Behind the Wheel (Hearts & Horsepower Book 2)

by A. K. Evans

  I had been moving toward her and stopped dead.

  This woman.

  How she went from being so unsure about herself when it came to the two of us having sex the first time to this was beyond me. All I knew was that I loved everything about it.

  Her confidence was intoxicating. It was probably the one thing I was most attracted to with her.

  That said, I still enjoyed those moments when she was trying to navigate through uncharted waters, trying to figure out how to get herself through it. I think it was because I so often saw her so sure of herself that I often wondered if it was even possible for her to feel self-conscious about anything. Whenever I saw it, I couldn’t help but feel torn between wanting to scream and wanting to wrap my arms around her.

  I could think of no reason for her to feel any self-doubt. Even still, sometimes her level of confidence shocked me. Just like it did right now.

  After I gave it a second to sink in, I moved toward her, slipped a hand around her waist, and asked, “Avery Sullivan, have I created a monster?”

  “What would make you say that?” she wondered.

  Following a pause where I took a moment to think about it, I said, “Or maybe that’s not it. Maybe you’re just a regular, old thrill seeker.”

  Avery narrowed her eyes. “Where are you going with this?”

  Lifting my shoulders toward my ears, I held them there and replied, “I’m thinking you like driving in fast cars and maybe you like the idea of having sex somewhere we could get caught.”

  My beautiful girl didn’t respond, but a shiver ran over her body.

  Fuck me.

  She was insatiable.

  Seeing that, loving it, I moved my arm from around her waist and threw it around her shoulders. Curling her body into mine, I sighed, “My dream come true.”

  The discussion ended there, and I ushered her out into the shop.

  A few minutes later, Avery was sitting in the driver’s seat while I confirmed the door bar fit tight to the door and gave her the maximum amount of room in the cockpit.

  The purpose of the bar, or the whole cage for that matter, was to protect her in the event of a crash. It reinforced the chassis in a way that would prevent the car from collapsing on her. When cars are built from the factory, they’re designed in a way that they can be involved in a crash at reasonable speeds. Avery would be far-exceeding those limits with her car and the speeds she’d be reaching, the same as all racecar drivers did. And in a situation like that, where the likelihood of a crash or even the car rolling, the most important thing was making sure the driver was protected.

  I built all my cages to meet required safety specifications; however, I would have been lying if I said I didn’t go a little overboard with Avery’s. I added extra where it wasn’t needed.

  She meant something to me.

  And I wasn’t willing to risk her safety.

  After opening and closing the door a few times and getting feedback from her, I noticed Avery was looking a bit subdued.

  “You okay?” I asked, crouching down by the open door.

  She was still sitting behind the wheel when she turned to look at me. That’s when she rasped, “It’s going to happen.”

  Confused, I asked, “What is?”

  “I’m going to be able to race again this year,” she answered.

  I smiled at her.

  “I couldn’t have done this without you, Knox,” she stressed.

  Reaching out, I took her hand in mine and gave her a squeeze. “You would have done it either way,” I assured her. “But I’m happy I could be part of this. I’ve really enjoyed doing this with you, Avery.”

  “It’s been one of the best experiences of my life,” she admitted. “The only ones that come close are those I had with my dad.”

  I’d take that. I’d take that a hundred times over.

  “I’m glad for that. But if you really want to make sure you get back out there this year, I’d recommend getting back into the office and talking to Kieran,” I advised. “You need to make sure he’s on track with the engine. I’ll finish these door bars today, so we could come in and spend some time dropping the engine in tomorrow if you want.”

  Her face lit up. “I want.”

  I knew she would.

  Leaning forward, I touched my mouth to hers. When I pulled back, I stood and said, “I’ll help you out. Then you need to go crack the whip.”

  Avery got out of the car, kissed me again, and took off toward the office to make sure Kieran was on the ball.

  I watched her walk away, loving the view, before I got back to work.

  My eyes shot open.

  Giving myself a moment to adjust, I quickly realized that it was early. Much earlier than I had planned on waking up. It was also late enough in the morning that it was likely I wouldn’t have an easy time falling back asleep, partly because I’d already gotten six and a half hours of sleep but mostly because I was entirely too excited.

  Today was going to be a big day.

  It had been a month since my first date with Knox, and I’d been living in a state of perpetual bliss ever since.

  The man had given me so much that I didn’t even know I needed in my life.

  Like right now. Even though he was asleep beside me, it was the simple fact that I felt so comforted with him there. For the last month, we’d only spent a handful of nights apart. Sometimes we’d stay at his place, but most nights we were at mine. I think he knew I liked being home better, so he gave that to me.

  Quite honestly, there wasn’t much he didn’t give me.

  And I often found myself wondering what I could do for him, what I could give to him in return.

  Feeling restless, I turned toward him and pressed my hand against his chest. Almost immediately, he brought a hand up to cover mine. He gave me a squeeze.

  “Everything okay?” he asked, his voice thick with sleep.

  I inched my face forward and kissed the back of his hand. I kissed him there several times before moving to his chest. Eventually, I pulled back and tipped my head back to look toward his face.

  My voice was a touch over a whisper when I asked, “Can I suck you?”

  “You need that?” he asked, his voice now soft and gentle.

  I hesitated only briefly before I answered quietly, “Yeah.”

  Knox shifted, dropping to his back. I pushed the blanket away and crawled my fingers down his body. I curled up beside his body on my shins, wrapping one hand around his cock, and resting the other on his abdomen.

  Then I took him in my mouth. I worked him slowly for a long time, feeling him grow hard in my mouth, loving that I could do that to him, and wanting to prolong his pleasure.

  When I started to grow a bit more excited, Knox lifted his torso slightly and reached out to me. Keeping a firm grip on him, I freed him from my mouth.

  “Is it okay?” I asked.

  “Yeah, baby,” he returned, putting his hand to my hip. “But I want to eat you. Come up here and put your pussy on my face.”

  A shiver ran down my spine. Not letting go of him, I shifted my body so I was facing the foot of the bed and swung my leg over his body. Knox didn’t wait for me to scoot myself back. He put his hands on me, lifted me, and settled me right where he wanted me. On his face.

  I let out a moan as soon as he put his mouth on me. Then I got back to work on pleasing him. I loved it. My mouth on him. His mouth on me.

  And since Knox was incredible with his mouth, I failed to maintain a steady rhythm. I frequently had to stop and just hold him in my mouth while I moaned. Every time I did that, I got more groans from Knox.

  My orgasm built quickly. Quicker than I had hoped. On one hand, I loved that Knox was so good at what he did, but on the other, it often meant I came well before him. Unable to delay it happening, it took over and speared through me, my entire body tensing as the pulsing waves moved through me. It had hit so hard that when it left me, I was back to sucking him slowly.

  Tho
ugh I didn’t doubt he loved me sucking him at any pace, at that moment, he needed more. Somehow, he managed to lift me up and flip me over. Within seconds, he had a condom on and was driving into me.

  “Yes!” I cried out.

  “Love having your mouth wrapped around my cock, Avery,” he grunted, powering his hips forward. A few forceful thrusts later, he added, “Love having your pussy there, too.”

  I moaned, hiking my thighs up higher, loving the force of him giving it to me like this. It was precisely what I needed. Exactly what I didn’t know I wanted.

  “Knox,” I breathed when I felt myself on the brink of a second orgasm.

  Recognizing I was close, he drove his hips in harder, deeper. And before I knew it, I was coming apart underneath him. The best part of it was that Knox was doing the same above me.

  Not even five minutes later, we had both cleaned up and were back in my bed. Knox had curled his body around mine, and I easily managed to drift back off to sleep.

  Just over two and a half hours after I’d originally woken up, Knox and I were standing in my kitchen. I had gotten coffee and a coffee pot a few weeks ago so that it would be here whenever Knox stayed.

  As I was busy pouring him a cup, he asked, “Was everything okay?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “This morning,” he clarified. “You were up early.”

  Turning around to face him, I held the cup out. He took it from me and said, “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome. And yes, everything was okay. I was just excited about today,” I explained.

  Knox let my words sink in and pressed, “Excitement about today meant you needed to put your mouth on me?”

  “Did that bother you? Was it not good?” I countered.

  “No, it doesn’t bother me at all. And it was amazing,” he insisted. “I’m just trying to understand it.”

  “You comfort me,” I began. “I woke up thinking about what was ahead for today and knew I wouldn’t fall back asleep. Of course, part of what I was thinking about was how none of what’s happening today would have been happening this quickly if it hadn’t been for you. So, I guess part of it this morning was about showing you gratitude. The other part of it was that I just wanted to be with you and work out some of that excitement.”

  Knox stared silently at me several long seconds before he set his cup down and moved closer to me. “Baby, please know that I’m not complaining in the least, but I don’t need you to feel like you owe me a debt of gratitude.”

  I swallowed hard and insisted, “But I do. I don’t think you understand how much it means to me that you’ve given me so much.”

  “Babe…” He trailed off.

  “I’m serious, Knox,” I started again. “I know you think this is just about the car. And maybe this morning, that’s what it was about. But it’s so much more for me. For the first time in a very long time, I’m not alone. I don’t think you understand just how much that means to me. I want to do anything I can to make sure you know what it means to me… what you mean to me.”

  Squeezing his arms a little tighter around me, he advised, “Avery, we’ve got to get into work on time today.”

  “I know that. We’ve got enough time. Why are you saying that?” I asked.

  “Because if you keep this sweet side going, I’m going to need to do something about it,” he warned.

  Understanding what he meant, knowing we didn’t have time to go another round if we were going to make it to work on time, I replied, “Okay. I’ll cool it on the sweetness for a while.”

  He smiled down at me, gave me a kiss on the forehead, and said, “Let’s have breakfast so we can get to the shop and see what the car does today.”

  Knox didn’t need to ask me twice. I got down to business and got breakfast made.

  Several hours later, I was the happiest woman in the world.

  My car had just made one thousand, two hundred, and twenty-nine horsepower.

  From the time Knox and I arrived at work, I’d been bouncing back and forth between the shop and the office. Even though it was a weekday, Logan held true to his promise to help me get the car tuned as soon as it was ready. When he saw the progress we had made over the last couple weeks, he all but ordered me to get it on his schedule for today.

  Unable to contain my happiness, I threw my arms around Knox’s shoulders and hugged him. “We did it,” I declared.

  He hugged me back and kissed me on the cheek. “With how determined you were, it would have been impossible not to get it done,” he responded.

  Tipping my head back, I noted, “I couldn’t have done it without you. In fact, I couldn’t have done it without all of you.”

  That was the truth.

  Every single person who worked at LT Motorsports played a crucial role in getting this car to where it was now. Knox had obviously spent the most time on it considering he worked side-by-side with me, but Kieran built the engine, Logan tuned it, and Ryker lent us a hand and tools on several occasions when we were dropping the motor back in and installing the supercharger.

  “I don’t want to interrupt the celebration here, but I’m just coming over to make sure you’re not planning to take this thing down to the track this weekend,” Nash said.

  I turned in Knox’s arms toward Nash but didn’t move away from him.

  “We don’t have plans to do that,” I confirmed.

  “Good. I’ve got to get the car I’m working on now finished up first, but I’ll get your suspension dialed in early next week and make sure this thing goes straight for you,” Nash replied.

  I offered a friendly smile and said, “Thank you so much, Nash.”

  “No problem. Besides, everyone else got their hands on this, so I’m just doing what I can to help make it a success,” he offered.

  “That means a lot.”

  “Appreciate it, Nash,” Knox jumped in.

  Nash dipped his chin and walked away.

  When Knox and I were alone again, I beamed at him and said, “Only two more weeks until we can go testing.”

  “Only two more weeks,” he repeated with a smile on his face.

  “I’m so excited,” I declared.

  Knox cocked an eyebrow. “Looks like I’m going to have my work cut out for me for the next two weeks then, won’t I?” he asked.

  My brows instantly pulled together. “What do you mean? The car is done.”

  Grinning, he answered, “I’m talking about your excitement. I’m going to have my work cut out for me with making sure you can sleep at night.”

  “Oh,” I murmured. “Is that going to be a problem?”

  With the smile never leaving his face, Knox shook his head.

  Yep.

  There was no doubt about it.

  Knox had given me everything and more. I didn’t care what he said. I’d always feel like I owed him a debt of gratitude.

  I was doing my best to remain patient while waiting for Avery. I’d already been sitting here in the living room for just shy of an hour now. Truth be told, I’d wait another four hours if that’s what she needed.

  All I wanted was for her to be happy.

  Especially today.

  It was Saturday night, and I was taking Avery out to dinner for her birthday. Only, I had a bit of a surprise for her.

  From the day I learned her birthday was approaching, I started wracking my brain trying to come up with the best way to celebrate with her. Based on everything I knew about her past, her father’s passing, and the way she lived up until she started working at LT Motorsports, I had a feeling she hadn’t properly celebrated her birthday in a long time.

  So, I wanted to make it extra special for her tonight.

  Just before she went upstairs to get ready, I’d given her another gift. Her face lit up, and she tore open the package. As soon as she pulled the dress out, I could see her mind working. She liked it, for sure. But there were easily a dozen questions running through her mind. I decided it was best to just admit the trut
h.

  “Kendall helped,” I confessed. “I told her I wanted to take you out for a special dinner on your birthday, and I knew she went shopping with you when we went on our first date. I figured she’d be able to find something perfect for you.”

  Avery immediately showed her appreciation by leaning forward and kissing me. I felt a bit of relief, too. Though I didn’t think she’d get upset that I’d enlisted the help of her friend, I guess it was still lingering in the back of my mind that she might have gotten upset and decided that it didn’t really count since I wasn’t the one who picked the dress. In all fairness to me, Kendall had chosen a few dresses she believed would be best on Avery. I picked the one I liked the most, the one I was most excited to see on her gorgeous body, and bought it.

  Now, I was here in the living room, tensing at the slightest sound coming from upstairs. I couldn’t wait to see her in that dress.

  Two minutes before we hit the one-hour mark, I heard the sound of her footsteps on the stairs.

  I stood from the couch and waited for her to enter the room. And when she did, it was a wonder I could remain standing.

  She was, by and large, the most exquisite woman I’d ever laid my eyes on. Seeing her every day in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt at work or even a pair of leggings or sweats when she was home, I always found her to be incredibly sexy.

  But to know she could not only rock that look day in and day out and also make herself look this fantastic when she was dressed to the nines had me feeling like a very lucky man.

  “I’m such a sucker for punishment,” I declared when she came to a stop in front of me.

  “What?”

  “I don’t know why I did this to myself,” I said. “You look amazing in this dress, and now I don’t want to take you out.”

  She smiled at me and replied, “You don’t have to, Knox. I’m completely happy staying in and celebrating with you here.”

  No way.

  No way was I going to do that to her.

  She deserved this.

  She deserved something special that was all for her.