(Author's Note: If you would wish to listen to Chapter 21 parts 1, 2 , and 3on audio, please click the videos. I hope you enjoy it!)
We arrive at the Auto shop, and I look out the window to take sight of it; I notice a huge black-letter sign that spells out Dylan's Diesel and Auto Repair. It's an old run-down building with white paint coming off the walls, it looks like it has been here for years. The garage is wide open to where I can see the cars parked outside and then my eyes shift to men working on other vehicles located inside the garage.
Chris opens the passenger door for me and holds out his hand. "You ready to go inside," he says with a grin.
I take his hand and he helps me out of the car. I feel the same roughness of his hand that I remember when he first helped me up from the floor. I smile. "Thank you, Chris." I let go of his hand quickly, that sounds familiar, doesn't it?
As we walk toward the shop, I hear drills going off every so often and a familiar fragrance of dirty motor oil, chassis grease, and brake dust.
He opens the front door for me and a bell goes off. I smile to thank him and he slightly nods. Why is Chris being nice to me now?
A man- a very buff and attractive older man comes out of the garage. What's with me and muscular bodies? "You must be Chris's friend, but didn't mention you were a woman," the man says.
What? Women can't be mechanics too? I notice he's wearing a blue mechanic overall and on the right of his chest says: "Dylan." I assume he must be the owner.
He notices the look I'm giving him and quickly corrects himself, "No, I didn't mean it like that. We don't have very many women who come to this shop and it's nice for a change." He comes closer to me. "Between you and me, I believe women are better mechanics than men."
"You know I can hear you, Dylan," Chris gabs.
"Yes, I know. You guys always slack off out there and don't do anything. At least with her-" Dylan turns his gaze towards me. "We will get more work done around here."
He cleans his oily hands with a red cloth and holds up his hand and I shake it. "My name is Mr. Miller, but you can call me Dylan." His amber eyes shift to Chris. "Chris calls me Dylan."
"My name is Sussianna," I smile.
"That's a beautiful name," Dylan affirms.
"Thank you."
"Should I give you a tour?"
"No, I'll give her a tour," Chris says harshly and I scowl at him to be nice.
"Alright, you've been here since you were a little boy, you should know your way around the shop by now," Dylan confirms nicer than Chris did.
Chris leads me to the garage and I follow right behind him.
"You know, you can be nice for a change," I say to Chris.
He laughs. "I am being nice."
"That's what you call being nice?" I ask.
"Yes," he shrugs. "It's who I am, they know me by now and I'm not going to change for anyone." He waves his hand at the space around us. "This is the garage; we will start here."
The garage is empty and I guess the men had left when we were talking to Dylan. I look around to see a 2016 red Rolls Royce Dawn and another dark blue Rolls Benz, it looks like it's a 2012 or 2013, but I'm not too sure. Damn, these are expensive cars they were working on.
"Everyone has already left, we'll be the only ones here," he tells me.
"I thought you said that this place doesn't close till eight."
"It does," he shrugs. "Well, technically it closes at seven, but I asked Dylan if he would leave the shop open because I was bringing a friend today."
"You didn't tell him I was a woman."
"I thought it didn't matter if you were a woman or a man. A friend is a friend."
"Are we friends again?" I ask. Since he is calling me a friend. Actually, I was the one who said we're not friends anymore, but friends are only what we are and I just want to be friends, even though he gets me mad, I don't mind being friends, again.
"So, we're friends again?" He questions back.
I giggle. "I guess we are."
"Okay."
"Okay."
He opens a door- what I thought was the restroom, but it turns out to be a closet- and pulls out a pair of overalls. He tosses it to me and I catch it. "Put those on."
"Why?"
He lifts up a brow and asks, "Do you want to ruin your clothes?"
I never put on overalls before, I always just wore the clothes that I have on. I look down at my clothes and see I have my work uniform on. Great, I left my clothes at work and my bag. Now, I have to call or text Camille so she can give me my things, at least I could ask her why she was being nice to Chris. I mean, what was up with that?
I look down and notice on the overall has a name tag- it says: "Chris."
"It's mine, but you can use it for today."
"What would you wear?"
"I'll just take off my shirt."
Huh? But aren't their cameras? Also, people could walk in here and see him with no shirt. I think that would fall under as unprofessional in the workplace.
He laughs. "It's okay. The shop is closed; we're the only ones here."
Can he read my mind?
Then adds, "Unless you don't want me to take off my shirt."
"N-No, it's fine. I don't mind if you have no clothes." I smack my forehead. "I-I mean no shirt." I ramble. Shit! Why do I get nervous?
He chuckles and removes his black shirt over his head revealing black ink- what appears to be a wave of an ocean or some type of swirling ink on both of his shoulders. My eyes move more down to his stomach and see a red rose and the petals falling down to his hip, but a pair of fitted jeans are covering the rest of the petals. Chris grins as he catches me staring at him.
"You like what you see?" He asks with that grin and it's disarming.
Oh shit! Stop with the staring, Sussianna. I draw my eyes away and slip on the overall over my clothes. The overall is way too big for me and it feels loose on my body.
I continue to look down at the overall, so he won't see me blushing.
"I don't mind if you stare."
I look up and catch sight of his eyes darkening.
"Chris! Man, where have you been?" A man yells as he approaches Chris. "Whoa! Dude, why do you have your shirt off?"
The man is a little shorter than Chris but has almost the same body as him. He has tight curly brunette hair, and light green eyes, and wearing the same outfit as Dylan had on; I see his name tag says: "Lucas."
I thought he said we were going to be alone.
Chris's eyes widen. "Been busy." He ignores the other comment Lucas made.
"Oh," Lucas says then turns to me and his green eyes shift toward my body. "Chris, who is this?"
Chris is eyeing Lucas and he looks irritated. "My friend, Sussianna," he says bitterly.
"You're just friends?" Lucas asks him. He scans between Chris and me.
"Yes," he says quickly.
Lucas comes closer to me and Chris steps closer to Lucas. "I'm Lucas, see," he points to his name tag. "And you're Sussianna, right? Unless your name is Chris as well."
"No. I'm Sussianna," I respond.
"Sussianna, are you seeing anyone?"
What question is that? Since my voice probably will betray me, I just shake my head "no."
Even before Lucas can get another word out; Chris asks him cruelly, "Lucas, what are you doing here?"
He turns around to face Chris. "Well, to put this away," he says as he lifts up his overalls to show him. "Then I came to grab my leftovers from earlier today," He tilts his head to the refrigerator- which I never noticed before until Lucas pointed it out.
"I forgot you were bringing your friend, but I thought you were lying because you have never brought anyone here and-" He turns back toward me. "I can see why you haven't been here in a while."
"Okay, time to leave," Chris says, grabbing Lucas's overall and hauling him out the door.
"Bye Sussianna, nice meeting you!" Lucas yells as Chris pushes him out and I see there are tattoos on Chris's back, but since he's moving at a fast rate, I can't make out what they are.
"Bye Lucas," I manage to say before they're out the door.
I giggle. What was that all about?
After a few minutes, Chris comes back alone and has Lucas's overall in his hands. He goes straight toward the closet and throws the overall inside; he doesn't even hang it up.
"Is everything okay?" I ask.
"Yes. Why?" He questions back.
"Just asking."
Why does he always answer with a question? He must know that drives me crazy, so I think he does it on purpose just to spite me.
"Okay let's get started," he says with a smirk.
We start on the red Rolls Royce Dawn. He told me he's been working on it for quite a while, and this car needs a lot of work to be done to it. He heads to the red tool chest and pulls out a 1/2-inch driver socket and a torque wrench. Now that his back is towards me the tattoos become more visible; the waves of an ocean or whatever it is, are connected to both of his broad shoulders and a car, it looks like his own Chevrolet on his lower back.
Before he catches me staring again; I go toward the car and lift up the hood to see what has to be done. It's a twelve-cylinder, which means it's a V12; this baby is made for speed. I also see the alternator looks like it needs to be replaced, along with the radiator reservoir. He was not kidding, this car does need a lot of work.
He comes up to me and looks at what I'm looking at. "The alter-" he begins.
"The alternator has to be replaced. I also think the radiator reservoir and maybe the air filter has to be replaced as well."
"Yeah. How did you know that?" He leers over me.
I gaze up at him and I can tell he's shocked. Stop looking at me so surprised, Chris. "I told you my dad was a mechanic, but I would check it just to make sure I'm right," I say as I grab the wrench from his hand and start to turn the bolt and remove the alternator, but it's not the right size.
"Was? He's not anymore?" He asks.
I look up and then quickly look back at the engine. I don't want to talk about this. I pray he'll drop it and not question it again.
Alright, time to change the subject. "I think a 3/8-inch driver socket would probably be better than a 1/2-inch," I inform him.
I head to the tool chest and grab a 3/8-inch wrench when I slip on water or oil on the floor. I stumble on my feet. Shit! I try to grab anything to keep myself from falling.
"Sussianna!" Chris cries as he catches me in his arms. I fall back to his firm chest and inhale deeply; the scent of peppermint once again invades my nostrils.
If Chris hadn't caught me, I would have done splits and then fallen on my ass. Me and my clumsy feet. I am clumsy.
"Can you watch where you're walking?"
"You should mop this floor," I say and look down to the floor and see its oil. "This could be hazardous."
He doesn't say a word and his eyes are a burning glare to mine. He still holds me in his arms and with his fingers, he moves to the strands of my hair and pushes them off my face. I close my eyes. This would be a perfect moment to kiss. I want him to kiss me. I want to feel his lips on me. My subconscious tells me this is a bad idea, kissing will make it worse and he'll hurt you again, and remember you said you just wanted to be friends, but I'm telling her to be quiet because right now, I don't care. I want him to just kiss me.
Since I'm close to his chest, I feel his breathing has increased and also feel his heartbeat has quickened. I'm sure mine is moving at a rapid rate right now. His eyes shift to my mouth. Yes, just fucking kiss me!
"Sussianna, I'm not someone you want to get involved with. I can never be the man like in those books of yours," he whispers.
What? Why does he think that? I don't need a man from my books. Yeah, it would be nice to have a man like that, but I know in the real world there is no such thing as those types of men.
I can't seem to say anything. Please, just kiss me, Chris, but he shakes his head "no," like he knows what I'm thinking.
He's not going to kiss me, so I stand to my feet and push him off of me; he lets me stand without touching me. "Thanks for catching me," I murmur.
"No need to thank me. Just be more careful."
I carefully walk toward the tool chest and don't look back at him. I'm frustrated. Why did he not kiss me? He rejected me and maybe he doesn't like me. Why did I think he liked me? I'm such an idiot!
Well, I know why I been rejected because look at me, I'm big-breasted, plus I have a big ass, and I'm pale. Gosh, who would want this? Alright, I guess men used to try to ask me out, but like Camille said I was just too blind and too stupid to get the hint that they wanted to ask me out. But no one interested me, not as Chris does. I don't know why I want him. I just do.
I want to just cry. What the fuck? I should not cry for a damn guy. But perhaps I need to cry for him. STOP! Stop with this now. I'm so stupid for wanting to cry for him.
I turn around and he's standing in front of me. Fuck! What is he doing? He always likes to crowd me.
He backs me toward the wall. Why is he doing this?
"You know, I always wanted to see your hair down," he whispers in my ear.
What?
He moves his hand to my hair and grabs the bobby pins- he pinches me as he releases the pins out of my hair, but it doesn't hurt too bad. He brings it down slowly, freeing my hair down to my shoulders. I take a deep breath. Then his hand moves to my lips tracing over them. "These lips are so full, I want to kiss them so badly," he says.
He lowers down so he's at my height and I feel his lips inches from mine. I want him to kiss me. He gets closer and I feel everything.
"Wait... I think I'll be bad at it."
Confusion hits him. "What?"
"I never-" How do I tell him that I never kissed anyone in my life before? In high school, with all the work I had and then keeping my grades up; I didn't have time to be in a relationship. Now in college, I'm not with no one. Yes, I did go to parties and I might have kissed someone, I just don't remember if I did or not because I was too drunk, but Camille is the one who protected me and she would have told me if a guy had kissed me.
"You never what?" He pesters.
This is going to be embarrassing; he might even laugh at me. Hell, even make fun of me and never want to kiss me. Who would? After knowing this.
"I never kissed anyone before," I say quickly and I can't even look him in the eyes.
He laughs, he really lets out a full-hard-out-laugh. I knew he was going to laugh at me. Why does he like to laugh at me? I'm not that funny and this is not funny.
That's it, I'm leaving. I don't have to take this. I proceed out of his path, but he gently puts his hand on my stomach and pushes me back to the wall.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Leaving."
"Why?"
"Because you're making fun of me and laughed at me."
"I'm not laughing-" I give him a glare to-not-lie-to-me. "Alright, fine I was, but I'm just confused. You had to have been kissed before."
He cups my cheek and pulls me to look at him. "This can't be possible... I mean how could that possibly be? Look at you-" I have looked at myself and I'm not beautiful. "If no one has kissed you, then no one has fucked you yet," he grins.
"What?" I can't believe he said that. Who does he think he is? Yes, I never slept with anyone before. How could he say a thing like that? He ruined it.
"You heard me."
"Yes, I did, but why would you say that to me? You insensitive jerk!" I shout.
"Because it's the truth, isn't it?" He asks.
I stay quiet. I'm frustrated with this man.
"I want to kiss you, but..."
I knew it. Fucker. "But what?"
"I won't touch you until I have your permission."
What the fuck does that even mean? A while ago he wanted to kiss me. Now he's saying this. He changes his mind many times. I should have kept my mouth shut. I'm so stupid.
"Stop rolling your eyes at me!" He protests.
I didn't roll my eyes or maybe I did. I just want to slap him. He's such...
"Fuck it." He grabs my head and puts his lips on mine. In utter shock, I don't know what to do, so I open my mouth slightly and he takes full advantage, slipping his tongue in, he wraps his tongue with mine. I moan in response. He tastes like peppermint. How does he taste like peppermint? I have no idea, but I love it.
He moves his hands to my wrists, pulling them above my head, and pins them to the wall. Never breaking our lips apart, he lets go of one of my hands and since his hand is big enough, he quickly holds both of my wrists in his palm. With his other hand, he travels down to my hip, and then he eventually frees my wrists and goes to my other hip. Immediately, I put my hands on his hair and tighten my grip. He moans and it vibrates throughout my mouth. I want to hear that sound again. It felt so heavenly when he moaned into my mouth making it vibrate. I do it again and this time I claw my fingers- feeling his soft silky hair. He groans in response yet again and I love that sound.
With both of his hands on my hips, he moves them to my behind and caresses me, making me moan once more. Do all kisses feel like this?
As our tongues move at the same time, he begins to bump into me and I feel everything... Oh my... I think it's his phone. No, it's not his phone but something else... His erection against me. Holy shit!
"You. Are. So. Fucking. Hot. Sussianna," he mummers into my mouth.
Chris's cell phone starts ringing and he breaks our kiss. He pushes away, leaving me hanging and wanting more. My heart is racing and my breathing has peaked.
He grabs his phone out of the back pocket of his jeans and groans as he sees the Caller ID.
I wonder who it is? I feel disappointed; whoever it was, had interrupted us.
Chris backs away from me and answers the phone.
"I'm on it. Just give me a break!" I hear him say.
After a few seconds, he yells, "Well, I was until you..." He turns to look at me and turns back around- his back completely faces me. "Never mind, I know what I'm doing... I know... Just fuck off!" Chris shouts at his phone and then hangs up.
He whirls back around and what I supposed was desire, is now displeasure in his eyes.
"I should take you home," he says as he approaches me.
What?