Page 70 of Full Throttle

“To protect my seat,” she fired back. “To win a championship.”

“At the cost of your well-being!”

She wanted to laugh. This, coming from the man who had famously run his own car into the wall to win a race. “Like you have a leg to stand on.”

Her breath was ragged. For the first time, she realized how close Dominic was standing: His arms were braced on either side of her head, and she could count every water droplet clinging to his eyelashes, every vein that jumped in his forearm. Violence raged in his eyes. Rain swept into the garage, and she shivered.

Dominic half closed his eyes. “You are the most stubborn, infuriating—” Water droplets slid down his face, tracing the shape of his mouth. “I want to throttle you sometimes.”

“Do it.” She raised her chin. “I dare you.”

His gaze dropped to her mouth. There was something dark and hungry there, and heat bloomed in her stomach. She could feel Dominic’s heart racing through her paper-thin shirt, feel the heat of him radiating in waves.

“Did you go home with him?”

It took a second for the words to penetrate. “What?”

“Sinclair.” Dominic’s eyes were flat. “Did you go home with him?”

Incredulity rose. “That’s what you want to know?”

“Answer the question.”

Honestly. The nerve of this man. As if he had any right to know after the way he’d behaved last night at the casino. “I don’t know.” Her heart pounded. “Did you go home with that girl?”

It was a killing blow. She expected him to bristle or to pull away, but Dominic’s gaze was steady. Unflinching.

“No,” he said in a low tone. “I didn’t.”

Juliette’s heart pounded. The light flooding out from the garage haloed Dominic’s face, masking his expression, but she knew somehow that he was telling the truth, and that threatened to undo her. I know you, she thought desperately. Even after all this time, I know you. How is that possible?

She looked away. “I saw you leaving the casino together.”

“Oh, we left together.” Dominic’s smile was dark. “I took her all the way back to my hotel room, and when I had her undressed, you know what I thought? I wanted you.” His laugh was humorless. “I’m so hung up on you that even the idea of kissing someone else makes me sick. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

Juliette wasn’t sure she was breathing. The pounding of the rain was a feral thing, an animal howling in the darkness.

“I didn’t go home with him either,” she said. “I couldn’t.”

She hadn’t wanted to take Anthony home. Not even for a moment. No, what she’d resented was that Dominic had told her not to do it, that he’d thought—even for a moment—that he held some sort of power over her.

Mostly, she thought tiredly, she hated that he was right.

Dominic’s voice was ragged. “Say it again.”

Their mouths were a whisper apart. “I didn’t go home with him.”

Dominic made a sound at the back of his throat. Something very close to a groan. They were standing so close that she could feel it vibrate through her chest. His body was hot through his damp T-shirt, his muscles hard and toned from years of exercise, and she squeezed her eyes closed. How could she ever forget how her body responded to him? This had to be some form of sick torture.

“Marchmont,” Dominic murmured. “Look at me.”

She raised her gaze, then immediately wished she hadn’t. Flecks of gold burned in his eyes like midnight stars. Dominic’s gaze flicked to her mouth, and the fire in her chest blazed brighter. “We shouldn’t,” she whispered, but she was already rising on her tiptoes. Straining toward him, like a winged creature to flame.

Dominic’s lashes swept over his cheekbones. “I thought you hated me.”

“All the more reason not to.”

He lowered his head. Their mouths brushed. It was the ghost of a kiss, but she felt it all along her spine. Dominic made a pleased sound low in his throat, then he was kissing her properly, his warm hand sliding into her hair. He tasted of rainwater and mint, and Juliette felt some part of herself liquefy. Oh, she thought; so it was just as world-shattering as she remembered. That was unfortunate. She kissed him back fiercely, her wet palms spanning his hard chest, and he shuddered.