CHAPTER 41
As the Saturday of their next visit to Darius' garage finally dawned and Zion’s enthusiasm knew no bounds, Nathalie tried to keep her anticipation at seeing Darius again at bay. Zion had been so excited when Darius told him about the Maserati Alfieri 1960 kit and had asked her to take him out to purchase a new notebook in which he’d written furiously and also pasted numerous pictures. Making notes, he’d said, but they were a secret. Just for Darius and him. Still, even if she couldn’t help but worry about Zion, she also couldn’t bring herself to crush his enjoyment.
As for herself...she shook her head as she put on the brakes for a stoplight in the thick Saturday traffic. She’d never been the kind of woman to go all gooey just from thinking about a guy. But every time she thought about Darius, both her brain and her body went topsy-turvy. “I like Darius,” Zion said from the passenger seat with his usual big-hearted cheerfulness. Nathalie couldn’t deny the truth. “I like him, too.” And it wasn’t just Darius' sex appeal that drew her to him like moth to flame. It was all the little things that added up—his patience with Zion, the tin of caviar he’d given Mama Martini, and the genuine empathy on his face and in his touch when she’d told him about the car crash, the rich teen getting away with near murder, and then their parents’ passing. “I brought drinks and sandwiches for when we get hungry.”
She didn’t want to assume that Darius would feed them. “Your favorite, PB and Z.” “I can’t wait to get there!” Zion said. “This is going to be the best day ever.” Zion had clearly been swept away by Darius. And the problem was, no matter how much she’d tried to deny it over the past ten days, Nathalie kept secretly fantasizing about being swept away by him, too. Darius had an irresistible magnetism, much as she’d been reminding herself that she had to resist. The way he’d turned her inside out in her kitchen with nothing but words was something her body couldn’t forget. Not when deep inside, she knew how good—how amazing—it would feel to be taken by him. I intend to kiss you so slowly, so thoroughly, that you’ll be begging me to never, ever stop. All of his sexy, crazy, wild intentions came back to her deep in the middle of the night when she couldn’t sleep. They were why she couldn’t sleep. Because she wanted so badly everything he was offering.
But again and again over the past few days, she’d wondered—what if she took her eye off the ball in her quest for even a small, but heady, taste of wildness, and something happened to her brother? What if she went in for a few perfect gulps of the thrills that Darius was offering her and ended up putting the safe little life she’d created for herself and Zion at risk? Especially when, despite how kind Darius had been to both of them so far, she didn’t know very much about him at all. He hadn’t shared anything about who he was or where he’d come from. In fact, he’d skillfully avoided revealing himself. They pulled up at the top of the driveway, and as she came to a stop, Zion all but threw himself out of the car when Darius appeared in one of the open roll-up doors. Nathalie opted for a more reasonable pace, yet her heart was beating wildly. God only knew why, since Darius was covered in the long white overalls she’d seen hanging in the garage. How can a man look that sexy in overalls? “Where is it, Darius?” Zion asked in an excited voice. “Up in the barn.” Darius pointed to the hill beyond the garages. “That’s my workshop for major projects.” He gestured to the two garage buildings where they were standing.
“This place is just for tune-ups, oil changes, and regular maintenance.” Stepping back into the garage, he reached for a pair of blue overalls. “Better put these on, Zion, or your sister will have my head for creating more laundry.” From the curve of his lips as he said it, she knew he was remembering the baskets of unfolded clothing in the family room. She blushed as he tossed the overalls to Zion. Who missed. Her brother scrambled to grab them up off the concrete. “Do I have to take my clothes off?” Darius shook his head. “Nope. The legs should be wide enough to fit over your sneakers and jeans.” Nathalie liked that he didn’t make a big deal out of Zion not knowing what to do. “Okay. I have to sit down.” Zion sat on the concrete and tried stuffing his feet into the legs.
Darius didn’t help him, and Nathalie liked that, too, since she tried not to let herself help Zion unless he asked for it. Still fighting the overalls onto his legs, rolling onto his back and pulling at them, her brother called, “Doesn’t Nathalie need these, too?” Darius eyed her, giving her a long, slow look—which Zion was too involved with his overalls to notice. The heat in Darius' gaze told her he’d taken in her tank top and capris. And liked what he saw. “Oh no. I want Nathalie just the way she is.” Even if he couldn’t possibly mean that the way it sounded, it still managed to be the sweetest thing any man had ever said to her. Zion finally got the blue overalls on his legs, then scooched his bottom to pull them over his hips.
Rolling to his hands and knees, he pushed himself up. While her brother put on the overalls, Darius had reduced the distance between himself and Nathalie to two steps. He was close enough to touch her now, but he didn’t. That in itself was another tease, something that Darius was just too good at. “Ready?” Darius directed the question to Zion, who’d finally zipped up his overalls. “Yes!” her brother yelled. Then Darius finally did what she’d been secretly dying for. He put his hand on her bare back between the straps of her tank top, guiding her toward the garage, making her acutely aware of him with the caress of his fingers above the line of the tank. And, even if she shouldn’t, she couldn’t help but love every second of it.
* * *
Nathalie had pulled her hair up into a sexy, messy knot held by a butterfly clip. Loose tendrils flirted with her seductively bare shoulders. But it was the silver toe ring on the middle toe of her right foot that really got Darius going. It should have been unexpected. To anyone else, it might even seem out of character. But not to him. Because he already knew about the secret wildness inside her that was practically bursting to come out. Even if she clearly thought she needed to keep it firmly tamped down. “Pile in.” He pointed to the golf cart parked just inside the roll-up door.
“Cool, I can’t believe we’re going to ride in that!” Everything excited Zion, from overalls to golf carts. “Makes it easier to come back down the hill if I need something here.” Although Darius had outfitted the barn with everything he could possibly need when he was building the Mercury Cougar, the golf cart and the path he’d built made it easier to travel back and forth. “I almost forgot.” Nathalie backed off so that his hand fell away from the heat of her skin. “I brought lunch. And drinks. I hope you like peanut butter and jelly.” He’d planned on having his housekeeper, Mrs. Oswald, bring up a tray around noon, but it was sweet that Nathalie had planned ahead. “My favorite,” he told her. He hadn’t eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich since Sally made them for lunch every day when she’d sent them all off to school, but back then it really had been his favorite.
At least, when he hadn’t been getting into too much trouble to eat lunch. “Climb into the backseat,” he told Zion, then jetted the golf cart out to Nathalie, swinging it around so that she could climb in beside him. She carried a six-pack of water bottles and an insulated lunch bag. As soon as she was seated, he couldn’t resist reaching out to brush away a lock of hair from her gorgeous mouth. Once the strand was gone, however, he let his hand linger on her soft skin, appreciating the way her eyes dilated slightly with an awareness she couldn’t hide. “Thank you for taking care of us, Nathalie. Guys working on cars don’t think to stop and eat. But we’re going to need our sustenance.” Then he added over his shoulder, “Isn’t that right, Zion?” “Right, Darius.” He moved his hand from her cheek to rest lightly over hers as he whisked them up the hill, feeling Nathalie’s gaze on him. “Stop teasing,” she said softly. “Teasing?” He lifted one eyebrow. “I’m perfectly serious.” And he was. He intended to make her crazy. As crazy for him as he already was for her. The prospect already had his blood rushing. She tried to look stern. “You know what I mean.”
He knew exactly what she meant. And he had a lot more planned for her. Touching, teasing, flirting—anything that would remind her of every single wicked intention he’d whispered against her skin in her kitchen a week and a half ago. He wanted the woman who’d grabbed his shirt and dragged his mouth down to hers out by the old aqueduct. And since something told him she was secretly dying for that, too, he’d do whatever he could to bring out that thrill-seeking side of her again.
* * *
With each zing of Darius' fingers on her arm and her shoulder and her back, Nathalie felt a little crazier. Resisting him was the rational choice—the safe choice—but staying rational around Darius was one of the hardest things she’d ever tried to do. “You’ve got quite a setup here,” she said, attempting to divert her focus away from how much she wanted him. “I converted the barn when I was building the Mercury Cougar.” The barn floor had been filled in with concrete and covered with black and white checkerboard squares. A car lift was central to the huge workspace, and above was a suspension system that Darius explained could be used to lower the engine block and transmission into place, and even the fiberglass car body.
Ringing the floor space were rolling tool chests, workbenches, an air compressor, a welding machine, bins of rivets, pins, nuts, bolts, and screws, along with racks of drills, electric screwdrivers, and other tools, all in pristine condition. The second they stepped inside, Zion ran around asking Darius what everything was. Darius not only patiently answered Zion’s questions, but he actually seemed to enjoy explaining. It was another big point for him in the plus column, at least where her brother was concerned. Darius turned to the covered item centered over the lift. “And here is the object of our desire.”
He stood so close that their arms brushed. Thrill bumps rose along with the fine, nearly invisible hairs on her forearms, like a static shock from too much friction. His mouth curved as he glanced down at her, knowing full well what he was doing with his double engenders. No question about it, he enjoyed teasing her way too much. But the secret truth was that she enjoyed it, too, even if she shouldn’t. When she was with Darius, Nathalie felt young and sexy and giddy for the first time in a very, very long time. Darius whipped away the tarp, and Zion said, “Wow,” on a soft note of awe. “That’s exactly what I said when I first saw it,” Darius said with equal reverence. “What is it?” Nathalie asked as she stared at the contraption.
It looked like a twisted metal cage. Or a complicated set of monkey bars on a playground. Rods were stuck together seemingly every which way, but also with a synergistic sense of purpose she couldn’t fathom. “It’s the frame of the car,” Darius explained. “How could you have had this made in less than two weeks?” Suddenly, she felt the awe. For Darius and what he could accomplish. “I offered a bonus so the factory would work around the clock.” He said it matter-of-factly, as if it hadn’t cost a staggering amount. All Darius had to do was snap his fingers, and poof, there was a complex car frame sitting in his retrofitted barn. She knew he was rich, but this was the power to have anything he wanted. Anything at all. And he’d said he wanted her.
A hot shiver shot through her body...along with a healthy dose of tension as she reminded herself that rich men played by their own rules. By now, she knew that Darius was nothing like the man who’d paid her parents to make his son’s car accident go away. But at the same time, no matter how nice Darius seemed, she and Zion lived in a very different world. Nathalie wasn’t intimidated by much anymore, but she wasn’t going to lie and say that Darius' world of infinite luxury and power wasn’t overwhelming. “It’s called a space frame,” Darius told them. “Or a tube frame.” He trailed a finger down a metal pipe, and Nathalie felt it as though he’d run that finger down her arm.
“We’re going to attach the sheet metal and just about every single part somewhere on this frame.” He signaled Zion closer. Nathalie leaned in, too. “Each tube is for something specific.” He pointed. “This is where we’ll attach the firewall between the engine and the cockpit.” He patted the air over where she assumed the driver would sit. “Here is where we’ll put the floor panels.” His words drew a picture, and Nathalie could almost see the leather seats. “Those are the pieces we’ve got for the time being. The rest will be here next Friday.” He wrapped his hand around Nathalie's, and with her fingers engulfed in his, he took her back for the larger view. Zion followed suit. Together, the three of them stared at the hunk of metal. Suddenly she saw it.
“It’s like a Alfieri surrounding the driver.” No wonder they called it the Maserati Alfieri 1960. “All we have to do is put her parts together, shape her, and bring her to life. With loving hands.” Though they were talking about a car, with her hand in his and his heated gaze burning up every inch of her skin, Nathalie felt as though he was slowly bringing her to life, too...patiently working to uncover and unleash the sensual woman hidden inside of her with every word, every look, and every touch. Darius grabbed his camera off the workbench. “We need to document our work progress as we go along.” He snapped a couple of shots of the bare frame, then waved Nathalie into the picture. “It should be Zion in the photo,” she protested, hanging back. “Not me.” “Sorry, but he’s not the hot babe we need for our hot car shots.” She glared at his teasing use of the term hot babe, and he wanted to kiss the disapproval right off her pretty lips.
