Page 74 of Full Throttle

“Hastings?”

Dominic looked up. “Yeah?”

Juliette shifted her weight. “That’s the most messed-up thing I’ve ever heard.” To her surprise, Dominic smiled. “What?”

“I can’t believe nobody’s told you that cats will eat you after you die.”

“I’m being serious.”

“So am I,” Dominic said solemnly. “They go for your face first. It’s so disturbing.”

“Hastings.”

“He just wants me to be better,” Dominic said softly. “He pushes me. It’s a good thing.”

Juliette tipped her face up to the sky. She recalled the first interview she’d seen of Dominic Hastings; he’d laughed about his early driving lessons with Vance, explaining how his father had made him practice in weather so cold that his fingers froze to the steering wheel. Tough love was one thing, but this…

You could only push tires so hard before they punctured. Everyone knew that.

“I have a question,” Juliette said slowly.

Dominic raised an eyebrow. “I suspect you’re going to ask it anyway. So go on.”

“After Vance terminated your contract—”

“That’s a very nice way of saying he sacked me,” he observed dryly.

“—how did you convince Ranya to hire you?”

Dominic looked down. For a moment she wondered if she’d offended him, but then he blew out a breath. “I suppose you’re asking because you want to know what reasons Ranya has to keep me next season.” His voice was wry. Juliette waited. “Actually, it was easy. I gave her the one thing she wanted.”

“And what was that?”

Dominic’s smile was grim. “To fuck over my father.”

Juliette frowned. To screw over Vance? She hadn’t even realized Ranya knew him, although she supposed it made sense. Vance Hastings was the kingmaker of Formula 1; everyone knew who he was. Dominic shifted, which had the unfortunate effect of casting the moonlight so that it pooled in the bow of his mouth. Heat swept through her. Her body remembered what they’d been doing before they were interrupted, much as she wished it would forget.

She ground her toe into the gravel. “What happened tonight…We can’t do that again.”

“I know,” he said.

“You’re my competition. And I need to stay focused.”

The idea of losing her seat, of giving up the one thing she’d worked for…Her mother used to joke that Juliette had been born breathing gasoline. Trying to imagine a life without racing was like trying to imagine a new color.

“I get it,” Dominic said. “Trust me.”

Juliette met his gaze. “So we have a deal. We play it hard but fair. Best driver at the end of the season is lucky enough to keep their seat.”

Dominic pushed off the wall. “We make our own luck.”

“So you’ve said.”

“Deal.”

He held out his hand. Juliette took it; his palm was warmer than she’d expected, and her heartbeat sped up. How was it, she thought, that she’d spent years honing her body into a weapon only for it to betray her now? All Dominic had to do was look at her and she was desperate for him to touch her.

Juliette waited two beats before dropping his hand. There. Let him think she was as unbothered as he was. “I should get back to the hotel. Goodnight, Hastings.”