The Chase (11 page)

“How about Goddess? That works for me.”

“Huh.” He made a noncommittal sound. “That’s so typical.”

“And Jay is better?”

“Yeah, I mean how many women can have a nickname that’s so personal? Tailored right for them, instead of some generic one?”

“You’re a pig,” she said, yawning, her words completely without malice.

“You’re probably right.” Evan held Kendall close to him, very much aware that this could be it. All the time he was going to have with her, intimate and close and warm like this. So he kissed the top of her tousled head and wondered why he felt so content . . . why he felt so natural and normal with Kendall. Complete.

Which sucked.

Evan lay awake staring at the ceiling long after Kendall had fallen into the soft, even breathing of a deep sleep.

 

 

KENDALL
woke up stiff and confused, her backside cold, her front sticky. Prying her eyes open, she realized she was still lying naked across Evan’s chest.

And he was staring at her.

Good God. What the hell had she been thinking? There was nothing smart about sleeping with a fellow driver, history or not.

“What time is it?” Mind racing through her schedule, she tried to remember what time her test drive was. She had to meet her crew chief at the garage before, at ten, and then . . .

“Good morning to you, too.”

Lips pursing, Kendall stopped trying to push herself off of Evan and looked down at him. He looked put out, and she instantly felt guilty, which pissed her off. “Good morning.” She wasn’t going to ask again, but her mind was spinning, and she realized she’d left her purse in the car. “Seriously, what time is it?”

Evan sighed, but he leaned over and turned the clock on his nightstand so she could see it. “Eight twenty-two.”

“Shit. I have to be at the track at ten.” Vaulting up, she tried not to feel hugely self-conscious that she was buck-ass naked as she climbed out of bed.

But failed as miserably as she had calculus when Evan let out a wolf whistle. Feeling her cheeks heat, she tried to figure out how to retrieve her panties without bending over a mere foot from Evan’s face. Not that she knew where her panties were. There seemed to be a whole mess of clothes scattered all over the floor, none of which were hers. She did spot her sweater and bent at the knees to pick it up, smacking one of them against the bed frame in the process.

“Ouch.”

“What the hell are you doing?”

“I’m getting dressed, what’s it look like?” As she held the sweater up in front of her, making sure to cover all her important girl bits, she tried not to shuffle. Her mouth was dry and she was blushing and she just wanted out of there.

God. Sleeping with her first love, who happened to drive for the same team as her, and was her competition. That had been just brilliant.

“If I can find my underwear, that is.”

Evan was lounging on the bed, fully naked and sporting a giant erection.

Kendall tore her eyes away from it. There was no point in checking out his package. She’d come, she’d seen, she’d come again.

Time to take her very happy hoohah home and concentrate on her career, not nailing Evan Monroe.

Ignoring the sudden betrayal of moisture between her legs, she scanned the floor and found her bra. Evan shifted and pulled her panties out from under his leg. “Here you go.”

She snatched them so fast her speed would have done a kung-fu master proud. His eyebrows shot up.

As she knelt down by the bed so he couldn’t see her and wiggled into her underwear, he propped himself up against the headboard. “So am I going to see you later?”

“Yeah, if you’re doing test runs today. I’ll be there from ten until probably two or so.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Of course it wasn’t. Shit. “What did you mean?”

“I meant am I going to see you again. Naked or otherwise.”

Awkward. And this was where Kendall was totally lacking in the sensibilities of the majority of her gender. She didn’t always know how to be delicate. Or maybe tactful was the better word. But she was going to try. “Evan . . . I’m really glad we had a chance to talk last night. I owed you a real apology for my behavior when we broke up, and I’m so glad to hear that I was mistaken about what had happened. But last night . . . it was just closure for us. I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to see each other—like this—again.”

Evan’s hands were behind his head and he sighed before nodding. “I had a feeling you’d say that. If that’s what you want, Kendall. I’m not going to chase you. I chased enough ten years ago.”

Not sure how she felt about that, or what that really meant, Kendall frowned as she finished hauling up her jeans. “I mean, I hope we’ll be friends now. That the sniping is a thing of the past.”

He nodded. “Sure. Of course.”

That was it?

Kendall stood up, fully dressed, boots on but unlaced. “Okay. Great. Awesome.”

Awkward. Now what did she say? This was what she got. She was a slut who had forced him to have sex with her and now any potential friendship that could have blossomed was buried under her boobs and his boner.

“Do you need a ride to the bar to pick up your car?”

“Nah. I’m going back to sleep.” Evan stretched lazily, making his erection jerk a little.

Not that she was looking.

“Are you sure?” Not that she wanted to drive him anywhere. In fact, she’d have liked to move to a hemisphere where Evan Monroe and his stellar penis didn’t exist.

“Yep. I’ll call a cab.” He yawned.

Clearly he wasn’t having the same emotional tornado tear through him that she was.

“Perfect. Okay. See you around.” Kendall gave him the thumbs-up and turned to leave.

Dear Lord. She had given him the thumbs–fucking-up. Could she feel any stupider?

“Bye, Jay.”

Yes. Yes, she could.

Kendall just waved over her shoulder and kept going, not trusting herself to turn around. Her cheeks were burning, and she decided that she still hated Evan Monroe just a tiny small bit.

“WHAT
exactly do you have to smile about?” Eve said.

Evan sat in the office that his family used to manage his and Elec’s driving careers and tried to squelch the grin on his face. “Nothing.” Just the most amazing sex of the decade, that was all. He could still picture Kendall on top of him, feel her body sluicing over his . . .

Something pinged him on the arm, knocking him out of his reverie. “Hey!” Eve had thrown a paper clip at him. “What was that for?”

“For wearing a shit-eating grin when you just had the biggest setback to your career. I mean what could you possibly be smi—”

Eve’s crossed leg fell down onto the floor. “Oh, my God. You had sex last night, didn’t you? That’s why you’re Mr. Happy this morning.”

There was no point in denying it, so Evan just remained silent. He’d let Eve have her rant for a minute or two then he’d rein her in.

“What is it with you men? Does sex trump everything?”

What planet had she been living on? “Yes.”

“Pretty much,” Elec agreed from his position on the couch. He had been thumbing through a magazine but piped in with his support.

“Not that I’m saying I had sex. But I had a date.” It wasn’t his style to kiss and tell.

“Did anyone see you with her? Are there going to be pics on a blog with some barely legal stripper?”

“I resent that. I have never dated a stripper. Or anyone barely legal once I was past twenty-one myself. Neither appeals to me in any way.” There were limits to the insults he’d take. But then he realized claiming a stripper would probably earn him less grief from Eve than the truth.

“Well, thank God. Is she anyone I know?”

Evan coughed. “I think you might know her, yeah.” And normally he wouldn’t admit a damn thing, but for all he knew there was a blog going up right now about Kendall and him being in that bar. Written by Tuesday Jones, probably. He could deny it, but that would just piss Eve off more.

His sister tucked her hair behind her ear and narrowed her eyes. “Who is it?”

“It might have been Kendall Holbrook.”

Eve’s jaw dropped. Elec gave a low whistle from the couch.

“You had sex with Kendall Holbrook?”

“I’m not admitting anything, only that I went out for a drink with her last night.”

“Are you crazy?” Eve’s voice had shot up two octaves. “When did you become the mayor of Moron-ville?”

Trust his sister to find an insult that infuriated him, even when he vowed to stay calm. “What’s the big deal? It was one drink!” Then a whole night of naked.

“Do I need to remind you that your very existence in the cup series is in jeopardy? And that Kendall Holbrook is this season’s novelty? She has the media crawling up her ass twenty-four seven.”

Well, not quite.

“And drivers like her are the reason you lost your sponsorship. She has siphoned off attention from all of you guys in the middle of the pack, and for that reason alone she could be the enemy. But more to the point, if the two of you are seen together, it looks bad. You look like a boot licker.”

“I don’t know about that,” Elec said. “I don’t think anyone would see it as anything more than just a juicy piece of gossip.”

“Great, thanks.” Evan felt the warm fuzzies he’d woken up with evaporating.

“Everyone loves a good track romance.”

“They do?” Evan never paid attention to that kind of stuff. Mainly because he’d been avoiding the whole concept of relationships, jealous of other people’s happily ever afters.

“Of course they do. But the bigger issue here is distraction. If you’re feeling the love for Kendall, is your competitiveness going to be compromised?”

Evan didn’t hear anything past love. “What? What love? It was one drink!” And a night of hot monkey sex.

But the L word scared the crap out of him.

“I remember when you and Kendall broke up the first time around,” Eve said, leaning back in her chair and sticking her legs up on her desk, her shiny black boots moving up and down like she was wagging her finger at him. “It wasn’t pretty.”

“We were kids then. Everything was drama. We’re just hanging out, getting to know each other as adults.” As equally horny adults. Evan shifted on his chair, feeling a little uncomfortable with the erotic memories dancing through his head. If he got a boner in front of his sister he was going to be embarrassed as hell. Plus she would mock him for the rest of his natural life.

“Yes, there was drama. You were awful, moping around, calling her every five seconds, crying. I wanted to smack you to make it stop, but it would have been like kicking roadkill.”

Evan felt a little kicked right now. “Your sympathy is overwhelming, as always.”

“Ease up, Eve,” Elec said, his voice mild but firm. “You had your share of heartbreak when you were a teenager. That shit hurts.”

His brother had always been the softer touch, and right now he appreciated it. “Thanks, bro.”

Eve sighed. “God, I hate it when you deflate my anger. Can’t you just let me be pissed at you?”

Grinning, Evan flicked the paper clip back at her. “No one can stay mad at me. Look at Kendall. It only took ten years, but now we’re talking again. No one can resist my immense charm.”

His sister snorted. “Seriously, stay away from the cameras. Don’t let this get turned into a big deal. Be careful not to be photographed. And most of all, do not, I repeat, do
not
let this turn into drama. Do not let it affect your driving, your focus. And do not engage in some kind of nasty public breakup with Kendall.”

“There’s nothing to break up. We’re just friends.” If he told himself that enough, eventually he’d start to believe it. The truth was, he wasn’t sure they were even friends, but he knew that he wanted a repeat of last night as soon as possible. Eve didn’t need to know that.

Sighing, she said, “You’re going to be the death of me. Either that or responsible for my slow slide into alcoholism.”

“Why so serious, Eve? Maybe you need to get laid, too.”

Her feet hit the ground and she pointed her finger at him. “You did sleep with her! I knew it! Damn it!”

Shit. He had just outed himself. Elec started laughing from behind him.

Nothing to do but grin and own it. “Don’t worry. It wasn’t in public and there were no cameras.”

“How do you know? There are surveillance cameras at every decent hotel.”

“Why would we be at a hotel? We were at my place. And I’m not telling you anything more than that because it’s none of your business.”

He certainly wasn’t going to tell his sister how amazing Kendall had looked coming, or how delicious her nipples had tasted, or how he had let her walk out that morning without a fuss because he fully intended to see her naked again soon.

“Your career is my business, so don’t mess it up.”

“It’s all good.” Well, maybe not his career, exactly, but he and Kendall . . . it was all damn good.

 

 

“YOU
did what?” Tuesday paused in the process of raising her press pass badge over her head. “I don’t think I heard you correctly.”

Kendall looked uneasily around the garage, making sure no one was in earshot. “I slept with him. It’s not a big deal.”

“No big deal?” Tuesday let the badge drop down on the string it was attached to, tossing her hair back. “Are you kidding me? You were a wreck over this guy. You and Evan Monroe have enough baggage to fill a cargo plane and you just hopped into bed with him?”

“You made me go talk to him,” she pointed out, feeling defensive. So she’d slept with Evan? Who cared? Sex happened. Good sex was a rarity in her life these days. Actually, any sex was hard to come by. It had been a golden opportunity with someone she knew could please her so she had taken it, and she wasn’t about to apologize for that.