Chapter Six
CHAPTER SIX
T RISTAN WAS NOT present at the Belgian Premio events the following weekend, nor did he show up for Apollo Accardi’s first official training sessions in their Monaco headquarters over the week that followed. Nina threw herself into her own training, determined to finish out her last stint as second driver in Barcelona with her head held high.
Her agent had contacted her this morning with the news that representatives from Accardi Autosport were seeking a new driver for next year’s season now that their long-time champion was retiring. She’d hesitated but told them to put her name out there. When her deal with Tristan was concluded, she’d be out of contract at the end of this season after all, so she needed to keep her options open.
But the guilt weighed heavily on her mind as her team smiled and joked while they gathered at the marina to travel from Monte Carlo to Barcelona. They’d been treated to a night on a Velamar superyacht, likely courtesy of their main sponsor as a thank-you for their fantastic result in Italy. Of course, the vessel they were directed to was the largest one in the bay, a world-famous superyacht design that she remembered was called La Sirinetta II , but a different name was pasted on the bow of this one.
The Falco Experience.
Tristan appeared on the welcome deck dressed casually in a pair of tan linen trousers and an open-collared polo shirt. He greeted each of the team by name, leaving her for last as everyone else hustled to get on board and find their room for the night. The ship was huge and had more than enough bedrooms for them all, but, still, she was amazed that he’d so easily decided to open up his precious vessel to them all. It wasn’t usual for the team owner and drivers to travel along with the mechanics and administrative staff, but then again not much about Tristan’s ownership had been traditional so far.
The team was awash with excitement as they were greeted with fruity cocktails and canapés while Tristan played gracious host. After he greeted her with little more than a quick peck on her cheek and then instructed her to continue on to her guests, Nina quickly realised that he intended to keep the distance between them.
It shouldn’t have bothered her that he’d become so distant again after their night of flirtation in Milan. She’d all but dared him to seduce her after all, hadn’t she? Sure, she’d tried to pass it off as casual flirtation but she knew better than anyone that she was utterly terrible at lying. She’d thought about being seduced by Tristan Falco more times in the past three weeks than she’d ever dare to admit. Thinking of him had become some kind of sickness, affecting her focus on the track and infiltrating her very steamy dreams at night like a constant itch that she was forbidden to scratch.
She’d always hated being told that things were forbidden. It was rather like placing a giant flashing button within her reach emblazoned with bright letters that commanded: Do Not Touch—even though she was a dedicated rule follower by nature, all she wanted to do was touch it.
She knew that when he’d first proposed this deal, he’d said it would be safer for them both to keep their arrangement platonic behind closed doors. But deep down, she didn’t truly believe that was the reason he’d shown no sign of wanting more once the cameras panned away and it was just the two of them. Apart from the fact that she was a driver on the team he owned, she knew that aesthetically she was miles away from the kind of women she’d seen draped on his arms at that event in Paris. She wasn’t tall or willowy, she didn’t laugh prettily at his jokes and compliment him on his charms.
Once again...she was too much.
Determined not to allow him to see how self-conscious that realisation made her feel, she focused on chatting with her team and smiled when Astrid Lewis appeared to greet her. Astrid’s appearance at social events had become more and more rare lately. Her son, Luca, was an expert in everything Elite One and had never missed a single race until he’d started school last autumn. Nina had spent some time with them in their home in London before the season started and discovered that Luca had been diagnosed with autism. This had stunned her because of how often in the past Astrid had compared her sensitive, serious little boy to Nina herself. Nina had always felt a deep connection to Luca, and knowing more details about how he experienced the world only made her love him more.
But when Astrid had gently suggested that Nina perhaps should look into the experiences of some late identified autistic adults she’d found online, the moment had become a little awkward between them. It had played heavily on her mind since, but she shook off the memory and embraced her friend.
‘Please tell me you’re not here to add to my schedule,’ Nina asked quickly. Every time Astrid approached her with an eerily calm look in place it usually accompanied bad news of some sort.
‘Tristan said he told you about the Falco Diamonds centenary campaign that was in the works?’
Nina fought the urge to groan. ‘Yes, I remember.’
‘The actual campaign will be shot in Buenos Aires next month, but the PR team wanted to go ahead and do some tests while you’re at your photo shoot in Barcelona this week.’
Nina frowned, remembering that she was scheduled to shoot as a cover model for a magazine. ‘Do they want to do this at the same time as the shoot?’
‘That’s up to you, I would say perhaps all together might suit better with how much energy these things take from you. But here’s the thing... The magazine got wind of all of this and now they want to include recent events in the narrative. More specifically, they want to involve Tristan.’
As if summoned by his name, Tristan appeared at Nina’s side with two flutes of champagne in hand and offered her one. ‘Who wishes to involve me and in what?’
Astrid quickly went through the proposed feature from a prominent sports and fitness magazine that had shown interest in featuring women in motorsport and using Nina as their cover star.
‘This all sounds excellent, but I don’t see why I would be needed.’ Tristan frowned. ‘Unless you mean they wish to use some Falco pieces as part of the shoot?’
‘I definitely want us to include Falco Diamonds in some way, to really emphasise that connection between the two brands. I think it’s a great idea to push a united image for people to see. We also need to find a suitable location on short notice. But what I really wanted to ask was... They wanted to see if you’d consider taking the photos yourself, Tristan,’ Astrid said.
‘Absolutely not.’ Tristan’s face tightened. ‘I’m sorry to disappoint there. But the location and the diamonds, I can arrange. I’ve been meaning to check in on my uncle’s estate while we’re here anyway. He left it to me, rather than my cousin, Victor. My uncle was more like a father to me, and I think he knew I’d preserve it just as he wanted. He had a classic car collection that would work well as a backdrop.’
Nina felt the tension coming off him in waves as Astrid walked away, leaving them both alone. She took a sip of champagne. ‘I didn’t know you were a photographer.’
‘Briefly...a very long time ago. After my uncle’s untimely death I travelled for a while. I dabbled in portrait photography and published some work in a few magazines under a pseudonym.’
She saw the flash of pain in his eyes at the mention of his uncle, and thought of him, travelling the world in his grief and finding beauty where he could. ‘You don’t take photos any more?’
‘No,’ he said simply. ‘Not in the past few years anyway. I still have most of my equipment but... I just don’t have the time any more.’
‘One should always make time for hobbies you enjoy. Or do you only think of finding pleasure in bed these days?’
He smirked. ‘We’ve barely been alone for three minutes and you’ve already mentioned my sex life. That must be a new record. You truly are obsessed.’
‘That’s probably accurate,’ she muttered under her breath.
‘What was that?’
‘Nothing... I was just thinking...you should shoot the photos yourself,’ she blurted, immediately regretting her words when his eyes flashed a warning at her. He shook his head, downing the rest of his champagne flute in one mouthful.
‘It’s just an idea.’ Nina shrugged one shoulder. ‘Astrid is very observant, and she knows that I’m usually quite awkward about these things. It might help to not have a stranger behind the lens.’
‘Nice to know I’m not a stranger now at least.’ He smirked. ‘But no, I have to be back in Paris once the race is through. It’s a prominent magazine, they will have a reputable photographer in charge. You’ll be fine.’
She nodded. ‘Makes sense that you plan to leave so quickly.’
‘Makes sense how exactly?’
‘Well, after I expressed my curiosity in Milan... You’ve kept your distance.’
‘Perhaps I’ve just been busy.’
‘You were flirtatious, until I mentioned that I was not entirely opposed to exploring the attraction between us and then you backed off.’
‘Nina...’
‘Don’t worry, I’m not about to express the same interest again. I have some self-respect, Tristan. It’s just infuriating dealing with people’s assumptions about me. When the truth is utterly laughable.’
‘The truth?’
‘The media have gone from painting me as an ice queen to wondering if I am some kind of secret sex goddess because I’ve “pinned you down”.’
His eyes darkened and he muttered hoarsely, ‘A sex goddess?’
‘It’s the natural fit for a man described as a deity in the bedroom, no?’
‘Sounds like a match made in heaven.’
Nina rolled her eyes, turning to brace her hands against the railing and look out to where the sun was beginning to dip against the horizon, turning the water a beautiful mixture of orange and yellow. She was aware of Tristan moving closer behind her, but, still, her breath caught when she felt his arm brush against hers. He wasn’t touching her, but he wasn’t exactly keeping his distance either. Her skin thrummed in response and she fought the urge to remain still.
‘You believe that me keeping my distance means that I was turned off by your honesty?’
‘Weren’t you?’
A low chuckle escaped his lips and she saw him shake his head gently in her peripheral vision. ‘I find your honesty to be the single most entrancing thing that I’ve encountered in recent memory, Nina Roux.’
She inhaled a soft breath as he moved closer, his eyes raking down over her skin in a look so scorching hot he might as well have been undressing her with his hands.
‘You think I don’t want you?’ he murmured. ‘You think that I don’t obsess over all the reasons that I want to touch you? And all the reasons why giving in to that impulse would ruin us both?’
‘But...why?’
‘Apart from you being twelve years younger than me, and the fact that I’m technically your boss, I pulled you into this ridiculous deal in the first place, dangling your freedom from your contract in front of you. For me to seduce you would be taking advantage of you.’
She found she wasn’t bothered by the age gap or the fact that he was her boss. ‘What if I wanted to be seduced? Is that against your rules?’
‘Nina...’ he warned.
She moved closer, testing him by reaching up to place both of her hands on his shoulders. He could move away if he wished, or he could tell her no. But the burning desire she could see in his eyes told her that he wouldn’t do either of those things. Feeling emboldened, she reached up and was delighted when he immediately lowered his head to hers in response. He let her control the kiss, making himself pliable under her hands and lips as she explored him. He tasted just as delicious as she remembered, the sensations of the breeze upon her hair and his hands snaking around her waist to pull her closer against his hard body were like heaven. She heard a moan, and realised it came from her own throat.
Kissing Tristan again was as explosive as she knew it would be. It was the kind of feeling she usually got only when driving full throttle around the track, as if she were flying through the air. It made her stomach twirl and her thoughts turn blank. All she could feel was him, all she could think about was how it felt and how badly she wanted more.
So much more.
He pressed her back against the railings, pressing himself against her, and she could feel the hard ridge of his erection against her abdomen. She was wearing jeans, and he was wearing linen trousers, but still the intimacy was almost too much for her. They might as well have been completely naked for all she knew, the way her insides turned to molten fire, and she ground back against him.
Her sensual movements made his body harden even further against hers, and she heard a low growl in his throat as he speared his fingers through her hair and took control of the kiss, deepening it and taking her just as she wished to be taken. This was what she needed, exactly this.
Too late, she heard footsteps coming down the steps and they paused just in time to see Astrid’s shocked face before the woman turned and quickly exited the way she’d come.
Nina pressed both hands against her face, groaning. ‘Oh, my God, did that just happen? She’s seen us.’
‘She did,’ Tristan said, standing up to his full height and putting some distance between them.
‘It’s okay, everyone else thinks that we’re engaged anyway. Of course, Astrid knows the truth, but I doubt she’ll make a big deal of it.’
‘That’s not why I’m annoyed right now, Nina,’ Tristan said. ‘Every time I am alone with you, I lose control. It’s not acceptable. I never lose control. We set parameters for this arrangement and you...keep pushing.’
‘You’re right. I deliberately pushed those parameters. And I won’t apologise for that,’ she said defiantly.
‘You won’t?’ he asked, raising an eyebrow.
Nina’s heartbeat fluttered at the heat still evident in Tristan’s gaze. ‘No. I’m very attracted to you and I was curious.’
‘Damn it.’ He moved closer, licking his lips as he stared down at her. ‘Damn you with your curiosity and your refusal to accept the word no.’
‘If you had actually said no at any point during the past ten minutes I would have stopped,’ she said as sweetly as she could manage.
‘Hell would have a better chance of freezing over, kitten.’ He was upon her again, his lips crushing hers against his as he pulled her close and kissed her senseless once more. Until she was breathless and aching between her thighs.
‘I only have so much willpower, Nina. Are you sure this is what you want?’ He growled the words in between kisses.
‘Yes.’ She moaned against his plundering mouth, gasping as he stroked her sensitive nipples through the material of her bra and T-shirt. She felt as though she’d played with fire and now she was getting an up-close-and-personal demonstration of what it felt like to go up in flames. His hands explored her willing body inch by inch, his mouth not breaking their kiss. But when his fingers began to toy with the top button of her jeans, Nina felt the first flicker of uncertainty freeze her up. Of course Tristan noticed the moment she stopped enthusiastically kissing him back.
‘Sorry, I got carried away.’ he murmured. ‘Maybe we should take this somewhere more private?’
Nina shook her head, feeling reality come crashing back with all the subtlety of a cold bracing shower. She was on his yacht, with their entire team nearby. Plus, even if she did throw caution to the wind and go back to his bedroom with him, after all her talk tonight of seducing him, he would be expecting her to be experienced. Not a nervous virgin who had absolutely no idea what she was doing.
‘Can we pause for a moment?’ she asked quietly.
He nodded, taking a step back as if needing that physical distance between them in order to bring his desire under control. The knowledge that he wanted her just as badly as she wanted him was a heady kind of power that made her feel alight with passion.
‘I want this. Very much,’ she assured him a little nervously. ‘It’s just...a little fast for me. Also, this weekend is really important and I can hardly focus around you as it is.’
‘Are you saying I’m jeopardising your race? I’m very flattered.’
‘Of course you are. But yes, I think perhaps we should pause this...until afterwards?’
‘Only if you promise to schedule me into your diary at the earliest opportunity,’ he murmured against her cheek. ‘In bright red pen. I don’t know why, but I’m rather obsessed with your colour-coding.’
She smiled, feeling a blush in her cheeks. ‘For the next three days my focus is on the race, but after that I’m yours.’
The moment she spoke the words, he froze, his hands tightening upon her waist for a split second. ‘Cristo, you could drive a man wild saying things like that.’
She hadn’t intended to drive him wild, but if the consequence of speaking honestly was him kissing her like this, she’d continue to give her thoughts free rein. ‘I feel like I should be honest that, um... I don’t usually do this. Like, I’ve never—’
He continued to kiss a trail down the side of her neck, so she wasn’t entirely sure if he’d heard her. A series of low murmurs was all he said in response.
‘Let’s get you to bed, Nina. Before I’m tempted to tuck you in myself.’
He walked her to her bedroom door and lingered for a long moment, one hand braced quite attractively on the doorjamb as he stared down at her with possession. ‘Three days,’ he repeated.
‘Three days.’ She nodded.
The executive box of the Spanish Premio was filled predictably with people that Tristan did not know. He knew of them, of course, politicians and celebrities schmoozing with one another in the hopes of gaining influence. Likely some of them might actually follow the sport, but Elite One race weekends were as much about the experience and atmosphere as the racing after all. He’d deliberately procured a spot near the back of the room, away from the windows, once the race had begun an hour ago.
Even after years of therapy following the aeroplane accident that had killed his uncle and almost killed him too, the sound of roaring engines still managed to set his teeth on edge. But he was managing it, as he always did. He was a master of the public performance, after all, his guests simply seeing their bored owner schmoozing and wishing he were anywhere but here. No one knew the truth was that the very idea of Nina whizzing around that track at such high speeds was almost more than he could bear.
She would laugh, of course, if she knew that he held her skill in complete regard and truly hoped that all of her dreams on the track would come true...if only it didn’t involve actually putting her life in the hands of a car.
The car was in great shape, and according to the mechanics on the team downstairs their strategy was sound and both of their drivers were in fighting form, as was evidenced by their current positions in fourth and fifth place out of twenty.
The Accardi team were in first and second, and had been for most of the race, but Nina’s expert defending and Roberts’s aggressive driving style had already moved them through several impressive overtakes. As he listened to the commentary he heard them each move up another spot.
‘Do my eyes deceive me?’ a British voice sounded out and Tristan looked up to see Astrid’s smiling face approaching him. ‘Tristan Falco, in the flesh at a race weekend. Don’t tell me you’re actually following my advice.’
‘Actually it was Nina who convinced me that I was actively impeding growth by not showing my full support to the team.’
Astrid smirked. ‘Yes, I noticed she seems to have made quite the impression on you.’
Tristan cleared his throat, tugging at his suddenly tight collar as Astrid continued to give him an all too knowing look.
‘You know, Tristan, I wasn’t quite sure at first if this plan would work but the narrative in the media has felt like a real romance. You’re doing a great job of making it look that way anyway. Even in private, it’s quite the dedication to the cause you’re both showing. Just...be careful with her, okay?’
Tristan thought of Nina’s hesitancy three weeks ago when she’d agreed to this deal, how he’d insisted he wouldn’t allow the lines between them to become blurred. How he’d been so confident in assuring her that everything between them was just for show. The trouble was, the more time they spent alone, the more they both seemed to forget. Or at least their bodies did anyway.
The attraction he felt to her was like nothing he’d ever experienced before. It was all-consuming, bordering upon an obsession at times, and he’d even found himself checking in on her at training or showing up at her hotel to take her for lunch over the past few days. She had taken it all in her stride, of course, giving him no indication of how she truly felt. But still, her words on the yacht had stuck with him.
‘My focus is on the race, but after that I’m yours.’
She hadn’t meant it in the way that his primitive brain had taken it. That she would be his . That he would possess her, finally. But to all intents and purposes, she would be in his bed at least. He fought to control the sudden reaction as his body got tighter.
‘I heard an interesting rumour,’ Astrid said, reminding him of where he was and helping him to refocus his thoughts.
‘A good one, I hope.’
‘An important one, for sure... Accardi have their eyes on Nina.’
Tristan paused with his glass midway to his mouth, his eyes snapping up to focus on his PR manager. ‘Over my dead body.’
Astrid pursed her lips, tilting her head at his rather emotional reaction. ‘I thought you might feel that way. But, as it stands, under the terms of your agreement with her, you’re going to free her from her contract at the end of the season, aren’t you?’
‘Yes, but they don’t know that.’
‘Are you planning to keep her, Tristan?’ Astrid asked, her bespectacled gaze as shrewd as ever. ‘Because after the decisions made by this team in the past month, I don’t think Nina is planning to stay.’
‘That’s not the point. The point is that this is blatant retaliation by Enzo Accardi for us signing his grandson. And he is not going to use Nina as a weapon to play games with me.’
‘You do realise this is Elite One, yes? The most game-playing of all the motorsports. It’s all drama, Tristan. The racing only takes up five per cent of the entertainment. Nina wants to leave anyway and just think of the media storm that would follow.’
He knew Enzo Accardi, and he also knew the stories about the old man and how lecherous he was, how ruthless and underhanded. There was a good reason why Apollo had refused to ever race for him again. To think that Enzo might get his hands on Nina... To think what kind of hoops he might require her to jump through in order for her to achieve her dreams...
Suddenly he realised the decision to pass Nina over in favour of signing a much more experienced driver for the remainder of this season had been completely the wrong call. He’d thought he’d been doing the right thing for the team, but he could see now with gut-churning guilt and horror that this should have been Nina’s season with her team, and they were practically allowing their biggest asset to walk into the arms of their vilest competitor. Despite it being an obvious retaliation on Enzo’s part, the senior Accardi would not be pursuing Nina for his team if she weren’t also one of the most prominent rising stars on the track. All he could hope was that his mistake wouldn’t prove too costly—for Nina, for the team...and for himself. He knew now that her skill was practically unmatched, along with her even, cool temperament. If she’d been in the number one Falco Roux seat today, she would already have been ahead, but she continued to stay behind their primary driver, defending him and allowing him to rush towards victory.
As he listened, the crowd went wild as a commentator announced Roberts overtaking into second place right behind Accardi’s number one driver. Unable to look away, he moved closer to a nearby monitor and watched as the cameraman zoomed in on where Nina and Accardi’s number two driver were now battling it out for third place. His whole body tight as a string, he watched as she edged and weaved behind the other driver as they both hurtled in the rain towards the next turn much too fast.
No! Surely she wasn’t planning to... Tristan fought the urge to shout at the screen, controlling his own panicked reaction. But hell, it was a hairpin band on a downhill slant, and surely it was impossible to keep the car under control... But he watched as, to his amazement, Nina feinted in one direction and then, in a move so skilled and sleek the entire crowd gasped, she slid neatly between the other car and the apex of the track to steal neatly into third place.
He was by no means an expert in motorsport, but whatever that was, it was pure poetry in motion. The woman had a gift. A smile transformed his face and he couldn’t help a bellow escaping his chest as he cheered along with the rest of the garage. It was the final lap, and all going well they would have two team members on the podium for the first time. The first time in fifteen years, the commentator announced wildly.
Tristan turned to their team principal, slapping the man on the back and listening as the R & D team continued to monitor their drivers and ensure they kept their positions towards the finish line.
But as Nina pushed to the max around the final lap, the Accardi driver behind her gained pace and grew reckless. Disaster came swift and ruthlessly, as it often did. One touch of his front wing against Nina’s rear tyre was all it took, sending both cars into a helpless spin.
‘No! I’ve lost it, I’ve lost it.’
Her frantic voice was the last thing Tristan heard as her car hydroplaned at speed before careening into the wall.