6. Marco

CHAPTER 6

MARCO

I 'd fucked up my ritual, lost in a sex haze, but it didn't matter. At least, not today. I had that feeling I sometimes got, relaxed and invincible. Nothing could faze me. My vision was crisp and clear, all my nerves on alert, reflexes ready to spring into action. Today's race was mine; I knew in my marrow.

"Sit down," said Danny, batting my arm. We were out on the tarmac behind the drivers' rooms, wanting some fresh air before the race. A few chairs had been set up, but I didn't feel like sitting. I did some squats instead, and set Danny groaning. We'd met racing, and hung out sometimes after, but our conflicting rituals usually meant we didn't talk at the track. I read to get centered. He sat outside. But I didn't need my dose of Cormac McCarthy today. I had my predator's edge on without his grim prose.

Danny shook his head. "Dear God. It's in love."

"What are you talking about?"

"You. Look at you. Your girl's in town and you're all bullfrogged."

I scowled at him. "Bullfrogged?"

"Yeah. All puffed up." He thrust his chest out to illustrate. "You're strutting around like a big, horny bullfrog, like we're not already jealous as hell. How'd you even meet her?"

I shrugged, faux-casual. "Out at some club. She came up and said hi, and we've been hanging since then."

"Hanging." Danny scoffed at me. "Don't bullshit a bullshitter."

"What are you talking about?"

"The two of you, please." He stole my phone from my pocket and held it up to my face. It unlocked, and he went thumbing through my saved photos. He found one of me and Eve sprawled on a beach towel, her head turned toward me, my hand on her leg. "Check out those moon eyes, and here again. Moon eyes, moon eyes, and, yep. More moon eyes. Has the famous playboy been tamed at last?"

"Famous playboy…" I snorted.

"I've never seen you twice with the same girl. Then you meet her, and you're joined at the hip."

"You're just jealous," I said. "Because she's almost a princess."

"Because she's a ten and she wants you. And she seems sweet as well." Danny thumbed my phone off and jammed it back in my pocket. "My last girlfriend cleaned fish in the sink. She left all, like, guts in there. It was disgusting."

"Isn't that a good thing, a girl who cooks? I'd clean up the guts if Eve made me dinner."

"Does she cook?"

"Ha, who knows? It's like I told you. We're not out of bed enough to do any cooking."

"Rub it in, why don't you?" Danny let out a groan. "Did I tell you she dumped me? Fish Girl, I mean. Ran off with some actor, someone more famous."

I did know. He'd been harping on Fish Girl for close to a month. It was time he quit sulking, if you asked me. Moved on to the next one, like me and Eve.

"I'm heading inside," said Danny. "You should go too. Do whatever you've got to do before showtime rolls round."

I nodded and waved, but I stayed where I was. Bullfrogged, yeah, maybe. I guessed I was. But I'd hit the jackpot the night I'd met Eve. Most girls I met came with an agenda, looking to bag a celebrity boyfriend. A husband, even, and whoa. Pump the brakes. With Eve, it was different. She didn't want that. She wanted to rub me in Rafael's face, and I wanted that too. All our ugly up front. We could be honest, because we had been from the start, and no expectations meant we could have fun.

She'd be in the stands today, watching me race. My heart did a funny thing when I thought of her there, jumping up like a puppy promised a treat.

Has the famous playboy been tamed at last?

I made a pssh sound — tamed. Me. As if. If anything, Eve had loosed my inner wild beast. I'd never wanted anyone like I wanted her. Like an addiction. I couldn't get enough. I thought about texting her right there and then, something quick and dirty. A promise for later. But, no. Now was race time. I needed to focus.

I let myself picture her just one more time, the way she'd looked this morning stepping out of the shower, her golden-blond hair dark from the water. I'd kissed drops of water off her neck and shoulders. She'd first pushed me off, then pulled me closer, protesting I'd make her have to shower again. Tonight, I'd shower with her, and then we'd go dancing.

I went into the race sharp as a tack — not cocky or arrogant, just calm and sure. I wasn't thinking of Eve, or of anything really. When I got in the zone like that, I became pure instinct, all about speed. All about forward movement and the feel of the track, the roar of my engine one with my breath. I swear in that state, I could feel every pebble, every puff of the breeze against my windshield. Deep underneath that, sure, I was me, and I knew at the end of this, my prize would be Eve. But that didn't distract me, just gave me an edge. Threw an extra kick into the thrill of the race.

I was still deep in race mode when I stooped for my medal, my body still thrumming with the music of the track. When I lifted my head up, there she was — Eve — and I jumped off the bandstand, not a thought in my head. I ran to meet her and we embraced, and all my senses came alive with her, all at once. I could feel her heart beating, the rush of her blood. Her pulse in her chest, in her lips, in her arms. Her scent made my head spin, vanilla and pears, and I breathed her deep. Kissed her to taste her. I spun her around, the breeze in my face, confetti tickling my hands and my neck. It swirled around us, and Eve was laughing, and her merry laughter was all I could hear.

"You're everything," I gasped.

She pulled back. "What?"

The world was still spinning, though we had stopped. I pushed her hair off her face, savoring its silken texture. "I said, let's get out of here. Let's celebrate."

We'd planned to go dancing, but that didn't happen. We were getting changed, but we only made it halfway, to the point where she was naked and I was as well, and I was pinning her against a tall mirror. I could see my own face in there, contorted with lust. Hers was the same, her blue eyes gone dark. Her lipstick was smudged from too much kissing. I thumbed it away, then kissed her some more.

"We should get dressed," she said, and hooked her leg around me. She ran her lips up my neck, her breath a hot whisper. Her tongue flickered out and teased at my earlobe. I felt my knees go weak, and I tensed to stay standing. Eve did things to me, with her touch, with her body…

"I got a dress for tonight." She pressed up against me. "A sparkly gold one, layers of silk. Backless."

"Mm…" I walked my fingers down her spine. "How backless is it? This low?"

"Lower."

I flattened my palm to her back and inched it down lower. She stopped me just shy of the nub of her tailbone.

"That low, really?"

"To the top of my ass crack."

I spun her around, her face to the mirror. Kissed my way down her spine to the small of her back. A shudder ran through her. She grabbed me by my hair.

"Keep going that way, and we'll be here all night."

I shook free of her grip and took a bite of her ass. She yelped, laughed, and whirled. Pulled me up by my ears. I laughed as she pushed me back to the bed. She knocked me down on it and crawled up my body, kissing her way up my bare thigh. My cock twitched with interest as she teased all around it, up my hipbone, across my belly. Down the dark treasure trail leading to heaven. She took me in my mouth all the way to the root, her plush lips gliding down the length of my shaft. I bucked up without meaning to, and she chuckled around me.

"Careful," she whispered, her breath a fresh tease. I could feel her lips vibrate as she sighed around my cock. She did things with her tongue I could only guess at, little flicks and flutters that made my heart race. I ran my hands through her hair, down the line of her back, up her smooth arms and back down again. I wanted to do more than that, to make her shiver, but electrical currents were racing all through me. Every swirl of her tongue had my toes curling. Every lick of her breath had me biting my tongue. I could feel myself hovering close to the edge.

"Enough," I groaned.

Eve didn't hear me. She danced her tongue round in circles. I pulled her back, breathless, and pinched my arm to hold back.

"You're too good at that. I nearly just?—"

"So?" She winked at me wickedly, and I flipped her on her back.

"So I've got more plans for you. Plans for all night." I kissed her lips, then her forehead. Smoothed her hair on the pillow. Sat back to admire her stretched out on my bed. How had I got so lucky to have her this way?

"Come here," she said, and pulled me back to her. She'd pulled a condom from somewhere and she rolled it on me, her hand sliding down to cup my balls. "You have no idea how hard it was waiting. Watching you on that track, so fast. My speed demon. I wanted to Google how many laps — how many laps till I could have you — but I couldn't take my eyes off you even for a second." She guided me into her, and I thrust deep. The sound she made then was low and feral, pure desire, wanting. She grabbed my hair and twisted.

"Fuck me."

"Yeah… yeah…" I couldn't have said no to her even if I'd wanted. My body was all hers, every atom. She was my whole world, all I could see, hear, or feel. I lost myself in her, and we crashed like the ocean, wave after wave of juddering pleasure. I felt her nails down my back and knew she'd leave scratches, and sucked a bruise on her shoulder by way of revenge. She giggled at that and I laughed with her, happy and dizzy and riding the knife's edge.

She leaned up to my ear and moaned make me scream , and I nearly lost it right there and then. I picked up my rhythm, hard, fast, and brutal. Eve thrust her hips with me, angling up to get more. She flung her head back, all hot and wanton. I felt when she came, that hard clench and flutter. Then I felt it again. And again. And again. Only then did I follow her over the edge, and I fell in her arms, tangled up in the sheets.

For what felt like a long time, she just lay there breathing. Then she turned her head to kiss my jawline.

"We should shower," she said. "Quickly."

I groaned. "What's the rush?"

"Aren't we going dancing?"

"Dancing? Were we?" I kissed her again, on her cheek, on her lips, slow lazy kisses as my body recovered. "How backless did you say that dress was again? I'd see you in that and rip it straight off you."

"You'd better not rip it. It cost more than your car."

"Then don't wear it in front of me, because I'm going to rip it." I nipped at her neck and felt her skin ripple. She ran her hand down my hip and squeezed the taut muscle.

"Don't get me wrong, this has been… whoo ." Her breath gusted hot on the crest of my shoulder. "The best sex of my life, but aren't we missing the point?"

"The point?" I blinked. "I had an orgasm. Didn't you?"

She smacked my arm. "Not that point, stupid. Aren't we supposed to be, y'know, being seen? Trending on socials so Rafael sees us?"

My cock was stirring again, and I sucked at her fingers. She wriggled free.

"Shouldn't we be going on dates?"

I waggled my brows. "Maybe we shouldn't. Rafael will check socials and he won't see us, and he'll know we're back here, doing this." I ran my hand up her thigh. She clapped her legs shut to trap me.

"Be serious."

"I am. He knows what we're doing."

"Marco!"

I rolled on my back, grinning. "Okay, okay. We'll go on some dates. I'm racing in Monza three days from now, but there's a place I could take you along the way."

"What kind of a place?"

"The most romantic I know."

"You're not going to tell me?" She smacked me again. I caught her wrist.

"It's a surprise."

"I hate surprises."

"This one, you'll love." I drew her into my arms and kissed her again, and we never did go out dancing that night.