Wanting It All

Prologue

"Well, well, well...what do we have here? It's little miss goody two shoes come out to play with the big kids." Samantha's silky voice bathed me in a cold chill despite the warm glow of firelight all around me.

Why, oh why had I decided to come out to this bonfire tonight? I knew this was where all the kids from town came to get drunk and party. This was no place for someone like me. Had it been that I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Jackson? I pushed that thought to the back of my mind, refusing to allow it to manifest.

"What I do with my spare time is none of your concern Sam. Why don't you go back to your bitches and pick on someone your own size?" I hissed back at her. My life was hard enough without people like her trying to make matters worse.

As I turned to look at her I realized why she'd had the gall to approach me to begin with. Practically every limb was wrapped around the sculpted form of our town's celebrity, Jackson James. A thrill ran through my center as I saw him, and I thanked God for the darkness that hid my blush.

Pushing the emotions I generally hid so well back into their place and locking them away I focused back on Sam, the easier target. Even though Samantha was the biggest and most popular brat at Sidney High School, she knew better than to pick on me. I didn't take her crap; I had enough on my plate, but having him beside her must've made her very brave.

Jackson pried her limbs off of him and placed them neatly by her side before stepping toward me. Not only was he almost ten years older than me, but he was hot as hell, and he knew it.

"Kayley Ford, right? I've heard a lot about you from Jimmy. Say's you're one hell of a mechanic." Jackson ran his hands through his pale brown hair knowingly. He was completely aware of the affect he was having on me.

There isn't very much that I would consider myself good at, but ever since ninth grade when I joined the career study program and started working with Jimmy Norton, the head mechanic over the program, my reputation for having a knack with cars has grown from a hobby to a passion. Jimmy makes a habit of telling me that he wants me to come and work for him after I graduate in May, but I've got my sights set a little higher than that. I want to move on to bigger and better things.

"That's right." I said simply, and gulped, not wanting to let the nervous tick in my voice bleed through into my words.

Normally I'm not one of those girls who fawn over guys, but Jackson James wasn't just any guy. It was rare to see him in town anymore, but I heard his name constantly. When he was in high school, about eight years ago, he raced cars out at the local dirt track near town. His dad had been big into NASCAR and racing in general. It was a family connection that had gotten him his own car and the opportunity to take his talent from the dirt track to the big screen. Not long after he graduated he was pulled by Bob Ingress Racing and offered a contract to race for them professionally. He'd have been an idiot to have turned it down.

Jackson's amused chuckle caused my skin to blaze to life as my blush returned full force. "I'm not makin' you nervous am I Kayley?"

Once I could reassemble my thoughts, I looked up to meet the ice blue eyes that filled all my late-night fantasies. It was time to admit it to myself. I had come here tonight in hopes of seeing him, but all of the make-up and the tight clothes I had put on to get his attention hadn't put me on his radar for the reasons I wanted. I loved that he'd noticed me as a mechanic, but I wanted him to notice me as a woman. I wanted him to want me like I wanted him. I should've accounted for the fact that his playboy status wouldn't change for someone like me.