Page 58 of Overdrive (Speed Demons #1)

Her cheeks turned rosy, and I wondered if it was from my words or the alcohol. I hoped it was me. “So, basically, you have seen me wear pink. I’m just usually in my team kit. But, I will say, almost all of my underwear is pink.”

I froze, the laugh catching in my throat as her words sank in. “Is that so?” I murmured, my voice dropping an octave. Then again… the bra she was wearing when I showed up at her room in Miami had been pink…

The air between us grew warmer, the banter shifting once again into something charged. I forgot how to breathe when my eyes dipped down to her low-cut black spaghetti-strap top, where I spotted pale pink lace adorning her breasts. I swallowed, knowing I was close to losing my grip.

Her next question broke the silence, drawing my attention away from the danger of her cleavage. “What’s your biggest regret?”

“Not saying yes when I should have,” I said, impressed my brain was still functioning. “What about you?”

“Letting other people’s doubts get in my head,” she admitted, voice barely above a whisper.

I wanted to say something, but the words wouldn’t come.

So instead, I reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear, letting my fingers trail down her jaw, her neck, her collarbone.

Her skin was hot to the touch. I wanted to grab handfuls of her, pull her into me, kiss her senseless and then fuck her into the middle of next week.

I wanted to throw her over my shoulder, take her upstairs, and remind her exactly what she’d been running from for weeks.

I wanted to ruin her so thoroughly she’d forget anyone came before me.

I didn’t move my hand right away. I physically couldn't. Not when she looked like that—when she let me touch her the way I have. Her gaze dropped to my mouth, and I swore the entire bar disappeared around us.

I didn’t even realize I’d shifted closer until my knee brushed hers. Then her hand landed on my bicep. Light. Testing. But not moving away. That was all the permission I needed.

I slid my hand lower, slowly, deliberately.

My fingertips grazed her thigh, then slipped beneath the hem of her skirt.

Her breath hitched—so quiet it was almost imperceptible, but I felt it.

Just like I felt the way her thighs tensed, the slight tremble that betrayed just how close to the edge she already was.

“I remember exactly how you sound when I make you come,” I murmured, my lips grazing her ear. I was done playing it safe.

She chased my lap times. I chased the way she moaned my name. In only one instance did we know what the fuck we were doing.

She inhaled sharply, her nails digging into my arms, and the sound of my name on her lips nearly broke me. “Callum?—”

“I remember how you begged me not to stop,” I continued, sliding my palm over the delicate lace between her legs. She was so fucking warm. So ready. “Are you going to let me hear it again?”

The quietest, most wrecked little whimper fell from her mouth, and I just watched, enraptured. Rosy, glossy, plump lips, her perfect white teeth visible from how they were parted. Breathing the same air as me.

“Auri,” I managed through the haze of lust. She stared at my mouth, her pupils dilated and nearly swallowing the golds and greens I was so used to seeing.

My dick was so hard in my pants that I could barely think straight. Thank God. I didn’t want to think straight anymore. I wanted to throw caution to the wind and stop this silly dance we were doing.

That, and all that pent-up energy I hadn’t been able to expel were too goddamn close to consuming me.

She licked her lips, her breathing uneven, and I swear to God, I almost blacked out. I was already on the fucking edge, but that? That wrecked me.

I fought the urge to drag her into my lap right fucking now and remind her how I made her fall apart in Miami. Instead, I exhaled, jaw clenched so tight it hurt, and ran my knuckles over her collarbone—barely touching her, barely holding on.

“Tell me to stop.” I cupped the back of her neck, pulling her closer to me. She didn’t fight it, but came to me willingly.

I could feel her heart racing from where she pressed against me. Her nipples were hard, and try as I might, I couldn’t stop myself from looking at how she reacted to just the chemistry between us. Oh, how I could make her body sing again, make her scream my name and her legs shake.

We were both painfully aware of what was going to happen next.

“I’m only going to ask you one time,” I whispered, “to stop fighting this and just feel for one fucking night. Don’t kick me out before the night is over.” I could tell that she was ready, but I wanted to make sure she knew she had the power to stop me at any moment.

I dragged my knuckles down the side of her arm, slow and deliberate, tracing over her skin like a fucking prayer. “Aurélie, tell me to fucking stop.”

She bit her plump lower lip but said nothing .

“Tell me you don’t want this.”

Her throat bobbed. A shiver danced over her shoulders, her chest rising and falling like she was struggling to get enough air. I leaned in, letting my breath fan against her lips, just shy of taking what I wanted.

“Say the word and I’ll walk away, Auri.”

That was the biggest fucking lie I’d ever told in my goddamn life.

Her fingers twitched against my knee. Then, barely above a whisper, “Don’t.” That sweet little French accent curled around the word like a caress. One syllable. One plea. A command I’d never disobey.

The second the word left her lips, I was done. It was all I needed to fucking ruin her.

My grip tightened, and suddenly, we weren’t just sitting there—we were crashing together, devouring each other, like two stars colliding at full fucking speed.

Her handsfistedin my shirt, yanking me closer, and I didn’t just kiss her, I fucking claimed her. Deep, messy, desperate. She tasted like tequila, lime, and something sweeter—cherries again, I realized—and it took everything in me to not fuck her then and there.

As we kissed, my hand moved from her neck to her lower back, pulling her against me until she was crawling into my lap, her skirt bunching around her hips as she straddled me. I had no shame as my hips pressed upward into her, the friction sending a rush of heat through me.

One hand tangled in her hair, feeling the softness of it in my fingers. Her body relaxed into mine, our movements becoming more fluid.

Despite my best efforts to control myself, I let out a low groan as our tongues danced together. My heart pounded as if I was in the middle of a race, but this was a different kind of adrenaline. A kind that was all-consuming and completely, utterly intoxicating.

When we pulled away from each other, we were both breathless. My hands were on her thighs, thumbs tracing languid circles on her smooth, bare skin. She was so fucking beautiful—goddamn irresistible—and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep her down here.

A challenge burned in her eyes, wild and reckless, daring me to take this further, to push.

So I did.

She tried to sit back, tried to slow it down, but fuck that. I hooked an arm around her waist and yanked her flush against me again, swallowing her gasp as I sucked her bottom lip between my teeth.

Her nails dug into my shoulders, knees spreading wider instinctively so she could sit lower in my lap, and my hands found her thighs once more, sliding higher, feeling the heat of her through the thin material of her skirt.

Our breathing rasped, loud enough to drown out everything around us.

I’d kissed women before—too many, if I was being honest—but this wasn’t the same.

This wasn’t just the heat of the moment or the pent-up tension that had been building between us for months or the memories of one drunken night two weeks ago.

The way she pressed against me, like she finally let the world slip away, left me reeling.

Her lips tasted like sinful temptation, and I didn’t know how to make sense of what she’d just done to me.

I stared up at her, searching for something—anything—in her expression that would help me understand why this felt different. Why she felt different.

She shifted in my lap, just a little, just enough—fuck.

My hands gripped her tighter, barely keeping her still so I didn’t come in my fucking pants.

Her thighs clenched around me, her breath breaking into uneven gasps as my fingers slid higher.

She felt it too—the pull, the build, the goddamn collapse.

“Callum—” Her voice was barely more than a whimper, and I swear to God, it made me even harder.

“I know, baby,” I murmured against her lips. “I know.”

Her gaze met mine, wide and searching, like she was just as stunned as I was. And in that moment, the burden of everything else disappeared. There was only us, and the undeniable certainty that whatever had just happened, it wasn’t something we could walk away from.

I finally felt like I was exactly where I was meant to be.

I wasn’t just chasing a win. I’d already found the one thing worth losing everything for.