Page 11 of Drive Me Wild (Owl Creek #2)

M y lady parts won’t settle down after seeing Caleb naked. I think about going home and taking care of myself, but I have a ton of work to do, finishing designs and uploading new products to my online shop.

I finish around lunchtime and head down the stairs leading to the garage. I peek inside to see that the coast is clear—no one is in the garage who I need to sneak around.

Caleb isn’t in the front, so I look toward the back area, where I assume his office is. I see him with a welder’s mask on, working on some chunks of metal. I catch his attention, and he shuts off the torch. I walk into the back area where he’s working.

He pulls off the mask and leather gloves and wipes the sweat from his brow, and I can’t help but notice the flex of his arm muscles as he moves.

Get a grip, girl.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s called a biomechanical sculpture.”

“What does that mean?”

“We’ll see when I’m finished. But it’s supposed to be a moveable sculpture. Kind of like a robot has moving parts. Only these aren’t operated with computers for brains.”

“So what operates them?”

He waves his hands in the air, and I gulp. His hands are big, and I imagine them roving over my body.

Okay, seriously, get a grip- he’s not the guy for you.

“These do. That’s part of the fun. They’re more like a toy than a modern robot.”

“Why are you making it?”

“Just messing around, I guess.”

I notice bits and pieces of old machines surrounding him, chunks of metal that obviously served some other purpose before he disassembled them.

“I thought you like to fix broken things.”

“I do.”

“It looks more like you took a bunch apart.” I gesture to the odd piles.

“Sometimes things need to be made into something completely new in order to find purpose.”

He’s looking at me with an intensity I’ve never noticed, and I wonder if he’s talking about the metal pieces or himself.

“Well, I think it’s cool, Caleb. Thanks for showing me.”

“You heading out?”

“Yeah, I’m going to grab some lunch and then go home.”

“See you tomorrow?”

“Same time, same channel!”

I wave goodbye and slip out the side door to my car, which is parked in the alley behind his garage. I head to the sandwich shop a few blocks down to get something to eat and keep up appearances.

Although no one has noticed so far that I’m working around town. Maybe it’s silly that I keep up this ruse. Especially because Caleb doesn’t seem to be the guy everyone paints him to be. He’s been generous and a gentleman to me, and I feel the urge to fight the gossip.

To show them he’s a good man.

The next couple of days play out the same way. I make an appearance at The Daily Dose, park in the back alley, and sneak up to his apartment. I work online half the day, go back out for lunch, head home to finish any offline work, eat, read, and sleep.

I wake up late on Friday and don’t go to the diner. Instead, I slip into his apartment and finish some social media campaigns. After an hour or so, I notice a headache coming on, so I check his kitchen for some Tylenol or Aspirin. Nothing.

I rummage through the mirrored medicine cabinet in the bathroom and come up empty. The only place left is the cupboard under the bathroom sink. I open it up and find two things. The headache medicine and a jumbo pack of condoms.

I grab the medicine and try not to think about the box of condoms. The box says there’s one hundred in there, and I don’t want to know how many are left.

I pop a pill in my mouth and turn on the water in the sink, bending down to drink straight out of the faucet.

“I’ve got glasses in the kitchen, you know.”

My head whips up so fast I hit it on the bottom of the medicine cabinet.

“Ouch, fuck!”

Caleb rushes toward me and wraps an arm around my waist, helping me sit on the tub’s edge. When he pulls away, I can still feel his touch on my skin, burning like a fresh tattoo.

“You need to quit hitting your head so much.”

“Where did you come from?”

“I live here, remember?”

“No, I mean, I didn’t hear you come up the stairs.”

“Oh. Sorry. The teenager accidentally kicked over a can of used oil, and it got all over my boots. I took them off and walked up here in my socks to get another pair. Want some ice?”

I look up at him and feel a rush of warmth in my belly. He is looking at me with such concern and tenderness in his eyes. It makes me wonder if all the women he uses those condoms with get to see this side of him.

“Ice would be great. Thank you.”

He fetches some from the kitchen, wrapped in a dishtowel. When he returns, he sits with me on the tub’s edge and pulls my hand away to apply the ice.

“Looks like a painful scrape, but there’s no blood.”

“Thanks.”

Caleb is sitting close enough to me that our knees are touching as he presses the ice to my head. The warmth of being that close to his thick thighs starts working its way up my leg, and I bite my lip to try and distract myself.

It doesn’t work.

If I weren’t looking for my ‘forever man,’ I’d be hanging a vacancy sign over my vag right now. But the thing is, I know I’m not experienced enough for Caleb. He’d probably laugh me out of the bedroom. And I’m too scared to start dating anyone before I figure out how to be good in bed.

All this thinking about sex and my lack of ability is doing a number on my mind.

“I took an aspirin to help with a headache, but with another bump on my head, maybe I should call it a day and head home.”

“You want a ride?”

“Driving me home in your slick black truck isn’t very subtle. I think I can make it.” I gave him a weak smile. My head is hurting, but mostly, I want to get away from him so I can start thinking about how to solve my sex problem.

“Thanks for the ice.” I walk into the kitchen to dump the ice in the sink and hang up the wet towel, and he follows me.

“You sure you don’t want to lie down for a little while first?”

Dammit, quit being such a good guy!

I nod, grab my backpack, and head down the stairs. Sure enough, his boots are at the bottom, and I can’t help but notice there’s no oil on them.