Page 33 of Not So Fast
Stop it.
Why did she always resort to humor as her defense mechanism? The answer was simple. She wasn’t good at this. Xander could be with anyone he wanted. A model or an actor or someone with a big fat trust fund and connections. Someone famous. It was certainly what most drivers were drawn to. At minimum, he could flirt with someone who hadn’t insulted him.
I was thinking that I wished my brain wouldn’t get in the way. I wanted to give in to the moment, but I couldn’t.
What does giving in look like?
Mia sighed and sank down farther in her bed, allowing her eyes to drift shut. Her body warmed as she returned to that moment in her mind, the heat starting in the center of her chest and radiating outward, to her breasts and down her belly. That few seconds of magic they’d shared was simultaneously easy to remember and so far out of reach. His impossibly strong arms around her. His soft, warm lips on hers.The delicious scratch of his chin stubble. Why couldn’t she go back and have a do-over? How she wished she could try again.
What did you want to happen?he asked before she’d had a chance to respond. No judgment. I just want to know.
I wanted to wrap my legs around you and kiss you until my lips were raw, she typed before she had a chance to second-guess herself.
Her heart sat in her throat while every other molecule of her body screamed for him. She ached, even when it was the most irrational thing in the world. Even when he was taking forever to respond.
Are you alone right now?
Mia sat straight up in bed. Holy fuck.Y-e-s, she typed as fast as her fingers could manage, all to outrun her brain.
Can you talk?
“Isn’t it super late there?” Mia asked when he answered the phone.
It was so damn nice to hear her voice, especially after days of texting. “It’s 3:00 a.m., but I don’t really care.” He hadn’t been sleeping much at all, so it didn’t matter what time it was. His mom was having a rough patch, and he’d had a shit day on the simulator back at Mega Racing headquarters. Despite his good showing in Monza, texting with Mia had been his only real bright spot since the race.
“What do you want to talk about?” she asked.
“We’ve been flirting over text for days, Mia.”
“Well, I don’t know,” she blurted. “Maybe you do that with dozens of women. Maybe that’s just a normal day for you.”
A breathy laugh escaped his lips, then he took a sip of whiskey and put the glass down on the coffee table in his living room. He settled back on the leather couch. “I don’t. In fact, if you must know, before I kissed you, it had been more than a year since I’d kissed someone.”
“No way.”
“I’m dead serious. I would not lie about that.”
“That’s so weird.”
He laughed again. “Why? I’m a busy guy. I don’t have time for things like romance.”
“The other drivers do.”
“Maybe they’re better at time management than I am.”
Mia sighed. “I’m not good at whatever it is we’re doing. I wish I was, but I’m not.”
Her honesty was so endearing. She didn’t try to put on a show for him.
“I’m not, either. And before you say something about how I’m lying, I’m not. Mia, most of the time, all I do is work and take care of the things I need to take care of. I’m not some international man of mystery, traveling the globe and picking up women at every race. I’m just a normal guy who apparently has a real weakness for women who can give a good neck rub and be ever so slightly mean to him.”
“I have a weakness for men who are honest, just so you know,” she said, breathless enough to make heat plume in his belly.
“I need a good poker face to drive in Formula One, but I’m otherwise a terrible liar.”
“Your face is too pretty to be playing poker.”
There was something in the things she said that buoyed him like nothing else. “You have the most beautiful eyes, Mia.Warm and rich. I could get lost in them for days. If I close mine, I can see them. I think you imprinted on me.”
