“No?”
“I tightened a ground connection.”
“Your engineers couldn’t find it.”
“They would have.”
“When?”
“Eventually.”
She studied him.
Most people accepted praise from her like oxygen.
He kept returning it.
That was becoming irritating.
“You know what I offered downstairs?”
He frowned.
“What?”
She moved closer.
The garage was still noisy around them, but people had begun paying attention.
The CEO had spent her entire adult life being watched.
Usually she controlled what people saw.
For once she did not care.
“If you fixed it before the clock ran out…”
The Single Dad remembered.
His expression changed.
She smiled.
“So?”
He looked briefly toward her mouth.
That was enough.
She noticed.
The CEO stepped closer.
One finger touched the center of his chest.
“Still pretending you don’t remember?”
He looked down at her hand.
Then into her eyes.
“I remember.”
“Good.”
She hooked one finger lightly beneath the edge of his black T-shirt collar.
Several technicians stopped pretending not to watch.
The Garage Owner quietly moved closer to a tool cabinet.
He wanted a good view.
The CEO lowered her voice.
“I keep promises.”
The Single Dad caught her wrist.
Not hard.
Just enough to stop the movement.
The garage became very quiet.
The CEO’s eyes sharpened.
“Problem?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“You’re my customer.”
“For the next thirty seconds.”
“You’re also standing in front of twelve employees.”
“I’m aware.”
“And you offered a kiss as payment for work.”
Her expression shifted.
“Are you offended?”
“No.”
“That sounded like judgment.”
“It was.”
A few mechanics looked toward the floor.
Nobody wanted to be caught enjoying this.
The CEO stepped closer instead of retreating.
“You think I’m buying you.”
“You said fix the car, get a kiss.”
“Sounds transactional.”
Her eyes flashed.
“You’re very comfortable talking to me like that.”
The Single Dad looked at her.
“You’re very comfortable assuming that matters.”
The Senior Engineer stared.
The Garage Owner nearly smiled.
The CEO’s voice lowered.
“Do you have any idea who you’re talking to?”
“Yes.”
“That doesn’t impress you?”
“It tells me who signs invoices.”
That did it.
She smiled.
Slowly.
Dangerously.
“Maybe I stopped offering the kiss as payment ten minutes ago.”
The Single Dad’s thumb moved once against the inside of her wrist before he realized it.
Her breathing changed.
He felt it.
She did too.
For one charged second, neither spoke.
The CEO looked at his mouth.
Then back at his eyes.
“Maybe I want to kiss the man who just embarrassed six of my engineers.”
The Senior Engineer muttered:
“Five.”
Nobody acknowledged him.
The Single Dad released her wrist.
“Then wait until I’m off the clock.”
Her eyebrows rose.
“Why?”
“Because I want to know whether you still mean it when there isn’t a twelve-billion-dollar emergency between us.”
For the first time, her expression softened.
Not CEO.
Woman.