The Chase (16 page)

“I don’t think you need any more sugar,” Frankie said, strolling into the room looking very chic and modern and completely unslutty, unlike Kendall. “You’re already hopped up on Red Bull.”

“I am not. Frankie, tell the powers that be that I’m not wearing a tube top in this commercial.”

“Of course you’re not wearing a tube top.” Frankie looked at her like she was clinically insane. “Carl would birth a cow if you did that.”

Kendall turned to Trevor. “Were you yanking my chain?”

“I was told tube top.” He threw his hands up in the air. “Very
Dukes of Hazzard
.”

“No tube top.” Feeling a little weird and off-kilter, Kendall threw her arms back and forth and sang, “No tube top for me, you’ll see.”

Evan grinned. “You need a nap.”

“What I need is another Red Bull.” She snapped her fingers in the air in a diva imitation. “And another pastry, but I just want the icing this time.”

She really felt strange, like she was having a bit of an out of body experience. It made her bolder than she probably would have been ordinarily, though maybe a touch less professional. “Trevor, you’ve got to tone down the hair. People are going to think they hired an actress to play me.”

“No big hair?” Evan asked. “I kind of like it.”

“Even more reason to get rid of it.”

Evan waved another pastry in front of her. Where the hell was he getting those from? Kendall really wanted one. He held it right in front of her mouth, tipping it so that the icing touched her lip and clung there. Kendall licked it off, watching his eyes darken.

“Just as long as you don’t get rid of me,” he murmured. “I’ll keep you in cherry pastries indefinitely.”

Kendall couldn’t think of a retort. Couldn’t think to tell him how totally inappropriate he was being in a semipublic situation. Wasn’t sure what he even meant. Was he talking sex or something more? Her Red Bull brain couldn’t handle the puzzle.

All she could think as she sucked the remaining sugar off her bottom lip was that the taste of Evan and a cherry pastry on her tongue would make for a very happy day.

 

 

EVAN
knew he was taking advantage of Kendall’s lack of sleep and overconsumption of caffeine. She was acting downright loopy, and he had to admit it was amusing to watch her. He had a feeling if he nailed one of her feet to the floor, she would just run in a circle. With her big hair. The hairstylist had tamed it a little, but it still had a volume Evan had never seen outside of beauty pageants on TV. In the late eighties.

“Okay, so what I need you to do is to lean on the car, ankles crossed, looking sexy,” the director told Evan.

He could try to do that. He did feel a little self-conscious. Posing sexy wasn’t natural. You just
did
sexy when you were attracted to someone. Which was why he was glad Kendall was in the studio with him. It made playing the part a lot easier when he had her to look at.

Leaning on the car—which was a generic Untamed deodorant car—Evan tried to relax and get in the mood the director wanted.

Kendall was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet across the set, making popping sounds with her lips. They had compromised on her outfit. She was wearing jeans, heels, and a tank top, but she had a racing jacket on over it. It was full coverage everywhere, yet it was smoking hot. It was a lot of tight and a lot of tease.

“Now Kendall, you’re just going to walk up to Evan and deliver your line. Okay?”

Kendall nodded, cracking all her knuckles loudly.

This was going to be interesting. Evan tried to stay loose, watching Kendall as she strolled across the set, which was supposed to be a parking lot. “Hey, there,” she said, then stopped in front of him, her face scrunching up.

Oh, God, she was going to laugh. Evan bit his own lip and narrowed his eyes.

“I’m sorry.” She turned to the director. “I just looked at Evan and I forgot the line.”

“Cut.”

They repeated the process, only this time Kendall tripped halfway. She burst out laughing, and Evan did, too.

The third time, she got all the way through her lines. “Hey, there,” she said, her voice a low and sultry purr. “If you’re going to be in The Chase, you need to be . . . Untamed.”

At which point Evan laughed. He couldn’t help it. The whole thing was so cheesy. Kendall was right. It was like a seventies porno. If this were an adult film, she would be going down on him on the hood of the car after delivering that lame line.

Of course, she had gone down on him on the hood of a car. But not for cameras, and not after that ridiculous line.

“Cut.” The director sighed.

They tried it eight more times, until Evan’s butt was numb from leaning on the car.

“Take five,” the director said, running his hand across his shaved head. “God, this is not going well.”

“I’m sorry,” Kendall said.

“Don’t apologize,” Evan told her in a low voice. “This is stupid. We just need better lines. Like, ‘Hey. Don’t be a stinky chick. Wear Untamed.’ ”

Kendall tried to pat her big hair down flatter. “No kidding. Or something like ‘Own it. Wear it.’ You know, straight to the point.”

“When it’s hotter than a crotch outside, wear Untamed.”

She nodded enthusiastically, her laughter ringing out in the studio. “When you’re sweating like a whore in church, wear Untamed.”

Evan grinned. “Good call.”

Then he couldn’t resist touching the edge of her racing jacket, tugging her a little closer, bringing her in between his legs. He liked her in his space, he liked the scent of her skin, and the heat of her body. “For life’s hottest moments . . . Untamed.”

Her gaze met his and her laughter died out. She licked her lips and bent down towards him, like she was going to kiss him.

Evan went instantly hard, his hand snaking around her waist.

Then she seemed to realize where she was and she snapped straight up. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be!” The director started clapping. “I’m going to roll that back, but people, I think we have a wrap.”

What the shit? “What are you talking about?” Evan moved Kendall and her Texas-sized hair out of the way so he could see the guy’s face. “We were just joking around.”

“And we happened to still being taping, thank God. That was amazing! Perfect. The sexual tension between you two was fabuloso.”

“But I just made that line up.” Evan felt a little stunned. This wasn’t good. That wasn’t going to hang well with Carl. And everyone in America would see that there really was something between him and Kendall. Either that or assume that the two of them were willing to fake it for cash, which weirded him out. Actors faked romance for the camera. Stock car drivers did not.

The other guys would give him hell for this.

And Kendall would kill him. Cut his balls off.

Except when he looked at her, Kendall just looked relieved. “We’re done? Hallelujah. Can I change?”

Her eyes looked a little glassy, and Evan suddenly wondered if she might actually faint. “Hey, you okay, babe?”

“I think I’m sleepwalking,” she told him. “It’s like my body is separate from my head. Or my face. Or something.” Her arms waved around. “Parts aren’t working right together.”

“Alright. I’m taking you back to the hotel. Hang in there. We’ll be there as soon as possible.”

“Are you going to tuck me into bed?” She gave him a loopy grin.

“Yes.” And under no circumstances was he going to take advantage of her weakened state to talk her into making love to him.

He didn’t think.

EVAN
looked down at Kendall, completely passed out in his lap in the cab, and fought the urge to run his fingers through her enormous hair. She looked so young and sweet and vulnerable, her cheek on his thigh, her fingers clasped into praying hands on his knee. If anyone should be praying at the moment it was him.

Looking at her, seeing her eyelashes flutter in her sleep, her lips slightly open as she breathed deeply in and out, Evan was feeling emotions he shouldn’t. She looked eighteen again. Back then, she had lain in his lap like this when they watched TV together and he had felt so strong, masculine, so protective of her. Kendall could take care of herself, then and now, but he liked the idea of being there for her. Of having her back.

Very, very dangerous feelings.

His hand reached out when he couldn’t resist the impulse any longer.

“Don’t touch her,” Kendall’s assistant said next to him.

Evan froze with his hand out, feeling like a kid caught reaching to swipe his finger through the icing on a cake. “Excuse me?”

“Seriously. Don’t touch her. This day is disastrous enough.”

Trained to consider where his words might end up, Evan glanced towards the cabdriver, but the driver was talking on his wireless headset in a foreign language. “How is my brushing her hair off her face disastrous?” And why was it any of this woman’s business?

“Look. I know who you are, who your family is. I’ve been in this business a long time. I may be just a personal assistant but I’ve seen everything. I mean, everything.” She pushed up her glasses and held out her hand. “Frankie Halliday. I used to work for Martin Fairfax before he retired.”

“Evan Monroe. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Evan shook her hand, impressed with the firm grip. “Fairfax was a legend.”

“And a horn dog. I can’t tell you how many indiscretions I had to cover up for him. But owners, fans, the media, they forgive a man . . . they’re harder on a woman. It’s just a fact. And Kendall is special. She’s breaking the glass ceiling here. A whole generation of little girls will be watching her and dreaming of the day they can drive their own race car.”

Elec’s seven-year-old stepdaughter, Hunter, popped into Evan’s head. There was a girl who was itching to grow up and drive. “I agree. Kendall is special.”

“She’s showing the industry you can be feminine and still kick ass on the track. And I’m not going to have her career compromised by rumors and a bunch of white noise bullshit.”

Frankie was pretty damn smart, and more than a little scary. “I would never do anything to hurt Kendall.”

“Which is why, if you want to spend time alone with her in her hotel room, you will not carry her up there yourself, or walk up there with her yourself. You will enter the hotel separately, wait an appropriate amount of time, then go to her room.”

He liked the way Frankie thought. “She’ll be asleep. She’ll never hear me knocking.”

“But I can give you a key.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Are you serious? Why would you do that?”

“Because Kendall deserves to have a little fun.” She opened her handbag and pulled out a condom.

Evan hadn’t blushed since the sixth grade, but he came dangerously close to doing it with that foil packet thrust at him by this total stranger. “Kendall’s on the pill,” he told her. Then realized he shouldn’t know that.

But Frankie still gave him the condom. “That I know. What I don’t know is where your disco stick has been.”

Now he was really embarrassed. “Nowhere.”

“Uh-huh.”

When feeling uncertain, turn it around and make the other person feel uncertain, too. That was his theory. “Aren’t you worried you could get fired for this? I mean, what if Kendall really doesn’t want me in her room?” Evan gave her a grin. “I know, it’s hard to believe a woman wouldn’t want me around, but Kendall can be stubborn.”

“I know she does, because before she passed out she told me if she had a little more sleep she would jump your bones.”

Speaking of bones. Evan’s cock shot up at attention at those words. “Really? She mentioned me?”

“Not something she would normally have done, but she’s at the end of her tether. So no, I’m not worried I’m going to get fired. Just don’t suck in bed.”

With that, she opened the door as they pulled up to the hotel. Patting Kendall on the leg, she said, “Come on, up and at ’em!”

“Huh?” Kendall’s eyes opened and she shot up. “Oh, my God, where am I?”

“In the cab. We just got to the hotel,” Evan told her. “Time for you to go in and take a real nap.”

She rubbed her eyes in a way that was so freaking adorable Evan wanted to kiss her. Repeatedly. But Frankie reached out and took Kendall’s hand.

“Come on,” she said. “Bed is calling.”

“I feel like ass” was Kendall’s response as she shuffled out of the cab. She turned back to Evan. “See you later?”

Evan smiled, slow and easily. “Oh, yeah. Definitely.”

And he couldn’t wait.

 

 

KENDALL
felt warm and relaxed as she dozed in and out sleep. She had no idea what time it was, nor was she really even aware of where she was. It just felt fabulous to float in semiconsciousness.

Part of her registered that something was off, but she ignored that niggling thought and snuggled deeper under the covers. When lips brushed over her shoulder, it seemed somehow normal, as if she were dreaming.

Rolling over, she started to move into the curve of the body next to hers.

Then her eyes flew open.

Wait a minute.

No one should be in bed with her.

Yet Evan was curled up next to her, looking like he belonged there. “I’m sorry, did the TV wake you up? I can turn it off.”

Kendall frowned, glancing around the room. It was dark outside, or at least the drapes were snuggly shut. She wasn’t sure which. The glow of the TV bounced light around the dim room. She didn’t even remember getting into bed. Patting herself under the covers, she was reassured that she was wearing a T-shirt and panties at least. Then again, she didn’t remember changing.

“Did I overdose on Red Bull?” she asked him, aware of a sticky sweet taste lingering in her mouth.

“I don’t think that’s possible. But you did crash. Hard. You fell asleep in the cab.”