Over the next few days, Charlie spent getting more time acquainted with the ins and outs of the garage. After that first day, she wore her preferred outfit of jeans and a fitted tank top to work, avoiding the obligation to wear the button-down uniform shirt that the guys all had.
Miles always seemed busy, so Jason took her under his wing. But despite that fact, Charlie somehow found herself seeking out Bass, even if they hardly talked much. She would be running across the garage, going to grab something for one of the guys, when she'd feel the heat of his stare on her back and turn to lock eyes with him. Charlie didn't know how no one else had noticed—sometimes she felt like the metal of the cars around them would melt with the intensity. Then she would blink, and it would be over.
Thursday night was Charlie's date with Jason. It was perfectly fine. They met at a bar a few blocks from work for a late dinner. He'd bought her drinks and bar food, made her laugh, and only watched the game on the TV over her head for a few seconds at a time. At the end of the night, she could tell that he was hoping she'd take him up on his offer to drive her home, but she said she'd parked at the garage and would go get her own car, insisting on walking over there alone. They'd parted with a chaste hug, and Charlie almost felt guilty about how disappointed he seemed. While Jason was a perfectly decent guy, there wasn't any real chemistry there. Nothing like what she felt with Bass. Charlie knew she was probably totally delusional that there was anything between them, but she still couldn't get him out of her head.
Charlie knew it was foolish, as she walked the vacant Chicago blocks between the bar and the auto shop. Being out here alone, late at night, was probably more dangerous than she realized. But she really had left her car at work. And Miles had said that Bass was usually up half the night working, and if that were the case… well, she wouldn't mind seeing him. Just the two of them, with no one else around.
When she reached the building, Charlie took out the key Miles had given her and quietly unlocked the door to the hallway that would lead back to the garage. During the day anyone could get right to the garage from the street because the huge metal doors were open. At night, everything was closed down. As Charlie walked down the hall, she heard the sound of a radio playing loud rock music.
Sure enough, as she entered the garage and was as usual assaulted by the smell of oil, gas, and grease, she noticed a pair of male legs sticking out from under a car that was jacked up on a lift. Bass.
Charlie remained quiet, not wanting to startle Bass and make him drop a wrench on his head or something. She waited a few minutes, just leaning against the doorframe, for Bass to finish whatever he was doing and come out from underneath the car. Finally, he emerged and pulled himself to his feet, bending over a toolbox open on a nearby bench.
When she caught sight of him, Charlie gasped slightly. Gone were the jeans and work shirt he typically wore at the garage. Instead, he was clad only in a pair of navy blue gym shorts. And owing, she guessed, to the oppressive heat in the un-air-conditioned garage, he was shirtless.
Charlie's heart thudded as she took in the sight of Bass' body. It had always been obvious he was fit. But his toned muscles, exposed, just begged for her hands to be run over them. More than that, Charlie was shocked and ridiculously turned on by the sight of multiple tattoos decorating Bass's torso, from his hips up to his shoulders. She'd of course seen the giant black "M" on his forearm, but his artwork was a lot more extensive than she realized. And sexy as hell. For just a second, she closed her eyes and thought maybe this had been a bad idea. Oh well, she thought. Too late to back out now.
"Hey," she called, loudly enough to be heard over the music. She saw Bass tense slightly, but other than that, he showed no sign of being startled. Calmly, he turned around, dropping whatever tool he was holding back into the toolbox in the process. He met Charlie's eyes and spoke.
"Wh—ou—ere…" Bass' words were drowned out by the music, so she stepped inside and closed the door behind her, striding over to where he was working on the car.
"What are you doing here?" he asked her when she was close enough to hear. Charlie was just tipsy enough to rake her eyes over him without bothering to be subtle about it. His chest and arms were shiny with perspiration, and the thin, well-worn gym shorts clung to his hips and ass, leaving little to the imagination.
"Hey," Bass said, with what seemed to be a combination of amusement and irritation. "Up here." He gestured toward his face, his eyebrows raised. "Everything okay?"
Regaining control of herself, Charlie smirked. "Yeah, of course. I was just in the neighborhood and thought I would drop by."
"In the neighborhood, huh?" Bass repeated, regarding her skeptically. "Pretty dressed up for around here," he said, gesturing at her strappy pink and red sundress that flowed loosely around her body but was cut short on her legs and low in the front.
"I had a date," Charlie answered defiantly. "Hence, dressed up."
Bass smiled tightly. "Lucky guy. Would this date have been Neville, by any chance?"
"As a matter of fact, it was," Charlie answered.
Smirking, Bass said, "I stand corrected, then. Not so lucky guy."
Charlie put her hands on her hips, indignant. "And why is that?"
"Well, you're here with me. Not… wherever, with him." Bass answered, a challenge in his eyes. "Probably not how he was hoping the night would end."
At a loss for words, Charlie just shrugged. Bass paused for a few seconds, then as the awkward silence stretched between them, he gestured vaguely at the car behind him, "Well, I should get back to…" But his eyes never left Charlie's face, boring into her, seemingly waiting for more.
Charlie grasped for something, anything to say to keep the conversation going. Finally, she blurted, "I didn't know you had so many tattoos."
Bass glanced down at his body, then back up at her. "Yeah, most people don't," he said. "You like tattoos?"
"I like yours," she said immediately, concentrating on them again, feeling like she'd been given permission to look. "That's a raven?" She gestured to a predatory bird inked onto his right pectoral muscle. Bass nodded shortly in confirmation.
Charlie stepped closer to Bass, so she was close enough to touch him. She placed her hand just over his hipbone, on a partially-visible tattoo, and felt him draw in a sharp breath. "What's this one?" she asked, running her hand along the image where it disappeared under his arm and around his side.
Bass turned and raised his arm obligingly so she could see the whole picture: a cheetah having just pounced on and tearing into a gazelle. The inking was incredibly intricate; the cheetah, ferocious and ravening, the gazelle, helpless beneath it.
"Wow," Charlie said, lightly tracing her fingers over the lines of the image, over his skin. "It's beautiful."
Bass said, "Yeah, if I'd known how much it was going to hurt, I never would have gotten it done. Thought it was going to kill me."
Charlie laughed softly, then rested her palm on Bass' side, right over the gazelle's head, tilting her face up toward his. "Well, it didn't, so you're good."
"Charlie," Bass said warningly, letting her know he wasn't for a second buying her attempt at casual conversation. Charlie shifted closer to him so they were standing only inches apart, still touching Bass. She noticed a bulge starting to grow in the front of his shorts and could feel the heat radiating between their bodies. Deciding to just go for it, she brought her other hand up and ran it up his pec, over the raven, over his collarbone, and felt his muscular shoulder.
Bass immediately wrapped his right arm around her waist, pulling her in tight to him, knocking her slightly off her feet in her pointy high heels. He looked down into her face for a couple seconds, then bent down and kissed her roughly.
Charlie groaned and kneaded her hands into him as their lips made contact. Bass' other arm reached up and palmed the back of her neck, his fingertips brushing her hair, which was held up in a twist. Bass's tongue plunged into her mouth, and she felt the short hairs of his beard scraping her face as he kissed her hard. They parted for a second or two for breath, then came back together, tasting and touching each other insatiably. Charlie felt Bass grow to full hardness against her and pressed her hips into him, her thin dress doing little more than his shorts to dull the sensation of their bodies together.
As she rubbed against him, Bass pulled away from her slightly, keeping his arm tightly around her, kissing his way down her neck. "Goddamnit, you're so fucking beautiful," he rasped, his voice thick with desire. Slipping one strap of her dress off her shoulder, he kissed and nibbled the skin he'd left bare.
"I thought I was too young for you," Charlie commented, challenging him.
Leaning away from her slightly, Bass frowned in confusion. "Why?"
Charlie shrugged, suddenly wishing she hadn't said anything. "I heard you talking to some of the guys."
Bass laughed and pulled her against him again. "Yeah, the guys don't need to know that I can't stop thinking about you. Watching you running around here. It drives me fucking crazy."
"Crazy how?" Charlie gasped, as Bass pulled one side of her dress down, exposing her bare breast. Bass ran his fingertips over her warm nipple, growling as Charlie arched into him, silently begging for more. Giving her what she wanted, he rolled her nipple between his fingers, pinching it lightly, then harder when she writhed against him in pleasure.
"Crazy like I've wanted to do this since the moment I saw you," Bass breathed, pulling down her other strap and giving her other breast the same treatment. "Like I don't fucking care that you're Miles' niece or way too young because I just want you so goddamn bad."
"You want me?" Charlie said teasingly, her snarky tone undercut by a gasp as Bass cupped her breasts in his hands and ran his thumbnails over her protruding nipples. "Uh, God," she moaned helplessly.
Bass pushed one leg between hers, so she could feel his erection jutting into her thigh. "Yes, I want you," he said darkly. "You need me to say it?"
Charlie grinded down on his strong thigh, feeling the lace of her thong abrading the tender, aroused flesh of her wet sex. "Yeah," she panted, kissing and licking Bass' neck, now conveniently close. "Tell me."
Bass's hands moved down and around her body, so he was cupping her ass, pulling her more tightly against him, grinding his thigh into her in a steady rhythm. Slowly, in a husky voice, he told her, "I want to be inside you, Charlie. I want to feel your hot pussy around my cock. I want to fuck you til you scream, til we both can't move anymore. That's what I fucking want." Charlie whimpered slightly, and in response he kissed her hard again.
Pulling his thigh away from her, Bass reached his hand between Charlie's legs and ran his hand over her soaked panties. Growling at the feeling of how wet she was, he slipped his fingers inside the lacy material and found her aroused bud. When he stroked her there, Charlie's knees gave slightly, and her hips bucked into him involuntarily.
"So wet," he whispered, then ran his fingers teasingly along her slit, over her opening. Charlie groaned and opened her legs wider, showing Bass where she wanted him. Bass plunged two fingers inside her tight opening, and Charlie cried out in pleasure at the sensation. All too quickly, it felt like to her, he pulled them away, putting them right to his mouth to suck her juices from them.
Charlie reached down and ran her hand over Bass' cock through his shorts. The smooth fabric was stretched tight over his rock-hard erection, and when she rubbed along his length, Bass moaned loudly. "Damnit," he cursed. Grabbing her, he quickly whirled her around so her back was to him, and pushed her into one of the cars parked nearby.
Charlie threw her head back against his shoulder as his hands roamed up and down her body, cupping her bare breasts, tracing her slim waist. Charlie felt the ridge of his hard cock against her ass, pressing into her from behind.
"We could do this, right here," he rasped into her ear. "Right in the middle of the garage, up against a car. Would you like that, Charlie?"
Charlie moaned, then boldly answered. "Yeah. Yeah, I'd like it." She rolled her hips back into Bass to make her point, rubbing against him.
"Fuck," Bass cursed in her ear, breathing hard. "That is not what you were supposed to say." He stilled behind her, still holding her hips in a punishing grip, then releasing her, slowly. Charlie sensed that he'd made some kind of decision. She turned around, leaning back on the car behind her, pulling up her dress with a resigned smirk on her lips.
Bass leaned on the car, putting his hands on either side of her, looming over her so their faces were only inches apart. "Not here. Not like this. Okay?" he said, not quite meeting her eyes. He kissed her on the mouth, again, hard, then stood up.
Charlie didn't know what to feel – frustrated, embarrassed, excited, horny… so instead, she just said, "I should probably go."
Bass cleared his throat, still seemingly trying to regain control over himself. "Do you need me to walk you somewhere, or…?"
"No, it's fine," Charlie said. "My car's in the lot out back." She paused for a few awkward seconds, then added, "Well, goodnight. I guess," then laughed.
Bass smiled humorlessly. "Just so we're clear. In my mind this was a first. Not a last." He reached out and smoothed his thumb along her jawline until she smiled, and he did, too. "Goodnight."
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