Jacked Up (Fast Track #6)(26)
Author: Erin McCarthy

She was going to make fun her bitch.

“Ready for inspection?” Nolan said.

She realized he was talking to her so she looked up. It shocked her how tired he actually looked. There were dark circles under his eyes and his shoulders drooped. A wave of sympathy washed over her. “I guess I’m ready. Are you okay? I heard you say you didn’t sleep much.”

He shrugged. “I’ll live. And I’m guessing you had the same problem.” His finger brushed under her eye, sending a shiver up her spine. “We have matching luggage.”

Not what she wanted to hear. It was true, but she didn’t need him to tell her she looked like crap.

“My dreams of besting you kept me from a deep sleep.”

His eyebrows rose. “Oh, yeah? Good luck with that, rookie.”

“Don’t underestimate me.” A part of her realized she was baiting him, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. Evan always told her she was itching for a fight, and she had a feeling that was what she was doing here.

But Nolan wouldn’t rise to her challenge. Or irrational poking, however you wanted to label it.

“I wasn’t planning on it.”

“Good.” Deflated, she went back to her paperwork.

She was in the middle of writing an “r” when the pen was whisked out of her grasp.

“You done with that?” he asked her with a grin.

So much for not rising to her bait. Eve wanted to laugh. She wanted to beat him with her clipboard.

And mostly she wanted to kiss him, to feel him rocking his body against hers, thick hot erection pressing against her.

It made no sense, but there it was. She could be in the worst mood possible and he could manage to make her smile. And horny.

“You better watch it, Ford. Your ass is grass and I’m the lawn mower.”

That made him grin. “You sound like my grandfather.”

“Were you scared of him as a kid?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Be scared of me, too.”

Nolan turned up the twang in his country voice. “I ain’t afraid of you. I ain’t afraid of nothin’.”

The urge to kiss him returned. She was going to combat that. God only knew who was watching them. She wasn’t ready to deal with anyone asking her about her relationship with Nolan. Not that it was a relationship. But she didn’t want anyone asking her about whatever it was.

“I’m walking away from you,” she told him. “Because you’re a dork.”

He let out a crack of laughter before he reined it in. “See you on the track when I take you out.”

“You wish.” Eve suddenly realized that some people might consider their exchange witty banter. Or people might say they sounded like a couple of middle schoolers at the roller rink arguing over whether to join the couples skate or not.

She was hoping the truth was somewhere actually in the middle.

Her experience with dating wasn’t excessive. Or even average. So she truthfully didn’t know what she was doing when it came to men. All she knew was she was who she was and she wasn’t going to change for a man. She wasn’t going to start simpering and tempering her opinions for a penis. She was pretty sure that would actually kill her if she even tried.

“I wish a lot of things,” he told her. “I usually get them.”

She studied him for a second, knowing full well he was flirting. But that wasn’t the kind of flirting that sat well with her. Teasing or not, she didn’t want to be something he got because she was a challenge. Another accomplishment to boost his ego that he wouldn’t be denied his choice.

It didn’t seem to her that Nolan would be that kind of guy, but what did she really know about him? Why did she think she knew if he would smile or frown or brag or be modest?

She didn’t know him.

At all.

And for a woman who liked to be in control, that annoyed her. A lot.

“I’m not that easy,” she told him and walked away.

Eve resisted the urge to turn around but she felt his eyes on her. On her butt. Or maybe that was wishful thinking.

That worrying thing? It was back.

She busted out an expletive that would make a sailor’s hair curl.

Did sailors have hair?

So many damn things to worry about.

She was going to have a heart attack without ever having seen Nolan naked.

And that was a crying shame.

* * *

NOLAN sat behind the wheel waiting for the flag, trying to channel his irritation into the derby. He didn’t like feeling annoyed. He rarely was. But something about Eve Monroe had him feeling like his skin was too tight. He hadn’t decided if that was good or bad.

Maybe it was the lack of a good night’s sleep. Which had also been because of Eve, but he was feeling off. Irritable. Not good.

Edgy. That’s how he felt. Like he was on the verge of something.

When the flag waved to start the competition, he was ready. With more determination than the thrill he usually had. Usually he enjoyed the derby—that’s why he did it. But today, he felt like he was on a mission to destroy every car around him.

He couldn’t see Eve yet. Her car had been painted with a big number 1 on the doors. No one ever got the number 1, but when the crew had been assigning numbers, some smart-ass had seen Eve was the only woman in the competition and given her the number 69. She’d had a little chat with the man in charge, and after he looked like he wanted to caress his balls to make sure they were still there, the number 1 had gone on her car.

It had made Nolan grin. No one was going to mess with Eve.

What didn’t make him grin was that he had no idea what was really going on in that head of hers. Sometimes she flirted. She kissed him passionately. She implied they were heading to a mutual naked state. But other times, she seemed more friendly than flirty. Today she’d been downright annoyed with him, and he had no clue what he’d done.

The question was did he want to go around feeling like that? It seemed like a whole lot of complicated and he wasn’t big on that.

He slammed into the car on his right, sending it hurtling back into the wall. Yeah, that felt good.

A car nailed him from behind. Glancing back, he saw the driver and recognized that slender neck and caramel hair sliding out of that helmet. Eve was gunning for him.

She could hit him from behind all she wanted. It wouldn’t take him out. It would just propel him into the cars in front of him, several of which were turned sideways. When he went straight into them, they scattered like bowling pins. One hit the wall, one went into the infield, another just stalled on the track. He raised his hand and did a fist pump to show Eve she’d helped him out. He had a sneaking suspicion that had not been her intention.