Page 17 of Faster

Ethan knew almost everything about her, but she’d always tried to hold back on the ugly parts with him. When they’d first met, she’d thought he didn’t have any experience with the difficult parts of life. He’d never lived paycheck-to-paycheck. His family had gone generations without having to work.

But she’d eventually realized that kind of wealth came with a different set of ugly things.

And they were somehow darker because they couldn’t buy themselves out of them with money.

Because the money and the way the family had gotten the money—through the blood and suffering of thousands of people over hundreds of years—held bad energy. It was almost a curse.

Centuries of excess rotted something inside the core of a family. Ethan had always seemed salvageable. He seemed eager to separate himself from his family’s debauchery.

But standing here with Luca made her think it was more about who her husband had chosen as a best friend. With Luca, everything felt cleaner and more direct. She never felt as though she had to hide who she was and how she felt with him.

“I want more.”

“We can’t have more.” Tears pricked the corners of her eyes when his face fell. She shouldn’t feel as sad about this as she did.

“Why not?” Luca asked, and she honestly didn’t know how to answer that. “Why couldn’t we be together?”

“I don’t think it would work out at all. I think we’d be fucked, and not in the fun way.”

He didn’t talk for a beat, didn’t try to fill the space with platitudes. “I’m sorry. We shouldn’t have—”

Her eyes filled with tears, and so did his. They just looked at each other. She wasn’t sure whether they were sorry for what they’d done or how things had turned out.

He pulled her into his arms, and she burrowed into his chest. She wasn’t going to question this right now.

It was different than Ethan touching her.

There always seemed to be a strategy around his affection.

But there were no reservations with Luca.

His touch was sure. For the first time in a long time, she felt held. She felt safe.

Her feelings at this moment weren’t facts, though. She would definitely regret this—and probably sooner than later. But she was desperate for something that made her feel tethered to the ground. She was resigned to the fact that he would always give her that feeling.

“I really want to kiss you right now.” His words were muffled against her hair.

She turned her face up and brushed his neck with her lips. He smelled freshly showered with just a hint of the cologne he’d been in an ad for. Being held by him felt almost as much like home as Ethan had. That was the only thing that kept her from completely surrendering.

His arms tightened around her, and her hesitation proved temporary. She pressed her mouth against his neck again, and he took that as an invitation, shifting her in his arms and pressing his mouth against hers.

Cece Ramos drove him crazy. He’d been thinking about her almost constantly for months, looking at her every chance he got, and now he was kissing her.

Fuck.

They would have to figure something out.

Either they would have to be more assiduous about avoiding each other, or there was going to be a next time.

He pulled her closer so she could feel how hard he was for her.

She stiffened for a brief moment, and he was prepared to let her go.

He didn’t want to make things weirder than they already were.

But then she wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss. He let her be the aggressor. He was the one comforting her. If she wanted to tear him apart, he would let her.

She could do whatever she wanted to him—having her once and then having her walk away had already taken the heart from his chest.

“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you,” he said when her mouth trailed down his jaw.

“Shut up. Shut up. Shut up.”

She didn’t want to hear about how she’d ripped him to shreds in one night. Fine.

He picked her up and tossed her on the bed. She made a little squeaking noise as she landed. She might be fierce, but she was still incredibly cute.

“I’ll shut up, if you give me a reason to shut up.”

She bit her lip. “I can’t do the feelings.”

“Hmm.” He didn’t want to tell her they were doing the feelings by being in the same room together—hell, by being on the same planet.

“This has to be just what it is, and it can’t happen again.”

He wouldn’t agree to that. But he also needed her. He could convince her again. She wouldn’t be able to stay away. That might sound arrogant, but she felt it too. “If you say so.” If she needed to pretend she wasn’t as caught up as he was, he would let her think that. For now.

But his ego was big enough, and the way he felt about her was unique enough that he knew this wasn’t going to be the last time. And both of them felt more than they would say out loud.

Part of him wanted to make her admit this wasn’t just sex and comfort; this was real, and she was going to leave Ethan. They’d find a way to be together.

Before he’d signed with Scuderia, he’d been at peace with leaving this series.

He’d made his mark, and the business had decided to spit him out.

He knew he’d survive without racing at the pinnacle of motorsport.

But he couldn’t say the same thing about living without Cece.

That would haunt him to the end of his days.

Maybe he’d just replaced his obsession with racing with his renewed infatuation with her.

He wouldn’t tell her that his competition with her husband wasn’t just about beating his teammate anymore.

It wasn’t about how she’d chosen him way back when or that Ethan had beaten him in a few karting races when they were kids.

It was about showing Cece that he was the better man—or that both Cece’s and Ethan’s lives were better with him in them.

But now he had the opportunity to seduce her directly, and he wasn’t going to waste it.

“If this is just about fucking me, take off your clothes.” Luca had guessed she wanted him a little mean, and he’d guessed correctly. She slipped off her shoes and rushed to shimmy out of her white T-shirt and matching linen pants.

She wore a nude bra and panties that he normally wouldn’t find very sexy, but this was Cece almost naked in front of him. She could be wearing a bra with the Welsh flag on it—heresy for an English rugby fan—and he’d still want to fuck her.

“Everything.” He walked slowly toward the bed, reaching her in time to unfasten the front of her bra while she took off her panties. “Every time I think I’ve forgotten about New Year’s, an image of your tits jogs across my brain.”

Cece laughed. “I’m sorry about that.”

“I’m not.” He pulled off his shirt and leaned on the bed, dipping down and taking one of her nipples in his mouth. They didn’t have much time, but he wasn’t going to rush this, not when both of them had been waiting so long for a second go.

It almost made it better that it had to be a secret. He’d have won something on Ethan before the weekend even really started. Cece moaned and pulled his head closer, her little nails digging into his skull as her fingers tangled in his hair.

He crawled over her and released her nipple, needing to kiss her again. Her naturally tan skin was like silk against his, which he cataloged for later. He didn’t know when she’d let him have her again, and he only wanted her. And maybe Ethan, if he could share.

Once Luca decided he wanted something, he went after it with a singular focus. He didn’t allow any treats or goodies on the side of the road to distract him. He’d let Cece go once, hoping it would save his friendship with Ethan, and instead, he’d lost both of them.

He’d learned his lesson.

She tried to undo his belt, but he stopped her with his hand, stretching both of her arms over her head. “Not yet.”

She groaned in protest but gasped as he kissed his way down her torso and spread her legs. He wanted an entire week in Bali where they’d have nothing to do but sun themselves and fuck, but that was out of the question at the moment. But he wouldn’t leave this room without tasting her again.

Given that they didn’t have much time, and he wanted her to come all over his face, he latched on to her clit. Her thighs squeezed his face, and he couldn’t really breathe. But he didn’t care. He’d die this way.

She came so fast that he was almost disappointed. He didn’t pull away immediately, and she squirmed away from him, pulling his head away by his hair. When he lifted his gaze to hers, she had a lazy smile on her face. “I think that was pole position, Bandit.”

She used his old nickname. He closed his eyes and smiled back at her. The silken sound of her voice wrapped around his dick and squeezed. “I aim to please.”

He crawled up her body and allowed her to push down his pants as he reached to the bedside table for the box of condoms he’d found there when he’d checked in.

There was something to be said for luxury hotels. He didn’t need most of the trappings of the wealth that came along with his profession, but they did make things a whole lot easier.

He didn’t bother to push his pants all the way off. They had to leave this room soon, and he needed to be inside her now. Even though she’d just come, she wiggled desperately beneath him, stroking his cock and bringing him close to the edge.

He barely managed to bite his tongue to stem the tide of everything he wanted to say.

He doesn’t do it for you like I do. That stuffy, posh boy will only lose control when he’s really desperate for it.

Do you have to goad him into sucking you off like I used to?

Or does he do it out of duty? What has to happen for him to lose control with you? Has he ever?

Ethan’s appeal was the fact that he was a buttoned-up private school boy with money as old as the realm.

His family line hadn’t survived since the Plantagenet kings for no reason.

They were always upright and stayed out of the mess.

But Ethan could be coaxed into murky waters under the right circumstances.

Apparently, the right circumstances included cocaine and women other than his wife.

And yet, she was still with him.

He pushed that thought away as he sank into all of her soft heat. They both groaned, and he kept still for a split second, never wanting the feeling of being inside her to end. He wished she was his.

And he would make that wish come true, if only for a few stolen minutes. “You’re mine, Cece.”

“Yes.” He didn’t know if she knew what she was agreeing to, and he kind of wished she didn’t. “I’m yours.”

Shit. Hearing that, he slammed into her over and over, unable to get deep enough inside her. “Only me. You only do this with me now.”

She scraped her fingernails down his back, declaring her ownership. “Only you. Only me.”

He took that as seriously as some people did marriage vows. He’d always shied away from commitment before. Sex was great, and he wanted all the different flavors of it he could find. But there wasn’t anyone else he could have his favorite flavor with but Cece.

“Only you, baby.” She grabbed his butt and pulled him deeper, grinding against him until she choked off his blood flow with her second orgasm. He came right after, talking pure nonsense. “You’re so good. So good. Such a good girl.”

“Fuck, Luca.”

He wanted to stay inside her forever, but he had to get rid of the condom, and the phone rang.

He was late.