it was a different hotel than the last time she had been here, but just being in a hotel in Monte Carlo already had Abby on edge.
There was a knock at the door and it was the Perpetual Pedro wanting to go down to breakfast.
‘I just want to run through a few things,’ he said.
‘Sure.’ Abby nodded. ‘I’ll meet you down there.’
‘I’ll wait.’
‘How’s Bernadette?’ Abby asked, because last night when Abby had headed back early from dinner, Bernadette had said that she had a headache and had joined Abby on the walk back to the hotel. Bernadette had even come up to Abby’s room for a cup of tea and a chat about the press conference tomorrow and the practice race.
‘She’s doing great,’ Pedro said.
‘Good.’
Abby left Pedro in the corridor and grabbed her bag and then they headed down to the restaurant.
‘Ready for the press conference?’ Abby asked when they had been shown to their seats, and Pedro nodded but then he looked up and smiled, and Abby saw why.
Matteo was here.
‘Hey!’ Pedro said.
‘How are you?’ Matteo asked him.
‘I’m confident,’ Pedro said. ‘Actually, I think I might take breakfast upstairs. Is that okay?’ he checked with Abby and, as she nodded, it dawned on her then the reason Pedro or Bernadette had barely left her side.
‘Did you tell him to watch out for me?’ Abby challenged as Matteo took off his jacket and took a seat.
‘Yep.’ He met her angry gaze. ‘I’m not going to apologise.’
‘What on earth did you say to him? You didn’t tell Pedro...’
‘Of course not,’ Matteo said. ‘I just told him that I’d had a couple of choice words with Hunter and that I didn’t trust his temper. Pedro agreed with me!’
‘He did?’
‘Yep. He knows what a bastard he is.’
‘I’ve been managing fine for the past eighteen months...’
‘You weren’t winning then,’ Matteo pointed out.
He looked terrible, Abby thought.
There were black smudges under his eyes and she guessed he hadn’t shaved for the best part of a week.
‘What time’s the press conference?’ he asked.
‘Eleven.’
‘I’ll stay for that and then I have to head off. I’m catching up with Kedah and we’re going out on a friend’s yacht. I’ll be back tomorrow for the race but then I have to fly out straight after.’
‘Matteo.’ Abby took a deep breath. They hadn’t even slept together and they were sniping and avoiding the other and so she told him what she had been building to since the morning he had left her hotel room.
‘Can we just take it back to business?’
He closed his eyes and then nodded.
‘You don’t have to avoid me,’ Abby said. ‘Look, as much as you turn me on, I don’t want to sleep with you.’ She just said it, not knowing that the waitress was standing beside her waiting to take the breakfast order and then he laughed and said that he’d like his eggs sunny-side up please as Abby just about face-planted the table.
And then, just like that, they were friends again, but even as they smiled, there was, though, for Abby, something more that needed to be said. ‘Matteo, thank you for the other night. I mean that. I have no regrets—it was amazing but...’
‘There’s always a but.’
‘Not really. I know you don’t want to take things any further and I get that. I respect that...’ She gave him a smile. ‘I don’t have to like it.’
He liked that she was honest.
‘I need more though.’ Abby told her truth. ‘I’ve waited a long time. Or rather I’ve been so messed up that I’ve missed out on an awful lot and I just want, well, when I do sleep with someone, it has to mean something.’
‘I understand.’
‘So thanks for the offer of a sex lesson but I shan’t be taking you up on it.’
Matteo let out a breath of both relief and regret.
Relief that they were finished with.
Regret that they would never be.
‘Are we good?’ Abby checked and he took her hand and gave it a squeeze.
‘All good.’
* * *
And so they stood, side by side, but not holding hands, as the stars of the show took their places.
It was the deciding race tomorrow and Evan, Hunter and Pedro were all a chance.
The winner would take all.
But though the desire to win burnt bright, it was no longer driven by revenge. There was next year, Abby thought.
It didn’t all have to be now.
She wanted next year. More than that, she wanted the team she had built to all be together, but then a journalist asked Pedro the question that was on everyone’s lips.
‘Are the rumours true about you signing with the Lachance team next year?’
Pedro looked over to Abby and she gave him a smile and a very slight nod, letting Pedro know that he could answer with the truth—they had made a deal after all.
‘I’ve been approached.’ Pedro shrugged.
‘And?’
‘In fact, they asked to speak with me yesterday,’ Pedro continued, ‘but as I said to them—their cars are as dated as their drivers.’
There was a small stunned silence at the obvious provocation and then the cameras started flashing and Hunter got up and walked out.
‘Game on,’ Matteo said.
The practice race went well and then Matteo disappeared to get ready for his night on the town. Abby had a lot of work to do on the car and so it was Perpetual Pedro who hung around.
‘Go!’ she said to Pedro when it was close to seven. ‘I don’t need a babysitter and you need to sleep.’
‘Abby...’
‘Pedro,’ she
