Under Her Skin. Сьюзен Мэллери

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      THE HEADQUARTERS for Cruz Control were between Dallas and Fort Worth, on a ten-acre plot of land that Cruz could easily sell for ten times what he’d paid for it. Developers constantly came calling. He listened, then tossed them out. He was plenty rich, so he didn’t need the money, although he did enjoy having what everyone else wanted.

      Behind the five-story building was the garage he’d always dreamed about when he’d been growing up. But the five bays had grown into twenty. There was a test course behind the garage, a separate area for experimental cars and the constant sound of engines. It was his favorite place in the world.

      He stopped just inside the garage to survey what he had built. Sometimes he forgot where he’d come from, but this morning the past seemed especially close and vivid—as if he could reach out and touch the angry twelve-year-old kid he’d been. The kid who’d vowed he would do more than survive and get by. That he would make it and command respect everywhere he went.

      He heard someone call his name. Manny, his manager and best friend, waved him over.

      “The brakes are screwy,” Manny said with a grimace. “The design is a mess. I need to go over it again, unless you want to.”

      “Not today.” Cruz felt too restless to pour over a design. That kind of detail work required concentration and he couldn’t seem to control his thoughts.

      As much as he had believed and strived and worked his ass off for years, at fifteen or even twenty, he never would have imagined this.

      He’d started small—barely fourteen years old and racing a stolen Corolla against a Ford Ranger for pink slips. Everyone had laughed at him when he’d pulled up in the white Corolla. He thought he could win in that? What they didn’t know is he’d watched the guy down the street work on the car for months. The owner had added a supercharger and bumped up the compression ratio.

      Cruz had been careful to drive slowly so no one would guess what he had under the hood. He’d won easily, taking the Ford Ranger as his own. Fortunately that driver hadn’t been lying about ownership. Cruz’s pink slip—required to get in the race—had been faked.

      Later that night, he’d returned the Corolla and had gone to work on the truck. Two weeks later he was back, racing to win and winning often.

      “…transmission left,” Manny was saying. “Are you listening to me?”

      Cruz shrugged. “Sorry, no.”

      Manny, ten years older and always the wiser, cooler head in the partnership, looked at him. “What’s your problem?”

      “I’m engaged to Lexi Titan.”

      Manny grabbed him by the arm and pulled him into his private office.

      “What?” Manny demanded. “Tell me you’re kidding. What the hell have you done?”

      “Don’t sweat it. We have a deal. Nothing more.” He explained about Lexi’s need for a fast two million dollars. “It gives me what I’ve always wanted.”

      Manny stared at him. “You already have everything.”

      “Not quite. She’ll be my ticket to that world.”

      “You don’t really care about high society. Those women bore you.”

      “It’s not about the women,” Cruz said, remembering how the senator had dismissed him.

      Manny shook his head. “So some guy shakes your hand and that changes everything? You don’t need this, Cruz.”

      “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

      Manny didn’t understand. He’d never wanted more than he had—a good job he enjoyed. He went home to a wife and family every night. Cruz wanted…more.

      He wanted something more than he had. There was a nagging emptiness inside that he was determined to fill. Being part of a world that had always ignored him was a start. Finding the right woman with the right breeding and connections would cement his place there.

      “This has nothing to do with Lexi,” he told his friend. “She’s a means to an end.”

      “She’s a lot more than that and this is the wrong way to get her,” Manny told him. “She sounds more like the one you couldn’t have.”

      Not in the way Manny meant, Cruz told himself. “Well, now I can get her out of my system. In six months, I’ll move on.”

      “You’re making a big mistake. This is going to come back and bite you in the ass.”

      Cruz grinned. “It won’t be the first time.”

      Manny shook his head. “You don’t get it. You’re going to have to learn this the hard way. Good luck with that.”