Burn by Tamara Lush

Author:Tamara Lush
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wattpad WEBTOON Book Group
Published: 2023-11-10T18:12:09+00:00

Chapter Twenty

LILY

The good news is Max drives so well during qualifying the next day that he achieves pole position, which means for the race tomorrow, he’ll be first on the grid.

The bad news is we’ll probably have to sleep together again tonight so he’ll win the actual race.

Or is that bad news?

I keep pondering this in the hours after Max’s blistering qualifying laps. Watching him was pure joy, poetry almost, for people like me who love the sport and the art of driving. He handled every curve, hugged every wall, with a deft touch. Even Papa called me afterward, overjoyed. I gently chided him for not relaxing, but also felt secretly proud that the team was doing well in his absence.

Esteban came in third on the grid, so the team is in a cautiously optimistic mood as we head to that afternoon’s press conference.

“You nervous?” Esteban asks me. He’s so young and new in the sport that at thirty-one, I feel practically ancient next to him. We’re walking with Tanya and Max into the press center on the track.

“A little. You?”

Esteban grins. “I love this part.”

I wish I had his enthusiasm. This is the element I’ve been dreading. I’ve been able to handle everything else going sideways, like sleeping in the same bed as Max. But at least I’ve been able to stay out of the public eye. The press even ignored me on the red carpet and at that party the other night. But as is typical after qualifying, each team goes before the press and submits to a round of questions. Usually it’s my incredibly quotable father here in the press room with Jack and the drivers.

We’re all clustered in a closet-like room next to the press center, waiting for another team to finish up their media conference. Max tugs at my sleeve, and motions with his head to step to the back so we can talk.

“You’re sure about this?” he asks in a low voice, sending a hum of desire through me. Despite our intimate sleeping position last night, we haven’t so much as touched in a sexual way, but the tension remains—at least on my end.

Maybe not on his, a fact I was trying not to dwell on. As I’d pretended to sleep, he’d bounded out of bed early this morning and left without a good-bye. Neither of us wanted to make it any more awkward than it already was.

There had been his evident hard-on the other morning, an image that I hadn’t been able to shake. Surely that happened to him every morning, though, regardless of whether he was sleeping next to someone or not.

“I’m good. Really.”

“If there’s anything you don’t want to answer, I’ll step in, okay? I know how to get the press off my back.” Max is an expert at that. A glare and a two-word answer are all he needs to shut conversation down. I’ve watched him do it a hundred times.

“Thanks, but I’m okay.” It’s almost embarrassing to be this inept in front of the media, and surely Max thinks I’m ill equipped.

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