Hey, at the time I am posting this I have two reviews and they both liked
it. Woowho for me. I was worried that no one would like it! So I am going
to update it again. Just so ya'll know I have it written up to 65000 words
cause I love writing it and I am not even out of ideas for it yet. As long
as it is getting some good reviews or someone is enjoying it I will keep
posting it. ( Kaitlin, thanks for your kind words. Mmmmocha, Dom and Letty
are no longer together. You get the details later. While I have enjoyed
reading about Dom and Letty, I just don't see them staying together in the
long run. I guess it is a personal thing and I have some ideas for a
Dom/Letty fic that I might write someday.You gave me pause though, now I
have to re-read the whole story and make sure you get enough insight into
Torrie. Hmm, I'll try to make sure you get to know her well.=)
So here is chappie 4, enjoy.
Chapter 4, The Ride.
"Hey, I would have been ok to drive back to your place. I am not that bad off!" Torrie was slightly hurt as she thought Dom did not trust her not to run away.
"I want to drive you to your house to pick up whatever you need for the next few days. You can decide what furniture and stuff you want and we will pick it up in a few. But I figured you would want to grab your clothes and bathroom stuff now. You had a rough day and I don't want you driving tonight, ok, so just humour me."
"When you put it that way I don't want to go back home alone, so thank you." Torrie was really glad that she would not be going back to her house alone. She did not want to face all the memories that it contained alone after the terrible day she had.
"No sweat little girl get in the car."
She climbed into the low red Mazda and they took off. She gave Dom directions and the drive only took half the time it would have had she been driving. They chatted about everyday stuff and listened to the radio. She went to the door of the house and let herself and Dom in. She went to her room and packed up her clothes quickly. She went into her bathroom and grabbed all her bathroom stuff.
Dom had been wandering all around the house. It was a sweet house. It was big and spacious. Too bad she had to sell it. It looked like a house that would go from one generation to another through a family. He wondered if it had been in hers long. He made use of the time to do a little snooping. He wanted to have enough info on her to find out some background on her. He mostly believed her but would not have her living in his house till he knew it checked out online. He found the info he needed and went looking for Torrie. He found the room Torrie was in because it was the only one with a light on. "Hey you almost ready Torrie?" He asked. He was ready to head for home. There was always a gathering at his house after a race night and he was missing it. He had to be the host now that Letty was not around to do it. Well Mia would be ok without him for now.
"Ya, I'm ready now Dom." She had one huge suitcase and a smaller bag packed up. It was about ΒΌ of her clothes but would get her through several days. They headed out, Dom carrying her big bag for her, preceded her down the stairs. Torrie made a funny noise when they were almost to the bottom of the stairs and when Dom turned around to check on her she was falling at him. He caught her but the force knocked them down the rest of the stairs onto the hallway floor. She ended up on him on the floor. He did a quick mental check and he seemed ok, nothing broken. Torrie had still not come to. He ran his hands lightly over her checking for broken bones but he did not feel anything out of the ordinary. But man was she thin. If she had broken anything you would be able to see it let alone feel it. She was all skin and bones. She felt fragile.
She seemed ok though. She was just out like a light. Dom did not know if he would be better trying to wake her or just carrying her out to the car and letting her sleep. He was getting kind of worried that it was not normal sleep though; her breathing was not deep and steady but shallow and irregular. He shook her a bit to see if she would wake up. He was trying hard to school his body not to react to a sick girl he hardly knew in "that" way. She was draped over him on the floor, her head fitting perfectly onto his shoulder, her face almost pointed up at him. He resisted an urge to kiss her. She came too with a really glazed look in her eyes and he was glad to see her awake. But she seemed kind of stunned and Dom was still sort of worried about her.
"Torrie, hey Torrie wake up girl, come on talk to me Torrie. Who am I?" She stared at him kind of vacantly.
"Hey Dominic, why are we on the floor like this? Not that I mind. You smell so good." Torrie was definitely out of it. She was draped over him in a boneless heap. She looked at him for a minute and then seemed to pass out again. She was sleeping now. He could hear her deep even breathing. Dom was starting to loose the hard fought control over his hormones. He had been single now for months and while he thought he had wanted to be free to get with racer chasers it was not quite as fun as he had hoped.
"Torrie wake up." She blinked at him. "Torrie, you passed out and knocked us both down the stairs. You were totally out of it for like 5 minutes. When was the last time you ate? You are too thin I mean you passed out! You had me worried. I didn't know whether to let you sleep it off or take you to a hospital or call the ambulance for you."
"Oh Dom that is so nice of you to worry, but I am ok really. I really don't remember the last time I ate. Yesterday I think. Was too nervous to today." She sounded much more coherent now. She did not have that glassy look to her eyes anymore. She looked very innocent and sweet and kind of sleepy. Dom kissed her. He could not help himself as much as he did not want to start that kind of relationship with her. She was kissing him back but with a sort of innocent quality and Dom knew she had not had a lot of experience with men. He broke off the kiss and looked at her. She had a dreamy look in her eyes now and he had to put some distance between them or he was going to do something they would both regret right here on the hallway floor. He set her aside then he sat up and stood up, then picked her up and carried her out to the car. He set her down in the car then went back to get her bag. He was coming out of the house when he realized the security alarm would have to be turned on.
"Torrie, you need to tell me how to activate the alarm system so we can leave." Dom tried to wake her up from the sort of stupor she seemed to be in again.
"The code is 021480." She told him. "Do you know how the system works?"
"I think I can handle it. Hey the code is Valentines day?"
"My birthday."
"Oh, ok, your birthday is on valentines day."
He decided he had to try to get something with sugar into her to see if it would wake her up some. He ran back into the house and found the kitchen. He got a soda and some sort of snack cake thing then armed her alarm system. He got back in the car and gave her the food. "Drink it. I think you need the sugar. What do you mean you think you ate yesterday?" He asked as he did up her harness.
"Yes sir!" She said and downed half the soda. Dom could tell from the sarcasm she was feeling better already. She was not so dozy anymore. "I said that cause I don't really remember if I did or not. Nope I had a sandwich for sure yesterday." One of her ways of dealing with stress was to forget to take care of herself. With all the stuff that had been going on she had just not been eating much. She continued, "Say Dom, I need to apologize for what happened. I know that it was wrong. And I just wanted to say that I am sorry for it. I will not let it happen again." She was refusing to look at him.
Dom could tell she was embarrassed over the kiss, and likely his reaction too but he could not let her take the blame for it. "Hey Torrie it was not your fault. You passed out and then I caught you during our fall. The rest of what happened was my fault. You were so pretty and you looked so sweet lying on me like that that I lost my head and kissed you. It was not your fault at all. I am older and I should be wiser. You are right that that it can not happen again though. We need to have a business relationship. But I hope we can be friends too." He glanced over at her and smiled.
She was sitting there quietly. She looked up and saw that smile. Oh man. She could not believe that Dominic Torreto just called her pretty. Man she was losing it. She would never have thought Dom would think she was pretty. She thought she was too pale, her hair was too dark and she was too thin for sure. From the way he talked he thought of her as a child and he had just been overcome by the moment. She was not sure if she was happy about that. She was not a child. Sure he was 3 years older or so but that was not the end of the world. It was hard to think of him as just a friend after that kiss and that smile but he was right they were supposed to be business partners. Or she was supposed to be his employee. They had to keep it professional. She knew it would be a problem for her cause he was the best looking man she had ever met. She wanted him. That was strange for her cause she never wanted a man before. She had had boyfriends and it was not like she was into girls or anything but she had never ached for a man before. She had grown up with an overprotective father and her dates had all been supervised. She had had such a strict curfew she could not have been more then causally involved with a guy if she had tried. Plus she had always had lots of girlfriends and the cars and the store to keep her busy. Still she was finding it hard to think of Dom in a friendly or business way. It was sort of scary for her. She had had a crush on Dom for a long time but in an innocent girlish way. She wanted him but she did not really know what she wanted. The difference in their ages did not bother her but the difference in their experiences did. He was use to the race rat girls who slept with all the winning guys. They knew what to do with a man. She on the other hand had no idea. She could not ever see Dom going for a girl like her so she had better get these thoughts out of her mind now.
"Dom, it is ok really. We can just mark it up to the tension of the day and move on, OK? I know you are not interested in me that way and we need to have a good working relationship and live in the same house for the next few years. I want us to be friends too." Torrie said earnestly.
"Torrie, I don't know who gave you the idea that guys are not interested in you but they lied. Under different circumstances I could be so into you, but not now with the kind of relationship we have to have OK? It would ruin everything if we hooked up and then it did not work out. Besides, I don't go in for causal sex with my team mates ok. And for that matter I would rather you did not hook up with any of the other guys on the team either for the same reasons. "
"Sure Dom. I am not looking for that kind of relationship right now anyway. I want to get my life back on track first. When I am a famous street racer who happens to own 'The Racer's Edge' free and clear then I can start looking for romance." She didn't really mean that but she figured it would make Dom feel safer.
"So you have never had a boyfriend?" Dom asked incredulously. "I find it hard to believe a pretty girl with her own fast car and great personality never had boyfriends."
"Oh I had boyfriends, just nothing serious. Daddy thought I was too young to 'go steady' and then I was always soo busy. I had my car and I did well in school. I worked at the store and helped dad out. I went out with boys all the time but it was always group dates. Then my mom died then my dad and after that I did not have much time for anything but work and worrying. I have been into guys before but just never stayed with one guy for any length of time. I want to make the Racers Edge a success and I want to be famous. If for right now it is famous as a member of Team Torreto that is fine but someday I am going to be famous on my own merit. I imagine I will meet lots of nice cute guys working around cars anyway. I know that the team is off limits but surely there are guys galore around race nights."
Dom was not thrilled with the thought of her meeting guys at race meets. For some reason he did not want to go too deep into he was not thrilled with the thought of her meeting guys period. He was sure it was just because he felt protective of her. He was still not thrilled about Mia and Brian and Brian was one of his best friends. But the guys that hung out at race meets were punks and they played the field a lot. "Oh like you did to Letty" a voice in his head said. He told himself that was in the past and best left there. Letty left him over it but in secret he was glad. They had been together too long. Had gotten together too young. They had not known what they were doing. He had been an ass to cheat on her but he had been young and wanted to do what he saw other guys his age do. He knew that there were guys at race meets that would be good to Torrie but there were so many losers too. He also wanted her for himself but he did not want to look at that feeling too hard.
"Torrie you will be very busy. Too busy to have much of a social life." Dom felt like a real bad guy for saying this to her. She was only 22 she was bound to want to go out with friends and meet people. But he wanted to keep her to himself and he was not going to analyze that feeling too much right now. You have your responsibilities to the team, your store, and then racing and your training. It will take up a lot of your time."
"Well Dom, I am not going be working in your garage all day and night. And I know that there are not race nights every night of the week. I am not going to be your prisoner and I don't need a father. I had one." She was more then pissed off that he thought he could control her life in that way. If she wanted to go out after hours then she was going to go. The fact that she worked for him and lived in his house was not going to stop her from going out on her free time and Dom could go to hell. She had no plans of turning into some sort of party girl cause it was just not her style but she was not going to sit at home and quilt either. She had friends and a life too. Dom did not want her to get a life that did not involve her working for him is all. Strange when you thought about it since she only knew him for one night.
"No one said you were a prisoner Torrie. I just don't want you to think that you are going to have it easy. You will work hard and you will have to come with us to all the race nights and you will have to work every day in the garage. That is in addition to whatever you have to do at 'The Racers Edge'. I am just trying to keep it real for you so you are not hurt in the long run ok?" Dom hoped he looked sincere.
"Dom I am not a party animal but I am not giving up my friends and my life for you OK. You will just have to live with the fact that sometimes I am going to go out. It is out of your hands. I really don't want to fight over it right now so maybe we should discuss this more tomorrow. It seems that we are not going to agree right away and I don't feel good. I have a headache and I feel really sleepy." Torrie kind of slumped over in her seat.
"Well sleep then. It will be half an hour till we get home anyhow. I will wake you up when we get there and you are right there will be time to discuss the house rules tomorrow." Dom turned the radio on to a top 40 station and turned the volume way down low. Torrie drifted off to sleep to the sounds of 'A woman's worth' by Alicia Keys.
So here is chappie 4, enjoy.
Chapter 4, The Ride.
"Hey, I would have been ok to drive back to your place. I am not that bad off!" Torrie was slightly hurt as she thought Dom did not trust her not to run away.
"I want to drive you to your house to pick up whatever you need for the next few days. You can decide what furniture and stuff you want and we will pick it up in a few. But I figured you would want to grab your clothes and bathroom stuff now. You had a rough day and I don't want you driving tonight, ok, so just humour me."
"When you put it that way I don't want to go back home alone, so thank you." Torrie was really glad that she would not be going back to her house alone. She did not want to face all the memories that it contained alone after the terrible day she had.
"No sweat little girl get in the car."
She climbed into the low red Mazda and they took off. She gave Dom directions and the drive only took half the time it would have had she been driving. They chatted about everyday stuff and listened to the radio. She went to the door of the house and let herself and Dom in. She went to her room and packed up her clothes quickly. She went into her bathroom and grabbed all her bathroom stuff.
Dom had been wandering all around the house. It was a sweet house. It was big and spacious. Too bad she had to sell it. It looked like a house that would go from one generation to another through a family. He wondered if it had been in hers long. He made use of the time to do a little snooping. He wanted to have enough info on her to find out some background on her. He mostly believed her but would not have her living in his house till he knew it checked out online. He found the info he needed and went looking for Torrie. He found the room Torrie was in because it was the only one with a light on. "Hey you almost ready Torrie?" He asked. He was ready to head for home. There was always a gathering at his house after a race night and he was missing it. He had to be the host now that Letty was not around to do it. Well Mia would be ok without him for now.
"Ya, I'm ready now Dom." She had one huge suitcase and a smaller bag packed up. It was about ΒΌ of her clothes but would get her through several days. They headed out, Dom carrying her big bag for her, preceded her down the stairs. Torrie made a funny noise when they were almost to the bottom of the stairs and when Dom turned around to check on her she was falling at him. He caught her but the force knocked them down the rest of the stairs onto the hallway floor. She ended up on him on the floor. He did a quick mental check and he seemed ok, nothing broken. Torrie had still not come to. He ran his hands lightly over her checking for broken bones but he did not feel anything out of the ordinary. But man was she thin. If she had broken anything you would be able to see it let alone feel it. She was all skin and bones. She felt fragile.
She seemed ok though. She was just out like a light. Dom did not know if he would be better trying to wake her or just carrying her out to the car and letting her sleep. He was getting kind of worried that it was not normal sleep though; her breathing was not deep and steady but shallow and irregular. He shook her a bit to see if she would wake up. He was trying hard to school his body not to react to a sick girl he hardly knew in "that" way. She was draped over him on the floor, her head fitting perfectly onto his shoulder, her face almost pointed up at him. He resisted an urge to kiss her. She came too with a really glazed look in her eyes and he was glad to see her awake. But she seemed kind of stunned and Dom was still sort of worried about her.
"Torrie, hey Torrie wake up girl, come on talk to me Torrie. Who am I?" She stared at him kind of vacantly.
"Hey Dominic, why are we on the floor like this? Not that I mind. You smell so good." Torrie was definitely out of it. She was draped over him in a boneless heap. She looked at him for a minute and then seemed to pass out again. She was sleeping now. He could hear her deep even breathing. Dom was starting to loose the hard fought control over his hormones. He had been single now for months and while he thought he had wanted to be free to get with racer chasers it was not quite as fun as he had hoped.
"Torrie wake up." She blinked at him. "Torrie, you passed out and knocked us both down the stairs. You were totally out of it for like 5 minutes. When was the last time you ate? You are too thin I mean you passed out! You had me worried. I didn't know whether to let you sleep it off or take you to a hospital or call the ambulance for you."
"Oh Dom that is so nice of you to worry, but I am ok really. I really don't remember the last time I ate. Yesterday I think. Was too nervous to today." She sounded much more coherent now. She did not have that glassy look to her eyes anymore. She looked very innocent and sweet and kind of sleepy. Dom kissed her. He could not help himself as much as he did not want to start that kind of relationship with her. She was kissing him back but with a sort of innocent quality and Dom knew she had not had a lot of experience with men. He broke off the kiss and looked at her. She had a dreamy look in her eyes now and he had to put some distance between them or he was going to do something they would both regret right here on the hallway floor. He set her aside then he sat up and stood up, then picked her up and carried her out to the car. He set her down in the car then went back to get her bag. He was coming out of the house when he realized the security alarm would have to be turned on.
"Torrie, you need to tell me how to activate the alarm system so we can leave." Dom tried to wake her up from the sort of stupor she seemed to be in again.
"The code is 021480." She told him. "Do you know how the system works?"
"I think I can handle it. Hey the code is Valentines day?"
"My birthday."
"Oh, ok, your birthday is on valentines day."
He decided he had to try to get something with sugar into her to see if it would wake her up some. He ran back into the house and found the kitchen. He got a soda and some sort of snack cake thing then armed her alarm system. He got back in the car and gave her the food. "Drink it. I think you need the sugar. What do you mean you think you ate yesterday?" He asked as he did up her harness.
"Yes sir!" She said and downed half the soda. Dom could tell from the sarcasm she was feeling better already. She was not so dozy anymore. "I said that cause I don't really remember if I did or not. Nope I had a sandwich for sure yesterday." One of her ways of dealing with stress was to forget to take care of herself. With all the stuff that had been going on she had just not been eating much. She continued, "Say Dom, I need to apologize for what happened. I know that it was wrong. And I just wanted to say that I am sorry for it. I will not let it happen again." She was refusing to look at him.
Dom could tell she was embarrassed over the kiss, and likely his reaction too but he could not let her take the blame for it. "Hey Torrie it was not your fault. You passed out and then I caught you during our fall. The rest of what happened was my fault. You were so pretty and you looked so sweet lying on me like that that I lost my head and kissed you. It was not your fault at all. I am older and I should be wiser. You are right that that it can not happen again though. We need to have a business relationship. But I hope we can be friends too." He glanced over at her and smiled.
She was sitting there quietly. She looked up and saw that smile. Oh man. She could not believe that Dominic Torreto just called her pretty. Man she was losing it. She would never have thought Dom would think she was pretty. She thought she was too pale, her hair was too dark and she was too thin for sure. From the way he talked he thought of her as a child and he had just been overcome by the moment. She was not sure if she was happy about that. She was not a child. Sure he was 3 years older or so but that was not the end of the world. It was hard to think of him as just a friend after that kiss and that smile but he was right they were supposed to be business partners. Or she was supposed to be his employee. They had to keep it professional. She knew it would be a problem for her cause he was the best looking man she had ever met. She wanted him. That was strange for her cause she never wanted a man before. She had had boyfriends and it was not like she was into girls or anything but she had never ached for a man before. She had grown up with an overprotective father and her dates had all been supervised. She had had such a strict curfew she could not have been more then causally involved with a guy if she had tried. Plus she had always had lots of girlfriends and the cars and the store to keep her busy. Still she was finding it hard to think of Dom in a friendly or business way. It was sort of scary for her. She had had a crush on Dom for a long time but in an innocent girlish way. She wanted him but she did not really know what she wanted. The difference in their ages did not bother her but the difference in their experiences did. He was use to the race rat girls who slept with all the winning guys. They knew what to do with a man. She on the other hand had no idea. She could not ever see Dom going for a girl like her so she had better get these thoughts out of her mind now.
"Dom, it is ok really. We can just mark it up to the tension of the day and move on, OK? I know you are not interested in me that way and we need to have a good working relationship and live in the same house for the next few years. I want us to be friends too." Torrie said earnestly.
"Torrie, I don't know who gave you the idea that guys are not interested in you but they lied. Under different circumstances I could be so into you, but not now with the kind of relationship we have to have OK? It would ruin everything if we hooked up and then it did not work out. Besides, I don't go in for causal sex with my team mates ok. And for that matter I would rather you did not hook up with any of the other guys on the team either for the same reasons. "
"Sure Dom. I am not looking for that kind of relationship right now anyway. I want to get my life back on track first. When I am a famous street racer who happens to own 'The Racer's Edge' free and clear then I can start looking for romance." She didn't really mean that but she figured it would make Dom feel safer.
"So you have never had a boyfriend?" Dom asked incredulously. "I find it hard to believe a pretty girl with her own fast car and great personality never had boyfriends."
"Oh I had boyfriends, just nothing serious. Daddy thought I was too young to 'go steady' and then I was always soo busy. I had my car and I did well in school. I worked at the store and helped dad out. I went out with boys all the time but it was always group dates. Then my mom died then my dad and after that I did not have much time for anything but work and worrying. I have been into guys before but just never stayed with one guy for any length of time. I want to make the Racers Edge a success and I want to be famous. If for right now it is famous as a member of Team Torreto that is fine but someday I am going to be famous on my own merit. I imagine I will meet lots of nice cute guys working around cars anyway. I know that the team is off limits but surely there are guys galore around race nights."
Dom was not thrilled with the thought of her meeting guys at race meets. For some reason he did not want to go too deep into he was not thrilled with the thought of her meeting guys period. He was sure it was just because he felt protective of her. He was still not thrilled about Mia and Brian and Brian was one of his best friends. But the guys that hung out at race meets were punks and they played the field a lot. "Oh like you did to Letty" a voice in his head said. He told himself that was in the past and best left there. Letty left him over it but in secret he was glad. They had been together too long. Had gotten together too young. They had not known what they were doing. He had been an ass to cheat on her but he had been young and wanted to do what he saw other guys his age do. He knew that there were guys at race meets that would be good to Torrie but there were so many losers too. He also wanted her for himself but he did not want to look at that feeling too hard.
"Torrie you will be very busy. Too busy to have much of a social life." Dom felt like a real bad guy for saying this to her. She was only 22 she was bound to want to go out with friends and meet people. But he wanted to keep her to himself and he was not going to analyze that feeling too much right now. You have your responsibilities to the team, your store, and then racing and your training. It will take up a lot of your time."
"Well Dom, I am not going be working in your garage all day and night. And I know that there are not race nights every night of the week. I am not going to be your prisoner and I don't need a father. I had one." She was more then pissed off that he thought he could control her life in that way. If she wanted to go out after hours then she was going to go. The fact that she worked for him and lived in his house was not going to stop her from going out on her free time and Dom could go to hell. She had no plans of turning into some sort of party girl cause it was just not her style but she was not going to sit at home and quilt either. She had friends and a life too. Dom did not want her to get a life that did not involve her working for him is all. Strange when you thought about it since she only knew him for one night.
"No one said you were a prisoner Torrie. I just don't want you to think that you are going to have it easy. You will work hard and you will have to come with us to all the race nights and you will have to work every day in the garage. That is in addition to whatever you have to do at 'The Racers Edge'. I am just trying to keep it real for you so you are not hurt in the long run ok?" Dom hoped he looked sincere.
"Dom I am not a party animal but I am not giving up my friends and my life for you OK. You will just have to live with the fact that sometimes I am going to go out. It is out of your hands. I really don't want to fight over it right now so maybe we should discuss this more tomorrow. It seems that we are not going to agree right away and I don't feel good. I have a headache and I feel really sleepy." Torrie kind of slumped over in her seat.
"Well sleep then. It will be half an hour till we get home anyhow. I will wake you up when we get there and you are right there will be time to discuss the house rules tomorrow." Dom turned the radio on to a top 40 station and turned the volume way down low. Torrie drifted off to sleep to the sounds of 'A woman's worth' by Alicia Keys.