Sophia fished her phone out, smiling. “I’ve accepted the appointment.”
The car fell into a comfortable silence. I was relieved that Kristian’s presence had rendered Sophia unusually quiet. The blonde was a real motormouth, but today she was on her best behaviour in front of our new boss. I sighed, gaze flitting to Kristian again. This time, it was my turn to be surprised. He still had his phone in his hands, but he wasn’t looking at it. Those lovely green eyes of his were fixed on me. I expected him to look away hastily, but he didn’t. Instead, he held my eye contact for a moment longer than was truly necessary before the sexiest half–smile crept onto his face and he returned his gaze to his phone. It was barely a second, but I’d seen it, as clear as day and my heart leapt into my throat.
I wasn’t sure what I had expected in response to my rather blatant show of interest, butreciprocationof said interest came as a shock to me. I had assumed I would need to work harder than this to get his attention. I wasn’t sure whether to be flattered or disappointed that it had been so easy. Either way, I was excited by this new development and wanted to see how far I could push before Kristian Wright broke and gave me what I wanted.
The next day, I arrived at Silverstone racetrack half an hour later than the time Kristian had asked me to be there for. Despite having risen earlier than usual, excited to get back behind the wheel after the summer break, I had deliberately taken my time getting ready until I knew I was going to be late enough to get a rise out of my new team principal. Was it mature or professional? Absolutely not, but I just couldn’t resist.
I strolled into the racetrack, heading straight to the pit garages where I knew the rest of my team would be waiting for me and working on getting the car set up for the practice run. My minder would have my racing overalls and the rest of my safety equipment ready in the small changing rooms. She knew I was rarely on time. As I pushed through the doors and into the garage, I received a few welcomes and some knowing grins.
“You’re going to regret pushing this one’s buttons, Rossi,” one of the mechanics muttered with a laugh. “Wright issteamingthat you weren’t on time this morning. He’s no laid–back Harold.”
I smirked, but didn’t reply. My minder greeted me and ushered me hurriedly to my allocated changing room. I was just tugging up the legs of my racing overalls when there was a knock at the door.
“Yeah?” I called out.
“You’re late.” Came the terse reply and I could barely keep from grinning. Kristian was pissed, that much was clear from his tone of voice.
“Yeah, sorry about that,” I replied. “Some errands ran over.”
“Rossi, I’m not sure how to make this any plainer to you. You are not untouchable. You’ve had a good season so far, but if you think you can swan around like you have been doing under Harold’s watch, you can think again.”
“Alright, well I—”
“I haven’t finished,” Kristian interrupted me. I scowled and stopped dressing to hear him out.
“You’re a good driver, one of the best, but I’d rather have a reliable and considerate driver than one who clearly doesn’t give a shit,” Kristian snapped. “Don’t fuck with me, Rossi. I will pull one of the bench drivers up from F2 and you’ll be out on your arse so quickly, you won’t know what hit you.”
He wasn’t playing with me, and I saw red. What had begun as a somewhat playful flouting of my new, stuffy boss’s rules had swiftly developed into a full–blown threat to my career. I’d worked so hard to get here, to lose it now would be unthinkable. I threw open the changing room door, uncaring that my overalls were at my waist, just my bra covering my top half.
“What the fuck?” I snapped. “I was lateonce.The season hasn’t even started back up yet, how could—”
“I don’t want to hear it,” Kristian growled. “Shape up or you’re out. I mean it.” I couldn’t even bring myself to be delighted as his eyes dropped to my breasts. “And put your tits away. This isn’t page three.”
I watched on, stunned as Kristian Wright turned his back on me and stormed away through the garage. Mouth agape, the same mechanic I’d spoken to on arrival caught my eye.
“I warned you.” He shook his head. “He’s not messing around.”
I cast him a withering glare. “Oh, and you can fuck off too.” I slammed the changing room door so hard the whole cubicle rattled. I felt humiliated, my wrist well and truly slapped. Perhaps I had misjudged Kristian’s character. The mechanic was right, hewasn’tmessing around. It was unusual, but not unheard of for a driver to be fired mid–season. McLaren had a raft of drivers lined up to take my place, and though I knew none of them would be as good as I was, Sophia and I had set the team up for winning the constructor’s championshipalready. McLaren wouldn’t necessarily need to score full points from here on in to still come out on top. I couldn’t let someone else reap the rewards of all my hard work. I wasn’t sure whether Kristian had known what he was doing, but his threat had been a red rag to a bull. I scowled, hurriedly dressing. I would show him exactly what he would be missing if he thought to remove me from this team.
I stormed from my cubicle, ignoring Sophia as she tried to sidle up to me, her brows furrowed with sympathy. So, the whole garage had heard my dressing down, hm? That just fuelled my determination.
“Let’s get going,” I muttered to my engineers, snatching my face covering and helmet from my minder as she held them out to me. I tugged the tight Lycra hood over my head, ensuring it was in place correctly before wiggling my head inside my helmet. I felt a cool, steady determination envelop me and I took a deep breath. I was going to show Kristian fucking Wright.
Chapter four
Kristian
Bianca Rossi was pressing my buttons big time, and it alarmed me how much I was enjoying it. She was pushy and stubborn, constantly testing the limits of my patience and I’d only known her two days. When she arrived late to our practice drive, I saw red.
Was it underhanded to threaten her career? Probably, but hard–headed drivers like Rossi only cared about one thing – winning races. If I held that over her, I knew I could get her to toe the line. I prayed she would see sense and wasn’t going to push me that far, but if she did, I would have to make good on my promise to sack her. I doubted the decision to ditch our best, most experienced driver would go down well with Frank Matthews and the rest of the board, but I would rather take that heat than give in to Rossi.
As I arrived at the pit wall, I felt the eyes of the senior team upon me. I snatched up a pair of headphones and put them around my neck.
“Everything sorted?” Carlos asked me.
I snorted. “We’ll see, hm? Let’s take a look at these cars.” I tugged the headphones up over my ears and adjusted the microphone. I flicked to Sophia’s communication channel. “Mic check, Harrington.”
“Received,” came the crackly reply.
