Authors: Audra North
Finally, she huffed out a breath and softened her look—barely. “Fine. And I
will
win Rookie of the Year.”
Fine. “Do we have a deal, then?” He put his hand out.
Say yes. Belong to me for the next six months.
Even if it was a sham, he couldn’t help the feeling of intense satisfaction that settled over him. His world stabilized, and the anger at Al, the frustration with this shitty project, faded.
For a moment, she faltered, arms stiff and unmoving at her sides. But then she recovered, and slid her warm, small palm into his.
Hell.
Even her handshake felt passionate.
“We have a deal.”
She felt as if she’d just made a deal with the devil.
This was probably the most foolish thing Kerri had ever done in her life. Even worse than when she was twelve years old and “borrowed” Dad’s truck for a few hours so she and her friends could go to the movies. Of course, by then, she’d already been driving karts for almost six years. She would have been safe—she
had
been safe.
This deal with Ranger was a whole different beast.
It was dangerous.
She wasn’t sure why, but it felt that way. Not just because winning Rookie of the Year was no easy feat, especially against fellow rookie Ty Riggs. She’d grown up with Ty. They were pretty close. And she knew that, despite his easygoing boy-next-door exterior, he was an incredibly skilled, focused driver with a take-no-prisoners approach to racing.
But it wasn’t the competition against Ty that was getting her adrenaline going. It was Ranger. Why was he gunning so hard for this, anyway? What did he really have to lose? She didn’t quite buy his rationale—it felt a little too convenient. From what she knew about Colt International, they were a multibillion dollar business already—something she’d found out when Colt had tried to strike the deal last year.
A deal Ranger hadn’t been told about, apparently.
He checked his watch again. “Looks like it’s showtime.” That big hard body came close to her again, making her shift into sensory overload. He was so close that she had to tip her head back to see his face, and when she did, his incredible scent filled her nose, making her pulse ratchet up.
He might be a manipulative, domineering asshole, but—
damn
. He was sexy.
Ranger brought a finger under her chin, stroking it gently over her soft skin. Could he tell how much he turned her on? Did he feel the strange attraction, too?
“Should we do a rehearsal run?”
Her confusion showed on her face, and he gave a half smile. Amused. “I don’t care how much you actually hate me. For the next six months, we’ll need to act like we’re madly in love. It might not hurt to have a practice kiss.”
A practice kiss?
A kiss.
From Ranger. Merely watching him shape the word with those surprisingly sensuous lips was doing strange things to her body. His nearness, his voice—she arched ever so slightly, and the rough material of her racing suit rasped over one of the buttons on his jacket.
A kiss.
Oh, God, yes. Yes.
She barely even registered that she was nodding until he had brought his lips a mere inch from hers.
“Get out, Grady.” Ranger’s low growl made something burn low in her belly, a primal response to a strong man staking a claim. As soon as the words were out, he didn’t wait to see if Grady had bothered to leave. He closed the distance between them, and in the next instant everything she knew or felt was honed in on the gentle press of his lips against hers.
Ranger
.
No matter what else, the man knew how to kiss. She was so absorbed in him that she barely registered the sound of a door shutting as Grady walked out, and she couldn’t even manage to feel embarrassed that she was lost, drowning in the soft sweep of his tongue over the seam of her lips, the way his arm snaked around her back and pulled her close, the ache of her swollen breasts as they pressed against his chest. It was the most incredible kiss she’d ever had. It was hot, deep, languorous and urgent all at the same time. It was—
“Pretty good.” Ranger broke the kiss, pulling back so abruptly that she would have fallen on her ass if his arm hadn’t been wrapped around her. He released her then and stepped away, leaving her bewildered and breathless, while he looked completely composed and unaffected.
Pretty good?
She forced a casual shrug, trying to hide the way his unenthusiastic assessment stung. “Good enough, anyway.”
Ranger gave her a smarmy smile. “Great. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, why don’t you go slap some makeup on your face and let’s do this conference.”
Slap? Makeup?
Of all the—
Her hands fisted at her sides. “There’s only one thing I plan to slap around here, and it’s definitely not my own face.”
* * *
If he had tried to describe the heat he was feeling, just from that one kiss, “fire” wouldn’t even come close. “Inferno,” maybe. “Supernova,” almost.
He’d half expected her to rear back and try to smack him. His plan had been to brush a quick kiss over her mouth, then move away. But God help him, the second their lips had touched, it was like he couldn’t get enough. She was so responsive and tasted so sweet, and she certainly gave as good as she got. And damn, did he want to give her everything he had. He wanted to pull her down on the hard tiled floor and push his throbbing cock deep inside of her.
When it came to romance, he had a firm no-entanglement policy. That approach to relationships fit his lifestyle perfectly, since his job kept him on the road all the time. No strings, just sex. But this—
Kerri
—made him want the wrong things. To lose all that hard-won polish and fall back into the drawling accent of his youth.
It was that thought that had Ranger lifting his head and moving away from her. Kerri must have been lost in that hot intensity, too, because the way she was looking at him nearly destroyed him.
Shit.
What had he done? It was one thing to pretend at romance to get what he wanted. It was something else entirely to get so lost in a case that he felt …
lost
.
Ranger Colt didn’t lose. Not to his own father. And certainly not to a headstrong, quarrelsome race car driver. The need to put some distance between them again, to find his equilibrium, had won out over the urge to yank her close and kiss her again, press conference be damned.
That’s why he’d told her the kiss was “pretty good,” then suggested that she slap some makeup on. He’d hoped that it would get her hackles up, wipe that dreamy, seductive look off her face and make it easier for him to resist her.
It had worked. Sort of. She’d certainly lost that look of slumberous desire. But the crackling retort she’d fired back hadn’t done anything to tamp down his libido. The pressure in his groin increased, and he’d had to work to keep his tone lightly mocking. “I’m just teasing you,
dear
.”
“Well, it wasn’t funny,
asshole
.”
Damn.
He hadn’t wanted her all out pissed, either. They had to look convincing when they went out there in front of the press. Anything less, and they’d get eaten alive—and he’d fail.
And he never failed. “I’m sorry. You’re right. It wasn’t funny.”
Her expression mellowed somewhat. “Look, let’s just get this over with, all right? And keep the kissing to a minimum.”
They walked into the pressroom, Kerri on his arm. Not surprisingly, the place was a madhouse. Everyone was still amped up from Earl’s madcap proposal, so much so that the reporters began shouting questions as soon as they were in sight of the media. Grady was standing off to one side speaking to the race director, but the two came forward immediately to join Kerri and Ranger at the podium.
Ranger stepped up to the mic and held up his hand for the reporters to quiet down, summoning his most affable
aw shucks
smile. He had to suppress a laugh when a female reporter in the middle row actually
winked
at him. Kerri, still holding his arm, stiffened when she saw it.
Interesting.
“Thanks for coming on such short notice, y’all. I’m sure there’s no shortage of questions after this exciting turn of events. But I want you to hold them until I’m finished talking.”
He looked over at Kerri and took her hand. “We’d been hoping this news would come out at a little less public venue, but I guess there’s no better time than the present, right, sugar?”
“
No time
would be better, indeed,” she bit out. Ranger wasn’t sure whether to applaud her reply or strangle her for looking so unhappy about standing next to him, but he ignored it and soldiered on.
“What with all the excitement today, we knew there might be some folks who were wondering why Kerri would turn down the proposal she received. Now, we know it was exciting, and thankfully she is a skillful driver who managed to avoid hurting someone who was clearly trying to make a statement. But as many of you might recall, Earl Scanlon and my Kerri here ended their relationship quite some time ago, and Kerri and I recently began quietly dating. We worked hard to keep our relationship private, but in light of today’s events”—he had to raise his voice then to be heard over the questions that were shouted throughout the room—“we felt that it was time to share some important news.”
They’d quieted again when they heard those last words, and that was when Ranger dropped the bomb.
“Kerri and I are engaged.”
The press went wild, but Ranger refused to say anything further until they’d all calmed down. He squeezed Kerri’s hand gently, feeling a strange rush of pride and excitement that she hadn’t pulled away.
It took a few minutes for the ruckus to settle, and when it did, Ranger continued. “Y’all might already know that Colt was thinking about sponsoring Hart Racing last year. Well, the first time that I had the pleasure of meeting Kerri, I knew she was something special. I was ready to propose within minutes, but that probably would have been too fast, even for a race car driver.”
He grinned, and the reporters chuckled in response. He heard Kerri give a soft snort, the sound masked by the laughter in the room.
Well, tough. She might be angry at him, but she made a deal. Besides, he’d bet his promotion that she’d enjoyed that kiss as much as he had.
“I know this is fast. But from the first moment I met her, I knew. A few months of dating might not seem like much, but I just couldn’t wait any longer before I found myself asking her to be my wife.” That much was true, at least. “I’m looking forward to becoming a part of the Hart family, but it’s not just our families that will be united through our marriage. And that brings me to my other announcement. Colt International is now an investor in Hart Racing. We’ve formed a partnership that will strengthen our ties on every level.”
Kerri made a move forward, as though she were going to lean into the mic and say something. Usually, he wouldn’t have minded that she wanted to speak. But given the mood she’d been in just before they’d come out, he didn’t want to risk her saying something that would destroy the credibility they’d just gotten back. He rushed to add, “We will now take questions.”
He’d expected the press to jump right into questions for him and Kerri, so he was surprised when the first one was aimed at Grady.
“Mr. Hart, what would your dad say about this partnership?”
Grady stepped forward, shrugged, and gave a small smile. “Well. I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn when I say that Dad was all about family. So it seems reasonable to believe that he would have welcomed Ranger as a son, just like I welcome him as a brother. I think that says it all.”
He would have welcomed Ranger as a son.
Ranger gripped the edge of the podium, fighting the wave of jealousy that washed over him at those words. Grady wasn’t the kind of man to dissemble. His emotions were always written all over his face. Even after such a short acquaintance, Ranger could tell that Grady’s answer had been honest and heartfelt.
It made Ranger
jealous
.
What kind of a sick person got jealous when hearing how his fake fiancée’s father would have welcomed him as a son?
Someone whose own father had turned his back on a wife and an infant son in favor of money.
Someone with a dad like Al Colt.
“Miss Hart? Will you cut down on your races to spend more time supporting Mr. Colt’s work?”
Beside him, he felt Kerri stiffen.
“Miss Hart, how will you divide your chores at home?”
“When will you have children?”
“How does your brother feel about your relationship?”
How the hell did these all these reporters come up with questions like
these
? Ranger looked around the sea of faces, eager reporters wanting to hear things that they never would have asked a male driver.
Kerri’s face was bright pink, but for once she wasn’t spouting off obscenities. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think she was embarrassed.
Her fingers tightened around his, and he squeezed back, trying to reassure her, then pounded on the podium with his free hand. “Quiet! Quiet in here!”
Anger made him loud as hell, and the room went silent immediately. “Ladies and gentlemen.” He tried to keep himself from sneering. More like a pack of rabid dogs than ladies and gentlemen. “Miss Hart is my fiancée. But first and foremost, she is a race car driver. I would never have asked her out if I didn’t think I could respect that. And I do. I respect what she comes out here to do every day. I respect her as a person. And that is all you need to know.”
Her hand hugged his, a caress so close that he could feel the blood beat in her palm.
“Now, if any of you have questions about
racing
, let’s hear ’em.”
The room was silent for a moment, and then a reporter put up his hand. “Miss Hart, you’re up against Ty Riggs for Rookie of the Year. You ran out of practice time today without another run after your spinout, while Riggs got his car calibrated well before the end of the session. He’s also assured a spot in tomorrow’s race. Do you think you’ll be able to qualify?”