tones of his hair and his deep cerulean eyes twinkled knowingly.
‘Good morning, Little Miss Designer, how nice of you to roll out of bed to join us.’
His voice was deep and devastating, richly amused and lathered in sin. Then his delicious fresh scent whispered on the breeze to douse her body with scads of heat.
‘While you’ve been getting your beauty sleep I’ve driven fifty laps in your pride and joy.’
Tensing, she felt the hard lip of her helmet dig into her hip. ‘I don’t understand.’ The only reason he would practise in her racer was if her dad had changed his mind—
Her stomach began to fizz—which was absurd. Serena knew the kind of miracle that would take, and she didn’t think Finn had demolished every car on the fleet. Yet.
Saying that, she’d rarely seen those dark clouds of guilt overshadowing him during the two weeks since Montreal. And the thought that she’d succeeded in finagling his attention long enough for him to move on made her soul smile.
Finn swiftly dispersed the group with an arrogant jerk of his head and leaned against the car’s lustrous patina. Then he crossed his arms over a delicious cerise polo shirt and ran his tongue over his supremely sensual mouth.
A mouth she shouldn’t be staring at, hungering for. The problem was, her new BF had taken her to the heights of ecstasy, and every time she looked his way every blissful, shattering moment came back on a scalding rush.
Car, Serena. Focus.
‘So what did you think? Of my car?’ A sudden swoop of nervy fireflies initiated a frenzy behind her ribs.
‘She’s much like the woman who designed her. A fiery bolt of lightning.’
Okay, then. A few happiness bugs decided to join the midriff party. ‘She handles well?’
‘Unbe-frickin-lievebly. She pulls more G’s than a space shuttle. Her curves are divine and she worships the tarmac. She’s a dream, Serena. You’ve done an amazing job.’
The world vanished behind her eyelids as she tried to calm the internal flurry and take a breath. All the hard work, the late nights, the testing and retesting over and over, and still she waited for her dad to tell her she’d done well. But the admiration and respect in Finn’s gaze, from a man who’d driven the greatest cars in the world, was even better.
Oh, who was she kidding? It was awesome. She felt like flying. Having a real girly moment and jumping and whooping. Which was just silly.
‘Good. I’m glad.’
Finn leaned towards her and Serena was lured by his sheer magnetism. She drew forward until his husky breath tickled her ear.
‘You can squeal if you want to, baby, I won’t tell anyone.’
She jerked backwards. ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’
That fever-pitch-inducing smile widened and one solitary indentation kissed his cheek. Despicable, infuriating, gorgeous man.
‘So how did this happen, anyway? My dad said—’
‘We had it out last night. Talked long enough for him to see sense.’
From nowhere a great thick lump swelled in her throat.
Oh, honestly, he had to stop doing stuff like this. Because every time he did, another teeny slice of her heart tore free and vaulted into his hand. Serena couldn’t recall the last time someone had pushed for what she wanted. Even Tom had tended to side with their dad.
‘You’ll soon learn,’ he began, his voice teasing and darkly sensual, ‘that it’s always best to leave business down to the men, Serena.’
The blissful feeling vanished. ‘You only say that stuff to pee me off.’
A devilish glint entered his eyes…
‘When I tell you my condition you’ll be even more so.’
‘I don’t like that look.’ A little bit shrewd. A whole lot devious.
‘You have to attend the Silverstone Ball tonight. That’s the deal.’
There it went. In point five of a second. ‘It’ being her stomach, hitting ground level with a sickening thud.
‘No way. You know that’s not my scene.’
Black-tie extravaganza to kick off the weekend of racing with VIP clientele and the usual coterie, sipping champagne, dressed up to the nines in…? No.
Just no!
‘Hold up there, handsome. Your condition? What do you need me there for?’
Never mind the dresses and the shoes and the dancing and the mind-numbing chit-chat, if he thought she was suffering that soiree only to watch him portray Lothario he had another think coming!
‘Your car needs to be unveiled and it’s the perfect venue. You have to be there. This is your big moment. You need to revel in it, enjoy it. Come on, Serena, I dare you.’
‘Ooh. Low, Finn, real low.’ The beast knew exactly how to get a rise out of her.
Huffing out a breath, she stared unseeingly at her car while a war raged inside her. As far as big moments went this was pretty huge.
She chose her words carefully. ‘On my own?’
If he was taking a woman she wanted to know so she could prepare herself. It was crucifying, waiting for him to choose a new starlet.
True, she’d been batting away the sneaking suspicion that he’d already done so for days. What with the odd phone calls he refused to answer in front of her. The ones that made his jaw set to granite as his gaze locked on the screen before he glanced at her with something close to remorse.
If not a woman, who else?
Then again, she doubted he’d had the time to wield his charm elsewhere. More often than not they were together. Which brought on a whole new set of problems. Because while she liked having him as a friend—a pretty cool friend, as it turned out, who’d sneaked her into the premiere of the latest action flick last night—it was getting harder and harder to keep her hands off him.
All in all, since Montreal her sanity was slowly being fed through a shredder.
‘You’ll hardly be on your own, Serena. The entire team is going and you’ll be walking in there with me.’ He gave her a wink that made her feel dizzy. ‘I get first dance.’
Oh. Well, then. Those fireflies started doing an Irish jig. He was taking her, not some flashy starlet. He was going to dance with her, not the latest paddock beauty. As friends, of course. Unless he’d changed his mind…
Suddenly her mind made the oddest leap, to a vision of her biker leathers, and a groan ripped from her chest. ‘And what exactly would I wear?’
He
