‘Trust me,’ she said, grinning wickedly, ‘I’ll get a lot out of it. Especially if you manage to get some grease riiiiiight –’ she ran her thumb along one of my cheekbones, ‘here.’
I turned and bit her thumb. Her breath caught in her throat.
‘I’m normally very tidy when I work,’ I said, kissing my way slowly up her wrist, ‘but I think I can make an exception for you.’
‘Good to know,’ she said, her voice a little higher than normal. ‘Compromise is important in a relationship.’
I kissed the crease of her elbow. ‘There are some things I’m not willing to compromise on, though.’
Her free hand feathered across my hair. ‘Of course,’ she said softly. ‘There are things I’d never ask you to compromise on, too.’
‘Good,’ I said, kissing my way to her shoulder and then up her neck, pressing my lips to her jaw and then tugging her earlobe gently between my teeth. ‘Because this car is ours now, and I’m not compromising on that.’
She laughed and turned her head to kiss me. ‘No compromise needed,’ she said. ‘I’m fully intending to hold this car hostage in case they try to sue me for breaking the contract.’
‘You think they will?’ I asked. ‘Sue you?’
‘They might,’ she said. ‘I’m hoping they’ll be too focused on man-Dylan breaking the contract to pay much attention to me, but… yeah, it’s possible.’
‘If they do, you know I’ll be there, right?’ I said, brushing my nose against hers. ‘I’ll help however I can. We could sell our story to a women’s magazine for a shit-ton of money. Sell the film rights. Sell – I don’t know, something. Kidneys, maybe? We’ll figure it out.’
‘Mandie,’ she said wryly, ‘you are not selling a kidney for me.’
‘Dylan,’ I said, ‘you are not the boss of me. I will sell a kidney for you if I want to.’
She laughed against my lips. ‘God, I love you.’
I kissed her again, then took her hand. ‘Come on.’
I opened the door of the Lambo. Dylan got in the passenger side. ‘Where are we going?’ she asked.
‘Nowhere just yet,’ I said. ‘I need to check her out before we take her anywhere. Plus, she’s worth so much that Murray woulddefinitelysue if we kidnapped her.’
‘Out of interest,’ Dylan said, ‘how much is this car worth?’
I told her.
Her perfect eyebrows shot practically into her hairline. ‘I just drove a car worth that much money?’ she said faintly.
‘Relax, baby,’ I said. ‘I told you. I’ll look after her in the morning. Nothing to worry about.’
I turned the engine on and listened to her purr, leaning my back against the headrest with my eyes closed. ‘God, I love that sound.’
‘It’s okay?’ Dylan asked. ‘I didn’t break the most expensive car in the universe?’
I opened my eyes and turned the engine off. ‘She sounds fine,’ I said. ‘Better than fine, actually, but… I won’t bore you with the details.’
‘Mandie,’ she said, turning towards me, ‘you can talk to me about cars as long as you want.’
‘Good,’ I said. ‘Because if we’re going to make this work, you’re going to need a pretty high tolerance for car talk.’
She smiled. ‘I promise.’
I leaned over and kissed her lightly on the lips. ‘We might not be able to take her anywhere, but there are two reasons I wanted you to get in the car with me.’
‘Oh yeah?’
‘Well, no,’ I said. ‘That was a lie, sorry. There are three. I genuinely did want to listen to the engine. I worry, you know. And Ireallylove the sound.’
