I have to start this chapter with an 'oh my god I'm so sorry I left this so long without updating'. Can't promise it won't happen again though. :D This chapter, which I will have edited for content by the time it arrives your hands, my sweets, will still contain adult subject matter. Not the least of which is an ample serving of my potty mouth. A significant serving of my potty brain may also make it past the sensors. Of course, I'm the sensors, so you see how it is. But if adult content bothers you, perhaps you really ought skip the part about half way through… :D (I'm evil and you love it) Enjoy. Oh, and Merry (belated) Christmas and a Happy New Year if I don't update again before January 1st. In the spirit of the season, review. It'll make me happy and merry and bright and shiny. :D

The Funeral of a Good Girl

By – TempestRaces

Chapter Forty-Eight – Of Panic and Slamming Doors

"Where you goin'?" Vince asked as he watched Tempest get up out of the bed some time later.

"To get in the shower and get dressed."

"Why?"

"We can't lie around here all day. Check out was likely a good few hours ago and I have some things to get done today."

"Like what?"

"Like I told Harry I'd fix some glitches with his new car when it arrives at Dom's and it's coming today."

"Dom, much as I know you find this hard to believe, makes it as a mechanic without you. He can handle fixing the cars that come in without your help."

Tempest turned to look at the smug man in what was essentially her bed, since she'd been the one to want it in the first place. "Really? You think he can fix this car without me?"

"Yeah, sure."

"What do I get when I prove you wrong?"

"Whatever you want, 'cause you aren't going to prove me wrong."

"So do I have to actually get Dom to try to fix the issue, or can I just tell you what it is and trust you to be honest if Dom could really fix it without help or not?"

"You can just tell me. It's not going to matter what it is."

"Fixing electrical glitches that don't seem to involve broken wires or corrosion in the power window motors and pop-up headlights of a nineteen ninety five Lotus Elan."

Vince's face twisted up in distaste. "That doesn't count. You didn't say it wasn't a normal car."

"It is totally normal."

"It's not normal. It's a Lotus. It's European." Vince spit this out as if the words tasted badly.

"So? It's still a normal car."

"No it's not. It's backward."

"No more backward than my Skyline. It's not even as backward as the Skyline because this Lotus was always made with the USA in mind."

"The Skyline is Japanese. Normal people drive Japanese cars. Only weirdos and people with far too much money drive European cars."

"Jesse's car is from Germany, and last time I checked, Germany was part of Europe."

"Sure, but that's different."

"Why is that different?"

"Because the Germans make Porsche."

Tempest laughed despite herself. "Do you even care how hypocritical you sound right now?"

Her question forced a chuckle out of him. "No, not really. So go take your shower. I'll go get your stuff and you can take me to my car once you're dressed. Then I'll meet you at the garage."

Him making plans to be around her for the rest of the day worried her. She turned back to look at him, hanging around the bathroom door and frowning, basically forgetting she was as naked as the day she was born. "V?"

"Yeah?" he questioned, still sitting on the side of the bed.

"You know that what happened last night doesn't really change anything between us, right? I'm still not over what you did before and I sure as hell will never think of myself as dating you ever again. So you do realize that if I want to take Craig Everett home tonight or some other random guy, you got no call to care? Right?" When he looked up to meet her troubled gaze, she could tell that no matter what he had been expecting her to say, it hadn't been that. "I mean, last night was good," she grinned, unable to help herself when she thought of the explosiveness of what had come in the store room, "and so was this morning," she added with an inward smile, "but we're not exclusive today any more than we were yesterday. You get that, right?"

"If you're asking me if I'm ok with you taking some other guy home with you while you're still down here, the answer is no. I'll never be ok with that. If it makes you feel better to tell yourself that now we're really just having sex with no strings, so be it." He stood up and started to stalk her way. "But seriously? I better not ever find out there was another guy."

"Can you even hear yourself?" she asked with a sneer. "You go flippin' ape shit if I so much as tell you that I'd feel free to go after another guy if I was so inclined but you don't expect me to get pissed off at all when you throw Mia in my face. It's a two way fuckin' street Vince. If you get to fuck me while trying to get other girls than I get the same consideration. Either deal with it or go fuck yourself." With that she slammed the bathroom door in his face and locked it with a distinct click as the tumblers flipped over.

She leaned against the door, trying to get her anger in check. She heard him grumble about troublesome females that should stop running away from their arguments before he was finished talking and then she heard the door of the room open and close. She assumed he was going for a walk to clear his head and to grab her bags as he said he would. She started the shower and when it was the right temperature, she stepped under the spray and turned her face into the hot water. She had no idea how long she stood there, her face uptilted into the jets of water. Once she had her anger under better control she started to wash her hair and body. She finished up quickly and got out of the shower. She wrapped her hair in one towel and twisted another one around her before leaving the bathroom. If Vince hadn't come back with her things she had no clothes and no hairbrush and she was going to have to put her things from yesterday back on and go get her own bags.

She walked out of the bathroom and didn't see Vince anywhere, but her bags were sitting on the floor beside the bed. She started toward them, only to halt with a startled gasp when she was grabbed from behind. A quick glance over her shoulder showed Vince standing behind her. "Why are you accosting me as I leave the bathroom?"

"Because if you get a chance to get back into the bathroom you'll take off on me and lock yourself in there again," he muttered against the side of her neck.

"I'm going to take off on you anyway because I have to fix the Elan and I have to check in with Jesse. He'll be worried enough as it is. I can't hang out here all day."

"Don't be all pissy with me."

"You're right. I am pissy with you and you're not going to change my mind about it."

"Oh really?"

Much as she hated the tone of his question, she wasn't going to give in and change her mind. "Yeah, really."

The rough stubble along his jawbone rubbed against the bare skin of her shoulder. "There's nothing I could do to change your mind?" When his cheek reached the curve where her shoulder stopped and her arm began, he started back toward her neck, using his lips instead of his cheek to brush her skin.

"No, there's nothing."

"Nothing at all?"

The lips moved from her shoulder to the side of her neck and she choked back an audible sign of just how much he was affecting her. She kept the angry look on her face with some effort and shrugged. "No, nothing."

One careless flick of his finger undid the tuck protecting her modesty by keeping the white cotton cocoon she'd donned in the bathroom secured around her breasts. It fell unchecked to the floor. He didn't want to stop it's fall, and she wouldn't give him the satisfaction—he was sure—of making a mad grab for the edges before they parted. Due to his greater height, once the towel pooled white around her feet, everything he had an interest to see was bare to his gaze. She stood haughty in his arms, looking bored. He was sure it was an act, and it amused him on some level. Everyone had their coping measures and it seemed hers was to pretend she didn't want what they both knew was coming.

He trailed the back of his hand down her side, over her hip and across the top of her thigh before pressing the flat of his hand to her stomach. Her skin always felt like warmed silk under his rough and callused palms and fingers. "You sure there's absolutely nothing I can say or do to convince you to give me half an hour to make it worth your while to stick around?"

"No, I have to get back to Jess before he flips out about where I am." His hand wandered upwards and she didn't react fast enough to stifle the hitch in her breathing.

"I'm pretty sure he knows where you are, if not what you're doing." He was glad his position hid the smug smile on his face from her. He knew he had her lulled into a state where her reactions were tempered with hot desire. If she had one reason to get truly mad at him again, she'd turn into a hissing, spitting wildcat. Not that he didn't get off on that sometimes, but he wasn't really in the mood to have her attempt to take his face off with her 'claws'. He started to nip at the side of her neck as his fingers found the hard tip of one of her breasts and started to tease. His attention moved from side to side as he continued to suck on her neck and ear gently. He knew that victory was within his grasp when she finally gave up on the unmoved, aloof act and melted back into him, the back of her head finding the pad of muscle on his chest that cradled it as though one had been made for the other. "Still want to go to the garage right this second?" She shook her head no, her eyes still closed. "You sure?" Another simple nod, yes this time.

It was good enough for him. Locking one arm around her waist he picked her up off her feet and carried her over beside the bed before flipping her around and tossing her back in one quick motion. She barely had time to register she was now lying prone before he was lowering himself over her, lips finding hers as hands sought purchase on skin still damp from the hot water of her shower.

Wills and desires clashed as each raced toward their mutual destination. A bite here, a scratch there. A few bruises, a burst blood vessel or two. Soon two bottom lips were equally swollen and red, each having been bitten harder than necessary more than once. One had two fistfuls of hair in her grasp, where the other only had one large hand tangled in her damp, disordered curls. And when her breathing hitched and her back arched he watched her eyes go unfocused as she whimpered his name brokenly. The way her nails found purchase in the flesh of his back, and the way her flushed skin felt arched into his chest and stomach rang the death knell of his control. Taking the curve of skin where her shoulder joined her neck between his teeth, he followed her with a growl.

He held his weight on his forearms and looked down at her in the moment after he got his breath back. She seemed to have fallen into a light sleep, but she often did, so he wasn't surprised. He brushed some hair back from her face and studied the fans her eyelashes made against her cheekbones. For some reason, he couldn't help but feel the main reason why he couldn't seem to get enough of her was the only time she allowed him to really see her was during and immediately after sex. Every other minute they were around each other, she had some sort of guard up to hide her real feelings from him. He was aware of it, but since he was pretty much the same way, he just didn't know what to do about it. It bothered him that it was almost like she didn't trust what he would do with the real her, if he saw her real feelings. But he wasn't willing to allow her to see all of his either, and he didn't want to be a hypocrite. She'd accused him of that very thing enough.

Scared of crushing her, he reversed their positions and watched as she kept right on sleeping. He could tell she wasn't too far under because her breathing wasn't deep or even enough for her to be truly asleep. And that was about when he got just a little frightened by the fact he knew how she slept well enough to judge her levels of asleep. He wavered between thinking he should wake her so they could get ready and leave and letting her sleep until she woke up on her own. She hated to be woken up, but she had seemed like she was in a pretty big hurry to get back to the garage. Ultimately he knew he was damned either way. If he woke her, she'd be upset he'd done so. If he didn't, she'd be upset he'd allowed her to waste time sleeping. She was the most perverse female he'd ever met. Before he had to pick with pathway to hell he wanted to walk down, her eyes fluttered open.

"Did I fall asleep?" she murmured, still sounding more than half asleep as she spoke.

"Yeah," he answered, his tone deep and low.

"For how long?"

"Fifteen, twenty minutes now."

She groaned softly. "We should get out of here."

"Don't sound so enthusiastic about it," Vince said, teasing gently.

"I'm not. I'm all warm and sleepy now." There was no place more comfortable to her than draped across his body. Sometimes she wondered how she'd ever been comfortable before she'd had him to be her resting place. Then she wondered how she would go back to those times again, when she left him. A sobering thought.

"So let's stay here and be warm and sleepy for awhile longer. What difference does it really make? It's not like Harry will be in some huge rush to get a Lotus Elan on the road. He's got lots of other cars to make due with until this one is fixed."

"Ok."

"What?" he asked in shock.

"I said ok. As in ok, let's just stay here and be warm and sleepy a bit longer." Once it had occurred to her what else was waiting for her at Dom's garage, namely recriminations from Leon for where and how she'd spent the night, her urgency to get there had vanished. She burrowed closer to the warm male under her and sighed as she relaxed into his body heat again. Things felt so right in the here and now. Things would be made to feel so wrong, and she would be made to feel so stupid in the near future. Why not put that off a while longer if she could? Why not enjoy feeling right while it was possible?

Without conscious thought, Vince found one of his hands rubbing circles on her back as she curled into him and drifted in the same slightly unconscious place she'd been in before. He knew there would be some reason behind her willingness to change her mind about rushing back to the garage but he didn't think he wanted to know what it was. He was just going to take the time he now had to spend with her where he was in a lot less danger of saying or doing something to hurt or anger her and be happy for the time.

That was about when the fact he was happy to simply lie somewhere holding her crashed into him and he felt like hyperventilating. Excuse me? You want to just be close to her? Is there something wrong with you? He couldn't jump up and run scared right that second. She'd know something was up, and she was his ride to Bryce and his own car. He gave her another few minutes, forcing himself to remain relaxed and outwardly calm. "T?"

"Wha?" she sighed.

"We should probably go soon. I have to get my car back from Bryce and you were the one who said you had stuff to do this afternoon."

Wondering what had brought about his change of attitude, she sat up off his chest and looked at him with one eyebrow cocked in question. "What's the sudden hurry?"

"I wasn't the one in a hurry ten minutes ago."

His tone had gotten remarkably surly in a remarkably short period of time. What was with him? "No, but you were the one who said it wasn't like Harry was in a huge rush to get his car back and therefore I didn't have to be in a huge rush to give it to him. What's up with you all of a sudden?"

"I just wanna get outta here. Is that a problem?" Vince growled.

"No, why would it be?" she answered with a shrug, before sliding off the bed and unzipping her bag. She looked up with storm clouds swirling in her eyes. "Well, get your shit together if you're in such a fuckin' hurry."

Vince sighed and ran a hand through his hair as he watched her go back to pawing through her stuff. Again, he'd said the wrong thing and messed his point up all to shit. He cleared his throat in preparation for saying something to try and break the tension, but she shot him a glacier cold look that told him he pretty much might as well just save his breath anyway. She wasn't going to listen to him. She was far too pissed off. He watched as she stalked naked to the bathroom with a bundle of her stuff under her arm and slammed the door shut so hard the wall vibrated. He shook his head and mentally kicked his own ass. He was certainly in for one hell of an afternoon now.

When she still hadn't immerged fifteen minutes later yet hadn't turned the water on or made any other noise to give away why she was taking so long, he moved over to the door and stood with his ear pressed against it. With a curse he bit back with some effort he squeezed his eyes closed. She was crying in the bathroom. So now what? He tried the doorknob. She had been aware enough to lock the door. He sighed and tried to mentally prepare himself for what came next. He knocked on the door. "You ok in there? You've been locked in there fifteen minutes now."

"Go away."

"I can't. You're the one with the ride, remember?"

"I don't care. Walk where ever for all I care. Just go away!"

He sighed again, more violently. "There are two choices here, the way I see it. You can either come out here and we can go or I can break the door down to find out what's wrong with you. What's it gonna be?"

"Option three where you go fuck yourself someplace else," she roared back.

Her tone was still decidedly watery. "Come on T. Open the damn door."

"No."

"I'm sorry for being an asshole. Open the door."