“Okay, Bug.Sleep well,” I say, glancing down the empty hallway to make sure it’s clear before I reach in and pull her in for a kiss.One long, hard kiss on the lips.Her hands move to my chest right away, but she doesn’t push.Instead, shedigs her fingers in and kisses me back, her body slackening against mine.It’s a different kind of kiss this time.
It feels like a promise.She reaches her hands around my neck and pulls back, smiling once, a flicker of something unsure...and so I kiss her again, this time more softly.
For a moment, it feels not like the kiss of mere lovers, but like a deeper connection.Trust.And maybe even...
She pulls away and smiles at me, warmly.Tenderly.
“Now.Get the fuck out of here,” she says, pushing me playfully away.
I nod and laugh as I watch her disappear into her room.I stand there for a moment, battling the urge to knock, to say something more.Instead, I turn and walk back to my own room.
Tomorrow is a big day.Race day.And I have to focus.But as I lie in bed, my thoughts keep drifting between Stavros and Chloe, and what I have to do tomorrow on that track.
CHAPTER 23
Chloe
São Paulo (Brazil) Grand Prix
Race Day
Ican’t breathe.
There is a knock on the door, but I can’t answer.I just stare at my computer screen, heart in my gut, willing the words I’m reading not to be real.But they are.And they’remywords.
“Chloe, it’s me, Keyla.Let me in.”
I rush to the door and yank on her arm, slamming it shut as though reality is outside and I’m somehow still protected inside this room.
“I came as soon as I saw it,” she says, pulling me in for a sturdy hug.
“I’ve fucked up so badly,” I say.
“So, you really did tell Jack Sheppard those things?”She pulls back, hands firmly squeezing my arms, searching my eyes.I tear mine away, and skim through the article again.
Arden Team Principal Spills: Arrogant Warner Has Abandoned His Ex-Teammate Stavros Aetos
No sooner has Matt Warner been booted out of Rossini for underperforming than he finds himself in hot water again on his new team.
Principal Chloe Coleman has branded Warner arrogant, and as “charming as a dishcloth” and the driver “nobody wants to work with,” as she rails against the decision to hire him without her say-so in an exclusive interview withF1 Daily.
But perhaps most shockingly, Coleman revealed Warner has not been to visit his critically injured teammate Stavros Aetos after their crash, a fact confirmed by Aetos’s camp in Geneva.The drivers had been close on and off the track for over a decade, but with Aetos’s career finished in a fiery crash at Monza, it looks like Warner has no use for his old friend.According to Coleman, Warner called the friendship “a bullshit Rossini thing” and jokingly referred to him as “burned-out”—literally and figuratively.Warner even went on to complain about the impact the crash has had on his own driving.
Allegedly, the two-time world champion is reluctantly seeing a therapist now, but there is little indication it’s working.Rumors abound of substance abuse, with endless nights out drinking and womanizing.Warner also called his new young teammate, Noah Blacklock, weak and unimaginative, “lacking the killer instinct,” and said he is only driving F1 because Barry can’t afford anyone decent.Coleman confirmed Warner had pressured her to let him go.
My eyes are glued to the floor, shame crawling up my face.“I mean, some of it I said.Not all of it.”
“About Stavros?About him not visiting?That quote isreally, really bad.I don’t think anyone will forgive him.Joking about Stavros’s burns?Fucking hell.”
“He never said that to me,” I say firmly.“Matt misses Stavros.”
“But he’s never been to see him...”Keyla’s voice trails off.“So it becomes easier to believe he might say something like that.”
“Matt would never,” I protest.
“It doesn’t matter what you think.It matters what everyone else thinks.What about Noah?Did he really pressure you to drop him?”
“He said it one time,” I say.“But he wasn’t serious.He was lashing out.”
