Danger (The Driven World)

Is there hope for me? For us?

“Maybe you’re right.”

“Oh, I am. You’re nothing like Dad because you’re not a psychopath. You know what it’s like to love someone, and you love Monterey. It’s so obvious.”

I do love her, I always will.

“Thank you, Isabella.” I grab my burger and just before I take a bite I ask her, “And who’s this guy you love?”

It’s dark by the time I make it over to Monterey’s ranch-style home in the Hills. She’s home.

I head toward her front door, my heart hammering in my chest. I’ve never been in love before, but the more I think about it, the more I realize it’s been love all along.

I raise my hand to knock on her door, but it flings open and Monterey stands there in her signature one-piece pink dress with a slit up the right leg. The designer of those dresses is a fucking genius, and I’m thankful Monterey loves wearing them.

“Dylan, I was just coming to find you.”

“You were?”

“Yes, I wanted to see how things went with Isabella.” This woman… I don’t know what I did to deserve her.

I step closer. “That’s not why you were coming to see me.”

She blinks. “Yes it was.”

A cocky smile pulled up my lips. I’m not playing fair, and I don’t care. In war and love they say, right?

“No it wasn’t. You were coming to tell me you love me.”

She opens her mouth to protest but then steps back, crossing her arms over her chest, pushing up her cleavage just for me, those beauties begging for my attention. “Is that why you’re here.”

I wrap an arm around her waist. “Abso-fucking-lutely.” I kiss her, not letting her get away from me. I don’t think I’ll ever let her get away from me ever again. “I love you,” I tell her once I break the kiss. “You’re the race of my life, Monterey.”

Her eyes bore into mine, full of happy tears. Full of hope. “I love you too.”

And then we kiss, and keep on kissing. That beautiful mouth belongs to me, and I can’t get enough.

She’s like the fuel that keeps me going for life, and I’ll never let her go. Because she has done what I once thought was impossible.

Monterey Grander tamed the baddest of bad boys.

Epilogue

Danger

Five years later

“Have you read the news today?” Monterey asks me, entering the nook where I’m having breakfast with Pearl—our nine month old baby girl—in my arms. We named her after my mother. She plays with the pancakes from my plate, while I try to put something in her little mouth.

“No, why?” That kind of stuff stopped bothering me eons ago. My life is so full, I couldn’t care less about gossip.

“They’re making a fuss about the fact someone recorded a video of you kissing a woman in a dark corner in the ballroom.”

Last night, one of the major team sponsors hosted a party in the Wilshire Beverly Hills hotel, our attendance was mandatory. And if I’m being honest I enjoy going to those events, having Monterey on my arm.

“And all the scandal is about me being said woman…” she puffs. “What a shame, smooching your wife. They’re saying you’re a walking cliché. The epitome of the reformed bad boys.”

I laugh at her indignation. This is fun indeed.

“Why do you care that much?” I ask her, balancing Pearl on my leg, making her laugh too.

“Because you’re a living legend. The best Indy driver, you have won five championships in a row, rejected a F1 contract because you want us to keep working together. You’re richer than God himself, and they’re worried because someone without a life found you kissing your wife?”

I crack up again at the sight of her red face. “I could be a reformed bad boy, but I never promised to behave. So if I want to kiss you whenever and wherever, well dammit, I will.” And it’s a fact I do it often. My hands are always all over her because I can’t get enough. Her beautiful body nurtured after giving birth to our baby girl, making it more delectable in my eyes. I love my woman. And I make sure everyone in this world knows it too.

Monterey heads over to me, taking Pearl from my hands. She bounces our daughter on her hip and I smile at the knowledge that this is my family now. When I told Isabella we wanted to name the baby after our mother, she couldn’t be happier. Monterey thought Pearl was the perfect name to honor the woman who gave birth to me.

The woman who tried to protect her children the best way she knew how.

And Aunt Isabella comes over all the time, spoiling my daughter with as much love as she has to give, and then a little more on top of that.