Page 34 of Too Fast To Fall
“Of course.”
He stepped closer while Piper threaded her hand through the wrist strap she’d added to the end of Gus’s leash. The anticipationof the hug threatened to swallow her whole, but she did it anyway. And when he returned the embrace and his arms snugged aroundher, she was pressed against the firm plane of his chest. A long-lost sensation fluttered in her stomach. It was more thanrelief that their chilly dynamic was warming. It was more than surprise that she was hugging someone she’d never thought she’dmeet. She...wantedhim. Bad. Questions spun in her head like a tornado.Was this hug a bad idea? Foolish? Shortsighted? Oh, God. Am I sweating?
Just then, there was a tightness across the back of her legs. “What the…?” She looked to the side and spotted Gus trottingpast them.
“Gus... what are you doing?” Emilio asked with a leading tone.
That tightness was a strap. From Gus’s retractable leash. He was running circles around them. Coiling her and Emilio in it.Binding them together. Leaving them nowhere to go. Emilio slid his hand to the small of Piper’s back. She followed suit, astonishedby every defined muscle as her fingertips roved, but the change in position left their hips pressed into each other. A dizzyingwave of heat stormed through her. She was about to catch fire.
“Gus, stop!” Emilio called.
Gus took a few more steps, then came to a halt. At the end of his leash. Then he rose up on his hind legs and licked Emilio’scheek. Piper and Emilio could only stare at each other, blinking in disbelief, laughing.
“What did I say about not letting himoffhis leash?” she asked. “I didn’t think that idea would be disproven so soon.”
Emilio peered down at her. His cocoa-brown eyes swirled with mystery. She could get lost in them, trying to decipher whatwent on in his head. “Gus keeps pushing us together.”
“It’s like he’s trying to tell us something.” Piper’s face and body were aflame. It was a four-alarm fire. Every square inchof her ablaze. And she wondered if Emilio felt even a fraction of the heat she did.
Eight
Emilio had some good to take home from Imola—namely, his best race performance of the year. Progress was progress. Or at leastthat was what he was telling himself. Most notably, he felt a shift in his thinking. Piper’s little sayings were stickingto him.Everything you need is already inside you.
He’d hesitated to buy into such a simple concept. After all, racing was an incredibly complicated sport. But on some level,what she’d said made sense. In fact, he couldn’t get it out of his head. So much in his life had changed, but he was stillthe same person and driver he’d been last year. He had wins and podiums in him. Was success that far away? If he simply kepthis focus? God, he wanted to believe it was.
Unfortunately,focuswas a moving target. He felt distracted when Piper was around, especially when she was performing magic tricks like managingto please Mega Racing with Gus’s social media or walking around being a ray of sunshine with the most lethal blue eyes he’dever seen. Even so, she was also the person helping clear the fog in his head. And he couldn’t deny she was doing her jobfar better than anyone before her. Gus adored her, and that made everything easier. She was like an angel who bedeviled himevery moment of the day. Essential to his life right now, but also the definition of playing with fire.
He was drawn to her. Attraction didn’t begin to explain it, especially since that true embrace in the paddock with Gus bindingthem together. Forget having to shake the dream—that had been real life and the reverberations still echoed inside him.
Piper strolled into the living room, where Emilio had started unpacking boxes in anticipation of Xander and Mia’s visit fordinner tomorrow evening. Gus was curled up on the couch. “Well, now my sisters are grilling me. They don’t believe we aren’tromantically involved.” Piper planted her hands on her hips as if to confront him. In a pair of loose-fitting jeans and asnug white tee that clung perfectly to her breasts.
It was hard not to feast on the image. He cleared his throat in an attempt to also clear his mind. “They saw the photos ofus at the security gate?” It was ridiculous that everyone was reading so much into those images—although he’d enjoyed thatmoment of closeness with Piper, it had been nothing more than an innocent split-second decision. He’d wanted to protect her.That was all.
“There’s more now. Thanks to our buddy, Gus, and prying eyes in the paddock.” She stepped closer and handed over her phone.“Look.”
The image was comical—the two of them in an embrace, lashed together by Gus’s leash. They were laughing at Gus like parentsamused by their mischievous child. But there was something else there in the photo, one unmistakable takeaway, and it wasn’tthe feelings of want and need he’d already acknowledged to himself. He and Piper looked good together. Like they would fittogether.
Obviously, that was a fantastical idea. Even if they kissed, or had sex, it couldn’t mean anything... Piper was leavingin a few weeks, and his life was still in disarray. Why would she want any part of his jumbled, dysfunctional life? She wasalready being brave by stepping into it for a short time. “I’m sorry this is happening. It’s part of the world of F1. Is thisgoing to be a problem for you?”
She stepped closer. “Not really. I mean, my sisters both think you’re super hot, and honestly, so does my mom, so they’remostly just jealous. I told them it was nothing.”
“Right. There’s nothing going on.” It was more than a statement of the obvious. It was a good reminder that everything wassimpler that way.
“They don’t believe me. And they’re questioning whether I’m ever going to come home.” She laughed quietly and shook her head.“Obviously, I’m going to go home. I told them that.”
Emilio had wondered several times if there might be a way to convince Piper to return to her dog nanny duties after her sister’swedding. He didn’t have a good feeling about it. She’d told him flat out that her family was the most important thing in herlife. That she couldn’t imagine living anywhere but Florida. “I’m sorry about the silliness with the photos. If I could controlit, I would. We just have to wait for the story to go away.”
“Will the team be upset?”
“I’d hear from Isabel if they were. Judging by how much they love Gus’s newfound fame, I’m guessing no.”
“Okay, then.” She surveyed the room. “What can I do to help?” She stepped over to one of four short stacks of boxes and peekedinside. When she bent over, a bare stretch of her lower back was revealed.
Emilio averted his eyes. He didn’t need to be more tempted. “You don’t have to help. That’s not what I hired you to do.”
Piper admonished him with a tilt of her head and a stare. “Do you really think I care about that? I’m doing your dog’s socialmedia now. I love to stay busy. Put me to work.”
He knew better than to argue. “It’s mostly books in these boxes. They’re just going on the shelves.” Emilio pointed to thebuilt-ins that lined one side of the living room.
