Living the Charade

‘I have an idea.’

She leaned towards him conspiratorially and his eyes instantly fell to the deep V the movement made in her black T-shirt.

‘What?’

‘I’ll race you!’

It took him a second to get his mind off her cleavage, and by that time she was already two cart lengths ahead of him. Valentino felt his competitor’s spirit champing at the bit.

Little witch. She had deliberately distracted him.

As he followed her the feeling that he was very much in trouble with this new, more relaxed Miller returned. In fact, possibly he’d been in trouble all along.

He’d sensed this latent fire in her nature many times over the weekend at TJ Lyons’s, and after listening to her story about her childhood he could see how she had locked herself down to a certain extent to achieve her goals. Which he admired. It took a lot of fortitude to achieve what she had done, and even though he felt that her reasoning had been a little skewed by her mother’s fears, he couldn’t fault her execution. She’d devised a plan for herself and she’d worked diligently to achieve it. A bit like himself.

Tino kept pace with her, challenging her lead on one of the easier corners but never taking over. For once he was happy to take the back seat in a competition.

He came up beside her and signalled one more lap. He saw determination set in her face and had to smile. If she but knew it he could take her in a heartbeat.

He upped the pressure as they headed towards the home straight and his heart nearly exploded in his chest as her cart veered to the side and headed full speed towards a railing that had yet to be lined with safety material.

‘The brake! Dammit, Miller, hit the brake!’

He knew she couldn’t hear him, and he was powerless to do anything but watch. It was like seeing his father head towards that concrete barrier all over again. The feelings of pain and loss were so powerful, so ferocious, he tasted bile in his mouth.

By some dumb stroke of luck her car pulled up an inch before the railing. Tino vaulted out of his cart and wrenched her helmet off before he’d taken his next breath.

‘What were you thinking?’ he all but bellowed as he took in her wild eyes and laughing face.

‘Oh, my God. I nearly hit the rail!’ Her voice was vibrating with both adrenalin and mild shock.

‘That was a bloody stupid thing to do.’

‘I didn’t mean to,’ she said indignantly. ‘My heel got caught under the brake pedal.’

Her heel... Tino glanced down at her feet and noted the delicate heels on boots he’d only seen as cute. Damn, he hadn’t even considered her footwear when he’d made the impromptu decision to take her out on the track.

He swore under his breath. Ironically, he’d never felt more scared of anything in his life than seeing Miller hurtle towards that railing.

‘Hey, relax.’ She was still smiling as she pulled herself out of the cart. ‘It was just a bit of— Oh!’ She threw her hand out and gripped his forearm as her legs buckled beneath her weight. ‘My legs feel like jelly.’ She laughed and locked her knees. ‘I think that was better than sex.’

Tino shook his head, his sense of humour gone. ‘Those carts top out at sixty ks an hour. You could have been seriously hurt.’

And why was he yelling at her when it was his own fault?

‘I’m sorry if you were worried.’ She tightened her grip, suddenly becoming aware of his over-reaction at the same time as he did.

‘Of course I was worried. I don’t think we have insurance on this place yet.’

‘I don’t know what to say.’ She looked stricken. ‘Are you okay?’

Tino collected the helmets. ‘Fine.’ He clamped down on his emotions with vicious intent, doing his best to stanch the fierce male rage that flooded him. The desire to grab her, crush her up against the nearest wall and pump himself inside her was like a savage animal riding him hard.

Instead, he shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts, and stalked off towards the equipment room. He could see Andy striding across the track and deliberately headed in the other direction. He needed to do something. Hit something.

‘Tino!’ Miller called after him, and he could hear her clipped footsteps on the concrete behind him. He lengthened his strides. ‘Tino?’

Dimly he registered that she had stopped walking, and he pivoted around and stared at her. Her beautiful face was pale with concern. She approached him with the caution of a lion tamer without a whip and chair.