Trackside Temptation

Chapter Eleven

FRANCESCA

I spent the next few days trying to figure out Matthias' personal race strategy. What did he do when he crashed? Was he racing for himself or for the team? I needed to identify a pattern because there was bound to be one that explained his mindset.

His engineer was incredibly kind and compiled all of Matthias' race crashes into one video for me to analyse. Just because my client was injured didn't mean I could take it easy.

I sat in the motorhome hospitality room, my laptop open on the table with my wired headphones draped around it.

I hit play on the video and listened to Matthias' words.

"Fucking hell this man just pushed me off the track."

I rolled my eyes. He clearly had enough room if he'd just held back.

Another crash appeared on my screen, and I flinched. It wasn't easy to watch from the onboard camera. The sound of metal scraping against the wall reminded me of the crash last weekend.

"What just happened? Lambert clipped my edge and sent me onto the gravel. That fucking bastard!"

A light tap on my shoulder pulled me out of the spiral of crashes and groans. It was Romain and Theo.

"Ah, what's the enemy doing in here?" I said, making eye contact with the cute Santoro boy.

"I can't see Matthias anywhere, so I don't know what you're talking about," Theo teased.

I giggled. "Don't tell him I laughed at that. I might get ghosted in person for a week."

The pair laughed as they took a seat in the two spare chairs.

"We're off for dinner tonight if you are interested?" Theo asked.

I glanced over at Matthias, who had just entered the room. I knew he wasn't fit enough to go out like this, especially since his cast hadn't been removed yet. It would've been unfair for me to leave him behind and go out tonight, no matter how much I wanted to.

"I would love to but I—" I signalled for Matthias to come over. "I have a very rigorous plan for Matthias and me tonight. The doctor said we need to be more diligent with our physio exercises, so we'll be spending the late afternoon on that. We'll probably just grab dinner around here."

Roman and Theo looked at Matthias for a reaction, who obviously gave them nothing.

"Suit yourself. But next time there's an outing, you're coming with us," Theo said.

"I won't miss it," I said, smiling back at him.

Once they'd left, Matthias sat down in the spare chair. "That was the first I'd heard about your rigorous plan. Why'd you lie?"

I laughed nervously. "I didn't lie, we do have to do some shit this afternoon... after I've watched you crash a thousand times."

Matthias leaned over to see what was on my computer screen, closing the distance between his body and mine once again.

"Oh, that crash wasn't even my fault," he groaned.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, you said that the first time on your radio. I got it."

Matthias laughed, glancing at the table before meeting my eyes once again. It was a new expression from him, one I could get used to. The way his eyes nervously shifted away but then quickly returned, as if he couldn't look away any longer. Was I being delusional? Oh my gosh, Francesca, you're being delusional.

"Now get lost so I can analyse your behaviour and grill you later for it," I muttered.

Matthias looked around the motorhome. "Spare office at three?" He winked. I nodded, and then he disappeared up the staircase.