allergy medicine and a bottle of water for Gabby. By the time he returned, Walt was lowering the hood.

      “Start her up,” he directed Dell.

      Gabby stirred when he started the engine, but didn’t fully waken until he pulled from the uneven paved lot back onto the road.

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