was right; this kid was a genius. The pale, sickly faced twenty-one-year-old that had climbed into the car, sure he would place last, got out a triumphant third, as the Boucher team cheered and embraced.
And no, Matteo wasn’t on her mind right now because Abby nearly broke her neck just to get over to a jubilant Pedro.
‘What the hell!’ she screamed at him, her face split in a shocked smile.
‘She flew!’ Pedro roared back, simply elated. ‘She just took off.’
And they were back to talking about the car as if she were a person. This third was even sweeter than placing first.
The press conference was very different to last time. Abby and Matteo were out and stood hand in hand as Hunter droned on and on about his experience. Evan, a man of few words, just shrugged when asked his predictions for the final race.
They were neck and neck—it could be any one of the three.
Pedro sat with a satisfied grin.
‘We’ll just have to wait for Monte Carlo,’ was not just the gist but practically all Pedro said.
Yes, it was a different type of celebration tonight.
The Boucher team filled a gorgeous restaurant. Abby didn’t have time to change but no-one cared. She had the best squid pasta she had ever tasted and Pedro made a speech and said that she, the car, was perfection.
It was wonderful; the party was moving on now to wild and Abby and Matteo decided to head back to the hotel but, before they did, Matteo pulled Pedro aside and had a word.
‘Another shopping spree?’ Abby checked but Matteo just shrugged.
Oh, he’d been speaking with Pedro but about something rather more serious than shopping, not that he’d tell Abby that.
Yes, things felt different tonight and as Abby and Matteo got out of the elevator at the tenth floor Matteo reminded her of their deal.
‘What happens when we make podium?’ Matteo asked and, because there was no one around, he reminded her what happened with his mouth.
Hot and sexy, they were straight back to where they had been in Dubai as he kissed her up against the wall.
Only this time there wasn’t the surprise element of his kiss, just hungry need, and she held his cheeks in her hands and kissed him back, her shoulders digging into the wall but her groin pressed hard into his.
It seemed miles to her hotel room and so they continued to kiss while walking—a hungry, laden kiss that had them tripping over a tray the next room had left out until finally they fell into her room.
‘Hell,’ Matteo said as he backed her to the door, undoing the black belt and buttons on her men’s bottle-green trousers, and as he looked down he even laughed. ‘This feels wrong...’
It felt pretty right to Abby.
He just kissed her until they stood, breathless and facing the other and both half-dressed.
‘I’m not ready.’ She was panting, feeling a tease but consumed with want.
‘For what?’ Matteo checked, slipping his hands into her trousers and feeling her as damp as he knew she would be. He stroked her clitoris through her panties and resumed the kiss, probing her mouth with his tongue for a moment and feeling the tightening of Abby’s thighs. He pulled back his mouth but not his hand as she simmered nicely.
Oh, Abby simmered. She wanted to, she wanted, wanted, wanted, but she was more scared of losing her heart than her control.
‘How about a fashion show?’ Matteo said and she glanced over his shoulder and saw for the first time all the parcels lying on her bed as his hand remained between her legs, his finger lightly stroking her and teasing her, while teasing himself, but then he removed it.
It was do up her trousers or take them off and Abby chose the latter.
‘You’re quite neat, aren’t you,’ Abby commented as he picked up her shoes and trousers and threw them in the wardrobe.
‘A bit,’ Matteo admitted. ‘But I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life and I’ll scare the hell out of myself if I wake up tomorrow and see them by the bed.’
He made her laugh.
Matteo made her feel fine, just fine, to be wearing nothing except ugly panties and the dark green shirt.
She opened the parcels one by one as he did the same with the buttons to her shirt.
Some of the underwear he had chosen was the colour of summer—gorgeous lemons and pale mint greens—while others were the shades of sin.
‘Do you know why I chose those,’ he said, having peeled off her shirt so she was down to her bra as Abby held some dark violet panties.
‘Because they’re crotchless?’ Abby laughed when she poked her fingers through the hole.
‘Actually, I didn’t know they were,’ Matteo said. ‘I chose them because they’re not just velvet on the outside.’
They weren’t. The inside was just as soft and hidden-seamed.
‘I thought they might feel nice.’ Matteo explained his thought process.
Abby swallowed.
‘Put them on.’
‘I’m not ready to sleep with you, Matteo.’
He just shrugged and removed her bra so that her breasts dropped that aching inch and he toyed with her nipples, stretching them out. ‘A lovely come would be nice though.’
He said it as if he were choosing from the restaurant menu, only some things weren’t as easy as picking up the phone.
Or were they?
She thought of this morning—how turned on she’d been and how turned on she was now—and Abby handed herself over to him and nodded.
Even a little come would be a miracle!
Slut that Matteo was, the second that Abby nodded her consent he was happily stripping off and turning the heating up to rival Dubai at midday.
And then he told her that was his intention exactly! ‘Remember that fashion show we had to sit through?’ he reminded. ‘I kept picturing you in all the underwear they were parading. Most uncomfortable half hour of my life...’ He gave her a smile that had her nearly rock on her heels as she knelt on the bed. ‘You were my Dubai fantasy—look how far we’ve come.’
Clearly they were here for the night.
He was almost clinical about it.
It was a very sexy clinic she was in though, Abby thought as Matteo chose a brandy from her minibar and then lay on the bed, naked, his erection lifting off his thigh, and she took her underwear and headed to the bathroom.
‘Take
