A girl chasing her dream. A boy looking for the light.
When Florence Nyx started her internship at a Formula 1 paddock, she expected a lot. Fast cars. Exclusive impressions most people could only dream of. An entire array of skills she'd acquire...
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"You look too smug for my liking."
I glanced over at Idir, who was looking up at the dark sky with furrowed brows. He didn't like nighttime races.
I fucking loved them.
People were rushing past us, the nervous pre-race aura bustling around the starting grid.
"Don't know what you're talking about." I leaned against the pit wall and stared at the garage at the other side of the track, watching how various Azure employees got things sorted for the race.
It wasn't hard to spot who I was looking for; she was tall enough to make most other men in there look like gnomes, and her assertive spirit was so blatant that it was impossible to look past Florence Nyx.
She'd truly taken my breath away this morning; our conversation beneath the car popped back into my head. The mere memory of our agreement made me smirk, and I ran my hand over my arm, still feeling where her fingers brushed over my inked skin.
It was another thing that hadn't changed between us; Her touch still burned straight into me, marking me for life.
"Yeah, bullshit," Idir quipped, throwing a cooling pad over my sore shoulders. "You know you're staring, right?"
I shrugged, silently welcoming the cooldown in this desert heat while I watched how Florence looked at her flip chart and shouted orders around. "I don't give a damn." My response was final, because really... I'd stopped giving a fuck about what people thought about me.
Flo looked up, her gaze almost instantly setting on my car. I enjoyed the way she scanned the crowd until her eyes met mine, the fierce intensity in them firing up my resolve to win this damn race.
"It's creepy." Idir shook his head.
"And I care because?" I asked, not leaving Flo's stare. Her eyes widened slightly as they settled on something to my right, and I cocked my head to the side, wondering what she saw that I didn't.
Following her gaze, I spotted Connor Williams just a few feet over, talking to a few members of his team. His sleek blonde hair looked exactly the way it did a few months ago when I'd last seen.
He'd graced me with his presence back at Christmas in Ireland, where his fuckface of a father had invited everyone over. Back then, he'd still been talking about his Indycar career. Who knew why the fuck he joined Formula 1 so suddenly.
All I knew was that I'd done my best avoiding him since he'd joined Pandora Racing. There was no need for us to expand this very unpleasant relationship outside of obligatory family dinners.
Especially now.
He nodded a greeting in my direction, his eyes hesitant but just as juvenile blue as they'd always been. Memories of that one fateful day flashed in my mind; the one favor he'd done for me and that would always make me feel like I owed him kept rushing through my brain. It was probably the only reason I'd tolerated him the way I did.
