Page 85 of A Man's World

“Fine… I’m sorry.” I knew the apology was pathetic, but I didn’t want Luca to win quite so easily.

“For?”

I grumbled but gave in. “For not answering you… I promise I won’t do it again,” I threw in quickly for good measure, hoping it might convince Luca to let me finish.

“Oh, Principessa, I know that’s a lie,” Luca taunted, “but I’ll accept your apology this time.”

I felt Luca start to trail down my body, leaving little love bites and kisses in all the places no one could see but the two of us. As he reached my core again, I let out a loud moan. Luca sunk two fingers in – and then a third. As he gently sucked on my clit, he let his fingers slide in and out at a decent pace, and I felt myself getting closer to my high. Fortunately, this time, Luca worked me through my release as it hit me. I chanted his name over and over, writhing on the bed in pleasure as I fought the bounds at my wrists.

Once I started to calm down, Luca pulled away and traveled back up to my lips, giving me a sloppy kiss that allowed me to taste myself on him. He quickly released the thong from my wrists, and he kissed each one ever so gently. The act almost felt intimate, like this was more than just sex for him.

I put that feeling out of my mind, reminding myself that this was just sex. Still, every time I ended up in Luca's bed, it became harder and harder to believe that.

“Such a good girl for me…” he whispered into my ear. “Now go get showered and dressed. Can’t be late for your party tonight.”

“But what about you?” I asked as I sat up, looking at the towel around his waist. I knew that he had to be extremely hard after that session.

“Oh, don’t worry, Amore, I’m not done with you tonight.”

After round two in the shower, Luca and I finally got ready and made our way downstairs by 7:05 p.m., just five minutes late, which I thought was fairly impressive since I was typically ten to fifteen minutes late. The car was already waiting for us, and Lily was sitting inside with Henri, chatting away about the race. I knew Henri was annoyed that Lily had passed him, but it was clean and fair racing. His tires had given out, and Lily had taken advantage of that.

“Finally, you two have arrived.” Henri looked a little exasperated. “Would it hurt you to ever be on time?”

“Now, what fun would that be, Henri? A race winner must make an entrance.”

My brother scoffed at that but said nothing in return, choosing to pick up his phone and send a text, likely to his girlfriend Christine. Lily just winked at me in the taxi, wiggling her eyebrows very suggestively. I knew I should ignore her, but I couldn’t help myself, and I winked back at her, grabbing Luca's arm and snuggling in closer to him. I was definitelystill tipsy from the champagne, and Luca's and I’s “exercise” back at the hotel hadn’t done too much to sober me up, especially since I snuck in another glass while I was putting on my makeup.

When we arrived at the hotel where the event was taking place, there were hoards of fans and photographers surrounding the car. Luca got out of the car first, offering me his hand as I followed him, keeping our hands intertwined as we walked into the massive hotel ballroom. As soon as we entered, Isabelle and Fiona motioned for us to join them.

“Georgie, superb racing today as always,” Felix, the Rennen F1 team principal and Fiona’s husband, complimented. “Perhaps one day we’ll get you in a Rennen car.” I knew if my performance kept up, I would eventually have offers from Hermes, Rennen, and Blaue Flügel, but at this moment in time, none of those teams interested me.

None of those teams had dared to give me, a female driver, a chance in F1 – only Valkyrie had offered me my dream. The other teams only wanted me now because they saw they were wrong, saw that, actually, a female driver could win in this sport. I knew it was silly to feel so much loyalty to Isabelle and Valkyrie because the truth was, if I had a bad performance, they would eventually drop me, but I couldn’t help it.

“Felix, if you even dare attempt to take Georgia away, I’ll make your life a living nightmare,” Isabelle quipped. Felix had never struck me as someone who was scared of anything, but Isabelle had a way of putting fear into the fearless. Felix gave her a sheepish, polite smile and grabbed his wife’s hand, suggesting they head to the bar for drink refills. Isabelle let out a small chuckle as Felix and Fiona headed to the bar. As I looked over, I saw the couple chatting with Lily, Oscar, and Eric.

“They look good together, Oscar and Lily.” I was shocked when I heard the words come out of Isabelle’s mouth.

“But Oscar is datin-“ I began, but Isabelle cut me off.

“Not like that, you muppet. As a driver combo.”

I turned back to the group of them at the bar. Isabelle was right. Lily and Oscar did look good together. I turned back to Isabelle, and there was something in her eye – concern, maybe? It made me feel uneasy as I watched my team principal stare at the group of them before she quickly regained her composure.

“You can’t keep her forever,” Luca finally said, breaking the silence between the three of us. I turned and gave him a warning look, signaling for him not to be so silly, but Isabelle’s face said it all – what Luca said was true, and we all knew it.Lily had a bright future ahead of her, and it likely wasn’t at Valkyrie.

“Eric Spencer is going to retire one day,” Isabelle said simply. “The Rennen F1 Team would be a fool not to offer Lily a seat, and she’d be a fool not to take it. I offered her a three-year contract, but she turned me down, saying they only wanted two and an option for a third year.” I was surprised to hear that, surprised to hear that Lily had turned them down for three guaranteed years of racing.

“I was frustrated at first,” Isabelle continued, “but now I think it was a wise decision. Lily has great things in store, but I’m not sure it’ll be for Valkyrie.” The thought of that made me sad. Lily and I were so close, but I knew in my heart Isabelle was right. In F1 teams, there was only room for one champion, and I wasn’t going to give up my spot.

After chatting a bit longer, Luca and I excused ourselves from Isabelle and made our way to our table. Joining us was Noah and his girlfriend, Kylie, along with Henri, Oliver, and Éliott. The British drivers had a special table, undoubtedly close to various VIPs who would want to meet and take photos with them.

Lily bemoaned the fact that she couldn’t sit at what she deemed was the “party table,” but I assured her any table with Eric Spencer, Britian’s most successful F1 driver, was a party table. When I was in Indy Car, Eric was one of the few drivers who emailed me on a regular basis, always offering advice. He was one of my staunchest supporters and always spoke loudly in support of having a woman drive in F1.He also bought the best champagne.

“Well, well, well… can’t believe our race winner got stuck with us. Honored to be in your presence,” Noah joked as he sat down next to me. I knew the 2x world champion was annoyed that I was winning this season, but we had managed to keep it civil in the paddock –mostly.

I leaned over to Noah, a mischievous smile on my face. “It’s even worse… I have to eat the same food as you lot.”

That, surprisingly, earned me a huge laugh from Noah. He’d never struck me as someone who was easy to get a chuckle out of, but as we got to know each other more this season, I found he was almost as easy as Edward to make laugh. Noah was just selective on who had the honor to do it.

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