Page 94 of Overtake
He shrugs. “I’m only fast on the track?”
She blinks. “Nico Belmonte, are you saying you’ve had a crush on me for elevenyears?”
“Mm. No. It stopped being a crush long ago.”
Her eyes go wider. She brushes her fingers over his lips and his heart thuds harder. “But… why didn’t you say something?”
He snorts. “I was a skinny insecure boy.” He kisses her fingers. “I did not think I was good enough for you.”
Petra gives this adorable little half-laugh. “Oh my God, Nico, that’s such bullshit.” She barrels on. “You’re the nicest guy and, obviously, the best driver, and you care so much for everyone else. I mean, you’re the four-time world champion. You could bewith any woman you want. Models, actresses, fucking princesses and shit.”
He scoffs.Dios mío, does she really not see how amazing she is? How beautiful and brilliant and powerful? “I’m not interested in any models or actresses or fucking princesses and shit. Why would I ever look at them when I’ve been watching you all this time?”
Nico has been in awe of Petra Hayter since the first day she showed up at the WolfBett Euro Summer Karting Academy. They were both fourteen. He was small and skinny and awkward, but already had the attention of sponsors and Formula One teams. He’d been racing in Spain for six years, winning everything he entered, his focus already set on professional racing. Petra was unlike anyone he’d ever met. The daughter of F1 royalty, even then she was dyeing the tips of her dark hair bright pink, and she sported even more sponsors on her racing suit than he did. She’d skipped right up to him, offered him a stick of chewing gum, and said, “Let’s race.”
That’s all it took for Nico to fall hopelessly in love.
Petra looks baffled, an expression he rarely sees on her face. “But I’m justme.” She says it like she’s nothing.
He shakes his head.“Crees que eres un cacharro, pero eres un Ferrari.”
She laughs. “No, I don’t think I’m an old banger, but I definitely don’t feel like a Ferrari.”
He cradles her face then presses his lips to forehead. “You are to me.”
“But Nico…”
“But nothing.” Her wild, messy, sex-dampened hair smells clean and herbal, like lilacs maybe. “You don’t have to feel the same way I do.”
She studies him, dark eyes intense. “I don’t know what I feel.”
“And you don’t need to figure it out now. I know I just dropped something heavy in your lap.”
“Yes, after we had mind-blowing sex.” She rests her head on his chest. “Which is not something I saw coming.”
He snickers at her word choice.
“Nico!”
He laughs but tightens his arms around her, and she laughs too. Her directness shouldn’t surprise him. She lives like she drives: Full throttle. No lifting.
Petra sighs and turns her cheek against him. “I need time to sort my feelings.”
“Vale.Obviously, I have patience.”
She snorts. “That’s something you’ve always had in spades. Though I didn’t realize you werethispatient.”
“We were both preoccupied with our careers much of the time.”
She nods and her hair tickles him. Then she peers at him again. “Okay. Me figuring out my feelings aside, there are championships and team politics and about fifty other complications waiting for us in Mexico.”
“Not to mention our extremely enthusiastic fan clubs.”
“God.” She drops her head back to his chest, laughing. “The Honey Bunnies? Really?”
He smirks. “Says the leader of the Hayter Honeys.”
“I didn’t start that.”
