Food Truck Warriors #1
Lucas loves his job. Too bad he’s not allowed to take a bite out of the boss.
Considering all the crap Lucas Barnes has done to achieve self-employed independence, taking a job making fish tacos for a local food truck should be a no-brainer. In the off hours, he can even work on his dream business: health-conscious energy bars.
But it turns out the hardest part isn’t the long hours, the stifling heat inside the truck during a Los Angeles summer, or even the non-vegan menu, it’s his new boss.
Tony Blake is over-confident and an enthusiastic carnivore—and also one of the hottest, funniest, most charming guys Lucas has ever met. Even when Tony is driving him crazy, he’s completely irresistible.
Lucas knows hooking up with the boss is off-limits, but Tony is a tough guy to resist. And with the two of them spending the steamy summer evenings tucked in each other’s pockets . . . it turns out it’s not a question of if, but a question of when.
“Hey,” Tony said, leaning over the counter where Lucas was putting the final touches on a few plates of fish tacos. “Hey, I just thought of something.”
“Hmmm?” Lucas gave the tacos a final sprinkle of chopped cilantro and slid them onto the window ledge. “Fish tacos for Marcy!”
“How are we going to stake out the truck?” Tony said softly. He was clearly trying to keep their investigation from Jeremy, which Lucas was happy about. Maybe he didn’t think Jeremy was the problem, but it made sense to keep quiet about it.
“I don’t know,” Lucas said, sliding another serving of battered fish into the fryer for the next order. Fish tacos were a big hit tonight. “We stake it out?”
“How?” Tony hissed.
“What do you mean how?” Lucas asked. Tony was kind of weird, except it was in this endearing way that Lucas didn’t think he’d tolerate in someone who had shittier hair or was slightly shorter or even worse, had less natural charm.
“Like, I drive a motorcycle,” Tony said. “How are we supposed to stake out the truck on a motorcycle?”
Lucas glanced up. He didn’t know if he loved or hated the frisson of heat that sparked through him when he thought of riding with Tony, plastered to his back, the engine roaring between their thighs. “I have my car,” he said.
“Oh, I didn’t know you had a car,” Tony said.
“What do you think I do? Skateboard around town?” Lucas retorted. “Of course I have a fucking car.”
“Okay,” Tony said. “What about snacks?”
“Snacks?”
“Snacks and binoculars,” Tony said. “We need both of those things for a stakeout.”
Lucas actually didn’t know what they needed—he hadn’t thought this through any further than suggesting it. “Do you own a pair of binoculars?” he asked.
Tony appeared to be trying to figure out if he did. “Uh, no?” he finally admitted. “Do you think they’re a requirement?”
We’re not going to be catching anyone; only spending several hours pressed up together in my tiny-ass car, a situation which I am already regretting. “No,” Lucas said. Because the chance of anyone trying to break into the truck was so slim that getting a pair of binoculars just for this seemed silly.
“I think we can just look really hard, you know,” Tony said. “But the snacks, those are non-negotiable.”
“I have some of my energy bars,” Lucas said. “Is that snack-like enough for you, Mr. Stakeout?”
“I think so,” Tony said, nodding enthusiastically. “I’ve been wanting to try them.”
“Spin class and now energy bars. Give it a few more weeks, and you’re going to actually be . . .” Lucas gave a faux shocked gasp. “Healthy.”
Tony smacked him on the back as he turned towards the window and an approaching customer. It wasn’t quite low enough to be anywhere near his ass, but Lucas felt the sting, and wanted, even as he tried to push the temptation so far out of reach that it’d stop bothering him with everything he couldn’t have. Because even as he acknowledged that he shouldn’t have Tony, he slid further down the slippery slope of rationalization.
Maybe they were just fucking inevitable.
A lifelong Oregonian, Beth Bolden has just recently moved to North Carolina with her supportive husband and their sweet kitten, Earl Grey. Beth still believes in Keeping Portland Weird, and intends to be just as weird in Raleigh.
Beth has been writing practically since she learned the alphabet. Unfortunately, her first foray into novel writing, titled Big Bear with Sparkly Earrings, wasn’t a bestseller, but hope springs eternal. She’s published twenty novels and six novellas.
Drive Me Crazy #1
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