Page 39 of Faster

Chapter Twenty-Eight

“And Luca Bendetto, the boy who once dreamed of playing rugby for England, raises the red-and-white English flag on his cooldown lap after winning the British Grand Prix!” The announcer was yelling.

It had been years since a British driver had won the British Grand Prix.

She knew Ethan had to be seething that it wasn’t him.

He was incredibly on edge when his parents were at a race.

And they only attended the British Grand Prix.

And Ethan had been expected to win and had only placed third.

His parents stood next to her near the podium, and it was like standing next to two wax cutouts of what parents should be.

His mother wore a cream-colored, vintage Escada suit that might have been the least sensible choice for a racetrack ever.

His father wore a full-on suit in July. Beads of sweat formed along his hairline, and yet he never considered going around in his shirtsleeves.

When Cece had first met the Harrows, before his mother had made her feelings known, she hadn’t been able to figure out what they’d thought of her.

When she’d asked Ethan, he’d said, “Oh, they don’t think of you at all.

” He’d seen the confusion on her face. “They don’t think of anyone but themselves and their family name.

If I marry you, they’ll probably think I’m sullying the entire line—because you’re not white and American.

Then, they’ll think about you. It won’t be fondly, but they’ll be forced to consider you in moments when they think about their own mortality. ”

That was a dark assessment of his parents’ psyches, but it was accurate.

Cece wasn’t sure if Elizabeth Harrow ever smiled, but she’d certainly never smiled at her daughter-in-law.

Her face was always pinched and assessing, but it became especially so whenever she and Ethan discussed their future—the possibility of children—in front of her.

And Cece was starting to think it was possible she and Ethan had a future, but she couldn’t quite conjure the image of it without Luca involved somehow. And she didn’t know how he could be involved publicly. But she didn’t want to hide what she felt about him.

Ethan stepped out onto the podium; his luxurious dark hair was ruffled with sweat. His face was pink and sweaty, but he looked joyful and beautiful. He wasn’t thinking about his parents then.

She wondered whether Luca had whispered something in his ear when they’d hugged after the race—that was acceptable, public, manly affection. Maybe he’d made dark promises of what they could do after dinner at his parents’ estate, when they were all alone in a hotel room.

Ethan’s parents had balked when Cece had informed them she and Ethan would be staying at a hotel for this visit.

It was “tradition” that he stayed with them over the race weekend, even if it was farther away from the track than he’d wanted to be, and Cece couldn’t stand it.

She’d never gotten used to the staff lurking around every corner. She knew they were spying on her.

But her complaints about staying with the in-laws hadn’t penetrated until Luca told him, “Oi, your parents are dicks to me , and they wish I was their son instead of your twat of a brother.” It was true.

They loved Luca for some reason. Maybe because they’d never thought about him as a potential romantic partner for their son, capable of sullying the family line.

“They are even worse to Cece, and she deserves to feel comfortable.”

Ethan had called his assistant to book them into a separate hotel from the team immediately.

To be fair, Cece had never verbalized her issues with her husband’s parents.

She’d spent time with them, feeling scrutinized at every moment—it seemed like the walls had eyes in that old house—without complaint.

She should have said something, but she’d been too busy pretending to be some picture-perfect version of the woman Ethan should have chosen to marry instead of being herself.

Only Luca had seen through it and made it right.

And it made her braver and more willing to say the things that needed to be said in her marriage.

They’d fought more in the past five weeks than they had in the five months before the cheating.

But there were never any gritted teeth or stony silences.

Even if they couldn’t keep Luca in their bed or their lives, he’d given them that.

She was totally conscious of Luca’s gaze on her face as he walked out onto the podium and collected his trophy.

His parents were here too. His dad was shaking hands with a mechanic, whom he’d just met, so hard his teeth likely rattled, but he was several feet away from where she stood with the Harrows while his mom jumped up and down and screamed.

But Luca wasn’t looking at them. He was smiling at her.

She knew people would notice if she cheered loudly for him.

She politely clapped and smiled, appropriate given that he was on her husband’s team, and they’d publicly reconciled their friendship.

But she couldn’t show the joy she was feeling for him.

She met his gaze, pointing to his mum, and mouthed, “Look at them.”

He grinned even wider when he saw his mom.

Luca walked down the hallway of the hotel to Ethan and Cece’s suite. He wanted to celebrate with his two favorite people, and there weren’t any obligations to stop them or public appearances to consider.

Ethan had slipped him an extra key to the room before they’d left the track.

It was becoming more and more difficult to hide how he felt about both Ethan and Cece when they were out together in public.

He was in love with both of them, and he wanted to be able to tell people about it.

He hated having to pretend they were all just friends, and the only thing they had to be so happy about was that he and Ethan had put a mysterious beef behind them for the sake of competing together for points in a world championship.

What he felt for Ethan and Cece was about their whole lives, not this tiny slice of time when they were part of one of the most popular sports in the world.

Before the season began, he was devastated by the seeming end of his career.

He hadn’t known who he was without racing.

But now, he was pretty sure he could walk away from it all if it meant keeping what he had with Cece and Ethan.

He just wasn’t sure they felt the same way.

When Luca walked into the room, Ethan was waiting for him.

He pushed Luca up against the door and kissed him.

Although they’d hugged and clapped backs after the race, like good teammates and competitors, neither of them had been able to pour the same level of emotion into a public display of affection.

But Ethan’s hands burrowing under his clothes and his lips rough against his own told the whole story of how much they’d always felt connected.

Even when they’d competed on track as though they didn’t care about each other off track.

Even when they hadn’t spoken for years, there had been something like a constant yearning between them.

“You know, there’s fanfic about this,” Cece said, a little breathy, as she walked into the room.

They stopped kissing as she padded across the floor to them.

She didn’t step between them because she harbored much less jealousy than her husband.

She caressed the back of Ethan’s head and gave Luca a small kiss on the cheek.

She smelled like sunscreen and a hint of petrol. She still hadn’t washed off the track.

He wanted to take a shower with her later, but he wasn’t sure the hotel shower was big enough for three.

They hadn’t been alone together since being together was cheating, and Luca didn’t know how to broach the subject.

He didn’t know how to talk about whether this was just sex—exclusively between the three of them—or whether they were in a relationship with each other and had individual relationships within the triad.

They should really talk about all of those things, but then Cece dropped to her knees and undid his pants. And Ethan kissed him again.

When Cece had his cock out, she stroked it instead of putting it into her mouth like he wanted her to.

He also wanted to fuck her, but that would have to wait.

He felt like he was always waiting in this relationship—waiting to find out if Cece would leave Ethan and be with him, waiting to see if Ethan would ever talk to him again, waiting to know if this was going to be real or just a passing fling.

Being in a situationship with two people was especially difficult when one of those people hadn’t yet put their mouth around your dick.

But then, she did. She wasn’t tentative about giving him a blow job, but he wouldn’t expect her to be.

She and Ethan were both relentless and consuming, taking as much pleasure from overwhelming his senses as he was getting.

Ethan broke their kiss to pull off his shirt, and Luca did the same.

He wanted to feel everyone’s skin against his own.

While that was happening, Cece positioned herself between Luca’s thighs and sucked him deeper.

Caught off guard, he punched his hips forward and hit the back of her throat.

She swallowed him down like that was what she’d wanted to happen.

She stroked his abs with one hand as the other one wrapped around his balls, caressing him. Ethan stood back, watching them. He liked to watch. “Has she always been able to deep throat?” Sometimes, Cece liked it when they talked about her as though she wasn’t there.

“No. I had to ask for it.” He combed through her hair, gently with his fingers, letting her know they might be talking about her as though she was a thing, but he treasured her. That’s all Luca wanted, to treasure her, along with his best friend, forever.

But he couldn’t think about how they could all turn out to be a happy family for long.

Ethan used his hand to force Cece to take him deeper and deeper, fucking Luca with his wife’s mouth.

Luca looked down and saw tear tracks of mascara running down her face, but the look in her eyes held zero distress.

She wanted this. She wanted both of them to use her and then spoil her.

She was theirs, and she belonged to both of them.

Thinking about that made him come.