SCORE (A Stepbrother Sports Romance)(100)
I stared at her incredulously for a second, then we both burst out laughing. “That was a novel way to bring up a touchy subject,” I told her.
“I thought so.” She smiled.
I thought for a moment before saying, “I don’t know, to tell the truth. I guess I could be. I’m not sure I know what it feels like to be in love. Do I want to be away from you? No. Do I spend most of the time I’m not with you thinking about being with you? Yes.” I moved my face closer to hers. “Do I want there to be a single day in my future that I’m not inside you? Definitely no.” She smiled her sexiest smile and kissed me on the mouth, long and hard. “If that’s love, then I guess I’m guilty.”
She was quiet for a moment, turning over my words in her mind. Then she said, “Good to know.”
“So,” I began this time, “how do you want to do this? Long distance?”
“Do you really think that could work?”
“I don’t know. Apart from the fact that you live in Austin and my home is Monterey, I spend about six months out of the year at various racetracks around the world,” I pointed out. “Would you quit your job and come live in California?”
“And wait at home to hear you’ve been hurt or killed?” she said, suddenly sounding hostile. “Like I did with my father?”
“Goddammit.” I swore softly. “I wasn’t thinking…I didn’t mean it like that. You could come on the circuit with me. Luxury hotels, champagne, jet-setting from San Marino to Qatar to Australia? What do you think?”
Her anger appeared to have subsided. She chewed her lip for a minute. “It sounds inviting, but I think you’re assuming I’m going to give up my career, which I’ve worked damn hard for, to follow you around like a lovesick kitten. It’s both old-fashioned and faintly patronizing.” Then she added, “darling,” with a forced smile.
I was somehow screwing up this relationship before it started. I hoped it wasn’t a pattern of things to come. “Okay, Summer.” I threw my hands up. “What do you suggest?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “You’re the billionaire. Can’t you just buy up my whole block in Austin? Then we can go sleep in separate houses when we piss each other off?”
“Like now?”
“Like now.”
I couldn’t believe we were having a fight already. How did this happen? “Hold on,” I tried. “Do we really need to do this? If I said anything to make you mad, I’m sorry. I’m pretty new to this.”
She stayed quiet for a minute, then took a drink of wine. “No, we don’t,” she muttered. “I’m sorry, too. I think maybe there’s some of our underlying fear of commitment here.”
“Wow!” I said, impressed. “You should have been a shrink.”
“I majored in psychology.” She grinned. She turned to face me and put down her drink. “It’s a big help in my job, knowing what people want and how they will act.”
I put down my wine, too, and scooted towards her. I slid my hands inside her robe, tracing my fingers delicately along her rib cage, and brushed my thumbs gently over her hardening nipples. She sighed and closed her eyes.
“So you’re always going to know what I want?” I whispered, then kissed her softly on the lips. “How am I ever going to know what you want?”
She slipped her hands under my robe in return, between my legs, and grabbed my stiffening shaft.
“I think I can probably find some ways to let you know.” She smiled.
Summer
It was good to spend the night together again. We did it twice more before we fell asleep, enjoying the luxury of waking in the morning and fucking even more, both before and after we had breakfast in bed. Eventually, we had to leave for the track again, though.
James’s phone rang constantly as we were getting ready and driving to the track. I could hear Keith panicking on the other end because we were late. He screamed at James to get moving. He was keen for James to capitalize on his excellent performance yesterday. James told him he was fired. Keith told James he didn’t give a fuck. It was an interesting dynamic they had, but we were in time for James to get out for the rider’s morning warm up. There were still a couple of races before James had to start at 2:00 p.m. involving the smaller engine GP bikes. Other James was kind enough to explain it all to me.
As inseparable as we felt, I knew I was causing tension today by distracting him. I didn’t want them to start whispering about us as being joined at the hip, or worse, end up being labeled as needy or ‘Yoko.’ I hated those co-dependent couples, so after practice, I wandered off to watch the other races alone. I returned to the JSR garage briefly to give James a good luck kiss, just as the team started preparing for the start of his race, then I bid him adieu and left to see what I could find.
I strolled down the pit lane, sticking my nose in the garages when I could. I was used to the smell and the noise now. In fact, since that clarifying session with my mom, I was enjoying the race experience again. It still devastated me that it cost him his life, but my father did die providing for his family and doing what he loved. Everywhere I looked, something conjured up a happy memory of him. A technician looking for a wrench reminded me of Dad having me pass him tools as he worked on his racecar. Another guy carrying some tires made me think of the time he tripped and fell, landing ass first in a small stack of rubber and getting stuck. I smiled to myself as I remembered how Uncle Reggie had to come over and help him get out. As I let my mind sort through these fond memories, all I could see was my dad’s smiling face. He had loved me, he had loved my mother, and my heart hurt as I imagined how he’d feel about me using his memory to keep myself from being truly happy.