Page 23 of Formula Fling

She wasn’t wrong. I do love my McLaren. I closed the hatch and moved to her, tapping her on the shoulder. “Hop in. We have things to do today.”

When I got into the driver’s seat, I glanced over at her. She looked exceptionally pretty with her hair in a ponytail, no makeup on except some lip gloss, but fuck… she doesn’t need it. “Did your rental car get picked up?”

“It did,” she said with an appreciative smile. “And thank you for sending someone to do that for me. It wasn’t necessary.”

“It was nothing,” I replied, and it truly wasn’t. The name Lex Hamilton can pretty much procure anything, including the rental agency’s agreement to send an employee to the hotel to pick up the car in exchange for some merchandise.

Posey ran a hand over the leather-covered dashboard, then leaned over to peer at the electronics. “This car is sick.”

Laughing, I said, “I didn’t take you for a gearhead.”

“I wasn’t until I started watching FI, but you’d be amazed what shows up in your feed when you research formula racing. Plus, I loved the episode that featured all the drivers’ cars. I do seem to remember you have a two-seater, right?”

“A McLaren Spider.” A thought struck me as I realized she knows me better than I know her. If she watched all three seasons of that docuseries, she knows quite a bit about me. It made me curious. “Did you have a favorite driver when you watched the documentary?”

“I did.”

“And?”

She glanced at me, and I noted the sheepish smile and tinge of pink on her cheeks. “Sorry… it wasn’t you.”

“Who then?” I pressed, because weirdly, I felt a bit put out.

“Reid Hemsworth and Matthieu Laurent,” she replied almost demurely.

Both decent drivers, although Mattie is a bit of a wanker. Of course, Posey would say Ronan is a wanker too, and he is some of the time. I wanted to point out the double standard she has between the two but I let it go.

The conversation on the way to HQ mostly revolved around cars, naturally. She was curious about the ones I’ve driven, the ones I own, and what makes a good race car. I enjoyed explaining it all to her, seeing the sincere interest in her eyes.

I handed her off to Gio and we made explicit plans for him to have her back promptly at nine forty-five a.m., which was fifteen minutes before I was set to get in the simulator. It’s now almost nine fifty and I consider texting him. Getting ready for a sim run isn’t just about hopping into the seat. I have to go over the changes the engineers made to the car based on yesterday’s data and discuss what I need to focus on during this session. I’d like Posey to see that because… well, I want her to see how involved we are as drivers. For some reason, I don’t want her to think we just drive fast and try not to crash.

For the life of me I can’t understand why I want her to see me in a more professional light, especially since my modus operandi for how I live my personal life has been about leaning into my youth and wild ways. I want to impress her, which isn’t something I’ve ever felt the need to do, other than the people who sign my paycheck.

A smile comes unbidden to my face as I think about Posey and how quickly she’s gotten under my skin. I still can’t believe I managed to strong-arm her into letting me stay at her Airbnb and I’ve got no clue what I was thinking. I’ve never minded the commute from London, but I still used that as an excuse for why I wanted to stay in Woking. Whatever that unknown factor isthat draws me to her had me boldly demanding she let me stay with her and to my utter fucking delight, she caved.

The door opens from the outer hall, and I turn that way. Posey steps through, all smiles as she chats with Gio. He laughs at something she says and I find that interesting. The man is perpetually dour and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him laugh, but Posey sort of has that effect on people.

And blimey… my bloody heart rate nearly triples the minute her eyes land on me and light up with joy.

She bounces over and lays her hand on my arm. “Lex, you wouldn’t believe the stuff I saw,” she says, her voice bubbling with excitement. “Okay, maybe you would, but the carbon fiber… it’s so light but so strong! And the autoclave—it’s incredible! I didn’t know it would be that big. I got to watch one of the 3D printers create a new brake duct for your car.” She frowns and looks back to Gio, pulling her notepad out of her purse. “But I forgot to ask you exactly what that does.”

“No worries, bella,” Gio says, and my eyebrows nearly shoot off my head that he called herbella. His expression is fond, as if she’s a beloved niece or something. “We’re testing the new brake duct to improve the airflow efficiency and cooling performance.”

Gio grins at me as Posey furiously jots down notes.

“Now, if you excuse me,” he says, his Italian accent seemingly more pronounced, “I go get ready for Lex’s simulator run.” He offers Posey a slight bow.

“Thank you again for the tour. It was amazing,” she gushes.

“Anytime.”

Gio disappears into the simulator room and I grin at Posey, pleased by her enthusiasm.

“You had a good time, didn’t you?” I ask.

“It’s beyond my wildest dreams, getting this type of access.” Posey’s forehead wrinkles as she frowns. “Although… that actually makes me feel guilty.”

I wave her off. “You said you were going to write an article to submit to some publications, so you’re still doing a journalist’s job, Posey. Don’t worry about it.”

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