Chapter 42
Chapter Forty-Two
ROME
A text message from Tessa flashes over the screen in my car, and I instantly become engaged. I pull over, two streets away from my house, because waiting until I get home to text her back seems too long.
Tess
So…
That’s what her message says?
I sigh and decide to let her sweat a little by acting completely nonchalant over what just happened at her parents’ house.
Try admitting you’re in love with someone and showing them just how much by taking them on top of a dresser in their childhood bedroom then walking downstairs to hang out with her family as if nothing life-altering had just occurred.
Me
Hey, what’s up?
I turn my headlights off and rest my head against the seat, phone in hand.
Tess
What do you mean “what’s up”? You know what’s up!
That’s where she’s wrong.
When it comes to her, I’m uncertain of just about everything. Besides what she calls through the radio during a race, I’m flying blind where she’s concerned.
Me
You tell me.
My chest fills with air, and I exhale slowly. The typing bubble appears, then disappears, and then appears again.
The moment my phone vibrates, my stomach knots.
Tess
You told me you were in love with me.
I sure fucking did.
Me
I know.
The bubbles pop up again, and this time, her message comes swift.
Tess
And?
Does she want me to pretend like I didn’t say it? Take it back? Say it again?
Me
And what?
She has me all tangled up. I can’t think straight.
Tess
Well…did you mean it?
There is no hesitation.
Of course I meant it. Can’t she feel it? It’s nearly suffocating.
Me
I don’t say things I don’t mean, Tess.
Tess
You weren’t just caught up in the moment?
I think the moment has lasted long enough, and I’m not going to pretend it’s anything less than what it is–wrong or not.
Me
I’m caught up in you, Tessa. Not a moment, not a kiss, not a fleeting glare from across the table in the middle of a meeting. Just you.
The bubble of her typing pops up again, and this time, it stays. My pulse thrums the longer she makes me wait to the point that I flick my headlights on, ready to drive over to her house.
Tess
Fine. Then we need to set some…boundaries. At least until the season is over.
Fear claws up my back.
Me
What kind of boundaries?
“Fuck,” I mutter.
I just laid it all out on the line for her, and for what? For her to set boundaries between us? If she expects me to work alongside her, knowing her heart doesn’t stop when I walk into a room like mine when she does, then she’s going to be upset.
Tess
We can’t fraternize at work or in front of the media.
When we’re practicing, we stay focused. When we’re in a meeting, you can’t brush your hand against my thigh beneath the table and expect me to not blush, because I will, and then I’ll forget my own name.
When you’re in the thick of a race, we’re nothing more than what everyone believes we are: racer and engineer.
My pulse is off the charts, and my fingers speed across the screen.
Me
And when we’re not doing those things? Then what?
Say it. Please.
I’ve never wanted something more in my entire life.
I thought sitting behind the wheel with a taste of victory on my tongue as I pulled up to the podium was the only thing I’d ever want in this world.
But God, was I wrong.
I want her. My little spitfire of an engineer and her sweet breaths in my ear.
Tess
Then I’m yours.
I exhale, and it’s like breathing for the first time.
She’s mine, and suddenly nothing else matters to me.
Me
Then say it.
I don’t have to explain.
She knows what I want.
My phone vibrates in my hand, and I answer her call without thought.
She exhales, and I wish I could feel it against my skin.
“I love you more than I’ve ever hated you, Rome Alexander Pierce.”
Her words stun me.
“Now go to sleep. I expect you to be ready to go tomorrow so we can be prepared for this week.”
My lip curves. “So bossy.”
“Goodnight, Rome.” There's a smile in her voice, and I find myself smiling too.
“Night, Princess…I love you.”
I wait with a tight chest.
“I love you too,” she says, hanging up a second later.
My cheeks ache by the time I pull into my garage. I drag a feeble hand down my face, in an attempt to wipe my smile away. I’m not sure how I’m going to sleep tonight, especially with my sheets still smelling like her.
I round the front of my car and stop dead in my tracks. A leather shoe is in my peripheral, snapping my spine into place.
“What are you doing here?” There isn’t a breeze in the air, yet I’m ice cold.
I knew he’d be arriving in Vegas soon, for the race, but I didn’t expect him to show up at my house.
My father’s steps are steady, each foot dragging over my driveway until he’s right at the edge of my garage. I look him directly in the eye without even a fraction of the fear I once held when it came to him.
“Surely you expected this.” He slips his hands into his pockets casually. “Just like I expected you to end up in between Vince’s daughter’s legs.”
He’s baiting me.
I shake with anger but bite down on my tongue to keep myself from giving him the reaction he wants.
When he realizes I’m not playing his games, he tilts his head and laughs.
“I don’t think he’s going to be so open to having you on his team when he realizes what you’ve been doing behind his back.
” He pulls his hand out of his pocket with something held in between his fingers.
“And then there’s the FIA. I don’t think they’re going to be too pleased to know you’re fucking your engineer either. ”
“There aren’t any rules prohibiting fraternization in the sense of personal relationships.”
I’ve looked it up, so he can take his fear tactics and get the fuck off my property.
He clicks his tongue, and something snaps inside of me.
“And it’s really rich of you to stand on my property and preach what the FIA will or won’t be pleased about.” I cross over the threshold of my garage and press a finger into his chest. “Because if they knew what you did to my car for a chance to win, you’d be banned for life.”
He looks at my finger, and I snatch it away before he can grab onto it.
“Yeah, well, they don’t know, and what they don’t know won’t hurt them.”
I scoff. “But fuck me, right?”
He rolls his eyes. “I didn’t realize I raised you to be so dramatic. You didn’t die, Rome. You hardly even sustained an injury.”
I laugh sarcastically. “You didn’t raise me to be anything but your fucking puppet behind the wheel.”
He looks at my house, and it’s obvious he’s judging the size of it. Then he scans the cars in my garage before swinging back to me. “Sure looks like you were a puppet…”
“Leave,” I say as level-headed as I can.
“Sure.” He rocks back on his heels. “But what was it you said about the FIA not having any rules prohibiting fraternization in the sense of personal relationships? Do you think this would go against any ethical codes?”
Whatever was in his hand slips from his fingers, floating to the ground in between us. I follow the flimsy paper until it lands at my feet, and I’m suddenly rocked to the core.
“You can keep it. I have copies.”
Fuck.
By the time my ears stop ringing, he’s already taking off down the street with nothing but his taillights in sight.
I bend at the knees, and vomit hits the back of my throat.
A grainy picture of us in Spain, me in my race suit and Tessa on her knees with my dick in her mouth, moments before the race, stares back at me.