Michelle Valentine - Rock the Beat

I grin, knowing I’m the only one who knows his little secret. “You know that’s exactly why you love me.”

He wraps his arm around me and turns in plain view of the window looking into the shop where we can get a clear view of Trip. “That’s way too much man for you, Holly. A guy like that will chew you up and spit your little heart all over the sidewalk. You need to steer clear of that tasty piece of dangerous ass.”

I roll my eyes. “Seriously? When have I ever been interested in that type?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe since high school?”

“I’m completely over Jackson Cruze, and the bad-boy type. I was drunk last night and my judgment was off. I promise I won’t be letting my guard down again.”

“Really? After one day? Why do you still have those magazine covers of him hanging on your walls?”

“He’s the hottest motocross rider around. It’s good for our business when people find out that he trains here at this track,” I argue.

Max gives me a pointed look. “Keep telling yourself that, Blondie.”

I shrug his arm off my shoulder. “Ugh. Whatever. Let’s not talk about Jackson anymore.”

He smirks. “Why? Got your eye on someone new?”

“I told you, I don’t like him!” I gesture towards the window where we last saw Trip.

Shit.

At the same moment I realize Trip is gone, a voice behind me stops me dead in my tracks. “I hope you’re not talking about me. You’ll break my heart if you are.”

I could kill Max right now. I narrow my eyes at my best friend and do my best to send him a telepathic message that he’s dead meat before turning to face Trip, wearing the sweetest smile I can muster. Against my better judgment, I have to force myself to be nice to this guy. Like Dad said, we need him to like us. “Of course not. I don’t even know you well enough to not like you yet.”

He leans casually against the doorframe that leads inside the office. The rickety screen door is propped open with a red brick to allow more airflow into our hot-as-hell office, giving me a full view of Trip and that mouth-watering body of his. I jerk my eyes off his chiseled, tattoo-covered biceps and he chuckles. Damn it. He caught me looking. I have got to get his sexiness out of my mind.

Trip’s eyes flit to Max, like he’s testing to see if my gay best friend is my actually my boyfriend before deeming it safe to turn his heated gaze in my direction.

I glance over at Max and he holds up his hands, indicating he has no ties to me as Trip stares him down. Trip shifts his heady gaze from Max to me. “Well, I’m all for rectifying that problem.”

I shake my head. “You don’t take no for an answer very well, do you?”

“Not when it comes to something I want.”

I laugh. “And I’m guessing I’m something you want?”

He shrugs. “Maybe, I’m still making up my mind. Don’t worry, as soon as I decide, you’ll be the first to know.”

This guy does not give up. “Well, like I said, you and I are never going to happen. I’m not sleeping with you. You might as well get that idea out of your head right now. But whenever you’d like to go over the business aspects of the place, I’m all for it.”

I start to shoulder around him to get inside the office, but he grabs my wrist, halting me in my tracks, and the look in his eyes softens. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to piss you off. From now on, I’ll be a perfect gentleman. I want us to be friends.”

I stare up into his green eyes and take in his easy smile. He bites his bottom lip and all I can think about is how soft his lips were when he kissed me. I silently curse myself for thinking about his stupid mouth before I shake out of his grip. “Good. Come on, then.”

Good Girls, Bad Guys

TRIP

I turn my head and watch Holly stalk off inside. I fold my arms over my chest and blow a frustrated breath through pursed lips. This isn’t good.

“She doesn’t hate you if that’s what you’re thinking,” the guy she was talking to says to me. I turn my gaze in his direction and he extends his right hand to me. “The name’s Max.”

I grip his hand in mine and give it a firm shake. “Trip.”

Max nods. “So I’ve been told.”

I ask the question that’s been burning in my brain since I placed him as the guy who’d dragged Holly away from me last night. “You her boyfriend or something?”

He grimaces and shakes his head like I’ve just insulted him. “God no. We’re just friends.”

Just friends I can work with. He must be gay. Any red-blooded guy would be proud to own up to tapping an ass like Holly’s, but…whatever.

I’m so glad she wasn’t my random fuck last night, although I bet she would’ve been ten times better than what I ended up with.

Damn it.

I have to stop thinking about her that way. She’s not some random chick I’ll never see again. There’s no ‘hump and dump’ option here. I need her on my side in order to get the low-down on this place. I can already tell she’s the key to making this a successful business venture.

I glance back in Holly’s direction and watch as she piles a bunch of binders on the counter. She doesn’t even look in my direction. “What makes you so sure she doesn’t hate my guts?”

Max grins wider than the Cheshire cat. “I was there last night. My girl in there doesn’t just let any guy get his lips on her. If she didn’t like you, she would’ve kneed you in the balls the moment you came on to her. Granted, she was drunk last night, and she’s going through some things, but she still allowed you to kiss her.”

I look him directly in the eye. “You seem awfully protective. You sure you’re not into her?”

He shakes his head. “She’s my best friend and I watch out for her. I don’t like to see her get hurt because she’s a good person and deserves better than what she’s been dealt lately. Holly’s a tough woman, but she’s also sweet and sensitive. If you aren’t sincere in your intentions toward her, I’m asking you to back off. She’s not ready for more heartbreak.”

I open my mouth to ask what he meant by that exactly when Holly calls my name. “Trip, you coming or not? I don’t have all day.”

Max takes a couple steps back. “I’m sure I’ll see you around.”

I nod as his words of warning flow through my mind. “Later, man, and thanks.”

“No problem. Good luck.” He laughs as he hops on his dirt bike and fires up the motor.

Inside, the stifling air is hard to ignore, but now I understand why they don’t turn the air on. Their business is failing and they need to save every penny they can. I yank my ball cap off and wipe the sweat off my forehead with the back of my wrist. The entire state of Arizona is hot as hell.

Holly’s eyes train on my hair and her lips twist. “Do you dye your hair? I didn’t notice how black it was last night.”

She leans over the counter to fetch the schedule. I eye her daisy-duke covered ass appreciatively while her head’s turned. If she catches me eye-fucking her, she’ll smack the shit out of me, but it’s worth the risk. Her ass is one hundred percent biteable and I curse myself for wanting a piece.

I run my hand through my hair, pushing it back off my face before slapping my hat back on. “Yeah. I like it jet-black. It helps people tell me and my twin brother apart.”

She tilts her head and leans on the counter across from me. “Is he identical?”

I nod. “He is, except for the hair. His is more of a sandy-blond color.”

“Huh.” The look on her face tells me she’s trying to figure out why I color my hair. Or worse, she’s figuring out who I am.

“You’ve got something on your mind.”

“No…well, yes. I was wondering something.”

“What’s that?”

She clears her throat. “I can see wanting to stand out from your brother when you’re little to help people tell you apart, but why do feel the need to do it as an adult?”

I sigh in relief. I was fully prepared for her to ask me about Black Falcon. “We work together.”

Her eyebrows crunch together. “Does he work for the same investor too?”

Fuck. Panic floods over me as I realize my slip up. Quickly, I try to cover my mistake. “No. I’m working for the investor as a favor. He and I are personal friends. My brother and I have our own business.”

“Doing what?”

“We, um…” I trail off, trying to think of a plausible lie. “Our family owns a…”—I glance around the counter and the cowtail candies catch my eye—“farm.”

She flinches at the same time I want to punch myself in the face for saying something so ridiculous. “What kind of farm?”

I don’t know the first thing about farming. Why in the fuck did I say that?

Holly stares at me expectantly and I clear my throat. “Cows. We farm cows.”

I want to fucking kill myself.

“Really?” She raises her brow. “Like a dairy farm? I’ve never seen a farmer look like you before.”

I nod. Milk, yes. That’s something I know about. I’ve seen people milk cows before on television not to mention I eat a ton of cereal and milk. “Yes, exactly like a dairy farm. We go out and milk the cows every morning by hand.”

She laughs. “Nice try. You almost had me for a minute. I know they get hooked up to machines for milking. I’ve seen that in a movie before. I didn’t know you had a sense of humor.”

I laugh too but it’s fake as hell, and I pray she can’t hear the nervousness in my voice. “There’s no fooling you.”

She leans across the counter with a smirk on her pretty pink lips. Without knowing she’s doing it, she gives me a perfect view of her boobs. “There’s a stellar mind behind these good looks, sweetheart,” Holly says while lowering her voice to imitate me.

Wow. Now she’s throwing my own lines back in my face, making me sound like a complete fucking moron. “Good one.”

Holly straightens her stance and pats her hand on the stack of black binders. Each one has enough papers to fill a phone book. “Come on, genius. We’ve got a lot of books to go over.”

I eye the stack and frown. “It’s all on paper?”

She nods. “Dad didn’t know how to work a computer when he started this place and never got around to converting all the books. Besides, computers cost a lot of money.”

I run my hand over my face. “This is going to take forever.”

She shrugs. “I know, so we might as well get going. The faster we get through all this, the quicker you can convince your boss this is a great place to invest in.”

It takes at least an hour for Holly to explain the set-up of all the paper documents and then another hour before I can even begin making sense of their system. No wonder this business is going to shit. There’s not even an accurate way to track the expenses. Apparently there are also shoeboxes full of receipts that Bill has never gotten around to adding into the budget. This is so not good. Updating the computers alone in this place is going to cost a pretty penny. I can only imagine what the track looks like. I’ll have to look into that tomorrow.

Holly interlocks her fingers and stretches her arms above her head, allowing the gray uniform top she’s wearing to ride up and bit and give me a peek at her toned stomach. “I need a break. What about you?”

I fold the page over in the book I’m reading through and rub my eyes. “I’m starving. Where’s a good place to eat around here?”

“If you drive into town, there are a few places.”

I tilt my head. “You don’t want to come with me?”

She shakes her head. “There’s stuff to make peanut butter sandwiches in the house.”

I knit my brow in confusion. “Peanut butter sandwiches for dinner?”

“Why not? It’s cheap and filling,” she argues.

I stand and find that my ass is all sweaty from sitting on the black, plastic stool for such a long period of time. “You aren’t eating that. Get your ass up. You’re coming to dinner with me.”

She frowns. “Really, I can’t go. I can’t afford it.”

Now I feel like a total jackass. “My treat. I’ve been a jerk to you since I got here. The least I can do is buy you dinner to make up for it. We can go anywhere you want.”

She drops her eyes to the counter while she thinks it over. “Okay. But this doesn’t change what I said earlier. I still won’t sleep with you.”

“I haven’t asked you to, have I?”

“Well…not in those exact words, but your actions—”

I grab her arm and haul her up off the stool. “Like I told you, if I intended on fucking you, you’d know it. Now quit talking nonsense and come on. I’m so hungry I’m about to gnaw my arm off.”