Page 100 of Start Your Engines

“That was pretty memorable.”

“Pretty memorable?” He tickles me, and I shake and scream, pulling away from him. He pins me under him as I drag air into my lungs. I’m gasping for breath as he stares at me. “That night was the best night of my life. Every night, every second with you is the best of my life.”

“Don’t let Layla hear you say that, or she’ll think all those times you sneaked her into theme parks without your mum knowing weren’t special. You made her love adrenaline too much. I spoke to her again the other day, and she said she’s considering getting a motorbike.”

“The fuck she is. They’re too dangerous. I told her I won’t fund it.”

“Oops,” I say.

Connor cocks his eyebrow. “Senna, what did you do?”

“I said if she was willing to intern with us one day, I’ll buy her a motorbike.”

Connor turns me so I’m underneath him.

“And you can’t get annoyed because you drive F1 cars, and they’re dangerous.”

“But you love how dangerous I am. You always have.”

I shrug as he stares at me. “Whatever. I was always better at driving than you.”

He wrinkles his nose. “Maybe.”

I pull my lips into my teeth, although I feel I’m glowing under his inspection.

“I love staring into your beautiful hazel eyes. They have all these colours.”

“They’re brown,” I correct him.

He caresses my cheek with the back of his fingers. “I’ve stared into them since I was a boy. They’re hazel.”

I suck in a breath and close my eyes as he presses kisses to my eyelids. “We’ve got an hour before I have to go,” I whisper.

“We’d best make it count, then,” he says, pushing my T-shirt up and brushing my skin with his lips.

And then he makes love to me. There’s no other name for it. It’s more than sex or fucking. It’s the two of us connecting on a level we haven’t until now, and it’s all I’ve ever wanted.

CHAPTER 49

Connor

“I pushedthat car as much as I could,” Tawny says with her arms folded. Her auburn hair falls across her shoulders, but she reminds me more of a grumpy kid with a sour pout than a Formula One driver.

I nod from the front passenger seat of Senna’s car. “So did I. What happened in Mexico is down to the car.”

Senna pays us no attention. Her stare fixes on the road as she drives us closer to the meal with her dad. Her skin still carries some of the tan from the race in Mexico. I look away from her, although my gaze is drawn back as if she wears a string from her heart to mine.

Jacs taps my chair, and I rub my brow. “I know what you’re going to say,” I grumble. “You’ve said it every time we’ve talked about the car’s performance over the last month.”

She lets out a loud puff of air. “But?—”

“No buts, Jacs.” I turn in the passenger seat to stare at the sisters leaning forward from their back seats. Jacs strains against her seatbelt as Tawny glowers at her with her arms still folded. “For the last two races, since the team upgraded the car, it’s slower. Tawny and I haven’t done anything different. If it were just one of us, that would be on the driver, but neither of ushas been top five. We’re scraping into the top ten each race, and the upgrades are the key difference.”

Tawny throws her hands in the air. “Exactly this. I’ve tried to tell you, but you wouldn’t listen to me. Maybe you’ll listen to Connor.”

Jacs scowls at her sister. “The ultimate decision lies with Senna. We know why we did the upgrades. We needed to be a podium contender and get top three after the tricky first half of the season, but it doesn’t seem to have worked.”

“Doesn’t seem?” I raise my voice. “We’re telling you it hasn’t worked. Get used to this bullshit in F1, Tawny. No one listens to the drivers. We’re just the ones in the car trying to win races.”