by Megan Lowe
The scene is replaced by a replay of inside the Ryan Racing garage. Everyone’s eyes—Reed, Bria, Nate, Parker, Mav, and Jax—glued to the monitors, all of them willing Cole on. The footage then cuts to confirmation of Cole’s place and the garage goes crazy. Reed lifts Bria and swings her round while Jax does a crazy dance in the background. I laugh and am surprised to find there are tears running down my face. Cole pulls into parc fermé and is met by a cheering Ryan clan.
Liam is the first to get to him, celebrating Cole’s result rather than his own. He then heads to where the Ryans are gathered, pushing the sponsorship hoardings to their limit. He dives into the waiting arms of Reed, Bria handing him a sponsor’s hat and drink bottle. He smiles at her and kisses her on the cheek before Reed pushes him off. I unmute the TV and listen to Liam’s interview. He runs his hands through his sweaty dark brown hair, a move that no doubt melted a thousand panties, before slapping on the hat Bria handed him earlier.
“Liam, another great race, another dominant victory.”
He nods. “Yeah, it’s great. We’ve got the bike running like a dream, which makes my job so much easier.”
“And what about your teammate’s performance?”
A huge smile crosses Liam’s face. “It was well deserved. Obviously I haven’t seen the race, but I know Cole Matthews. He’s one of the best riders I’ve ever seen. Things haven’t gone so great for him this season, but we never doubted him. I have a feeling today’s result is only the first of many podium appearances, and I look forward to him trying to take away my top spot.”
“You think he’ll be challenging in the remaining races?” That question earns the reporter the moniker Dickhead Three.
“Absolutely,” Liam says before walking away.
I hold my breath as Cole walks towards the camera. His blond hair is a mess but in a totally sexy “why yes, I just raced a two-hundred-kilogram, million-dollar bike, and naturally look like I was made by God to fit McKnley Rhodes’s idea of a perfect man’ way.
“Cole, congratulations,” Dickhead Three says.
“Thanks, it’s taken a while but it only makes this taste all the more sweeter.”
“It has taken a while, why is that do you think?”
Cole scratches his cheek and I can tell he’s pissed. I don’t blame him. “That’s just how it goes in racing. Not everything works out the way you want it to, but everyone at Ryan Racing has been amazing. They’ve never worried, they’ve never put any pressure on me to perform, they understand that’s how racing works, and I couldn’t have asked for better support.” I feel a pang in my chest when he talks about support.
“So there weren’t any outside influences at play that affected your performances?”
“Like what?” I can see the anger rising in his face.
“Like your high-profile relationship with McKnley Rhodes, for instance. There was a lot of media attention on the two of you. Perhaps the pressure of trying to be in a celebrity couple was too much.”
“The only thing that was too much was the blatant intrusions to our privacy.”
“But you broke up, didn’t you?”
“What does that have to do with racing?”
“Well, you’re no longer together and you’ve just broken through for your maiden podium.”
“I don’t see the connection,” Cole bites out. “We weren’t together last round and I finished seventh. We were together when I was racing in Europe and I had decent results there.”
Dickhead Three blushes and moves on quickly. “What about your rivalry with Clint Robinson? Care to comment on that?”
“I don’t have more of a rivalry with Clint Robinson than I do with any other guy on that track.”
“So revenge wasn’t on your mind when you were trying to pass him?”
“I couldn’t care less if it were Clint Robinson in front of me or Liam Ryan. Every guy on that track is my competition, and it’s my job to have as few of them in front of me at the end of the race as possible. You ask any guy here and they’ll all tell you the same thing.”
“Right, well congratulations again,” Dickhead Three mumbles, while I laugh at Cole putting him in his place.
I watch as he, Liam, and the guy who came second take their places on the podium. My heart practically beats out of my chest when Cole is presented with his third-place trophy. His smile is so wide and he looks so happy. The heart that a minute ago was bursting with pride is now aching from loss. I miss him. I miss the person I am with him. I miss the way he challenges me, how his main concern is my happiness and me staying true to myself. In the mess that’s been my mind since our break-up, his accusation that I was hiding from him got lost in the flood that is my mother and the band. But looking at him now, I realise he was right. I am hiding from him. From my feelings for him, from what he means and who he is to me.
Well, I’m done hiding, on all fronts.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Cole
The high from the result on the weekend doesn’t seem to be ending any time soon. Naturally my father chalked up the good result to the end of my relationship with Knley, conveniently forgetting we broke up almost two months ago. He was delighted with that news; the expected ‘I told you so’ text was very quick to reach me. Right now though I’m beyond caring. After the race we celebrated long and hard into the night. You can’t imagine the relief I felt when it was confirmed I had crossed the line in front of Robinson. Only 0.01 of a second in front, but in front nonetheless.
The only thing missing was Knley. I heard Places are recording the new songs she wrote, and while I couldn’t be more ecstatic for her, I miss her. She just makes everything in my life a little less dire and a lot brighter. But that’s just me being selfish. I’ve been pushing her from the start of our relationship to break free from her mother’s clutches, and her being with me would only stall that progress.
Reed keeps telling me to man up and get my woman, but I can’t be the one who stops the momentum she’s making with the band. I know I’ve been like a black cloud hanging around wherever I go, but I can’t help it. Knley just makes everything better. Things just seem more alive—I feel more alive when she’s around. She has a radiance about her, and when she’s near you can’t help but react to that. It’s like that light within her banishes all the darkness, and without her life is bleak. My future is bleak.
Fuck, listen to me waxing poetic, but it’s all true. I know without her I’m only a shell of the man I am with her, the man I should and can be, but what kind of man would I be if I stopped her doing the thing she wants and needs to do? From the get-go I’ve been pushing her to stand up to her mother, and now she’s finally doing it. No, I’m not going to be the one who stands in the way of that. If it’s meant to be, we’ll come together. That’s the only bright spot I can see in the foreseeable future, but it’s enough. The promise of her is enough to keep me going until that time, whenever it may be, because I know we’re meant to be together.
I pull into my driveway and find everything exactly the way I left it, except now I can add my third-place trophy to my dressing table. I know the Ryans wouldn’t have fired me due to incidents out of my control, but damn it feels good to show them their faith in me isn’t unwarranted. Once I’ve finished unpacking, I settle in front of the TV, the latest episode of Nashville waiting for me. I can hear you judging me, but I don’t care. Gunnar is my boy.
The opening chord of the theme song has been struck when there’s a knock at the door. Grudgingly, I pause the show to get up to answer it.
“Do you know how confusing it is to get around this town?” Knley says, a smile on her face, a hand on her hip. She looks even better than I remember, her eyes shining, her skin bright and a body my dreams definitely did not do justice to.
“Huh?” I ask stupidly. I’m still trying to process that it’s actually her standing in front of me.
She brushes past me, the smell of Mike’s BBQ going with her. “I thought I remembered how to get he
re, but I was sorely mistaken. Luckily for me, all roads pretty much lead to Wheels, so Jay and Chris were able to give me directions.”
“What?” I say, my brain still not functioning as I mindlessly follow her.
“Well,” she says as she sets out the food she brought, “I watched the race, good racing by the way, and afterwards I wanted to see you, so I drove down. I thought I remembered how to get here, but I realised pretty quickly I really didn’t. Luckily for me I ended up at the diner, so I went in and asked Jay for directions. Then everything smelled so good, I couldn’t resist and ended up getting all this.” She gestures to the BBQ bonanza in front of her.
“You watched the race?” I ask, a touch of surprise in my voice.
“Yeah,” she says, losing a little bit of her confidence. “Look, about what you said the last time we spoke.” I start to interrupt her, but she holds up a hand. “You were right, I was hiding from a whole lot of things, but I’m done with that. I don’t want to live my life like that anymore.”
“Yeah?”
She nods. “Besides, it’s fun to piss off my mother, and it turns out, I’m really fucking good at it.”
I laugh and walk around the bench, drawing her into my arms.
“I’m so proud of you,” I tell her.
“Me?” she asks. “I’m so proud of you. You rode an amazing race yesterday. I’m surprised you didn’t hear my scream when the confirmation came through.”
“Yeah well, it’s only one race.”
“Sometimes that’s all the proof you need. Your head knows you can do it now, so it’s not unknown territory.”
“So does that mean we’ll be hearing a lot more new music from Places?”
She bites her lip. “I don’t know about that. We have to see how this new EP does, but if it does well, then yeah, there will be more.”
“It’ll do well,” I say confidently.
“How do you know?”
“One, anything you write is amazing. Two, you have incredible fans who are extremely intelligent, so naturally they’ll love it. Three, the songs are amazing. You’re finally not holding back, and people respond well to that. And four, I’m always right.”
She laughs and snuggles into my chest, right where she belongs. “How do you know the songs are amazing?”
“I was at the Palais.”
She pulls back. “You were?”
I nod. “Uh-huh. Seeing you up there like that, opening yourself to everyone in the audience? I’ve never been so proud in my life. You blew me away, love.”
“Cole,” she whispers, tears in her eyes.
“You are one of the most inspirational women I’ve ever met, McKnley. You’re determined, passionate, crazily talented, and when you put your mind to things you’re damn near unstoppable.”
The tears that previously pooled in her eyes now run freely down her cheeks. I take her face in my hands. “I hated not being with you, but if us being apart helped, in any way, to create the woman I saw on that stage, then I’d gladly break up with you a million times.”
“I hated being without you too, but I needed to do this for myself.”
“You’re done with that, right? ’Cause I don’t know if I can stand to have you here and not be with you.”
Amusement dances over her features. “I’m done finding myself, and now that I’m here, there are no places left for me to hide.”
“Thank God,” I say, before I capture her lips. She kisses me back with just as much passion, each of us pouring how much we missed the other into the kiss. Her hands move from my waist up my back to my shoulders, before coming to rest in my hair. I bend down to pick her up, her legs winding tight around me. I walk us to the bedroom and gently place her on the bed before covering her body with mine. My cock strains against my zipper and I grind it into Knley. Her hips buck and she pulls me tight against her, the legs that fell from around my waist when I laid her down now finding their way back to their previous position.
“You feel so good,” she pants as I trail kisses down her neck and shoulders, my hands massaging her breasts. She moans and leans further into my touch. Frustrated with the layers of clothes between us, I pull my lips from her body long enough for me to tear her top over her head, her bra following soon after. I lower my head to take a rosy nipple in my mouth, pinching the other. Another sexy as fuck moan leaves her mouth, and my cock hardens further, testing the elasticity of my jeans to its limit. Knley claws at my back and I quickly rip off my shirt, unwilling to stop my worship of her body for longer than it takes to get rid of the offending material. Her hands run all over me, her touch leaving fire in its wake. After giving her breasts the care and attention they deserve, I move down. She squirms against the bed when I reach the waistline of her jeans. I quickly pop the button and lower the zipper, shocked and delighted to find she’s not wearing panties.
I raise an eyebrow at her. “So very naughty, love.”
“More like good planning,” she answers as I pull the jeans down her legs.
“Definitely good planning,” I say before sucking her clit into my mouth. Her flavour bursts over my tongue and I go at her frantically, craving more and more of her.
“Fuck,” she cries out, her hands tugging at my hair, her thighs tightening around my face. I slip a finger inside her, and within seconds, she’s coming hard. While she’s recovering, I rid myself of my jeans and boxers, roll on a condom, and crawl up her body.
“I’d forgotten how good your mouth feels on me,” she says, cupping my cheek.
“We don’t have the easiest relationship,” I say as I realise it’s been almost two and a half months since we were last together like this.
“No, we don’t,” she agrees, “but I’ll take you whatever way I can have you.”
“Even with the crashes and the close races?” I realised in the days following our break-up that that couldn’t have been easy for her. It’s not easy to watch someone crash at 210 km/h even if you’re a seasoned supporter; it must have been pretty terrible for her, seeing that she’d only watched me a handful of times prior to that.
“For everyone’s sake, yours, mine, the Ryans, there won’t be any more crashing, will there?”
I chuckle at her seriousness. “I’ll do my best, love.” I bend to kiss her nose.
“Good.”
“Does that mean you’ll be watching more of my races?” I ask hopefully.
“I’ll have to check my schedule, but I will make sure I’m able to watch your races, even if I’m not able to actually be there.” At the mention of her actually being at the track, I get harder still, something I didn’t know was possible.
“Fuck, I love you,” I say before plunging inside her. We fit together perfectly and I know I’ll never be able to find someone else who matches with me this well.
“You’re perfect, love,” I pant.
“Right back at you,” she says, giving me a wink. I begin to thrust inside her, her walls squeezing me tight.
“I missed you so much,” she says, her nails digging into my back.
“Me too, love, me too.” I capture her lips, the taste of them driving me right to the edge. I speed up, knowing I won’t last much longer.
“Fuck!” Knley yells as she clenches me tight, triggering my own release. I collapse on top of her, doing my best not to crush her, but I have very little strength left.
“Shit, that was good,” she pants, and runs her hand through my hair.
“Mmm,” I say into her neck, her sweet apricot and honey scent invading my senses.
“You alive there, handsome?” There’s a smile in her voice.
“Nope, I died a very happy death.”
“Oh no, you don’t,” she says as she flips us over. How she has the energy to do that I have no idea. My woman’s a freak.
“How do you have so much energy?”
“Good sex does that to me.”
“Just good?”
She rolls her eyes and begins grinding on me. “Fine, great
sex does that to me.”
“I don’t know,” I say, my cock hardening in response to her movement, “I thought that was pretty amazing. In fact, I may even go as far as to say it was mind-blowing.”
“I don’t know about that,” she says, pretending to consider my words. “You might need to show me again.”
I remove the old condom and get another before lifting her hips slightly to position my now fully aroused cock at her entrance. “Done,” I say, and I slam her down and continue to show her for the rest of the afternoon.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Knley
Cole and I lie in bed, our bodies entwined, after an afternoon of toe-curling sex.
“You might be right about the mind-blowing part,” I say, my head resting on his chest, his heartbeat steady in my ear.
He chuckles. “I told you.”
“You didn’t seem to mind convincing me.”
“I’ll never mind convincing you.”
“So you were at the Palais?” I ask, remembering the conversation we had when I first came in.
“Yep,” he says, his hand running through my hair.
“How come?” I ask before I can stop myself.
He shrugs. “I don’t know, I just felt like I should be there. I had always intended to be, and then I forgot until a reminder popped up on my phone.”
“Oh.”
“I wasn’t kidding before, Knley, those new songs are amazing. I watched the audience as you were playing and they were mesmerised, even more than usual.”
“Yeah?”
He nods and kisses my forehead. “Yep. So how is she-who-must-not-be-named taking this new development?”
I laugh at the nickname. “She chucked a fit afterwards, and since then we’ve kind of been distracting her so we can record.”
“She doesn’t know you’re recording them?”
“I think she does. She just doesn’t realise we’ve got the record company’s backing.”
“You crafty little fox,” he says, a glint in his eyes.