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CHAPTER EIGHT

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After Paragon rocked the racing world with their lineup announcement, teammate Lars Bachman displayed hesitance about the choice. Says he’ll be fighting a ‘one-man battle’ to help the team in the championship standings.

FORMULA WORLD NEWS

The hallway was still empty when we stepped out of Gray’s office. Every piece of me was disappointed we couldn’t hold hands. That’s how different everything was. I was used to people not touching me. At this point it had been a few years since I’d anything more than a brief, casual touch.

I already missed his body pressed against mine.

“The shoots went well?”

“I think so,” I said as we walked to the elevator. “I guess we’ll see when all the photos and videos are used.”

Grayson chuckled, then spoke lower. “I can’t imagine they’re bad. I also hope we didn’t scare you by being in the windows.”

My cheeks flushed. “No. I was glad you were there.”

The elevator opened, and it was dangerous. Such a small, close space was tempting. “I’ll have to take you on an actual tour at some point,” Gray said. “Down to the garage and the factory. Wind tunnel.”

There would be plenty of time for that. I needed to get into the actual simulator and not just the one I had at home with a wheel and pedals. But for the rest of the day, I was putting anything to do with racing to the side.

“I’d love to see it.”

A pair of people walked down the hall toward us, and I hoped they wouldn’t notice the lingering perfume around me. “You’ve already seen the press room and the studio. Though we use that space for more than that. It’s multi-functional.”

“Makes sense.”

Gray looked down at me when they passed, our smiles matching the fiction we were weaving. Nothing more than a Team Principal showing their new driver the ropes. “Did you give Lars a tour when he started?”

“I did.”

“My grandfather told me not to watch his press conference.”

The way Gray’s face shuttered, I knew I’d been right. He’d said something. “What happened?”

“Nothing more than we expected,” he said. “Lars knows better than to outright insult you to the press, but he sowed doubt and tried to make himself look like the hero. Don’t worry about it.”

“Easier said than done,” I whispered under my breath.

Gray growled softly. “I know. Down here we have the employee lounge, some storage, and the loading dock. Mostly used for parts delivery and such.”

“Something you show people on every tour?”

A smirk touched his lips. “Not usually, no.”

He glanced behind us, confirming there was no one watching before ushering me through.

“Cameras?”

“I’m on it,” he said. “We’ll be telling them that we’re taking you out to avoid the press. Which isn’t a lie.”

No, it wasn’t. And there wouldn’t be a reason for anyone to question it until we were public. By then, it wouldn’t matter.

A large, blacked-out SUV sat in the closed loading dock with someone leaning against it. Beck Huxley. One of the other Alpha’s in Gray’s pack, and the one who stared at me like he wanted to consume me earlier. The second his eyes landed on me they held that same heat. Now I could tell that he was the one who smelled like incense and cedar.

My stomach dropped through my feet. Anticipation and so much more. I held out a hand as I approached, like we were being introduced as nothing more than colleagues. “Hey.”

“Hello, Vanessa.”

Beck had an accent too. Britannian, but he sounded like he was from the north, or even from across the channel. It was ambiguous, but I wanted more right now.

Beck’s hand tightened on mine, and I watched him glance up and behind me, where a camera must be. “Ready to go?”

“You have no idea.”

He turned without releasing my hand and opened the door, guiding me inside and following me, sliding onto the leather. Neither of us spoke as he hauled me closer, wrapping me close before sprawling us across the backseat with him on top of me. “You’ll have to stay down to make sure no one else spots you.”

I grinned. “And you’re helping with that?”

One raised eyebrow, but his eyes grew serious. “Should I not?”

A shudder worked its way down my spine. He was touching me, and that delicious weight unlocked more than I could put into words. His scent combined with Gray’s in the small space made me feel light and floaty. High. Even though I knew this could happen—how an Omega who scent matched could be overcome by the power of it—I never thought I’d experience it. “Don’t stop.”

He kissed me lightly, barely brushing his lips over mine before he turned us so I was pressed between him and the back of the seat. Less chance that someone would see me behind his large body, and I got to snuggle closer.

Win-win.

“I don’t know what to say,” I whispered, shaking my head. “I feel— I’m going to be out of it. The two of you already make me feel like I’ve smoked way, way too much weed. I don’t think that will get better with the rest of you.”

A low, rough laugh rumbled through him and into me before Beck’s purr rose from nothing. My eyes closed on their own, and I held back my whine as the car began to move. I relaxed against him, just letting myself fade into these instincts, because I knew that I could .

The rational, fearful part of my brain told me not to trust it. That I needed to be careful. But down in the deepest part of myself, where I couldn’t even reach, I trusted them. It wasn’t just what Annika had said about everything being too public for them to do me harm. My Omega knew .

And in turn, I knew that regardless of a scent match, if my Omega sensed anything was wrong or that we were at risk, I wouldn’t feel this way.

After a few minutes of Beck purring, a hand slowly smoothing up and down over my ribs, he spoke slowly over the sound. “None of us mind if you’re out of it, love. We’re just glad that you’re here.”

“Are we away from headquarters?”

I felt him shift, looking. “Yes.”

That was all I needed to slide my arms fully around him and release the last bit of tension I held. Beck moved again, slower this time, so I could lie across his chest with my ear against his purr. One hand stroked my hair, the other kept me close.

How long had it been since I could relax into my Omega completely?

The question came back from my mind unanswered, because the answer was never. It wasn’t safe for me to be soft and trusting in this industry. I held most at arm’s length out of necessity and self-preservation. So this easing , this relaxation, felt like floating on clouds.

I couldn’t stay like this forever. Just for a little while. “No one can see me like this,” I whispered.

The hand stroking my hair stopped, pressing me more firmly against his chest. “No one but us,” he agreed.

Us . We were an us now.

Gray’s voice came from the front seat. “Elias will meet us in the parking garage.”

“Ready to be smuggled again?” Beck asked. I heard him smile even though I wasn’t looking at his face.

“I’m not sure I can walk,” I told him honestly. “Not joking when I said I feel high.”

“We’ll take care of you.”

No hesitations or questions. No excuses. Just a simple statement of fact.

It wasn’t long before Beck helped me sit up, and I couldn’t stop staring at him. Brown, shoulder-length hair and scruff on his jaw. A smile that warmed me up. Gunmetal gray eyes. His purr still rumbled next to me, and I didn’t want to let it go.

Outside the car, we pulled up right next to an elevator in a parking garage. I only just got a glimpse of who waited before he opened the door with a grin. That delicious fruity smell from earlier swept into the car, making everything so much better and so much worse. The three strains of scent braided themselves together and made me even more delirious.

“Hey, beautiful.”

It was the poshest Britannian accent I’d ever heard. Like he’d stepped out of one of the palaces. But Elias Coleville didn’t look like royalty. He looked like the bad boy you might do bad things for. Blond hair, brown eyes, and dimples that made my heart skip a beat. “Hi.”

Beck helped me slide to the door, and I nearly fell out of the car. “I might not make the best impression because your scents are making me drunk. High. Whatever. Not sober.”

Laughing, Elias scooped one of his arms around my shoulders and took my weight as Beck stood behind me. It was careful. Like they knew what they were doing and how things needed to look. In this moment I chose to trust that they would take care of it, just like Beck said.

Pressed up against Elias like this, that fruit was so much stronger, and I still didn’t know what it was. I turned my face and shoved it into his shoulder. “What do you smell like?”

“Huckleberry.” Elias still smiled as he helped me and my jelly legs into the elevator. “Like a blueberry and a raspberry fucked.”

Now that he said it? Yeah.

And it was so fucking good.

“It’s delicious.”

“Yeah?” He leaned my back against the elevator wall, propping me up with his body. “I could say the same. I’ve never really been a pineapple man. Or I wasn’t until this morning.”

Fuck, it hadn’t even been a day. Hard to believe when the world had flipped upside down and turned from black to white.

I looked back and forth between warm brown eyes, getting lost in them. There was no focusing when I felt like this. My world was bright and misty and golden. Beck might have said something, but I didn’t quite hear it. Reality was going a little fuzzy. My Omega was so relaxed after so long with her walls up, that she was tired. I was tired. And happy.

I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

“River’s been losing his mind all day,” Elias said. “Since he couldn’t come with us.”

“Tell him I’m sorry,” I said.

Somewhere, I heard the frown in the word. “Why?”

Only his body pressing me against the wall kept me from falling. It didn’t really matter, because I was falling. Into total bliss.