The Chase (12 page)

“Talk to him, yes. Have sex with him, no. That was not in the instructions I gave you.”

“Well, I did and it was good, so don’t worry about it. It’s no big deal.”

Tuesday threw her hands up in the air. “Oh, my God, whenever you say it’s no big deal, it
so
is a big deal. Look, you know I love you and I want you to be happy and as long as you’re okay with the consequences you can sleep with whoever you want and I will never judge you. But you, my dear, do not do casual sex. My fear is that this will make you feel bad when he doesn’t call you.”

It already had. When she had walked out and he had let her. Damn it. Tuesday was right and she hated it. “Who says I want him to call me? I don’t need any complications in my life. And thanks for assuming he won’t call me. That makes me feel fabulous.”

“Hey, Kendall!” Jim, her crew chief, called to her from where he was standing by the office door, his clipboard in his hand. “Got a sec?”

“Sure, just a minute.” Kendall took a deep breath and inhaled the aroma of the garage—rubber and oil and the pizza some of the guys had ordered for lunch. It had a calming effect on her, oddly enough. “Okay, you’re right,” she told Tuesday. “I don’t do casual sex, and it’s going to bother me if he doesn’t call me. And it will equally bother me if he pursues me, because the truth is, I can’t handle any sort of relationship with him. So I screwed up by sleeping with him. But there’s not a whole hell of a lot I can do about it now.”

“Would you do it again? Was it good?”

Kendall tried not to sigh in contentment, but the sound escaped her mouth anyway. “It was better than good.”

“So I was wrong. Apparently bad driver doesn’t equal bad lover.”

“Not at all. Though he’s not a bad driver, just having a rough patch.”

“Defending him already. Uh-oh. You’re going to sleep with him again, aren’t you?”

“No, of course not.” Which was bullshit and she knew it. “Okay, fine. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t ever going to go there again. I have a hard time resisting temptation. Plus I like to win.”

Tuesday laughed. “Oh, sweetheart, welcome to my world. So go forth and have sex. I admit I would do the same damn thing.”

“Oh, I’m not going to.” She wasn’t crazy.

“You just said you would,” Tuesday pointed out.

“I didn’t mean it.” Kendall threw her hand up. “Shit, okay, I did. But I can’t! It would be a huge mistake.” Super huge. Enormous. Mega mistake. “I think I just need to stay away from him. That’s a good coping strategy, isn’t it?”

“It’s as good as any, I guess.” Not that Tuesday looked remotely convinced.

“Kendall!”

“Damn, I need to go. What are you doing here, anyway?”

“Interviewing some of the guys on the restrictor plate issue since we’re coming up on Talladega, where speed can get out of hand. This is for an article, not my blog.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to you later. While I’m avoiding Evan. I can do this.” She took a step and glanced back at her friend. “I can do this, right?”

“Of course you can.” Tuesday nodded with a big, overly cheerful smile.

Great. Tuesday didn’t think she could do it. Kendall had avoided Evan ten years ago. She could do it now.

But why was that actually the last thing she wanted to do?

Kendall ignored the sensation in the pit in her stomach that was not hunger and went to talk to Jim. About her career. The only thing that mattered.

 

 

A
week later Evan was thinking it wasn’t all good, and he was wishing like hell he hadn’t let Kendall leave his bedroom so easily. He had figured he would bump into her all over the place. He certainly had when he’d been trying to avoid her. But now that he wanted to see her, she was proving to be as slippery as a greased pig.

Even in Dover at the race, he hadn’t had a chance to see her. She had disappeared promptly after drivers’ introductions, and likewise after the race, after finishing a respectable twentieth. He had actually had a decent race himself, finishing tenth, which these days was a victory all on its own.

But now he was antsy, and he had woken up every morning with a raging hard-on from night after night of erotic dreams involving Kendall and her breasts. Kendall and her tongue. Kendall and her sweet, wet, inner thighs . . .

Evan walked into a watercooler and almost knocked it off the stand. Whoops. He caught it and prevented a disastrous explosion outside his team owner’s office.

“Klutz” was Eve’s opinion.

He was a lot of things. Klutz wasn’t the worst of them. “So why does Carl want to have this meeting? You promised me I wouldn’t be fired.”

“I didn’t promise you anything. I told you it was highly unlikely you would be relieved of your car, but that securing another sponsor needed to happen quickly. Carl and I have been talking and we’ve come to an agreement.”

Evan stopped walking. “Wait a minute? You know what he wants to discuss and you haven’t told me?”

His sister stared at him impassively, her hands in the pockets of her suit jacket. “I wasn’t at liberty to discuss the details with you. It wasn’t a sure thing, and it’s not my place to make you the offer, it’s Carl’s.”

There were times when he hated the business aspect of racing, and this was one of them. “You work for me, Eve, not Carl. What the hell is going on?”

“Yes, I do. And as your employee, it’s my responsibility to seize opportunities for you as they arise. But if said opportunity is not allowed to be discussed, I can’t discuss it.”

Working with family was hell, because at the moment he wanted to fire Eve’s ass, but knew he couldn’t. There was nothing he hated more than being kept in the dark. It was like people either assumed he couldn’t handle the truth, or didn’t think he was entitled to it.

“I think after this meeting we need to redefine our working relationship.”

Carl’s office door opened and Kendall stepped out.

“What is she doing here?” Evan asked Eve, shocked and, admittedly, instantly aroused.

Kendall was wearing a dress. Damn. When had he ever seen her in a dress? It was a stretchy red thing, worn with black tights and heels that made her calves look amazing.

Without waiting for his sister’s answer, he said, “Kendall.”

She looked up and ground to a halt, her hand coming up to her throat. “Evan! Oh, hi. Wow. Hi. How are you?”

Unnerved by how much she was unnerved, Evan shrugged. “I’m fine. You had a meeting with Carl?”

She nodded, darting a glance back at the door, chewing her bottom lip. “Great seeing you, talk to you later.”

Then she tried to rush past him.

Evan reached out and grabbed her arm. “Wait.”

The look on her face as she stared in horror at his fingers wrapped around her arm deflated any arousal and confidence he had. “What?”

Leaning in a little so Eve wouldn’t hear, he said, “Wait for me. I’d like to talk to you. I won’t be that long.”

“Oh, I can’t. I have . . . stuff to do.”

“We need to talk.”

She blinked up at him, her eyes wide. “About what?”

“The other night.”

“I don’t think that needs to be talked about.” She shook her head rapidly. “Neither does what Carl is about to tell you.”

Alarm bells went off in his brain. “What the hell does that mean?”

“Nothing.” Kendall yanked her arm out of his hold. “See you later.”

The door to the inner office opened and Carl popped his head out. “Evan, Eve, great to see you. Come on in.” Then he called over top of them, “See you this afternoon, Kendall. Thanks.”

Kendall gave a stiff smile and waved, then beat a fast retreat. Evan was suspicious and suddenly feeling really uneasy. But he put on a smile and stuck out his hand to Carl. “Hey, Carl, it’s good to see you. How are things going?”

“Good, good. Come on in. We have some exciting news.”

Shooting a glance at Eve, who looked impassive as she greeted Carl, Evan followed them into the plush office and took a seat in a big overstuffed chair in front of the desk.

“Let’s get right to the point.” Carl glanced at his watch. “I have a meeting in ten minutes. But I wanted to make sure you understand that Hinder Motors supports you and your team. We believe that despite some minor setbacks, you’re a stellar driver, Evan.”

He felt a flicker of relief. Carl wouldn’t fire his ass after a comment like that, would he? “Thank you. I appreciate everything you and the whole operation has done for me. We’re working some kinks out, but I feel confident we’ll be on an upswing.”

“Good. Your new sponsor will be thrilled to hear it.”

“I have a new sponsor?” Now he really was relieved. “That’s fantastic.”

“Your sister and I hatched a plan and the SL Smith Corporation went for it.”

Eve was smiling as Evan tried to recall what products that company sold.

“You know that Kendall Holbrook has Untamed for Women deodorant sponsoring her. You are now the male counterpart to that—Untamed for Men. SL Smith is sponsoring both of you and wants to do a whole commercial and media campaign featuring both of you together. Isn’t that fantastic?”

Evan grinned at Carl. “That is fantastic.”

Not only did he get a cool black car with some electric blue accents like the deodorant label, he was going to get to spend lots and lots of time with Kendall. That made him feel a little untamed himself.

“Fans are going to love it,” Eve said, gushing a little.

Or at least gushing for Eve. Anything other than a sour face was a triumph for her, in Evan’s opinion.

“Do you know how much attention and coverage you’ll get? You can’t put a price tag on that,” she said.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity,” Evan said, feeling a whole lot better about his career—and his sex life. “I won’t let you down.”

Nor was he going to let Kendall walk out of his bedroom with a thumbs-up the next time he had her in it.

 

 

KENDALL
forced a smile for the cameras flashing in front of her and wondered what the hell was going on with Evan. She had expected that he would be furious over having to essentially piggyback on her sponsorship, but he had shown up grinning from ear and ear. He’d shaken hands with the deodorant people and her. Now he had his arm slung casually over her shoulder as they posed for pictures wearing Untamed Deodorant ball caps and each holding up a stick of the product.

Maybe he was just grateful to have any sponsorship that wasn’t adult diapers or erectile dysfunction pills.

He certainly didn’t seem aware of the fact that she was monstrously uncomfortable with him being so close to her. Nor was she thrilled about the fact that the SL Smith Corporation seemed to be implying that she couldn’t sell product on her own. That her fan base wasn’t big enough. They needed the gimmick of his and her deodorants.

“Can you move just a little closer to Mr. Monroe?” the photographer asked, his hand waving her over.

Trying not to roll her eyes, Kendall scooted a few inches closer to Evan, well aware of his arm, his leg, his shoulder, his entire essence right next to her. She could feel the heat radiating off of him under the hot photography lights. She could
smell
him and it wasn’t the scent of Untamed deodorant. It was him. Just warm and earthy and . . . sexy.

Kendall grimaced.

“Can you smile a little more?” the photographer asked, indicating the corners of his own mouth. “You don’t look very natural.”

“I don’t feel very natural,” she muttered under her breath, forcing her mouth open in a big smile.

“Just relax,” Evan told her, his hand coming up to rub the knot in her shoulder.

How he knew she had a knot there was beyond her, but the last thing in the world that was going to make it disappear was his hands on her body. Even just him touching her shoulder made her want to jump out of her skin. And into bed.

“I’m trying to.” The golf shirt they had her wearing was too tight and Kendall tugged at the collar. She felt like she was choking.

“Put your hand down, please.”

That little twerp was starting to irritate her. Kendall knew he was just doing his job, but she was trying to do hers. She wasn’t a model. She was a driver. And Evan breathing down her neck smelling of eau du sexy wasn’t helping at all.

The lights made her want to blink. The clothes felt stiff and unnatural. Holding up the deodorant made her feel cheesy. She hadn’t been sleeping well for the past week, worrying that having sex with Evan had been a huge mistake and stressing over her qualifying laps for Bristol. Her car had been running tight, and she’d much rather have been in the garage than here in this studio being posed like a Barbie doll.

Like a cranky, stiff, sexually frustrated Barbie doll.

That was going to read well in print.

The rep from SL Smith was standing next to the photographer and he was frowning, his mouth turned down as he held his jaw and chin with one hand. He was wearing an expensive suit and was an attractive man in his mid-fifties. The kind who got better looking with age and scored a new, younger wife every decade or so.

“I realize this is just a press announcement shot,” he started. “But . . .”

Great.

“Untamed is marketed at the fourteen- to thirty-four-year-old crowd . . . it’s a sexy, young, vibrant deodorant.”

How the hell a deodorant could be vibrant was beyond Kendall, but she just nodded at Mr. Suit.

“These shots are too traditional. Too forty-year-old-on-the-golf-course. Ladies-at-the-salad-luncheon kind of bullshit. We need to sex it up a bit. Take a ten-minute break and let’s see what we can do here.”

Sex it up? Was he kidding? Kendall felt the remnants of her fake smile disintegrate altogether.

“I can definitely do that with you, Jay,” Evan murmured.

She turned and glared at him. “Don’t tell me you’re going to agree to this. And stop calling me Jay. It’s a ridiculous nickname.”