Page 52 of Not So Fast
“If anything is making you stronger, you are doing that for yourself. And I would argue you don’t need to be any stronger. You’re plenty strong.” She rolled her hand over the top of his shoulder, then trailed her fingers down his biceps.
He reined her in closer and kissed the top of her head. “Not sure what I did to deserve your generosity of spirit, Mia, but I’ll take it.”
She looked up at him, marveling at how sweet he could be. “It’s just my natural reaction to you.”
“Come on.” He handed her a helmet, then closed the cabinet. “Let me show you the real definition of speed.”
“You aren’t going to kill me, are you?”
“I won’t let a single thing happen to you or your pretty little head.” He strapped on his helmet, effortlessly swung one long leg over the beast of a motorized vehicle, then offered his hand. “Need some help?”
Mia wiggled into her helmet and buckled the chinstrap. “I think I’ve got it.” She stepped up onto the side platform, then climbed on board.
“Mmm,” he said, reaching back for her leg and hooking his hand under her knee. “I like feeling your legs wrapped around me.” He started the engine. It sputtered then roared to life, with a relentless rumble between Mia’s legs that had her nearly as hot as Xander. “Hold on.”
Mia reflexively wrapped her arms around his waist and gripped his hips with her thighs, clamping down hard. With a jerk, they roared out of the garage and down one of the many dirt roads on his property, bumpy as fuck, jostling her like nothing she’d ever experienced. He took no time getting up to speed and that made the ride a bit smoother, probably because they were now flying over every little imperfection in the road. Excitement bubbled up inside her and a musical laugh burst from her mouth. That made him go faster, which made her cling tighter. Excitement turned to delicious danger. She sensed the daredevil in him, the parts he kept locked away until race day… Witnessing it firsthand was dizzying.
He slowed down and came to a stop atop a hill with a wide view of the countryside. Xander killed the engine, then waitedfor Mia to climb off. She didn’t want to let go of her grip on him, but she was happy for a moment to catch her breath, unclench her legs and allow her internal organs to settle back into their original locales. Xander removed his helmet, shaking out his hair, which obediently fell into disarray. It was one of the sexiest things she’d ever witnessed.
Together, they climbed a few yards up to the highest point and stood for a moment in silence, surveying the kaleidoscope of green in the patchwork of this land, marked by crisscrossing lines of trees and low stone walls cutting through in graceful swoops. Straight ahead, the sun was slowly dipping toward the horizon. Birds chirped.
“It’s so lovely here. So peaceful,” she said.
“I know. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.”
“Do you feel left out by not living in Monaco?” The majority of drivers had their home base there, partly to avoid taxes.
Xander remained fixated on the view. “I always feel at least a little left out of this sport.”
“You aren’t saying that because you’ve been struggling, are you? You deserve your seat. You can’t listen to what the mayor said.”
He laughed and looked over at her, his eyes full of certainty, like he could see right through her. “You just love to take a thought and run with it, don’t you?”
She pressed her lips together tightly. “It’s my superpower.”
Xander directed his gaze to the ground. “It’s more my background. Most of the other drivers walked into the sport with incredible sums of money behind them. Fortunes. Sponsors from a young age. Or with some sort of legacy, like a father or grandfather who’d raced before them. I had none of that. Iguess that has just stuck with me. That feeling like I’m looking in from the outside.”
Mia could relate to that statement like nothing else. Her whole life she’d felt as though she was on the outside of everything, with her nose pressed to the glass. That was one of the things she loved so much about her podcast. It washerworld because she’d created it. She would always belong there, no matter what.
“That’s one of the things I admire about you, Xander. You’ve gotten as far as you have without all those advantages. It’s so impressive. You defied the odds.”
“Let’s hope I can defy a few more over the course of my career.”
“You will. I know it.”
“We should probably head back. It’ll be dark soon and the light on the ATV is terrible.”
When they turned, she spotted a house in the opposite direction. “Who lives there?” She pointed to a quaint ivy-covered home, standing alone, off in the distance.
“My family. That’s the house where I grew up.”
“Oh, wow.” It was several days into her stay and although they’d talked about his family and she knew from her general knowledge of the drivers that his family lived nearby, she hadn’t known their house was so close. “Do you see them often?”
He nodded. “Once a week or so. It depends. More during the offseason.”
Mia kept waiting for more, like perhaps an invitation to meet them, but it didn’t come. Which was fine. Meeting someone’s family meant things were serious, when as near as she could tell, what she and Xander were doing was merelyfun. A brief respite from the stresses they had both been living with lately. She needed to remember that, even when it left her feeling vulnerable. She wanted more of him. So much more. And she’d probably always be left feeling like her time with Xander had never been enough.
“I’ve been thinking.” He took her hand. “You’re already over here. If you want, you could come to the next race. In Austria.”
