“Did I say something wrong?” she asked.
“No. Don’t mind him. He’s just having a bad day. He shouldn’t take it out on others.” Diesel put his full attention on her. “What can I help you with, Juliana?”Say my name again. I like your voice.
Juliana felt heat rise in her cheeks. She stared at him just a little too long after his question, deciding he was certainly more attractive than she’d initially pictured. “I wanted to ask about the rumors surrounding Alienn, Arkansas and this truck stop.”
“Rumors?” he asked, clearly amused. “Like are there really aliens living in the area?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Yes. How did you guess?”
He lifted one muscled shoulder in a shrug. “Do you know how many people come here to ask me that on a day-to-day basis?”
Juliana couldn’t seem to stop staring. “Are you really going to answer my question with a question?” The hair on the back of her neck stood up as she asked the question. She felt like this conversation was familiar, but not quite right.
Diesel brushed two fingers along his temple then suddenly wiped his palm from forehead to chin as if to reject whatever he’d wanted to say in order to say something less inflammatory. He looked over one shoulder briefly before turning back to her. She looked in the same direction, but only saw the in-store security camera mounted up in the corner.
“So, how about it? Will you answer my questions?”
He gestured to the front door. Was he kicking her out? “Why don’t we talk outside?”
Juliana narrowed her eyes. “Don’t you have an office or something?”
“Or something and it’s a mess. It’s a nice evening. Why don’t we take a stroll outside instead?”
Feeling a bit like she was being shuffled out to be dismissed, Juliana turned and walked slowly back the way she’d come. Diesel stepped in front of her, put his large warm hand on the center of her back and pushed the swinging glass door open to let her go through first.
She shivered the moment he touched her as if he held some manner of sway over her soul. The distinct desire to kiss him and discover what he tasted like rose in her vivid imagination like a boogieman ready to strike her down if she didn’t make a concerted effort to act on her instinct and find out. What was that all about?
His palm still touching her back, Diesel ushered her several steps into the mostly empty parking lot, stopping at the corner nearest the side lot where her car was parked. The scent of gasoline wafted past her nose, not surprisingly, since the station’s vast array of pumps were within view.
Diesel’s hand dropped from her back and she missed the connection instantly. “Okay, now that we’re all alone out here, what’s the standard company line that you give out when hordes of people ask about alien activity in the area or why the town is named Alienn?”
He stared at her, gazing intently into her eyes, with his arms crossed over his chest and a familiar smile shaping his luscious mouth, a mouth that she wanted to taste again. Wait. Taste again? No, she hadn’t tasted him yet.But you want to.Yes, that was certainly true.
Juliana was unprepared for him to move closer. He bent forward a bit and she mentally measured the distance between their lips, wishing he’d make it easier for her to reach him. “The standard company line regarding the town’s name has to do with a lazy bureaucrat who wrote Alienn on the town’s papers of incorporation, dropping the last E, instead of the female founder’s name, which was Alienne.” He pronounced itI-lean,and then he spelled the name for her. She loved his Arkansas-flavored Southern accent, even when he spelled.
“I see.” He smelled so good, he was so attractive and his voice was soothing and exciting all at the same time. “What about the aliens possibly running around in the area?”
He shrugged. “Do you see any?”
The image of a half octopus-half man appeared briefly in her mind. She shook it off, deciding it must have been a creature from some late-night movie marathon she’d half slept through.
Juliana glanced around the area but only saw people pumping gas or shopping in the convenience store. A look the other way showed the Cosmos Café with a fair number of customers and the Satellite Truck Wash. Next to the truck wash was the Black Hole Movie Theater. No out-of-place aliens in sight.
She looked back at Diesel and had the most powerful feeling they’d met before.
“What about the lack of cellular service in the area?”
“You’d have to ask the people who put the towers up. Perhaps we’ve angered them somehow and now we’re being punished with a lack of cellular service.”
Juliana watched his mouth the whole time he spoke. The answer he gave was expected, but the desire to kiss him was…well…alien to her. A smile formed on his mouth and she started to ask if they’d ever crossed paths, but she got fixated on the shape of his lips. Would they be firm or soft? Firm, surely. What would he taste like? Would his kiss knock her socks off? Did she want to find out? She knew his kiss would be the best she’d ever had in her life. Wait.
How do I know that?
“Is that all? Are you satisfied?” he asked, not moving away as she basically stared at him. Her gaze fixed on his engaging blue eyes. His sexy half-smile undid her.Am I satisfied?
“No,” she said quickly. “I’m nowhere near satisfied.” Juliana closed the distance between them, lifted up on her toes and planted her mouth on his, kissing him like she wanted to devour him. Her hands steadied on his biceps. He was so warm.
The kiss she’d wanted since the first second she’d seen him was everything she expected and more. The kiss was as amazing as she’d imagined it would be. His lips were firm, memorable and comfortable territory.
