When he lifts his head, his gaze is a mixture of desire, lust, and whatever else smolders in those dark eyes. They hold mine as I lower myself on top of him. Max draws in a deep breath that becomes a groan as I cover him completely. All tension drains from my body when his hands grip my hips and he guides me over him. His mouth closes over one nipple and draws it deep into his mouth, the panic that has been mounting and the worry about the race and whether I can win drains away and I give myself over to him.
• • •
“Leigh? Max? You in here?” Aaron’s voice echoes through the garage and I stretch out, coming to, and then I freeze. Scrabbling up to sitting, I hold the throw from the back of the sofa to my chest and give Max a swift kick. His arms are draped around my waist and our legs tangled together. He raises his head and looks at me sleepily.
God, he looks too fucking sexy for this time in the morning. Why did Aaron have to turn up now?
“Max, get up,” I hiss, not wanting to alert Aaron to the fact that we slept here, too tired to drive home after Max had buried himself deep inside me and made me come again.
Max jerks up, running a hand through his bedhead. “Fuck,” he mutters and reaches for his boxers and jeans, ramming his feet into them and pulling them up his legs, hopping around while he fastens them. I watch him for a second in awe at the way his muscles flex as he reaches for his t-shirt and yanks it over his head.
“Morning.” He leans over to press a quick kiss to my lips. “Get your sexy ass up before Aaron sees you.” He jams his hand through his hair and walks out of the office to intercept Aaron.
By the time I am dressed and have pulled my tousled hair into a ponytail, Max and Aaron are already poring over the car. I sling an arm around each of their shoulders.
“What’s kickin' chicken?” Then I groan inwardly. Not me, too.
“Tires are coming today then I’ll replace all the brake pads and shit and check everything over.” Aaron continues to rattle off his to-do list, and I tune out for a second, feeling the increasingly familiar wave of panic wash over me when I let myself think about the enormity of what I’ve agreed to do. It isn’t until I hear the words ‘test drive’ that I tune back in.
“What was that?” I ask. Max and Aaron share a look before Max flashes me a worried look.
“You need to try it out on the quarter mile.”
“Yeah… yeah, you’re right.” I nod my agreement.
“Okay, so you need to go home and take a shower and eat breakfast. We’ll keep working here.” Max ushers me to the door. I know when I’m being dismissed, but my head is all over the place. Plus, he’s got a look on his face that says he’s not taking no for an answer.
“See you later.” I lean up and kiss him, and what I intended to be a quick kiss good-bye turns into something much deeper the second our lips meet. I hold onto him, not wanting to let him go and convey how I feel about him. I haven’t told him, but I know without a doubt that I love him. That first night I saw him, when I was eighteen, I swore I wouldn’t fall for him, not like all those girls who used to fawn over him. But here we are, six years later, and I’ve done just that. Maybe it was inevitable, the chemistry we felt from the start didn’t diminish with my absence. If anything, it got stronger, and we were powerless to resist it. Now I just need to win this race and finally tell Max I love him.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Long days are spent in the garage and my dad comes along in the morning but leaves around lunchtime. He’s still recovering. As the race draws closer, he’s been touchy, snapping at any one of us. Max and Aaron are wisely staying out his way. He’s my dad, so I don’t have that luxury. The car is nearly finished and the plan is to take it up to the quarter mile and try it out. I am trying to keep the whole thing low key, but when I went to the diner the other day for lunch, I ran into Kyle, who was quizzing me about the race. I tried to keep it as short and sweet as possible, but then as I was leaving, he called out that he would be there to support me. Holy crap.
“Leigh,” my dad shouts impatiently from inside the office. I am in the middle of helping Max with something tricky, and I don’t hear him.
“Leigh,” he bellows this time, standing in the doorway to the office; I straighten and glare at him, his brow dipped into a sharp v.
“What?”
“Give me a ride home, will you?” Then he turns and walks back into the office.
What the fuck?
I mutter under my breath. “Can he not see that I’m busy?” Aaron snorts quietly, and Max chuckles. “Keep calm,” he murmurs out the corner of his mouth.