Becoming The Boss. Zuri Day
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named persecution; emotions had dipped and dived all over the place, to stretch her patience endlessly. Was it any wonder she could hear the clang of looming disaster?
Still, she’d never forget this afternoon as long as she lived.
Another close shave as Finn scraped second place after going silent on the pit-lane channel for over two minutes. Heart in her throat, she’d snatched the headset from the chief engineer in the end. Not exactly the done thing, but she’d had to snap him out of it somehow.
He was getting worse. Darker. Harder. Taking unnecessary risks no other man would dare to chance. Why? She couldn’t understand it. Unless… Unless Serena had made him worse. By storming into his life and throwing Tom’s death in his face when he’d been trying to deal with the loss in his own way. Burying it. Just as she had.
It boggled the mind to think they had something in common.
God, she felt sick.
But had he been worried when he’d nearly obliterated himself? Heavens, no. While she’d popped migraine pills like chocolate drops he’d supplicated and beguiled the masses with his glib tongue and legendary rakish smile, standing atop the podium as if life was a fun park and darker emotions were aberrant to him. When she knew they were anything but!
Then—then he’d swaggered into the Scott Lansing garage, again, and drawled in that sinfully rich, amused voice, ‘What do you think, baby? Was I awesome?’
As if he hadn’t just phased out while driving at over two hundred miles per hour!
Fist balled, she stomped up the metal steps and rapped on his door until her knuckles stung.
If she was an ace at burying pain and masking it with a brave face he was a pro—a grand virtuoso. But now Serena could see it. Feel his darkness more acutely.
Oftentimes behind the charming, irrepressible smile lurked a guilt-drenched agony she still couldn’t bear.
Last night hadn’t helped matters either. Bored—okay, plain nosey—she’d searched the internet for a peek of his sister and got a lot more than she’d bargained for. Not only was Eva Vitale the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen, but together with Finn she ran a huge charity for breast cancer in honour of their mother. Another death that must have crippled him.
By the time she’d trawled through all the articles and spotted the Silverstone driving day he held every year for sick and disabled children she’d cringed at all the heartless, dishonourable comments she’d perpetually tossed in his face.
The thought that she’d been so prejudiced against his type, his Casanova proclivities—enough to use him as an easy scapegoat for Tom’s death—was making her seriously dislike herself.
The door opened on a soft swish to reveal the man himself, wearing a deep red polo shirt—yum—and a pair of washed-out stomach-curling jeans riding low on his lean hips.
As her gaze touched his bare toes that delicious drawl rumbled over her. ‘Do I meet with your approval this evening, Miss Scott?’
Her heart thundered like a freight train through her chest and she crossed her arms over her breasts before it burst through her skin. ‘You’ll do.’
The ghost of a smile softened his sinful mouth—only to veer into a scowl as he searched her face. ‘What’s wrong? Has something happened?’
Yeah, I feel wretched.
This was a stupid, stupid idea, she thought for the millionth time. Fair enough doing practice laps and talking designs, but to come to his trailer? She was making their awkward truce personal and she knew it.
‘Can I come in?’
His eyes said, Do you have to? His mouth said, ‘Sure.’
Unconvinced, she battled with the urge to turn around and flee. But he’d offered, hadn’t he? To be a friend if she needed one? And maybe, just maybe, he needed one too.
She was worried about him. Her conscience pleaded with her to help him before he well and truly did some harm. She just didn’t know how. While she knew tons of men, she hadn’t felt ready to spontaneously combust with any of them as she did with Finn. So just ignore it, like you have for the last four years!
Sucking in a courageous breath, Serena followed him into the spanking new motor home—all sharp lines of glass and steel alongside huge cushy leather sofas.
‘Nice place. Biggest and best on the lot. If I hadn’t heard the endless man-muck around the pits—’ she was not about to admit he was dubbed the world’s greatest lover ‘—I would think your penchant for size compensated for some kind of deficiency.’
He flashed his sexy suggestive smile and her knees turned to hot rubber. ‘Nothing lacking in that department, I promise you.’
‘I’ll take your word for it,’ she muttered. Meaning it. Only to curse blue when her traitorous mind provided her with an image of the first time she’d ever seen him in the flesh, bar-boxer-shorts-naked, strolling into his bathroom. Where Serena had been… Oh, God.
A tingling flush crept up her neck until she felt impossibly hot. And the idea that she looked like some gauche ninny made her vibrate with pique.
‘Uh-oh. I sense trouble.’ Finn leaned against the slash of the kitchen bench, gripped the ledge on either side of his hips and crossed one ankle over the other. ‘Okay, baby, spill it.’
Baby. Baby. She had to stop dissolving in a long, slow melt when he called her that!
‘I’m…’ Shifting on her feet, she eyed the door. South America was wonderful at this time of year. Maybe—
‘Enraged? Incensed? Hopping mad? Splenetic? Thoroughly bent out of shape?’
‘You swallowed a thesaurus, or something?’
‘Nah, it’s that school I went to. You know—the one that specialises in breeding the most arrogant and annoying people ever?’ he said, flinging her words back at her.
‘As you can see, I’m rolling around the floor laughing.’
He grinned.
She sighed. Glanced at the door again. Wondered why she felt hideously exposed. Sharing woes and asking for help wasn’t weak or too feminine, was it? She didn’t enjoy giving men the impression she was weak—it was like hand-delivering an invitation to be messed with.
Oh, to hell with it. ‘My dad just decided not to launch the prototype at Silverstone.’
‘Why not?’
A tinge of anger fired in his eyes. One that made her feel infinitely better. Even though her bad funk was technically his fault.
Because Finn here had officially earned the title ‘too wild and problematic’ to handle her multimillion-pound prototype. And she was angry. Noooo. She was upset. There—she’d admitted it, and miraculously the sky hadn’t caved in.
‘Doesn’t matter the reason. His decision is final.’
Next year wasn’t so far away. It felt like forever. It wasn’t as if it would never happen. There was really no need for her to be so…devastated. ‘Point is, he has a brunette over there, and I refuse to play nice when I feel—’
‘Like someone peed in your biker boots?’
‘Exactly.’
One side of his mouth kicked up ruefully before his focus drifted to the window, far into the distance, as if he’d virtually left the room.
Angst crawled through her stomach and Serena gnawed her top lip.
Yes, she was crushed, but she could easily have gone to a hotel. It was a convenient excuse and she knew it. Somehow she had to slide him back on track.
Letting go of