It feels like I am anyway at least.
Turning to go who knows where next, I literally run straight into my dad, who looks like a kid in a candy store who’s been helping himself to anything red or blue in color.
“Did you see? Isn’t it amazing, honey!” he gushes. I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes, and we’re both drowned out by the pits filling up with every other car from the qualifying laps.
“Gotta go, honey, keep nearby though and don’t wander off!” Is all I can make out before he’s off again, totally caught up in the moment.
I’m glad for my dad, I really am. This is like his boyhood dream. He’s never wanted to race himself, but always wanted to run a mechanical crew for a pro team, and here we are.
Here I am… all alone.
Where are you, Steve?
I don’t mean to, but I feel myself slipping into that place where no sleep, no proper food and emotional upheavals lives.
Swinging back past the food section, I help myself. Why not? It’s free and it’s actually pretty good.
No more coffee though, my nerves are shot so far, so just water and a sandwich from the ever evolving selection of food laid out for the pit crew.
I find a footbridge for pass holders only, taking me over to the other side of the pits, a larger, grassed area that’s fenced in and filled with trailers.
I wonder if there’s a bathroom anywhere nearby.
My heart skips a beat when I get a fresh but faint blast of Steve’s cologne. It’s not a common scent, and I’d know it anywhere.
“Steve?” I call out, not meaning to, but sounding as desperate as I feel.
I open my mouth to call out again, but the sound of a trailer door banging open behind me makes me jump, almost calling out something else.
“Penny!” he says hoarsely, and my eyes grow wide with relief and a familiar, welcome warmth floods my body.
“Steve,” I whisper, racing to him, nuzzling into his huge frame as he puts one arm around me while the other closes his trailer door behind us, the lock clicking.
We don’t say a word, just stand there holding each other for I don’t know how long.
The fear of losing him and then the joy of him finding me so easily again, it’s too much and despite my best efforts, I hear the emotion in my voice as I playfully punch my palms against his chest. The only thing I can think to do to stop myself from crying.
“Damn you Steve Bennett, damn you for making me so crazy, for being so damned perfect.”
Lifting my chin up with his finger before pressing it to my lips, he only shakes his head gently, shushing me softly.
“You’re the one who’s perfect, Penny. And I’m the one who’s crazy about you.”
CHAPTER TEN
Steve
Everything that’s happened since I touched her last is almost like a bad dream. Something uncomfortable before I can wake up again and be warm in our own bed someplace.
Safe.
Home.
That’s what Penny is to me, she’s everything I want that’s wholesome and hopefully, a little bit more than that too.
“I thought I’d lost you,” she says, lines of silver under each eye as she holds back tears.
Holding her close to me, closer than ever, and feeling her tremble under my touch is more thrilling than any race. It’s the best feeling in the whole world.
“You haven’t lost me,” I remind her, “We’ve found each other, okay? And I’m never letting you go Penny. Tell me that your mine and I’ll keep it that way, forever. Say it,” I demand.
“Oh, Steve! I’m yours. I thought I was imagining things, that you would never-”
But I don’t let her finish.
I tried telling myself I should wait, that I wouldn’t go too fast too soon, but I guess racing’s in my blood. And Penny’s set it racing alright.
My mouth is over hers in a second, only making her press in harder against me as I wrap both my arms around her and pull her up by those hips I’ve longed to hold her by.
Her arms link around my neck and it’s like the whole world disappears as we finally feel the excitement and relief of our first kiss. The sensation I know both of us have an instant hunger for, it’s something I never want to end.
I never would have said I was a kisser, never really have been. But like so many other things between Penny and me, it all just comes so naturally. I can tell she’s nervous, but so am I. In a way that registers as excitement and passion, not fear.
The only thing we’re both afraid of is never having reached out for this moment.
Turning in the trailer slightly, which is way too small for me, I set her down on a high bench-table alongside soft bench seats. She opens her legs enough for me to get as close to her as I can, still standing while she pulls me in close.
I pull her hard against me with one hand, the other holding her neck as we both find a new level of sharing our mouths. A deeper, more intense feeling, and I relish her sweet taste, the smell of her hair and the tiny sounds she makes.
There’s no denying we both want more than just a first kiss. But here… now?
“I want you Steve,” she murmurs, purring like a cat as her hands run up and down the front of my open suit, one finding its way in further down my belly.
She unzips me fully and I groan out loud once I feel her hands wrap around my aching hardness, making her shudder another sound that only tells me one thing.
“I want this. I want you to give it to me, to make me yours,” she whispers, her urgency only matched by the near frantic pumping of both her
