The imperious ding of the doorbell startled Kay so much that she jerked her hand. Right across the carburetor on her motorcycle, which she'd just turned off. "Shit!" There was a hell of a sting, but not enough contact for an actual burn. Okay, maybe she was a little jumpy. Too much coffee, if there was such a thing.
"Damn it, I'm coming! Leaning on the doorbell's just rude. And annoying." And maybe she talked to herself and imaginary people. At least she wasn't expecting them to answer. A quick trip through the garage, into the house and down the hall to the front door later, and she jerked her door open.
"Two orders of crab rangoon, one order of General Tao's, one house rice and three veggie egg foo young's." He looked a little old to be delivering Chinese. And she hadn't.... Oh.
"Oh." Ummm... It was Thursday. She always ordered Chinese on Thursdays. But this wasn't Jonah, the local delivery kid. And she hadn't ordered anything. "You're not Jonah." Duh. Mr. Wen must have sent it over, figuring she'd just forgotten to order. Good man.
He looked nonplussed by her observation. "It's twenty-three fifty. And that was the good news. The bad news is, my car died about half a block back. I need to use your phone and call the tow truck."
She just looked at him. It wasn't unpleasant. He was getting close to thirty. And medium height with fair coloring. Which put him only slightly above her own height. Slightly stocky build.
She let her lips curve. "I think there's irony here. I'm almost sure of it. C'mon in." She backed out of the doorway and headed to the kitchen area. Her house was small, but it's most important feature was the lack of other houses around it. People irritated her.
"You can set the food down anywhere. And don't bother with the phone. You'll just wake Jake up, and he'd growl at you. And then call me. So really we can cut out the middleman, and flip a coin for who pushes. If we're lucky I can fix it in my garage and save everyone a huge headache."
He seemed to have trouble following for a minute. "You're the local mechanic, I take it." Not a question. His eyes weren't on her face. Well, well. Nice to be appreciated. Not a whole lot to appreciate, but she had her moments. An unkind person would say she was skinny, but she was in good shape. And she had some nice curves, right where they were supposed to be. Mouse brown hair, and a full mouth.
"Yep, and you must be new to town. Well, I ain't the welcoming committee, so..." She dug around in the pile of miscellaneous near the phone. And found a penny. "Here, you flip. I call tails, loser gets to push."
He took the penny and pocketed it. "Or I could just push. Since I'm probably going to owe you quite a bit for a late night rescue."
She shrugged, "Suit yourself. Incidentally, I'm Kay."
"Marcus."
**************
He drove a Toyota Corolla, 2001. She wasn't sure what to make of that. And clean inside.
"Lend me a hand?" He was sitting at her tool bench, just behind her. "Take that light and hold it... There." And now he was leaning over her slightly. He smelled good. Well, relatively. There was the lingering aroma of the Chinese, which was getting cold on her counter at the moment. And in her garage there were the smells of motorcycle exhaust and motor oil. Because that was what a garage should smell like. But he certainly smelled interesting. And he was very close...
Unfortunately she also smelled a sickly-sweet fume. And the lighting was bad. So the transmission was hard to see. "Other side, I can't see the problem yet. But I think I know what's wrong." He shifted, and suddenly her ass was pressed fairly intimately against his hip. Her hands paused on the transmission. Her throat went a little dry. "Uh, it feels like the seal on your drive shaft is leaking. Fairly profusely." Her face burned at the unintended double entendre. Good thing the lighting was bad.
"Is it fixable?" He shifted a little restlessly, and she took a deep breath. "Yeah, it's not a huge problem. I can fix it, but I'll need to get a seal from the shop." She started to straighten up and he moved back. Not far enough back, she saw when she turned around. They were almost touching. Talk about tension.
"Thanks, I was a little concerned. I don't suppose I could impose upon you again and get a ride to my place?"
"Sure. And on my way back I can stop by my shop and get that part. It can be fixed by tomorrow about nine." Her voice was breathless. Hell, she was breathless. And hot and bothered.
She was just starting to think about jumping his bones in earnest, when he leaned forward and touched his lips to hers. Gently, sweetly. And pulled back, as she was getting used to it.
"Thanks." He barely whispered it. And somewhere inside her, a little voice cried, WTF?!?