Page 24 of Kiss & Collide (Racing Hearts #2)

Las Vegas, Nevada

C hase was standing on a plaza in front of the Bellagio, in his race suit next to a Pinnacle car—one of last year’s cars, since this year’s cars were in pieces, packed into shipping containers, and on their way to Azerbaijan.

Floodlights lit him up from multiple angles.

Behind him, the famed Bellagio fountains were lit up against the Vegas skyline.

A photographer circled him, snapping pictures.

A crowd of tourists milled around, chatting and snapping photos on their phones, and probably uploading them all to social media.

Violet hung back, outside the ring of lights, and congratulated herself.

Trying to generate positive news about Pinnacle was a daily uphill battle, but her project to turn Chase into a superstar was going perfectly.

Vanity Fair , and now GQ . Hannah, the GQ reporter, had spent most of the flight to Vegas doing a deep-dive interview with Chase, pulling out details about his childhood in Chicago, his race-obsessed family, and his rough early years of training in Europe.

His narrative couldn’t be more appealing if Violet had written it herself.

So with all this professional success, she couldn’t figure out why she was watching this photo shoot feeling so unsettled.

A calendar reminder pinged on her phone and she glanced at it on instinct.

7:30- Dinner- Chase & Madison- Picasso

It was their first in-person date, and judging from that comment he’d dropped on her Insta, Violet was anticipating the fake relationship could become a real hookup.

They were two young, beautiful, unattached people.

It was practically expected, and she absolutely refused to be bothered by it. It was all her idea, after all.

If that did happen, she wouldn’t allow herself to give him another thought. They’d had their fun. It was never meant to go on this long.

Her phone buzzed again.

Goddamn it. Ian. Again .

She never responded, but that didn’t seem to faze him. His texts kept showing up with a tedious regularity. Why hadn’t she blocked him?

“Chase, turn to your right a little more.”

She glanced up just as Chase angled his body as directed and flashed an absolutely devastating grin at the camera.

At least, it devastated something somewhere deep down in her chest. Yeah, it would probably be a good thing if he moved on with Madison.

Ian was something she understood, something she could control.

This thing with Chase was starting to feel … uncontrollable.

So maybe that was why, for the first time, she texted Ian back.

What do you want?

Where are you?

Not an answer.

Nowhere near you . Silverstone was a blip. It was just a couple of hours north of London, so Ian hadn’t had to exert much effort to pursue her there. For the rest of the season, she’d been much harder to reach.

I don’t know why you’re bothering me after all this time, but I’m at work.

Like I said, I miss you, Sunshine.

She let out a snort of laughter. Sure he did. She had to admit she was enjoying watching him fling himself at the glass. There was something deeply soothing about dangling him on a string for a while. He deserved it.

A flare of deeply petty spite heated her chest as she typed out a reply.

What do you miss most about me?

Three dots appeared, then vanished, then started again. Finally he replied.

I miss your electric eyes.

And your honeyed mouth.

And the taste of your skin, like a drug.

She left him on read while he typed out line after line of lame song lyrics. That should keep him busy for a while.

“Okay,” the photographer finally called out. “I think I have what I need here, Chase. See you tomorrow.”

She pocketed her phone, still vibrating with Ian’s incoming texts, and went to join Chase.

He set down the prop helmet he’d been holding for an hour and stretched out his shoulders.

“That shit’s harder than it looks,” he groaned.

“The burden of beauty. Let’s get moving. Your date’s in half an hour.”

Upstairs, she swiped them into Chase’s suite. “Okay, you go get cleaned up and changed. I’ll let Cam know what your ETA is.”

She was typing out the text when she felt Chase slide an arm around her waist and dip his head to whisper in her ear.

“Or we do this first.”

He brushed her hair aside and kissed the nape of her neck.

Her knees went wobbly and just for a second, she sagged back against his chest, wanting nothing more than to fall into the sensual oblivion he was offering.

But sleeping with him just minutes before he met up with Madison felt shady as hell, even to her.

“Come on, Chase.” She pushed against the arm he’d banded around her waist. “You have a reservation.”

“You said this was a professional arrangement.” He slid his hand down to caress her hip. “Like a business meeting.”

“Yeah, but—”

“So sometimes people are late to meetings.”

“Do you know how hard it was to swing this reservation?”

“Violet, Madison’s not gonna care—”

But I’m afraid I’m starting to , her mind whispered to her. Something like panic welled up in her throat and she shoved herself away from him.

“Violet—”

She put several feet between them before she turned to face him, then pulled her phone out so she could focus on that instead of meeting his confused gaze. “Picasso is just downstairs. If you hurry, you won’t be late.”

“But—”

“Just go , Chase.”

He heaved a sigh and threw his hands in the air. “Fine. I’m going.”

Once the bathroom door had closed behind him she shut her eyes and blew out the breath she’d been holding. Too close. He’d gotten entirely too close.

When she glanced down at her phone, Ian was still at it and had broken out a thesaurus.

I miss your incendiary passion.

I miss your cloistered sadness.

That didn’t even make any sense. Then again, songwriting had never been his strength.

She’d planned to give Chase a once-over before he headed downstairs to make sure he was dream-date ready, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to face him when he came out of the bathroom. So instead she forwarded Cam’s text explaining where to meet Madison and she left.

The door of his suite closed behind her. That might possibly be the last time she was alone with him in that way.

As she headed back to her own room, on a different floor, she told herself over and over that it would be a good thing.