13. Maddock
Maddock
I’m perfectly happy storming through the corridors as the transport team moves things from the garage to the huge trucks that will drive everything nonstop to Austin during the week.
They’re the heart of the operation. If we didn’t have over one thousand people to organize and transport everything, there’s no way we could do any of this.
But that doesn’t change the fact that I want to be alone.
I parked my rental car in the staff lot behind the hangars.
I made sure it was white and inconspicuous.
No one will guess that I’m driving a Toyota Prius after that win.
No one apart from Jacob and the operations manager should have known about it.
So why is a gorgeous redhead leaning against it in a yellow sundress and a wide-brimmed hat in the October desert heat?
My heart freezes, but I have to keep walking toward her. I don’t want her to know I’m stunned at the sight of her. I don’t want her to get a clue about how desperately I want to run to her like we used to do after a race.
Harmony's thick headscarf almost hides her hair and neck, and huge supermodel-sized sunglasses shade her expression, apart from the hitch of red-painted lips that are already driving me crazy. My mouth is actually watering.
I’m only two cars away, but I’m already taking deep breaths through my nose like I’d just been suffocated.
“This is my car,” I say numbly as I reach her.
“Hello to you too.” She nods, and I grit my teeth.
Even just standing this close to her makes me want to tug her to my chest and tell her how much I fucking missed her.
I think she’s going to tease me like in the past, but she reaches up to slip the glasses from her face.
And she hits me with the same expression she had when she walked out of the door all those years ago.
It’s like a shot to the heart, and I nearly flinch back.
“How are you, Maddock?” she says softly. “Congratulations on your win.”
“What are you doing here, Harmony?” I ask coldly.
She trembles as if she’s the one shocked, even though she’s turned up like this. Like she didn’t expect me to speak to her even though she’s the one curved against the car with breasts shaped perfectly by her dress.
“If you haven’t figured that out, you’re dumber than I thought you were,” she says dryly. “You get the opportunity to teach me for the rest of the championship season. Isn’t that exciting?” she says with a fake simper.
My upper lip curls as I look at her, trying to pretend that I’m disgusted even though I want nothing more than to mold my body to hers and kiss her.
Was she always that thin? I don’t remember her jaw being so sharp or her eyes sunken like that.
I remember the young athlete matching me in the gym stride for stride on the treadmill, or hefting 10kg balls to keep her muscle up.
“You shouldn’t even be within ten miles of a fucking racetrack after everything you did,” I hiss.
I'm already pissed off that she’s here. But she’s changed so much, and I hadn't been there for it.
“Oh, you mean how I left F2 for my mental health because I was so stressed that I was downing twenty pills a day just to stay ‘on form’?
You mean that? Or do you mean having to deal with a boyfriend and family who never supported me the moment I said I wanted to act?
Oh, wait, do you mean the fact that you, Maddock, spent every single day of the year berating me because I didn't drive how you wanted me to?”
Then I really do flinch back, because she gives me that look again, the one that says I betrayed her.
I’m too worked up to answer her properly. We’re in a public car park and my alpha senses are screaming at me louder than a fucking engine to hike her dress up and thrust into her.
I can’t talk to her like this. But I also can’t stop myself.
“I meant because we had a single argument and then you left without another word. You didn’t even give me a chance to apologize; you were just gone.”
“It wasn’t a single argument, Maddock. It was years. I needed an alpha, and, in the end, you weren’t it.”
A snarl rips from me, and I nearly lunge for her as I slam my hand against the door of the hot car.
“I could have been if you fucking let me in.”
She dips her head, taking a slow breath, exhaling softly enough that I feel the air whisper over my arm.
I shouldn’t have brought myself in so close, because her scent is welling up in the air and it’s already making me dizzy.
I need to listen to her like I hadn't before I lost her. I need to fucking stop myself, but my goddamn alpha senses are taking over.
We have to take rut blockers during race weekends, but I feel like I’m humming on the edge as her scent brushes over me.
I forgot how sweet she was, how one hit was like biting into fresh fruit as it burst over my tongue. Her scent is so gorgeous that I’m seconds away from burying myself against her neck just to lick her skin and see if she still tastes like heaven.
“Maybe I came here because I didn’t have anywhere else to go,” she says quietly.
“You’re a billionaire, Harmony. There’s nowhere you can’t go,” I said flatly.
“What you read about someone isn’t the same as actually knowing them! You should know that by now!” She presses her lips together, forcing herself back against the car before she gives me another one of those looks.
We stay there, locked together, her anger clear on her face, even though her scent grows stronger every second that ticks by.
She finally sighs. “It’s been three years, Maddock. I didn't come here to argue with you.”
“Then what do you want?” Because I need a chance to pour out all my built-up feelings on her, but I want to be ready so that I actually make sense instead of just a stream of pain over how she left me.
And I need to hear her side of the story, and what the hell I need to change so that she sees me as her alpha again.
“I’m here to train for this charity race and the movie.
You’re here to win the Championships. I’m going to assume you don’t want to be interrupted, just like me.
So I thought I’d come to talk about it so we can both act professionally.
” The corner of her lips hitch as she looks up at me under long lashes.
“Because I sort of want to rip your throat out right now, and I’m doing everything I can to hold back.
This is my job, and I don’t want to mess it up, so what can we do to make this easier on both of us? ”
God, that’s so like her. Then maybe she hasn’t changed at all. Still laser-focused on completely the wrong thing.
I lean in close, my head bumping against her stupid sun hat. My anger gets the best of me as a deep growl rumbles from me.
“There’s a lot of things I want to do to you, Harmony Grace. And ripping your throat out might just be one of them.”
She freezes, sucking in a harsh breath, but it’s too late. The cheekbones that I loved to trace with my fingers dye bright pink as strawberries and cream perfume bursts from her, drowning us in a cloud of juicy scent as she perfumes.
“Maddock…” She says my name so softly that my elbow bends just so I can press closer to her and inhale.
Her deep scent swirls through my body and fills me up, driving me instantly wild.
My omega is right here in my arms after three long years, looking up at me with stark lust, and all I want to do is fall into her and kiss her.
But I can’t give in. She’s just using her perfume to make me dizzy. It isn’t the first time she’s done that. Except, in the past, she always used to laugh as she released it before she kissed me and dragged me to whatever place we could fuck.
And from the way her nostrils flare and her tongue creases her lips, she’s thinking exactly the same thing.