Chapter 27

Chapter 2 7

For the next week, my schedule kept on being interrupted by nervous pees. During aCiclatiSprint2’sinterview, taking questions from the perspective new members of the team. Team meetings, answering questions from journalists when the news broke aboutAlv’sdeath.

The questions over the rider changes.

The next month would be one of more changes acrossStormSprint. It was the cut-off for anyone planning to retire to give their notice and when the offers of new contracts were given.

Ciclati Sprint2 and Sprint3 were going to have some serious movement.

Nix was taking a little break. He’d asked me to join him back in France for the week between races, but I used the media whirlwind overAlv’spassing as an excuse not to fly back.

I couldn’t face him, knowing what I’d done.

Because I hadn’t signed an NDA.

Because he trusted me.

But I’d saved his career.

Frank won the fifteenth race due to Nix’s absence and then the sixteenth when he didn’t attend that one either.

Nix’s win was slipping .

We only hadsixraces left of the season.

So when Nix came back for the race in Hungary, I hadn’t seen him for nearly three weeks.

He had to remain focused on the races, not any media drama. That was what I told myself when I saw him. I couldn’t tell him what I’d done.

The Friday night before qualifying, he knocked on my door looking sheepish as he held his hands behind his back, trying to stifle a smile.

I didn’t bother. “Nix!”

“Yeah,Livie,” he said, glancing to his right. Dickson was talking to one of the hotel staff in the corridor. “You wanted to talk about that sponsorship for next year?”

“Yeah,” I said, standing back and gesturing for him to come in. I nodded at Dickson in greeting as Nix stepped through the threshold. “It’s going to be, er, a day next week where—”

I didn’t finish my sentence because Nix had his hands cupping my face and was leaning his forehead against mine. “Fuck, I missed you. I never want to be apart for so long again.” He pressed me up against the wall, his mouth brushing mine before the door clicked closed. I shuffled against the wall towards the door, one hand in his hair, the other shoving against the lock, trying to get it to turn.

“I need to ask you something before I kiss you,” he said. “Before I get carried away.” I nodded, nose touching his. My other hand was on the hard bulge under his shorts because I was already carried away. “I know we said we weren’t moving in together, that that isn’t why I bought the apartment. But do it. Officially. Move in with me.”

He pulled back as my hands froze.

“Move to France with me,” he begged. “We’ll tell everyone we’re together at the end of the season.”

Lost for words, without a thought for my job or what that would entail, I nodded again.

His breath of relief was minty on my face. As if he’d been chewing gum, a habit he had when he was nervous.

“I’ll be able to touch you in public,” he whispered in my mouth. “I’ll be able to kiss you, put my arm around you. Everyone will know you’re mine, Livid.”

It didn’t matter what people thought. I already was his. In every way possible.

He turned the lock and tangled my tongue up in his, pulling my shirt out of my jeans, impatient with the buttons before ripping it off, buttons pinging around us. I lifted his top and he gifted me the second it took to pull it over his head before he crushed me with his body and his mouth was back on mine, breaths deep as he unzipped my jeans. “Need you,” he muttered. “Need you.”

I kicked them off and leaned against the door. He grabbed my ass and said gruffly, “I haven’t stopped thinking about you. Haven’t stopped missing you.”

He pulled my knickers down and crouched in front of me, pressing his tongue to my pussy and moaning deep in his throat. He grabbed my hips, to hold me in place as his tongue flicked against my clit. “Quiet,” he said into my lips before lapping me up again.

He stood and thrust his fingers into me. I bit down on my bottom lip so hard, I was surprised I couldn’t taste blood.

“I have so many plans for us,Livie,” he said, placing his palm over my mouth so I didn’t have to focus on the noises coming out of them. “Your birthday, the weeks we have off, America… but, first, I’m going to fuck you against this do or with another rider on the other side of it.” He pulled out his fingers — I whimpered at the loss — and turned me to face the door. He pressed his smooth cock between my legs, sliding it back and forth, just hitting my clit at this angle. “And you’re going to be a good girl and take it silently.” He leaned forward, his cock pressing into me slightly. “I know how hard that can be for you.”

His thrust forced my hand to bang into the door.

“Don’t tell me I’m going to need the cuffs, Livid,” he threatened. I shook my head. “That’s it,” he said. “Fuck, you feel like home.”

I crumbled, thrilled that he could phrase my own thoughts. With all the travelling we did, it wasn’t the apartment in London, it was him. There was no relief like him filling me.

“Put force against the door,” he demanded and I did as he reached to play with my clit. “Damn,Livie, damn.”

He fucked and played me, making me come, biting down on his finger. By his voice encouraging me through it, you couldn’t tell how much it hurt him, but it had to.

“Even just seeing your body take my cock like this, feeling the vibration of your moans against my hand, I could come,” he growled in my ear. “When we live together, I’m filling this greedy pussy with my cum morning, noon and night. Right where it belongs.”

I was nodding frantically and pulled on his hand toreanglehis fingers so I was sucking on two of them.

He grunted as he spilled inside me, then turned me around and kissed me softly. “Seeing as we’re going to Florida after our two weeks off, I thought we might go early and celebrate your birthday. We can go on the roller-coasters.”

He knew I was a thrill seeker. I had to be, to be with him .

But my voice cracked as I said, “Sounds great. I… I need to clean up.”

He blinked as I walked past him and into theensuite, closing the door behind me.

“Livie, are you okay?” he called after me. “Sorry, I should have started with a ‘how have you been’ and not tearing off your clothes.”

I splashed my face with water. There wasn’t a way around it.

I patted my eyes so if real tears fell, it wasn’t so obvious. The knot in the back of my throat tightened.

When I opened the door, he stood there, eyebrows drawn together. He didn’t say anything as I pulled my jeans back on. He remained naked.

“Livie,” he said and brushed my hair back from my shoulder.

The water was a feeble attempt, the tears were clear in my eyes. “I’ve done something stupid.”

He wiped at my eyes.

“But I’d do it again,” I swore. “For you.”

“For me?” he asked, taking my hands and pulling me to the bed where he sat. “What’s happened?”

I pulled my bottom lip into my mouth, wishing I could bite off my tongue to never say the words. Unable to look at him, I closed my eyes, feeling his thumbs stroke the back of my hands. “A journalist called me. A story about you shipping drugs usingStormSprintand I… I sold them a different story. A story I had proof for.”

Through my squint, I checked for his reaction. He was still stroking my hand, looking up with concern.

“A story where I had photographic evidence. One where I didn’t sign anNDA.”

His strokes slowed.

“Please don’t make me say it.”

He looked away, his blinks more frequent as his touch stilled. Then he dropped my hands. “You’re going to have to,” he said, his voice darkening.

“You know it,” I said, openly weeping now. “You know what it was.”

“Say it,” he said through his teeth. “Say it right now.”

I swallowed, trying to blink away the tears. “I sold the story aboutCallyMendes… and your affair.”

He jumped up and started to pull on his clothes.

“Please,” I begged, stepping closer to his back. I wanted to reach out to him but my hands fell at my sides. “It doesn’t mention you. They have no idea it was you. Anything incriminating at all I didn’t give them, not the picture of the car, not the—”

“After all this time, do you think I care what they say about me ?” he roared.

My breaths broke from my chest. “I know it was for her, I know it was all for her, that you have some kind of feeling—”

“Don’t you dare make this a jealousy thing!” he shouted, stepping towards me. His shorts were on, but he was still topless. “She’s going through hell right now because of me !Livie, if you did this to get back at her—”

“No!” I cried, throwing myself at him and holding onto his arm. “It wasn’t that. I know what’s right and what’s wrong, I wouldn’t ever… Please, Nix. It was you or her. And I picked you. Of course I picked you.”

“You know the difference between right and wrong?” he spat with a laugh, pushing off my grip. “You clearly don’t.”

“I do know the difference! It’s the hardest decision I have ever made,” I said, wiping away my tears. “Ever. But I did it for you! I did it to save your career. To save what you love most!”

“That’s not what I love most!” he roared. His breathing was hurried, reckless and heaving, just like his chest, as his eyes were intense on mine. “That’s not what I love most.”

“Nix,” I whispered, reaching for him one more time.

“Or loved .”

He might as well have ran me over with his bike.

“Loved?” I asked, voice hoarse.

“Loved,” he confirmed harshly. He bent to pick up his top and threw it on, shaking his head. “Don’t talk to me. Don’t text me. I don’t want to see you in the pit box.”

“Please—”

His finger raising silenced me immediately. “If you need to speak to me about my schedule, do so through my manager.” He turned to look at me, eyes red. “This isn’t you. I don’t know what I’ve done to you, but… this isn’t you.”

“Are we over?” I asked as he opened the door. I didn’t care if Dickson was still out there, I had to know.

He looked from me to his shoes and shut the door behind him.