Page 4 of Fast & Reckless
“I can’t believe this! What’s the point of signing me if I’m not going to be supported?” Apparently he’d be dealing with a car designed and built for Matteo Gatone, Lennox’s other driver, who was the team veteran and took priority.
Lacing his fingers behind his neck, Will groaned and let his head fall back, staring at the flat gray winter sky overhead. This was a disaster. The racing world was going to give him exactly one race to prove himself before they made up their minds about him, and he was going to be hamstrung by his car. Fucking fabulous. So much for his triumphant return to F1.
“But what about all the work we’ve been doing in the simulator? We had it dialed in. You saw my stats.” He’d spenthoursin the simulator generating data for the engineers. What was the bloody point if they were going to throw all that info out the window when it came to the actual car?
“It’s going to take time, and we don’t have a lot of that right now. Matteo’s times are fine in the car as is, so we had to shift priorities. We’ll update your brake ducts next chance we get,” Harry said.
“When?” Will demanded. He was finally about to get another chance behind the wheel in Formula One, and if his equipment wasn’t up to scratch, he was going to be fighting with one hand tied behind his back.
Harry held his hands up to placate him. “You’ll have it by Melbourne.”
Will blinked, absorbing that crushing blow. “That’s the second race of the season.”
“Will, sorry,” Violet suddenly interjected. “But I’m going to have to steal Harry away. Time to get Matteo’s car out there.”
“We’re in the middle of something, Violet,” Will said, through gritted teeth. “You know, about theracingwe do around here? A bit important.”
“Melbourne is weeks away, which meansyoucan wait. Today’s about pictures.” Violet smiled smugly at him before looping an arm around Harry’s shoulders and steering him away.
“No worries, I’m just a bloodydriver,” he called after her. “Happy to wait.”
Violet stuck up two middle fingers over her shoulder, still walking away.
Well fuck you too, he thought.
“Excuse me, Mr. Hawley?”
It was the new girl again. She was flipping through a notepad filled with dense, tiny writing so he gave her a closer perusal. Long neck, creamy skin, hint of pink on those cheekbones, looked fit under that coat. Forget pretty. She washot.He probably shouldn’t go there. She was a Lennox employee, and he kept his after-hours pursuits separate from work. But he might make an exception for this one.
He’d worked very hard to purge any reckless vices that got in the way of his driving. Thank god sex wasn’t one of those vices.
He smiled and leaned in. “What do you need?”
She held up a finger to silence him, never looking up from her notepad. “Hang on …” she muttered. American. That was interesting. Not too many of them around Formula One. “I had a note about you somewhere, I swear.”
Will knew he’d had problems in the past with, erm … overconfidence. More than one scathing sporting op-ed haddescribed him as cocky and self-important. But …seriously? She was working for a Formula One team and didn’t already know who he was? Racing groupies were usually tripping over themselves to get him to notice them. Could this girl be at least atinybit impressed to meet him? A little blushing and stammering wouldn’t hurt.
He edged closer to her. In her distraction, she didn’t seem to notice. “Perhaps you’ll find me in there under ‘extremely hot, talented team driver’?” he teased, pretending to peer over the edge of her notepad.
Her eyes snapped up to his, and his smile dropped off his face. Whatever flirtatious comment he’d planned next melted clean out of his head and all he could do was look at her. That face, those eyes …
“I know who you are,” she said quietly. And that ice-cold tone of voice said she very much didn’tcarewho he was.Okay …
“Ah, I see Will’s already introduced himself.” Violet had finished up with Harry and was striding back in their direction. As a rule, he tried to avoid Violet, as she was almost always annoyed with him. Then again, Violet seemed annoyed with everyone, all the time.
“We haven’t actually met,” Will said, flashing a smile at the new girl again. Not so much as a hint of a smile from her in return.
“Will, this is Mira. She’s here to replace Pen. Mira, this is Will Hawley.” Violet waved a hand carelessly in his direction. “Just signed on as a driver. He’s rumored to bereallyhot and talented. I guess we’ll see.” Violet winked at him.
Mira. Pretty name to go with the pretty face. And replacing Pen. That meant he’d be seeing quite a lot of her. Not such a hardship.
“Yeah,” she murmured, one corner of her mouth finally tugging up ever so slightly. “I clocked the driver part.”
He was used to Violet treating him like shit. That was part of herquirky personality. But Mira seemed equally unimpressed. Maybe she just didn’t understand racing all that well. After all, she was American.
“Well, as you’re still learning the ropes of Formula One,” he said, as gently as he could. “If you’ve got any questions, I’d be happy to help you out.”
She cleared her throat and dropped her eyes back to her notepad, fiddling with her pen. “Got it, Mr. Hawley,” she said coolly. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
