“I’ll wait here,” I whisper, but he shakes his head.
“I want you to watch me, Penny. I need you to be with me out there… without you behind me, in my thoughts… I don’t know what I’d do,” he says, cursing when the pounding on the door starts again.
“Mine,” he growls low again, giving me that grin I know means he wants me before he kisses me one last time. I’m blinded by the shaft of light from the trailer door opening before he pulls it shut behind him.
I rush to freshen up in the trailer’s small bathroom, straightening my hair and trying not to look like I’ve just been ravished by the most amazing man alive, but something about me already looks different in the mirror.
I know I’m his already, a real woman with a real man who’s racing for her now. And I’m rooting for him, every step of the way.
There’s a new excitement in the air, I can feel it once I step out of the trailer, retracing my way back to the pit crew over the bridge. Back to my new life which seems so different already now, as if everything has changed yet it looks exactly the same.
I can hear the cheers of the crowd get louder, and the announcements that the race is about to start.
They must have been shitting bricks trying to find Steve. I wonder if they knew what he was really up to?
Slipping back into the pit without being noticed, I have a team-side view of everything on the monitors. I can see Steve inside the car, hear his voice once I slip my headset on and get more of a feel for the race about to begin than any spectator ever could.
It really is like being in the car with him, but I can’t talk to him, not yet…
My heart is in my throat as I suddenly realize the man I love, the one I’ve promised myself to is about to go out on the tarmac at two hundred miles an hour, pitting himself against other cars doing the same.
I’ve never worried or even thought about the dangers of the sport until this moment and I say a silent prayer for his safety, to bring him back to me in one piece.
Truth is, he’s safer in his race car than any other place on the road. He’d have more danger being killed or injured driving to the track than racing on it, those are the stats as I understand them.
But it doesn’t stop my heart from leaping, almost panicking once the green light flashes and the race starts.
I need you to be with me out there… without you behind me, in my thoughts… I don’t know what I’d do…
His firm voice in my mind calms me instantly, and I watch the monitors, waiting for glimpses of his hands and body as he moves inside the car, taking each corner fast and already leading the pack.
My heart flutters from panic to pride in an instant as I remember that he’s racing to get to me, to claim me.
He’s racing to win so he can claim me sooner, I know he is.
But I don’t think the pit crew, or the team manager appreciate that let alone understand it.
“Uh, Steve? We got a whole lot of laps go, no need to try and win it on the first,” one of the crew technicians cautions him, but his replies are only low sounds and single words.
His lead is noticeable after the first few laps and a sudden, stern Southern voice from behind makes everyone sit up straight suddenly.
“Let him drive his own damn race! Long as he gets the car over that finish line first, I couldn’t give a shit how he does it. Pay attention! Y’ all might learn something from how this young buck does his business.”
A huge, older man is blocking the doorway behind us and I figure it’s someone important. Nobody says a word and he shuffles out again after lingering for a few minutes until he seems satisfied that Steve’s already won, even though there’s so far to go.
It seems Steve can do no wrong, and each lap he gets a little further ahead, while pushing the car a little harder.
The pit crew launches into action, letting him know he’ll have to change tires if he wants to finish at all, and again they grill him for not sticking to the race plan.
I can feel his eyes on me somehow through the monitor, drifting back to the sensation of his mouth over me, his hands making me shiver on the spot.
‘…you will be mine…’
CHAPTER TWELVE
Steve
I feel torn. I want nothing but Penny, to be inside her.
But then again, I don’t want our first time to be in some trailer beside a racetrack, as nice as the trailer is…
She’ll be my queen and I need something more special to show her just how special she really is.
To do that, to get there just like that old bastard promised, I need to win this race and that’s exactly what I intend to do.
I’ve always been driven to win, but knowing that Penny is waiting for me to claim her at the end of this makes it the race of my life.
I’ve staked my claim, told her she’ll be mine and aside from the irritation of being interrupted, it only spurs me into action for her.
I feel the same wry smile on my mouth as I get in the car as I did when I slide her out of those jeans.
The crew in my ear, the car itself, the other drivers, all are telling me what to do in one way or the other but they can’t.
How can they?
How can they possibly control how I win for my queen, how I race towards claiming
