Page 65 of Jump Start

The sound of the hotel room door opening felt like it was amplified as I walked into the dark, cool space to the sound of Harper lightly snoring. She didn’t always snore, mostly when she was exhausted, which I knew she would be after today.

After a very quick shower, I hopped into bed, trying not to wake her. She stirred and rolled over, putting a leg over both of mine and nuzzling onto my chest.

“You’re home late.” Her voice cracked with sleep.

“I tried not to wake you. Sorry.” She didn’t seem to mind.

“Please, love me,” she managed to get out as I moved behind her, wrapping my arms around her shoulders and pulling her close, her ass settling against my hips.

I took a deep breath in, the smell of her strawberry shampoo overtaking my senses. This is what I needed to be safe for, to come back to this.

***

In the light of a new day, everything felt calmer. Harper had woken me up in the middle of the night for sex. The need to be as close as possible was overwhelming, so we got lost in each other, the intimacy taking on a desperate edge. There were worse ways to be woken up. I could have stayed with her in that hotel room forever.

We joined the breakfast festivities with the rest of the team but decided we wanted to go home early and skip the dinner and drinks. We were exhausted. There would be a Christmas partyback home, so we would have another chance to celebrate with everyone.

We did a once-over of the hotel room, and then I grabbed Harper’s hand, leading her out of the room, our minimal luggage in tow.

Walking down the hotel hallway in silence, I adjusted my grip on her hand, tightening my fingers around hers to reassure her. I wasn’t going anywhere.

“Okay, I’ll do it,” Harper said out of the blue as we started to drive away from the racing precinct.

I raised my eyebrows. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, so I asked with caution.

“What’s that?” I replied, trying to feign ignorance.

“I’ll move in with you, dummy!” she replied, a sparkling smile on her face and her hand touching my arm.

I smiled, wishing there was somewhere I could pull over to kiss her properly, but we were on a busy highway.

“Hell of a time to tell me, Harps! Fuck me, that makes me so happy,” I crowed, unable to control my excitement or enthusiasm.

“I love you so much. I don’t know why it took me so long to get here,” she choked out.

I knew why she took so long; she needed time to be sure about me, to make sure I could offer her what she needed. But I was glad she came to this decision.

“I’m glad you took your time, honey, I love you too. We’ll start moving your stuff once we’re back home, yeah?” I asked, wishing I could just drive straight to her apartment now and move her out immediately.

We agreed that over the first few days of the off-season, wewould stay at her place and pack up, then move to mine. She didn’t have a huge amount of stuff. It would all fit in my house no problem. Our house.

The drive home felt so easy; the loud music, the non-stop banter and laughter, stopping for coffee along the way, holding her every chance I got.

This was it for me.

Thirty-two

Harper

It was officially the off-season and for the past two months, I had been living with Thomas and working at Echidna Racing in my new role as communications manager.

I was enjoying both things immensely; I was currently working at home as the office had shut down over the holidays.

Chris, Holly, and I were still having regular meetings to keep on top of everything. Thomas, on the other hand, did not know what rest meant.

Itching to drive, he was participating in random racing events wherever he could find them; rallying, dirt biking, or playing with the local footy team. I liked to be active, but he took it to an entirely new level. I knew he was an athlete, but sometimes I wished he would just sit still.

By mid afternoon, a couple of days before Christmas, we were signing off from our last meeting of the year when Thomas appeared randomly behind my video call with Holly and Chris.

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