Free She Who Dares by Jane O'Reilly Page B

the tiny office, settled himself in the chair behind the desk. ‘I don’t think so.’
    ‘Please,’ she said, with the painful tone of the truly desperate. ‘I’ll…if you agree not to mention it, I’ll let you work on the Dino.’
    Sebastian thought that over for a moment. ‘I’ll need supervision.’ He set his feet on the desk and eyed her mug. ‘And coffee.’ And more, though he decided to keep that snippet of information to himself.
    ‘I can do that,’ she said hastily, holding out her mug. ‘Here.’ She moved towards him slowly, cautiously, as if she was approaching a Rottweiler. Sebastian was tempted to tell her he didn’t bite, not unless he was asked very nicely, but instead he took the mug, deliberately letting his fingers touch hers.
    She’d asked him not to mention it. She hadn’t asked him not to use every non-verbal skill he possessed to get his message across. At some point soon he’d be back on the racing circuit. He would probably never see her again.
    No way was he letting the opportunity to shag her senseless slip through his fingers.
    By the end of the day Nic was exhausted but as close to happy as she could be, all things considered. It had turned out that not only was Sebastian an excellent pupil, he also knew a lot of interesting people. He’d sourced a full set of replacement seats, not reproductions, but originals, and custom-mix paint was on its way. Both had come in at surprisingly reasonable prices.
    When she’d tried to query those prices, Sebastian had given her a look that told her in no uncertain terms to shut up. So she had. The work challenged him. She could see it in the tension that set his upper body hard, in the way the corners of his eyes crinkled when he was deep in thought. And to his credit, he hadn’t argued with a single one of her instructions. He’d put her in control.
    And she liked it. It made her feel powerful and intelligent, in a way that working with her stepdad and then Ella never had. Her stepdad had always known more than her, and that had been fine by Nic. Then when the business had been handed over, Ella had left her to handle the mechanical side of things. No dirt or grease or sweat for Ella.
    Working as a team brought a whole new dimension to things. Gone was the stress of constantly wondering if she’d finish on time, if she could manage the more physically demanding jobs alone, of knowing that she could never afford to make a mistake because there was no-one to double-check stuff. No-one to watch her back.
    It was hard to believe, but maybe wrecking her hand wasn’t as much of a disaster as she’d first thought. Maybe having Sebastian here wasn’t that bad, either. A wrench clattered against the concrete, then he set his hands to the edge of the pit and lifted himself out with such incredible ease that Nic nearly swallowed her tongue. She was tempted to ask him if he worked out, but that would be a stupid question. Of course he worked out. He wasa professional driver. And you didn’t get shoulders or biceps or abs like those by lolling around on the sofa eating biscuits.
    He was temptation incarnate, and she was fast running out of resistance.
    ‘I think we should call it a day,’ she said, her voice all huffy, as if she’d just been out for a run. The worry now wasn’t that Sebastian would mention one of her banned topics, but that she would. She could feel the words tickling the tip of her tongue, dying to jump out. Every minute she spent in his company, the more likely it was that she’d make a complete tool of herself. Again.
    ‘Fifteen more minutes,’ he argued, picking up the wrench and taking it across to the toolbox. He tucked it neatly back in place, and Nic felt her pulse kick up.
    ‘No, we’re definitely done.’
    He turned and gave her a definite once over, lingering in places he shouldn’t. Hot, intimate places he’d no business thinking about. ‘Alright. But I’m taking you out to