Lottie buzzed around hugging people, trying not to cry.

PJ handed her a plate and Carmella grabbed a bottle of cream soda. Two slices of loaded pizza later, she found herself squeezed in between Duke and Asa as they argued about just where they found a part. Duke insisted it was in a junkyard in Concrete, Washington, and Asa was saying it had been in Macon, Georgia.

It was clear the two men shared a deep friendship, which she liked a great deal.

“How did you two meet?”

“We served in Iraq together,” Duke said.

Asa made a sound. “Duke saved my ass in a firefight. Three of our guys were killed. I was pinned down. I’d been shot four times and was bleeding like a stuck pig. He tossed me over his shoulder and ran for it. He saved three of us that afternoon.”

Duke waved it away with a blush. “You do what you gotta do. They’d have done it for me if the situation was reversed.”

Asa rolled his eyes and kept talking. “He does that. Like he’s shy. Which he totally isn’t. But he still saved my life, and after that, I figured he had to be pretty okay.”

“We came back stateside and Asa lived out here. I floundered awhile back East until I finally gave in and moved out here. The rest is what you see.”

“Well that and a lot of work I expect. I like that story,” Carmella said.

Asa and PJ ducked out, leaving Duke and Carmella alone. “So you want to go out for a beer after this? I mean, a group of us are heading out.”

Oh, how she wanted to. It’d be so nice to make a few really bad choices and end up with that hot man meat in her bed.

And yet, it was always the morning after that got you. “I’d better not. I have plans for the morning.” A trip over to her mother’s apartment to dole out pills and listen to complaints.

“Has Ginger been inside all day?”

Damn, it was nice that he thought about that. “No. I have a doggie door. I went home for lunch too. She’s fine. Don’t let her con you with those big no one ever feeds me eyes. She’d eat the chrome off a bumper if you let her.”

He laughed and she had to stop herself from leaning closer to get more. He had a good laugh. A really good laugh. God.

She wanted to step away but her back was to a wall and he stood in front of her. He stared at her—at her mouth—for long moments before he seemed to snap out of it.

“Okay. Well, next time then. We do lunches here on Fridays but we often hit the bar up the street for beers after work. Everyone’s happy to have you here, I know they’d love it if you came out with us.”

Maybe later. Once she’d managed to get some walls built between her libido and the man in front of her. Right then she wanted to push him back on the table and scramble aboard.

On top she’d have him spread out below her so she could dip down to kiss him as she rode his cock. He’d have access to her nipples, to her pussy. She had no misperceptions about him. A man like Duke would know how to make a woman come. Quite ably. Most likely more than once.

She’d snuck enough looks at his lap to know he was packing something thick.

She loved a thick cock.

She nearly moaned at the thought, catching herself only barely in time.

“I should be going. Unless you need help cleaning up?”

He shook his head, still standing really close. Close enough that all she could really see was him. He blocked the rest of the room with those wide shoulders of his.

“We’ll get it. Everyone works their tail off for us, we can clean up the mess. I’ll see you Monday then. Have a good weekend.” He stepped back and she gulped in some air.

“You too.” She waved her good-byes and allowed Lottie to hug her and wished her luck.

As fast as her feet could take her, she cleared out and headed home before she did something monumentally stupid like take Duke up on the sensual promise in his gaze.

She had a good job. With benefits. And a retirement plan. She could not—would not—fuck her boss, no matter how fat his cock was or how nice of an ass he had.

Nope.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t think about it when she was alone in her shower with her detachable showerhead. Which she planned to do in an hour or so.

CHAPTER Four

Carmella was grateful she had work to dive into after the nightmare weekend she’d had. Her mother had been kicked out of one of her favorite urgent care clinics. The police had called Carmella to pick her up instead of arresting her.

So Carmella’d been over at her mother’s, keeping her fed and entertained long enough to finally sleep her way out of the manic state she’d worked herself into.

Which meant Carmella had finally fallen into her own bed somewhere after one in the morning and had gotten very little rest.

Normally she’d go in later than seven, but despite her exhaustion, she’d woken up at six. So, she accepted it, showered, ate some breakfast, and headed to her new job.

The office was now hers. Carmella would need to make her own way there. Figure out what she liked where. She’d need to find a way to handle all the people who worked at Twisted Steel as well.

She cast her gaze over the shop floor below. She’d worked in garages her entire adult life. When her father had been around, he’d been a mechanic at her uncle’s shop.

Those guys down there worked hard and played harder. They were all of a type. Asa with his taciturn super-amped-up alpha male energy. Duke, the laid-back guy, good with his hands. There were shop guys, long beards, backward-baseball-hat guys, big, quiet beefy dudes of indeterminate purpose, and yet they knew more than most anyone when it came to machines.