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CHAPTER TWELVE

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MAJOR PARAGON SPONSOR IS UNSURE OF TEAM DIRECTION AFTER LINEUP ANNOUNCEMENT

Brian Barnes, CEO of AcroSpark and one of Paragon Racing’s major sponsors, expressed concern with the team’s decision to sign rookie Vanessa Lennon to the team. ‘This is taking the team in a direction I’m not sure we can support. We want to win races, not play politics or make choices simply because they’re fashionable. We will be seriously considering our next steps.’

“Never thought I’d be jealous of someone being in your bed, Gray.” I kept my voice soft as I carried Vanessa upstairs and into Grayson’s room. We all wanted her in our beds, but she’d known Grayson the longest. When she woke up, we wanted her to be with the most familiar face.

Her fingers gripped my sweatshirt, holding on even though she was asleep. I couldn’t stop the smile on my face or the rush of near-feral protectiveness. Possessiveness.

Mine .

Those moments after the elevator doors opened were burned in my brain. One simple rush of scent, and I was bound to her even if we weren’t bonded. I never thought I’d be so satisfied just holding someone. It felt right in a way that nothing ever had. Not even racing, and that was the only thing which had ever made sense in my life.

Now I had three things that made sense. Driving, the pack, and her.

Gray pulled back the blankets on his bed so I could set her down. He covered her back up, and she tucked herself around one of the pillows like she’d been made to be there. She looked so small in the bed. Vulnerable.

She was strong as hell. Because she was smaller than most men, she would have to make up for that in pure grit and strength behind the wheel of a car.

Still, lying here, she looked both small and delicate. Like she needed us to protect her, even if we knew she didn’t.

“You’ll be all right?” I asked.

He nodded. I ducked out of his room, though the last place I wanted to be was farther away from her. I needed to breathe some clearer air. Elias and Beck had started to play a fighting game. I collapsed on the couch nearby and shoved my face into a pillow.

“Having a rough night?” Elias asked.

“Shut up.”

He snickered. “The only reason I can poke you about it is because I feel it too, Riv.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t make it better.”

There was only one thing that would make it better, and that would be her and me and no clothing between us. The potential hovered in my mind like a living, pulsing thing. I needed to know if she tasted like her scent or not. I needed to feel her writhing beneath me, hear her moan my name before she took my knot. I suspected no matter what my mind came up with, she would taste, sound, and feel better.

Fucking caramel and pineapple. I’d never been a pineapple person, but I was already a convert. I already knew everything I tasted in my life would now be compared to her. My Omega.

Did I know?

Was there some element of the crush the guys teased me about which had sensed what she was to me? To us?

Part of me hoped so. The other part raged against it, because if I had known, even subconsciously, we could have been together far longer.

Ignoring the demands my body made to go back upstairs and follow through on every dirty fantasy, I pulled out my phone. Nothing would calm a raging hard-on like seeing assholes come for my Omega, which I was sure I would see now.

Her socials were the first place I went. I already followed her, and the new photo announcing her joining the team was live. There were thousands of comments.

bookish_redpanda: It’s about fcking time we have a female driver! HELL YES.

fast_tuesday: The only place I want her driving is to the kitchen. If she’s so fast then making a sandwich shouldn’t take that long.

pepper_rage_1: She likes speed. So does that mean she’ll be impressed when I come fast?

I growled at the phone. Fuck, this was going to be a nightmare. How was I going to keep myself in check when assholes did this? When they were going to do it in front of me ?

One thing was for sure, if I heard anyone at Xelerate say anything like this, I was shutting that shit down. They’d be lucky to keep their jobs if I had anything to say about it.

There were plenty of supportive statements like the first one I read. It was just hard to focus on those when the bad ones were so bad I wanted to reach through the phone and strangle them.

I scrolled other socials instead and froze.

MAJOR PARAGON SPONSOR IS UNSURE OF TEAM DIRECTION AFTER LINEUP ANNOUNCEMENT

“Fuck.”

“What?”

I tossed my phone to Beck, and he sighed before tossing it back. “Yeah, I kind of figured that would happen. Don’t worry about it.”

“It seems kind of worrying.”

“What Grayson said today in the press conference is true. If they don’t want to sponsor the team, there will be plenty that want to take their place. Having an exclusive in with female racing fans? Any sponsor would be delusional to not see that as an opportunity. Good riddance.”

I hadn’t thought about it that way. The bad press was what I’d been concerned about, but if it were spun as them running away from Vanessa and everything she stood for while other companies lined up around the block? Beck was right. They were delusional to think that would play well.

Elias was kicking Beck’s ass. As funny as it was, I had an early morning. “I have meetings in the morning,” I told them. “Don’t the three of you have too much fun with her before I can get back.”

“No promises, mate.”

I threw a pillow at his head before I left the room. How I was going to sleep, I had no idea. But there was one thing I was going to do.

Going back to Vanessa’s page, I snagged the picture of when she’d raced last year, hands raised in celebration at placing so high, and saved it before posting it on mine.

Congratulations @vanessalennondriver! Can’t wait to see what you can do. See you on the grid.

There. Nothing suspicious about that, but like hell was I going to have anyone question where I stood. What I’d told Gray yesterday, before everything, still held true. I would always try to win on the track, but for everything else? I was with them.

Already there were comments coming in, and I smiled at the ones enraged by my support. Let them be fucking angry and see what happened. They were in for a rude wake up call.

My phone didn’t stop buzzing as I tried to fall asleep.