One More Kiss (Forsaken Sons Book 1) by Elizabeth Lennox (summer beach reads .txt) 📗

Lincoln speed off down the track.  “Time the laps, Kinsley,” she heard through her head set. “Make sure that you capture the time as I go over the yellow line on the track.”

Kinsley looked in the box and found a stopwatch, carefully untangling the cord.  “Okay, ready.  Tell me when to start.”

A chuckle echoed through the connection.  “How about when I rounded that last corner.”

“Too late,” she shot back, grinning at his playful tone.

“That’s not very efficient, Kinsley.”

She shook her head, smiling even though he couldn’t see her.  “Listen, buddy, I’ve been threatened by about ten different people this week because I wouldn’t let them talk to you.  So don’t even try to intimidate me now.”

“Who threatened you?” he asked.

The question sounded conversational, but Kinsley heard a note of anger as well.  “Don’t worry about it,” she replied, glancing up at the man speeding across the racetrack, then back down at the stopwatch. “I handled it.”

“Give me a name, Kinsley,” he growled.

“What are you going to do?  And would you please slow down?  You’re heading into that corner too fast!”

He laughed again, and sped up.  In fact, he took the corner so fast, and angled the motorcycle so low as he leaned into the turn, that she held her breath in alarm.

“I’m fine,” she heard him say when he came out of the turn.  “Give me a name.”

“Concentrate on what you’re doing.  I’m timing your laps.”

He laughed again, and stopped interrogating her.  Hopefully, he was concentrating on what he was doing.  Unfortunately, so was Kinsley and every time he came up to the U of the race track, he seemed to be going faster, taking the corner at a slightly deeper angle.  It terrified her every time, but she forced herself to capture the lap times.

After about forty-five minutes, he drove up to where she was standing, and trembling, and took off his helmet.  “What do you think?”

She glared at him.  “What do I think?!  I think you’re insane!  I think you need to slow down! I think you almost –”

He chuckled.  “I’m fine, Kinsley,” he assured her. He bent over the motorcycle and the sight of those strong muscles flexing under his jeans made her mind sputter to a stop.  He straightened up, something in his hands, and looked back at her.  “You don’t know this yet, but I’m very careful.”

He walked over to the box and put something else in while Kinsley sputtered her surprise. “Careful?”  She moved closer, tugging the headset off.  “How in the world were you careful?  You were speeding around that track at…like…fast!”

He laughed.  “Were you worried about me?”

“Yes!” she yelled, throwing her hands in the air.

“Would you have been upset if I’d crashed?” He asked teasingly.

The blush that stole over her cheeks was enchanting.  “Yes!” she replied, but not as vehemently.  In fact, it was barely a whisper.

For some silly reason, her concern warmed his heart.  Some women had feigned concern over his stunts through the years. Other women had been excited and turned on by what they termed his daredevil ways.  But Kinsley’s concern seemed genuine, as if she were sincerely shaken. “I’m very careful,” he promised her again.  “And I needed to go fast in order to test this.”

She looked down at his hands, which were smudged with grease, which had sputtered onto the contraption.

“What is it?”

“I had an idea last week about how to better balance motorcycles when they go around corners.  One of the major reasons motorcycles, and cars for that matter, spin out of control is due to a lack of balance.  Well, that and stupid driving.”

She blinked, bringing his attention back to those incredibly expressive eyes.  “Oh.  Well…” she eyed the contraption and sighed.  “Well, did it work?”

He hefted it in his hands.  “Sort of.  Would you mind sending me the lap times?  I’ll compare those times to a few other data points that this recorded, angles and speed and such, then make some tweaks.  After that, I’ll need to test it out again, see if it works better.”

She stared up at him, those pretty blue eyes widening with obvious horror.  “You’re going to do that again?” she gasped, pointing towards the racetrack.

He nodded and grinned.  “Sure.  It was fun.”  And with that, he scooped up the box, walked over to his bike and revved the engine.  “Want a ride back to the office?”

She looked at the motorcycle, then at her sedate Prius, then back to Lincoln.  He saw the yearning in her eyes and his body reacted to it.  The moment was brief, only a flash, and if he hadn’t been watching her, Lincoln would have missed it. She wanted a ride!  She wanted to feel the excitement and the danger!  Damn, his body tightened with excitement.

Unfortunately, before Kinsley could give in to her desire for speed and thrills, her common sense kicked in.  Shaking her head, she took a mental and physical step backwards.  “No.  Thank you for offering, but I already have my car down here.  I’ll drive it back to the building and…” she blinked, obviously trying to remember what she was doing before he dragged her down here to the track.  “I have those receipts to sift through.”

Now that he’d seen the desire in her eyes, the need to get her on the back of his bike, her soft breasts pressing against his back as he rode down the street, her thighs pressing against his and her fingers holding onto his shoulders…yeah, that sounded pretty, damn amazing!

Lincoln really was careful when he rode the bike.  He knew what he was doing and how to maneuver through tight turns and on gravel.  Hell, the bike had several special gismos he’d been playing around with that made the bike significantly safer than normal.  But she didn’t know that.  Nor would he