Rough knuckles grazed her hot cheek and a strong hand cupped her jaw. Cole tilted her chin up and brushed his lips over hers. His touch was whisper-soft and again Sarah felt the urge to cry.
His gaze roamed over her face. “Beautiful. Passionate, powerful. Amazing.”
Like a racecar. The comparison felt like mockery given her poor performance on the track. She shook her head. Her mind was a muddle of racing terms, every single one of them making her feel as broken down as her poor car.
She let Cole guide her back into the car, too miserable to protest. She sank into the seat and let her head loll back. Even without a climax her body felt heavy, her thoughts muddled. She managed a small smile of thanks when Cole refastened her seatbelt. In her current state there was no way she could manage the straps.
Cole slipped into the driver’s seat, revved the engine and headed around the track. His speed was a fraction of what it had been before, but still impressive. Hell, this car would feel sexy at a crawl. She shifted in the seat and felt the warm slide of her juices between her thighs. She’d been so turned on when Cole had peeled the thong down her legs. What had he done with it? Had he left it there on the ground, a sign of his latest conquest however unsatisfying? He could amass quite the collection of women’s panties at that track. Who could resist? She felt an uncomfortable pang at the thought of Cole taking other women to the track. At the track. Women who’d gone the distance, not broken down before they reached their goal.
They reached the gate and Cole hopped out of the car. With a self-pitying sigh Sarah admired his tight ass for a moment before the clearing was plunged into darkness. Moonlight shone through a gap in the trees and reflected off the car’s silver hood as Cole pulled out onto the road. Sarah stared out the passenger side window. Her teeth clenched to ward off the tears that threatened. What the hell was wrong with her? Even in the worst circumstances she was usually more stoic than this. “Stoneface” was what they called her in the office. Yet she’d done little but blush and cry all day. Maybe it was PMS.
The drive back was as smooth and swift as it had been on the way to the track, but Sarah was in no mood to enjoy it. They soon rounded the last curve and Cole’s house came into view. Earlier in the evening she’d been disappointed that he hadn’t invited her to spend the night in his bed. Now she was grateful to have a place to stay at all.
It was better that she’d be sleeping alone. She could lick her wounds in private.
Chapter Eight
Sarah was fiddling with her seatbelt before they even came to a stop. She seemed as eager to escape the car as a racer fleeing a burning wreck. Cole was curious about what was going through her head, but knew now wasn’t the time to ask. She looked shaken up as it was.
One minute she’d been with him and seemed to be enjoying herself. The next, she had stiffened up and was…gone. No longer with him in the moment. She’d tried to fake it, but it had been obvious that she wasn’t into it and that took the pleasure out of it for him. Sure, he still could have gotten off, but the thought of doing it like that left him cold.
He unbuckled his own belt slowly, giving her time to scramble out of the low car seat. As deeply ingrained as his Southern upbringing was, he resisted the urge to go open her door. She wouldn’t appreciate a helping hand right now.
Had it been a mistake to tell her to put her hands on the car? He thought she’d like having someone else in charge and she’d seemed to be into it at first. But when she wanted to turn around, he’d been cool with that. This woman made him so hot he’d take her any way he could.
If only she could relax. She’d been strung out since she’d received that phone call earlier today. No, truth be told, she’d seemed pretty wound up when they’d met by the side of the road. Heck, the only time she’d seemed to loosen up at all was when he was driving. He held back a sympathetic sigh. She’d said that her spa trip was for a medical reason. It wasn’t hard to imagine that bottled-up stress was the cause, and the scene back at the track was one of the symptoms.
That bothered him and not only in the altruistic sense. Something about this woman had gotten under his skin. She had the intelligence and sophistication that had attracted him to Natalie with a gentler side his ex had lacked.
He waited until she was halfway up the path before he got out. The door was unlocked of course, and she disappeared through it. He found her in the middle of the living room, looking around as if she couldn’t figure out what she was doing there. He closed the door and she whirled to face him. Her shoulders straightened, a motion he’d seen her do before. It seemed to have the effect of putting on armor, shuttering the almost-fearful look he’d glimpsed on her face a moment ago.