Dare me.Fucking dare me to.
I saw the moment she nearly reached for me. The way her body swayed half an inch toward mine. The way she wanted this just as much as I did.
“You're wrong,” I whispered.
I didn't know why I said it like that. Why I said it like an invitation.
Because her breath quickened, eyes trailing over my face, then my chest, all the way down to my suit—halfway unzipped, clinging to my waist. Her teeth grazed her bottom lip, just for a second.
Arousal crashed into me as I remembered how her lips felt between mine, how her sweat tasted, how her body had molded against mine like she was made for me.
Shit.
And then I saw the cameras. My chest seized. Reality hit like a red flag. I shut it down—hard. I stepped back, just a little, but it wasenough. Her eyes searched mine, but I was already gone. The walls slammed into place. The fire extinguished.
I didn't give her the chance to say anything else. Just turned on my heel and walked away. I didn't let her see the way my hands shook the second I turned. Didn't let her know I'd never hated myself more than I did right then.
I could still feel the weight of her eyes on me. Like she was the only gravity I'd ever known.
That adrenaline still coursing through me, leaving me too wired and restless? Yeah, I had no outlet for it again, and that only meant bad things. Like lying awake at night, hard as fuck, with her name stuck in my throat and no way to forget how she felt in my arms.
I wouldn’t even let myself jerk off to her again. As if holding back would somehow fix the fact that I already wanted her more than my next win.
FUCK.
The heatofJeddahwas fucking brutal, even as the sun began to dip below the horizon.
I'd never liked desert races. The heat was brutal—on the body, on the mind. It made everything worse.
Tires degraded faster. Focus slipped.
AndAurélie. She was everywhere.
Her car darted through the tight corners of theJeddahcircuit with newfound aggression, every adjustment her team had made clearly fucking paying off. She was faster, and she was coming for me.
The paddock buzzed with activity.FP2had wrapped minutes ago, and I should've been in my garage, debriefing with my team.
Instead, I was standing in the pit lane near theLuminisgarage. And I couldn't stop watching her.
She was perched on a stool, still in her race suit, though she'd peeled it halfway down to her waist, leaving just theLuminisfire suit hugging her frame.
And fuck me, that fire suit was tight. The fabric clung to her, damp in places from the heat, outlining every lean muscle and every curve. Her blonde hair was damp as well, strands sticking to her temples. Her flushed skin glowed under the dim lights. She washunched over a tablet, completely engrossed in data, fingers tapping against the screen, lips parting slightly when she frowned at something.
She nodded at whatever her engineer said, mouth moving in quiet conversation. She was focused. Completely locked in.
My gloves creaked in my grip, fingers aching with restraint. I dragged a hand down my face. No use. She was still under my skin.
Then she laughed. It was quiet. A small chuckle at something her engineer had said, her lips twitching at the corners. But it fucking wrecked me. That wasmylaugh. She laughed like that atme. Not at some random fucking engineer who didn't even know how to takeEauRouge flat-out.
Something ugly twisted in my stomach and made my insides boil. I fucking hated how much I wanted her eyes on me. Wanted to rip her attention away. Just once. Just now.
She wasn't even acknowledging me.
Aurélieshifted. Not much. Just a subtle tilt of her head—but her gaze flicked up. For a fraction of a second. A glance. A single, fleeting fucking acknowledgment.
She didn't react. Didn't give me a single goddamn thing. Just looked away dismissively, like I wasn't even standing here. Like I was nothing. Like I hadn’t ground my cock against her with her legs wrapped around me. Like she hadn't begged for it with her mouth on mine.
My fingers curled tighter, my breathing heavier now.
