Free Driving Her Crazy by Amy Andrews Page B

he pulled off onto the side of the highway.
    ‘Got a flat.’ He turned off the engine. ‘Sit tight. I’ll have it fixed in a jiffy.’
    Sadie blinked as lingering sleepiness tugged at her eyelids. Broken sleep made her irritable and his he-man condescension grated. ‘What makes you think I can’t have it done in a jiffy?’ she grouched as he opened his door. ‘I am perfectly capable of changing a tyre, you know?’
    Kent raised his hands in surrender. ‘You want to do it? Knock yourself out. I’m all for women’s lib.’
    If she wanted to get hot and dirty he wasn’t going to stop her. Of course, she wouldn’t be able to undo the wheel nuts but it might be fun watching her try.
    Sadie jumped down to the ground and looked around. The scenery hadn’t changed much for hours. Flat, dry, brittle pastures with the slightest tinge of green. And lots of sheep. It was quiet out here apart from the occasional rattle of a passing car.
    ‘Where are we?’ she asked when she joined him to look at the shredded back passenger tyre.
    ‘’Bout half an hour out of Longreach,’ he said, kicking the flat in disgust. He’d put four new tyres on the vehicle before coming away. ‘We’ll get the tyre repaired there.’
    He walked to the back and opened the doors. Sadie helped him move their gear onto the ground so he could access the spare tyre.
    ‘How long will that take?’ Making this trip any longer wasn’t particularly thrilling.
    ‘Hopefully they’ll be able to do it for us straight away. Maybe a delay of an hour?’ He located the wheel brace and handed it to her. ‘Why don’t you get started while I grab the spare?’
    Sadie saw the challenge in his eyes and gave him a triumphant smile. A man who’d always wanted a son had been a useful person to have around when she was learning to drive—Sadie had changed many a tyre, thanks to her father.
    She approached the job with a spring in her step. It would be good to teach he-man that she was a little more than a neurotic, food-obsessed girly.
    And it was a perfect plan until she hit the first hurdle. None of the wheel nuts would budge. When Kent brought the spare around she was cursing and muttering under her breath, practically standing on the brace trying to shift one of the stubborn nuts.
    ‘Would you like a hand?’ he asked innocently.
    She glared at him. ‘Why on earth are these on so tight? You’d need to be Popeye on steroids to get them undone.’
    He grinned. ‘They tighten the nuts with a machine.’
    ‘Well, that seems kind of stupid, doesn’t it, if people can’t get them off?’
    He nodded, trying to be serious. ‘Of course, maybe if you’d eaten a burger for lunch you might be feeling stronger.’
    ‘I would have to have eaten an entire side of beef to be strong enough to take these suckers off.’ She thrust the brace at him in disgust. ‘Looks like it’s a job for he-man .’
    Kent suppressed the urge to cough at her forceful handing over of the tool. ‘Step aside.’
    Sadie watched, her pride soothed as Kent had to use significant grunt to shift the nuts. Still, he made pretty short work of the tyre change and was cleaning off greasy hands in less than fifteen minutes.
    He had sweat and grease on his forehead and the testosterone cloud emanating from him was making her dizzy. She opened the back passenger door and handed him a bottle of cold water from the supply in the camp-fridge.
    ‘Thanks,’ Kent said, twisting the lid and guzzling half in one swallow before pouring some over his head.
    Sadie’s gaze followed rivulets of water as they trekked over the contours of his face, his mouth and down the tanned column of his neck.
    She reached in and grabbed one for herself.
    A breeze lifted her hair as she slaked her thirst and put out a few fires south of her throat. Lusting after Kent was just plain counterproductive. She had a job to do here and it didn’t have anything to do with her sexy photographer.
    She didn’t need another