She checked her seat belts and nodded, ignoring how his presence filled the space. ‘Let’s do this!’
The engine screamed as he took off in the snow. The back end of the car fishtailed with the lack of traction and Lukas grinned. Katherine did too. She couldn’t help it. His excitement was contagious but it wasn’t just that, this right here was what she dreamed of as a child. Being in a fast car with an Alpha One driver in the most unimaginable places and she whooped in delight as they drifted around a corner, a tree flashing by in a blur. And she heard Lukas chuckle. A deep rumble that seemed to come straight from his chest.
‘Okay, Lukas, you still need to answer these questions,’ she said for the cameras.
‘Not if you can’t read them.’
He dropped a gear and floored the gas, nearly sending them into a spin that he controlled effortlessly, even though it nearly sent her papers flying. He laughed harder than she had ever heard before. But even with him trying to make her job difficult, she managed to ask all the questions she had prepared and some that she thought of in the moment, and when the car came to a stop where they had started, the director yelled ‘Cut!’
‘That was fantastic! You two were great!’
‘Yeah,’ the production assistant agreed. ‘Viewers are going tolovethis, Kat.’
Once she and Lukas stepped out, whatever truce they had found within the confines of the car was obliterated. The scowl was back on his face.
‘We just need to do one more take of the ice section and then take it from there,’ the director said.
‘You have to be kidding,’ Lukas groused. ‘Why?’
‘We have great footage of you and Kat in the car but had some technical difficulties with one of the exterior cameras, so we’re just swapping that out and we’ll be good to go. You two can get back in the car in the meantime.’
The man walked away and Katherine retrieved her helmet from the assistant, who still stood close by.
‘This is ridiculous,’ Lukas muttered, drumming his fingers on the roof of the car.
This man was so aggravating. ‘You know this entire stunt benefits you, Lukas. You could stand to be more gracious about it.’ She jammed the helmet on her head and let the assistant do up the straps this time. ‘I have it so much worse. I have to be stuck in that car with you, but you don’t seemecomplaining.’
‘Oh please,’ Lukas snapped. ‘What do you have to complain about? Your face is on TV. You’ll get enough content from this to fuel more of your distorted reports.’
‘My reports aren’t distorted. No one else has a problem with them, it’s only you! And you know what?’ She stepped away from the assistant and rounded on Lukas, the car between them. ‘It’s entirely your own fault.Youdidn’t win the championship.Youare difficult to work with. There’s plenty of footage proving you could be nice if you wanted to be, but you don’t.’
Which was why Katherine was proud of the article she had written. After it came out, the world would question the kind of person Lukas really was. Because if they could see him now, there was no doubt in her mind that others would question his authenticity too. ‘This is who you are. A grouchy, unfriendly, snob. Those nice things you do for fans, it’s a farce. You’re a two-faced hypocrite and it’s my job to report on the truth.’
A two-faced hypocrite?
That was what Lukas got for trying. He hated being in front of the cameras. Inviting people into his life. Allowing strangers to attempt to read him. Performing with a smile when his skin crawled at the idea of being in the media.
Lukas didn’t even really have social media. He had profiles that his publicist managed. He gave them a few hours of his time to create content and he never had to document his private life for anyone.
But here he was, in his time off. Time that he usually used to decompress from life in the fast lane. When he could relax and breathe and put the hyper-competitive side of him away. When he made time for his mother, just in case, even though he knew she wouldn’t call. Wouldn’t ask him to visit her in Salzburg.
Right now Lukas couldn’t do any of those things. His need to find a drive forced him to be in situations like these, where he had to spend time with the media he so detested.
They were always so unfair to him, but he just had to bear it. And yet Katherine had the audacity to call him a hypocrite? Sayhewas the one who wasn’t gracious?
‘What would you know about the truth?’ he spat and got in the car before she had a chance to respond. When they called ‘action’ again, he poured his frustration into the car. Felt the very instant the front tyre went from contact with compacted snow to ice. When the car began to slide. Heard Katherine squeal. In delight. In panic. He didn’t care. She was far away to him now, because in the moment he was a young boy in a kart his father had built with used, cast-off tyres—the only tyres they could afford—on a small icy track close to home.
And he was free. Ice, snow, a fine spray of water flew out from beneath his tyres and this was love. This was the feeling he chased. In that moment, he could have almost sworn that he saw his father standing on the side, cheering as no one else ever did. He couldn’t abandon this feeling to be a team principal. Couldn’t turn his back on the memories of his father. He felt Florian’s presence when he drove.
Lukas could hear Katherine talk. Was certain he was answering her. If it wasn’t for the fact they had to wrap up filming, he would have happily spent the rest of the day out on this frozen lake.
‘That was incredible!’ was the first thing Lukas heard when he got out of the car. ‘This segment is going to be amazing.’
It probably would be, but would it be enough to create more of a buzz around him to get his phone ringing?
‘We have a little bit of good light left so we were thinking of shooting one more segment. Get some action shots. Those would be great for promos. Maybe Kat can drive,’ the director said.
That caught Lukas’s attention. ‘What?’
