Page 29 of Faster

Chapter Twenty-One

Brent looked away from the camera for a second and smiled at Paola. She rolled her eyes at him. She did that a lot. He would never say a word, but he loved it. It made him even hotter for her every time she did it. And he was already so hot for her that he was about to burn up.

“Good, good. Now, look at the camera.” The photographer was taking new promotional pictures of him and Micaela.

This probably should have happened yesterday, but there was some sort of snafu with the lighting, so they were doing it before the first practice session.

Brent looked at the camera and attempted to smolder.

He glanced over at Micaela and saw her smiling at her phone. She used to smile at him like that over FaceTime. Had she met someone new? Where had she found the time?

Brent didn’t have the capacity to date during the season. That’s why he’d found it so easy to cheat on Micaela—a lack of object permanence when it came to his girlfriends. He was starting to realize that he fell in love with whatever was in front of his face most of the time.

Before the season, he’d been wondering if he’d only started racing because he was exposed to it all the time.

But he did love it. Maybe not as much as Micaela or some of the other drivers, but he did love the rush of putting in a really good qualifying lap as much as anyone else.

He just wondered how his father had managed to build a life for himself that worked around racing.

Brent admired that his father hadn’t just stuck him with a nanny or his grandparents to race. He’d wanted to tuck his son in almost every night. They’d traveled the world together with a tutor and a babysitter, who sometimes doubled as an assistant for his dad.

His father might be the only person he truly loved, in a way that wasn’t dictated by convenience. And his father was definitely the only person he could really trust. Everyone else was just out to see what they could get from him half the time.

“Stop furrowing your brow like that, Brent,” Paola said from behind the photographer. “It might be distinguished for a man to have wrinkles, but not at twenty-three.”

He couldn’t help but grin. She’d loosened up considerably since the beginning of the season. The more he showed up on time and ready to fulfill his professional obligations, the more she loosened up. He didn’t know if she knew she was incentivizing him this way, but it worked.

The photographer straightened up and lowered their camera. “I think we have enough here.”

Paola looked at him. “Are you sure? We can make him stand there and look pretty as long as you need.” She thought he looked pretty.

He tried not to react and had to bite his lip to keep from making a crass comment, but she’d never admitted she found him pretty before.

He knew he was good looking, but she’d never said that before. He liked it. He liked her.

He stepped off the set, probably standing closer to Paola than he should. “Are you hungry?”

She looked up at him with a quizzical look on her face. “Hungry? What?”

“Do you need to eat some food?” He gave her his most charming smile, reveling a little that she seemed to be off balance. “I’m going to grab an espresso and something small before practice, and I was wondering if you wanted something.”

She looked down, and he could swear she was blushing. “I’m fine.” She cleared her throat. “I have to stay while they get shots of Micaela.”

He nodded and caught a whiff of Paola’s scent. It was light and floral, but with a bit of spicy musk. Just like Paola. Lovely, underneath all the fierce bite.

Brent stepped back. “I’ll see you later, then.”

“Brent was acting—strangely.” Paola sat down in the makeup chair next to Micaela, startling her.

Micaela lifted her head and turned her phone over.

Paola did not know about her and Liam, and they needed to keep it that way.

Micaela didn’t even know what they were doing .

Well, she knew the mechanics and anatomy of what they were doing, but she had no earthly idea of what to do with all the emotions of what was happening between them.

She craved Liam’s presence like it was a drug. Part of her knew it was probably just lust that would fade and/or blow up in her face eventually. But a larger part of her knew she’d never felt this way before and probably never would again.

She was falling in love with her boss. The way he respected her—considered her—was more than she’d ever hoped for. Which was a sad thing all wrapped up in a good thing.

But if Brent was being weird, maybe he knew something was up. Maybe he was starting to suspect that Liam and Micaela were sneaking around?

She shook her head to dislodge the thought. He couldn’t know. They were being so careful. They weren’t even visiting each other’s rooms over race weekends. She was starting to look forward to the end of the weekend—when they could be together—more than the races themselves.

It was so dangerous, and she was so lost in it at the same time.

“You shook your head. Do you not think he’s acting weird?” Micaela needed to pay attention to what was going on in front of her, or she would let something slip. That was unacceptable.

“I mean, I guess he’s acting like his normal asshole self with me. He mostly ignores my presence unless we’re forced to interact.” That was fine with Micaela. It was better than what would happen if he found out what she was doing with his father. “What did he do? Is he harassing you?”

Paola blushed a little, and that piqued Micaela’s curiosity. Then, she shook her head. “He’s not doing anything bad. But he just asked me to go eat with him. Most of the drivers I’ve worked with want to spend less time with the team press officer, not more.”

“Do you have a crush on him?” She didn’t add that Brent had never—not once—checked in to see if she was hungry or needed anything unless she’d been standing next to him. Not even after he’d literally been inside her.

Once, he’d actually rolled off her and then ordered takeout for himself. It was a bonus if there had been any left for her.

“No, absolutely not.” Paola shook her head and gave a dramatic, fake shiver—as though the thought of having a crush on Brent was disgusting to her. It was telling. “He’s rude, ungrateful, and spoiled. Definitely not my type.”

Micaela laughed at that. “Say what you will about Brent Sullivan, but he is almost everyone’s type. He might be an asshole, but he’s charismatic and beautiful to look at.”

Paola snorted. “You’re right.”

“It’s okay to like him. There aren’t any team rules against it.” Micaela knew. She’d looked at the handbook as soon as she’d gotten off that private plane with Liam.

“But it’s messy.” Paola shook her head again and stood up. “Too complicated.”

Micaela made a noncommittal sound, stood, and moved over to the soundstage. She knew about complicated better than anyone right now.