Page 35 of Fast-Track Fiancé

He flinched at the hitch in her breath as she paused, shaking her head.

‘I feel like if we use hope as the glue to see where this goes, we will only hurt each other very badly in the end. I don’t want to hurt you. But is it any better for me to twist myself into smaller pieces, just to keep you comfortable?’

Tristan closed his eyes at the harsh truth in her words. Yes, his fears over her dangerous career were vast and definitely had the potential to pose an issue between them. But was it fair for her to use it as an argument against them together when she hadn’t even given them a chance?

‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t accept that, Nina. My fears, while legitimate and a hurdle, are something that I can work on because I would choose to work on it for you. That’s what you do when you love somebody. You grow, you change, you choose to put eachother first.’

‘Maybe I’m just not built that way.’

‘We are not born knowing how to trust. It’s something you have to learn to do, just like being in love. And I think you do love me, but you’re angry and afraid to take a chance.’

Her jaw tightened, and her eyes briefly met his. She made no move to refute his words and for one wild moment he thought she might jump into his arms. He prayed she would.

But just as quickly, he seen her shut down once more as she shook her head sadly and looked away towards the deserted racing track.

‘Okay,’ he said softly, cold seeping into his bones despite the balmy evening air. ‘I won’t stand here and beg, if you’ve already made up your mind.’

He felt the last fragile slip of hope slide through his fingers as he took a step backwards and she didn’t make a single move to follow him.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

THE DISTANCE FROM her hotel bed to the bathroom and back was the most movement Nina accomplished over the following two days. With her phone switched off, and a strict do not disturb sign on the door, she ensured herself some peace. At least externally.

Internally however, she was a hurricane of emotion that she couldn’t quite separate or work through. She cried silent tears when notes appeared under her door on two separate occasions from Alain. A small package arrived too, a basket filled with her favourite romcoms and chocolates. No note accompanied the gift, but she knew Tristan had sent it, even before she opened up the simple hotel card to see his sprawling initials on the signature line. She didn’t have the appetite for romance or sugar, instead choosing to leave them propped upon the desk in the corner of the room as a reminder. A reminder of what exactly, she wasn’t quite sure...why not to trust anyone, perhaps?

Tristan’s words rang in her ears.

‘We are not born knowing how to trust. It’s something you have to learn to do, just like being in love.’

She knew that people made mistakes. She’d made plenty of mistakes herself in her life. But being lied to and deliberately misled was another thing entirely. Alain had always said she was too rigid in her views, and perhaps she was. She had always been so sensitive to injustice, finding solace in the solid concept of right and wrong. But with her heart broken and her future in the sport she loved uncertain, she just didn’t have the energy to make sense of it all. She’d gone from hating Tristan Falco to falling in love with him in a matter of weeks. Surely falling back out of love could be achieved simply? Even as she grasped at that thought her chest tightened and her body seemed to push it away. Somehow, she knew that this would not be so easily healed.

She slept for what felt like weeks, the only indication of day bleeding into night coming from a thin slit in the curtains and the glow of the single hotel clock upon her bedstand. It was a slippery slope, allowing her overwhelmed mind to rest this way. She knew from experience that giving in to this kind of exhaustion could lead to a dark place she would only struggle more and more to pick herself back up from.

The next morning, a knock sounded upon the door, one that she did her absolute best to ignore as she burrowed her face deeper and deeper beneath the pillows. Until a familiar voice intruded upon her thoughts.

‘You’d better open this door, superstar. Or I’ll be calling some hunky Argentinian fireman to chop it down for me.’

Stiff and cranky, Nina forced herself across the room to throw open the door and was practically attacked by the blonde ball of energy that was Sophie. ‘You’re not supposed to get here until tomorrow.’

‘You turn your phone off for two freaking days and expect me not to rush here early?’ Sophie practically shouted, then she paused and looked around at the chaos of the darkened bedroom. ‘It smells like something died in here.’

Perhaps something did... Nina thought mournfully.

‘Nope. Stop whatever it is you are thinking right now. I know that face.’ Sophie placed her hands on both sides of Nina’s cheeks, forcing Nina to look up into her eyes. ‘When’s the last time you trained?’

Nina shook her head, pulling away to sit down heavily on the side of the bed. ‘I’m not driving this weekend; I’m not needed here. I don’t know why I don’t just go back to Monte Carlo.’

‘Dear God, would you listen to yourself? You are a superstar, and superstars need to train. Whatever personal stuff has gone on, it’s not worth giving up your career for.’

‘What have you heard?’ Nina asked roughly.

‘Nothing. But I can piece two and two together and get four, darling. I know that whatever has happened, you’ll think through it ten times better after running your backside off and cursing at me through your own sweat.’

Nina groaned, pressing her eyelids into her hands. Sophie was right, of course. Her brain craved movement and order to keep regulated. Everything she was feeling was far more intense and unmanageable as a result of her staying here, isolating herself in this room. But she was so tired... So tired of trying so hard all of the time and still ending up right back where she always started. Alone, betrayed.

Sophie kneeled down in front of her, her blue eyes wide and worried and her jaw set in that way Nina knew too well. She was the best trainer in the industry—Falco Roux was not paying her nearly enough. She always knew exactly what to say.

‘Okay, thank you for coming to get me.’

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