Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Royce
ROUND ELEVEN
Silverstone Qualifying - Home Race
I’ve finished in the top three with each race. But this one feels like a bigger deal. It’s my home race, plus, this time last year I publicly broke up with my ex, who is now married to my dad.
Scrubbing my face as I sit in my room, nerves bite at my neck.
I smell her before I see her. Lifting my eyes to the door, there she is. Tiny skirt, boob tube, and chunky sandals.
The sun is shining, a welcome change as for the last two weeks, we’ve had grey skies and rain.
“You feeling okay?” she asks, laptop clung to her chest.
“Mm, even better now.” I smirk, and she wiggles her brows.
“Is that so?” She steps into the room and kicks the door closed. Walking over to me, she places her laptop and phone on the small side table then stands between my legs, her hands locked around the back of my head.
“Yeah.” I tilt my head back slightly so I am looking at her. I don’t want to tell her that I am nervous.
My cock is already stirring in my boxers, my suit around my waist. We have qualifying in an hour, and I was praying the car would drive as well as it has done over the last couple of months.
I turn to look at her laptop, then back to her. “How was your morning of writing?” My lips twitch knowing full well I was fucking her into my mattress only a few hours ago.
“Very well, I was feeling…” She glances away, her cheeks turning pink. “Inspired.”
“Oh yeah?” A brow raises, and her lips purse.
She nods, climbing onto my lap and my fingers circle over her thighs.
The look of want glistens in her eyes, and I know I shouldn’t.
I can’t afford to be reckless, not when I am climbing the points.
But at the same time, I don’t want to be distracted.
Locking my hand behind her head, I drag her lips to mine and kiss her, our tongues dancing as our kiss grows messy.
“Nora is going to be coming for you soon,” she whispers against my lips, her fingers fumbling with the hem of my underwear top.
“Then we better hurry up.” I grin, lifting her up onto her knees whilst I pull my race suit and boxers down, my cock hard and ready.
“The door isn’t locked.” Panic laces her voice, her head turning in that direction.
“Eyes on me,” I rasp, pulling her eyes back to mine.
“What about...”
Her words die off as I skim my palm up her thigh and drag her panties to the side, lining myself up. My spare hand pushes her skirt up around her waist and I moan at the fucking sight of her.
“We could get caught,” she panics.
“Fuck it,” I moan, sliding myself to the hilt as I fuck her with relentless pounds.
Running into the garage, Nora eyes me and I give her a playful wink. “You’re late.”
I shrug. “Not too late, though.” I grin and she shakes her head.
It’s not hard to work out. She puts two and two together when Athena walks through the room, hair wild, eyes hazy, cheeks flushed.
I fucked her twice, once on the sofa, once against the wall. I can smell her all over me. She drives me fucking wild.
Grabbing my helmet from the shelf, I tug it on and lower myself into the car. Cowan is already out, and I fall a minute or two behind him. The car feels good. It feels steady. There is something different about driving at your home race, the crowd cheer that little bit louder.
Marcel is in my ear. “Radio check.”
“Loud and clear.”
Rolling down the straight, I take this first lap easy, warming the tyres. “Keep me posted on the other guys’ times,” I speak to Marcel as I pull out of sector one.
“Will do, Royce. You just keep your head down,” he mutters back to me.
Going silent on him, I try my hardest to push aside the visions of her bouncing up and down on my cock this morning, milking me of all I had. Batting the thoughts away, I needed to focus. My fingers tighten around the steering wheel as I veer towards the finish line.
“Looking good, Royce. Pick up the pace, tyres are at a good temperature.”
We stick with softs for this round; I want to see how they perform. I have clean air in front of me, sucking it through the car as I glide around the track. Approaching the finish line, I cross it and wait for Marcel to tell me where I landed.
“P5, Royce, you can do better.”
“Cowan?” I ask, my voice vibrating.
“P4.”
“Fuck,” I groan.
I push with all I have for the last lap of Q3, I cross the line in P4, knocking Cowan down two places.
Rolling the car back into the pits, I am jacked up and pulled into the garage. The engineers place the tyre covers back over the wheels, trying to keep the temperatures up.
My dad hops over to see me, giving me a pat on the top of my crash helmet. I flick my visor up, my eyes bouncing between his.
“You’re doing well.” He holds his thumb up. “I am so proud of you.”
My heart jolts in my chest. I will never tire of hearing those words pass his lips. He is my hero. All I ever wanted to be when I grew up was my dad.
“Where is Athena?” I ask, and he gives me a small smile.
“Sitting in your room writing, that’s what Edel said, anyway.”
I nod. I’m glad she’s writing. I hate that I miss her though.
He gives me a wink before disappearing out back. It’s rare that he is here for qualifying. He is always lurking, but he doesn’t spend much time watching. Mainly just race days.
“Ready?” Glenn comes through my radio.
I slap my visor down as the covers come off and I am pulling back into the pits, sliding behind Cowan.
I feel like we have been better since our little rumble in the hallway, we’re still not best friends, but we’re getting along and that’s something.
I am well into the points for the chances of my first championship, and with thirteen rounds to go, I am feeling positive.
I fly around the track and put it into P2 start for the Silverstone race. Once I’m back in the garage, I push from the car and drag the helmet from my head, then tug my balaclava off.
We have press meetings to do then I am free for the evening.
“Royce.” Glenn pulls my elbow back. “Quick team briefing,” he mutters, a tight smile on his lips as he makes his way across to Cowan’s garage.
Placing my helmet on the rack, I pad my way through to my room to see her sitting with her headphones on, tapping away on her laptop. Walking in, I stand beside her as she turns to look up at me, a wide smile on her face. I smile back, gripping her chin and lowering my lips to hers.
“Hi,” I breathe.
“Hi,” she whispers back against my lips. “I was watching.” She grabs her phone and wiggles it in front of me.
“Good.” I stand, tossing my balaclava on the sofa next to her. “I’ve got to do a quick briefing and press meeting. Shouldn’t be more than an hour.”
“Okay.” She smiles, closing the lid of her laptop and pushing her headphones down around her neck. “I think I am going to pop back home after the race tomorrow. Spend a week or so there. Plus, I have a meeting with my agent.” She licks her lips.
“I’ll come with?” I furrow my brow, already the thought of not being with her sinking anxiety into my chest.
“Course.” Her eyes dance with mine “My place is tiny compared to yours, though.” She giggles softly.
“Baby,” I croon, “we could live anywhere and I would be happy, as long as I was with you.”
She pushes to her feet, her arms locking around my neck as she kisses me.
“I’ve got to go,” I groan and she presses her forehead to mine.
“I’ll see you soon.” She beams, pushing onto her tip toes and stealing one last kiss.
Sitting in briefing, I drum my fingertips on the table. Glenn and Pascal are talking about some small changes they’re having to make to the car following reports of us not keeping within the regulations. It’s bullshit, but it happens.
“Is this going to have a big impact?” Cowan asks and I turn to look at him.
“No, it’s miniscule. But because it’s been reported, and found, we need to remove it.”
Sighing, I tilt my head back to look at the ceiling.
“And our qualifying places still stand?” he asks.
That’s the big question. If the FIA deem it to be reason for our laps, then this could look really bad for us.
“At the moment, yes.” Glenn flits his eyes to Pascal and I shake my head side to side. “You both drove really well today I can’t remember the last time we had both our drivers in the top five.” His eyes bounce between mine and Cowan.
“Why did you touch the car?” My tone is sharp as I look at him, narrowing my gaze.
“Sorry?” Glenn raises a brow.
“Why did you add something to the car when we have all told you not to?”
Glenn scoffs a laugh. “It was a small upgrade.”
“An upgrade that wasn’t needed. An upgrade that could now cost Cowan and I our qualifying.” Cowan agrees next to me.
He swallows, his throat bobbing. “We had been speaking to the analysts about how we could make the car even better.”
“It didn’t need to be better; it needed to be kept the same as it was. It’s been amazing and now, because you were told by the tech gang, you did it anyway?”
Pascal puffs his cheeks out.
“Did you know about this, Pascal?”
He flicks his eyes to mine. “I learned about it five minutes ago.”
“Shit.” I half laugh. “What is it that you changed?” I ask, looking away.
“We made some changes to the power unit.”
“Oh my God.” A laugh bubbles out of me, and I swear it’s not funny, but I am past it.
I scrub my face before fisting my phone out and clicking on my dad’s number. He answers on the first ring.
“I’m assuming you’ve heard,” he grunts down the phone. He is walking, I can hear the sound of his shoes hitting the ground.
“Heard what?” I blink, nerves prick at the base of my neck, and I know where this is going.
“You and Cowan have both had your times deleted. You’ll be starting from the pit lane tomorrow.”
“Fuck.” I slam my hand on the table, pushing to my feet as anger rips through me. “Did you know?” I hiss into the speaker. “Did you know that our car had been reported due to an upgrade?”
“No… No, I didn’t.”