Chapter 32
ASHLEY
Carly: Are we watching the race or skipping? I know the guys told you it was too dangerous and blah blah blah so…do we just skip and get cocktails at the hotel bar?
W hen the guys had said the cars would be provided for the race, so no one risked their own priceless babies in potentially crashing, I’d assumed we’d be driving Toyotas and Subarus. Maybe a couple of Mazdas. But really, I should have known better.
“This feels wrong,” I groaned as I buckled my modified racing seat belt in the cherry-red Corvette we’d been assigned. “What if it gets damaged?”
Carter just grinned from the passenger seat. “Well, then, it’s a good thing it’s not your car, right? Besides, I thought you were a good driver…just don’t crash.”
I rolled my eyes. “Thanks a lot.” Now that we were lined up with the other cars, I was regretting not taking the opportunity to drive a test lap.
If nothing else, to work out how hard or soft I needed to brake on the ice.
Although I had experience driving on slippery roads already, this was a legit frozen lake; it could be drastically different handling.
A shiver of cold ran through me, and I briefly rubbed at my arms. I’d shed my coat in favor of better movement, but now I was cold as shit. Or maybe that was nerves getting to me. There were about twenty cars in the race, but only one that I needed to beat.
I didn’t need to win—I just needed to beat the pearly white Jaguar revving at the start line four cars away. Apparently, Carter and I weren’t the only ones breaking our own agreement.
“I’m shocked Royce didn’t manage to sign up,” I murmured, running my hands over the steering wheel nervously. “He’ll be pissed to sit this out.”
Carter smirked, all smug satisfaction right now. A good blow job did wonders for his mood. “He was too slow. They finalized the list right after we got there. Nate must have been down earlier than us.” His thumbs slid across the screen of his phone, and his smile deepened.
“Are you taunting him?” I asked suspiciously.
He looked up from his phone, one brow quirked. “Yes.”
Fair enough, then. “Tell him that if I beat him, he needs to take a naked snow dive.”
Carter chuckled and presumably sent my message, then scoffed. “He said you’re on but same goes if he beats you.”
I should have guessed as much, but my nipples hardened with just the idea of how cold that’d be. And not in a good way. The only solution here was not to let him win, obviously.
“You ready?” Carter asked a moment later, tucking his phone away and nodding to the sequin-gowned woman striding out onto the ice with a flag in hand. “The faster you get across the finish line, the faster you can ride my face.”
My jaw dropped at the same time as the flag did, and my foot flattened the gas pedal without me even putting any thought into the motion.
With motivation like that, I wasn’t messing around.
In fairness, though, I was no professional race driver.
I enjoyed driving, yes. I enjoyed driving fast and often liked to test the limits of my skill and cars when I was feeling the burn for adrenaline, but I was not a racer.
Not like a lot of the drivers on the ice.
What I lacked in practical skill, I made up for in determination for the first stretch of the race. I refused to look for Nate, not wanting to let my concentration waver for even a moment, but as we approached the first corner, I tapped the brakes gently.
Nothing happened.
Inhaling sharply, I pressed the brake pedal harder, assuming it was the ice that had me slipping or maybe the car wasn’t as responsive as I’d thought initially…but nothing happened .
Cold realization whipped through me as I took the corner at full speed, fighting with the steering wheel to stay on the course and not end up crashing into a snowbank.
“Uh…Spark?” Carter asked in a shaky voice, his hand gripping the door with a white-knuckled grip.
“The brakes don’t work,” I informed him from between gritted teeth. “Like, at all. Someone’s cut the line.”
“Fuck,” he exclaimed with an edge of panic. Warranted, considering how fast we were going. I’d taken my foot off the accelerator entirely, but the lack of traction on the ice meant it’d take a lot longer than usual to slow, and in the meantime, I just needed to stay on course.
I wet my lips, sweat dripping down my spine.
“It’s fine. We’ll be fine. So long as—” As if the universe knew what I was about to say, another racer spun out of control ahead of us, and I needed to jerk the steering wheel sharply to avoid hitting them head- on when they rotated a full one-eighty.
But that then meant I needed to correct my line by spinning the steering wheel the opposite way, and if we started to slide…
“Shit, shit, shit!! ” I cursed as the Corvette started to spin out of my control and my foot desperately pumped the useless brake pedal. “Hold on!”
With a last-ditch effort, I threw my strength into the steering and somehow managed to only clip the next car rather than collide entirely, and a moment later, we came to an explosive, whiplashing stop buried in a bank of snow alongside the frozen track.
Both our airbags had deployed when we hit, and my ears rang with the high-pitched scream of a head impact. Fucking hell, was my nose bleeding? Yep, sure felt like it.
“Ow,” I groaned, blinking rapidly to try and clear the stars from my vision. “Carter?”
“Yep,” he replied with a wince. “Are you okay?”
“I think—” That was all I managed to get out before my door was damn near ripped off its hinges and Nate tried to haul me out of my seat. “Ouch, fuck! Seat belt, dickhead!”
“Shit, sorry,” he replied, sounding out of breath as he fumbled the buckle release and much more gently helped me out of the seat.
His hands trembled as he helped me balance, and I found my feet on the snow.
“Are you hurt? Fuck, your nose is bleeding. Was that from the airbag? Here, take this.” He tugged off the cashmere scarf that’d been hanging loose around his neck and gently pressed it to my face.
“I’m alive, thanks for asking!” Carter called out from within the car. “But I can’t get my door open.”
“Because you’re buried in four feet of snow,” Nate replied, keeping one hand on my elbow as he leaned down to talk to Carter through my open door. “Climb over this way if you can.”
Nate’s car was stopped not far away, at the edge of the race track where we’d skidded off, but farther away, I could see the wreckage of two more cars a whole lot worse off than ours.
People were rushing toward them both, and a horrible dread filled my stomach as I tried to see whether the drivers were okay.
“Someone fucked with the brakes,” I said out loud, my head still catching up with what had happened. “My brakes didn’t work. I was just trying to avoid crashing until we slowed, but someone else spun out and I couldn’t avoid them.”
“You did amazing,” Carter grunted, climbing out and gripping my elbows in his hands. “That was some quick thinking to crash us into snow instead of another car.”
I shook my head, then winced. I’d definitely hurt my neck somewhere in that chaos, but it could have ended so much worse. “Ow,” I whimpered, rubbing the side of my neck with one hand. My nose wasn’t bleeding too badly anymore, but my whole face felt bruised and sore. I bet I looked amazing too.
“Are you hurt at all?” Nate asked Carter, who shook his head.
“No, I’m fine. Just some bruises, most likely.
We should get back to the hotel and…deal with this.
Fucking hell, so much for this event being out of Jocelyn’s reach.
Heath’s grandfather has a lot to answer for on this one.
” Carter peeled my hand holding the scarf away from my face and grimaced.
“Royce and Heath will lose their damn minds if we bring you back like this.”
“That bad?” I asked, even though the answer was written across both their faces.
Nate scooped up some snow in his hands and squashed it together, then paused with it in hand, giving me the chance to decline. When I nodded, he used the wet snow, slightly melted from his hands, to clean the worst of the blood from my face, then used the clean end of his scarf to do the rest.
“Better,” Carter confirmed with a nod, then glanced over his shoulder to where a pair of snowmobiles were racing toward us. “Let’s get a ride back to the lodge and get you checked out properly.”
“You too,” I murmured, letting Nate hold my arm steady as I moved away from the car and wobbled a bit. There was nothing technically wrong with my legs; I was just in shock.
It was only a couple of minutes to get back to the lodge, and Carter was right about Heath’s and Royce’s reactions.
They’d been in the spectator seats near the start and finish line and had seen the whole thing happen at a distance.
There was absolutely no way I was getting out of a thorough check over with the lodge medic, so I didn’t even try.
The easier I made it on them, the sooner they’d let me go back to my room to rest.
When it was all said and done, Carter and I had both gotten off easy. Bruises and strained muscles were nothing compared to one of the other drivers, who’d broken his leg in four places.
Carter also used our shared trauma as an excuse to kick Royce out of my bed that night.
As tempting as it always was to suggest the more the merrier , I was in no condition to become the meat in a Carter-Royce sandwich.
Not while my back and neck were so freaking stiff and my face felt like I’d gone five rounds with Ronda Rousey.
To my surprise, Carter didn’t even try to take advantage in the shower when I asked him to help me wash my hair—thanks to the crusty, dried blood I’d discovered there.
Dirty showers were basically our thing, and I couldn’t remember the last time he’d showered with me and not fucked me in the process.
If ever. But this time, he stayed on his very best behavior and simply washed my hair with the most incredibly gentle hands as I groaned and leaned into his chest.
I was almost asleep by the time he wrapped me up in a towel and carried me back to bed, tucking me in with a level of care and concern that made me wrinkle my nose.
“What are you doing?” I murmured as he climbed under the blankets with me.
“Taking care of you,” he replied in a gruff voice.
I grinned, moving closer so we were face-to-face on one pillow. He’d failed to turn the bathroom light off, so I could still meet his eyes. “Pretty sure you promised to take care of me in a very different way…or does that not apply because we never finished the race?”
His eyes widened briefly. “You’re hurt, Spark.”
“Not badly,” I countered, still smiling as I snaked my hand up his bare chest and rested it on the back of his neck. “And I always sleep so much better after I orgasm. It’s science.”
His lips curved at that. “Oh, is it?” His hand found my waist, pulling me closer. “Spark, baby…you could have died today. Again. I don’t know how many of these near misses my heart can handle.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, resting my forehead against his and choking back the horrible sense of dread that he was going to break up with me. That he’d decided this whole thing was too much drama or too stressful or…
“I love you, Spark.” His husky voice cut through my spiraling thoughts. “If I lost you, my life wouldn’t be worth living. Please, baby, please…don’t scare me like that again.”
Oh. Shit. I should have known better than to assume the worst.
“I love you too,” I told him with total honesty. “And I will try really hard not to nearly die again. It’s really not fun, you know?”
He gave a short laugh, then kissed me softly. “That’s all I can ask.” Then he bundled me up in his arms, rearranging us so I was snuggled into his body. “Go to sleep, my love. I promise, I’ll eat you out for breakfast, but right now…just rest.”