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TYLER STROLLED OVER to me, a confident smile on his face. I swallowed hard at the determination in his eyes and offered him a weak but nervous smile in return.
“Sorry to interrupt, but I’m told by that resigned look of boredom on your beautiful face that you haven’t toured the vintage stock. May I interest you in a view of the assembly room, miss?”
I almost choked on my drink. What! A tour of the assembly room? Have I died and gone to motor heaven? Hell yes, I want a tour.
But Colton had to come.
Tyler Dalton might or might not want to give me a private tour. And I might or might not want to receive exactly that. But it wouldn’t be fair to keep Colton out of something so monumentally awesome.
“We’d love to,” I answered with a cool smile, noticing the way Tyler’s grin faltered just a bit.
Colton obviously caught it, too, because he was quick to do the self-sacrificing ‘go on without me’ thing. “Love to join, Charlyse. But it’s clear Mr. Dalton was addressing you. Besides, I have a phone call to make anyway.”
Of course he did.
Alyssa was probably draining the battery life out of his phone with an insanely high volume of calls and texts.
Fuck it.
Let him run to his heart’s ninth death with her. If he wanted to miss a tour that I was more than willing to fight to squeeze him into, then that was on him.
I forced a smile. “I’m not sure he was only addressing me, but if you’re otherwise disposed, please, enjoy your call.”
Colton looked at me helplessly, like he felt just as stupid at his decision to give Alyssa the time of day.
Weaving my arm through Tyler’s when he offered it, I gave him a flirtatious grin and let the heir to Dalton Enterprises lead me away from the room’s center and down a level, to a collection of vintage vehicles I never dreamed I’d ever see up close.
As we headed down the staircase, I had one of those princess moments. One that threw me off-balance just a bit. I could even feel Tyler’s eyes on me every so often; my awareness of the tension brewing between us confirmed. At least, on an energetic level.
When we reached the lower level, Tyler stepped forward and casually entered a code into the keypad near the sliding doors. My heart leapt into my throat when they slowly opened; it felt like we were entering a separate kingdom where all the magic happened. Where it brewed and formed, spitting out the majestic mechanical beasts that made the stock car industry what it was.
Shaking, I recovered my smile when he turned those smoldering eyes on me again. His hands, warm and strong, found my shoulders and he maneuvered me toward the back, away from the assembly lines and closer to the vintage racers he must have known I truly wanted to see.
I gasped as I approached them, my eyes widening at the sheer beauty of pristine racing models parked like dignified cats. They were sleek and seemingly self-possessed; each built according to varied and often fluctuating regulations over the years.
“Beautiful, aren’t they?” His breath caressed my neck when he asked it, and the skin on my arms prickled with goosebumps in response. The magnetic charge coming off this man was unreal... Or maybe, that was just our chemistry? Perhaps it was a little of both those things. Regardless, I could scarcely believe I was even having this conversation with myself.
“Breathtaking,” I answered.
“Yes, you are,” he replied.
I turned around and slowly met his eyes, and then quickly averted my gaze like a shy schoolgirl when the weight of his stare became too intense. Why was I so... disarmed right now? One look at him and my entire sense of dignity seemed to come away from me, melting like a sundae in the afternoon sun.
His gaze was powerful. Certain. Not that I didn’t know my own power. It was just... the way he looked at me made something ultra-feminine within me rise up and coil low in my belly. Almost like it had been lying dormant, waiting to be unraveled and tamed by someone. By him.
To release me from my inhibitions.
Maybe it was some sort of intuited trust forming between us. One that happened between two people who held similar keys, each made to work only on the other’s secrets.
There was something very unusual about it, I thought. Visceral. Primal... but, so subtle, it could hardly be called that definitively.
“The room hushed when you entered it. Everything stopped and faded into the backdrop,” Tyler said quietly, reaching up to curl his finger around a strand of hair that had fallen out of my clip.
It was a practiced comment, but the way he said it communicated a seriousness I felt palpably. Almost like it had rolled off his tongue effortlessly, but the added meaning behind it had been a surprise to him.
“I saw you and had to meet you,” he went on. “But in all of my inelegant fumbling, I didn’t ask your name.”
I smiled shyly. “Charlyse.”
“Ty—”
“Tyler Dalton... I know,” I said before he could finish.
“How refreshingly un-fangirl you are.” He grinned.
God, those lips...
I lifted a shoulder and let it fall, a bit of my old fire coming back to my gut. He was certainly impressive, breathtakingly so, but I was no one’s fangirl—and never would be. Not like that. Like... some groupie without one iota of self-esteem. I probably shouldn’t look down on those types, but I’d actually been around a lot of them. Watching how they operated. Fiddling with the minds of men wielding the same technical savvy I utilized when I was putting together an engine kit.
“Refreshingly, you’re much more charming and not as much of a dick as I might expect of a famous billionaire racer. So I guess that makes two of us, cut from a different cloth than what people expect from us.”
Tyler’s grin deepened, obviously impressed, and his eyes darkened before his fingertips grazed mine. “Whatever cloth you were cut from should be on exhibition.”
His words went straight to the core of me. Heat flushed my cheeks, and I dragged my gaze from his and returned my attention to the cars.
My breath caught in my throat when I spotted the jet-black beauty. “A ’72 Ferrari 312pb. Wow,” I breathed. “What a treasure.”
“Impressive.” He looked at me with pride in his gaze. “Best of its time,” he said with amusement dancing in his eyes, most likely at the awe in mine.
“A god among relics,” I replied, meeting his stare once more.
“You, uh, know a lot about cars?”
I nodded. “I’d like to say I do. My father taught me everything I know.”
He gave me a curious look. “Who’s your father?”
“Owen Cruise.”
Tyler chuckled. “Ah, so you must be the famous hot girl mechanic everyone loves to talk about.”
I bristled at that, but recovered quickly with a practiced smile. I’d get to the bottom of the whole famous and everyone loves to talk about issue later. “The one and only.”
TYLER ESCORTED ME BACK upstairs after our brief tour, promising to find me again before the race so I could sit in the box seats. He’d made no mention of Colton, but I wouldn’t abandon him if he actually decided to join us. He’d probably bow out if he got the slightest hint that Tyler didn’t want him there, but I could try to talk him into it. If the two men could be friends, Tyler might wind up with an incredible driver, and Colton, a career with one of the best teams out there. A clean team he could trust.
It took me a while to find Colton after Tyler finally left my side, and the moment he noticed me, he hurried to end his call and tucked his phone into his jacket pocket.
“Another important call?” I asked with a smirk.
He shrugged. “Same one.”
“Ah, okay.”
Stepping next to me as I walked, Colton took a moment before saying anything. “I know you don’t understand...”
“What’s to understand? You’re a grown man, Colt. It’s your life.”
“I just—”
The wail of guitars cutting through the air completely dominated our sound space, and Colton’s words fizzled out. The large partition doors at the far end of the wall split apart, revealing a crackle of miniature fireworks, smoke, and young, angry-looking men with expensive and seriously flamboyant guitars.
Krash.
I’d almost forgotten that the popular rock band would be playing. That meant the race was starting soon. My eyes darted around the large event room and caught sight of two blue flame ones staring back at me. Unable to break eye contact this time, I sucked in a breath and held it as I saw Tyler making his way toward me. My hand reached down and touched my belly to quell the butterflies dancing there.
Without looking at him, I patted Colton’s arm. “I’ll catch up with you.”
He certainly couldn’t hear me over the ear-splitting cacophony of squealing guitars and drums, but he read my lips and nodded. I had my own preoccupation now, and as long as Colton was all right, I was going to pursue it.
A tugging electricity coursed through me with every step I took, making me feel more alive than I had in some time. A fear flirted my stomach as well, mingling with the thrill there, as if daring me to take a chance with the flirtatious playboy, Tyler Dalton.
It was crazy, but in that moment, I didn’t care what awaited me. Which was unlike me, really. What was I doing? This was completely unreasonable, but my feet were still moving. When we finally met halfway, the crowd of partygoers swarming around and past us to get as close to the raised stage as possible, I let him lead me again when he took my hand.
I wasn’t a very superstitious girl, but there was something almost... fated about it. Like we were being guided toward something much bigger than ourselves. It helped me to swat away every nagging thought that tried to convince me to protect myself and get to know him first. To make sure I knew the edge of this thing. The measurements and boundaries. Was this a casual connection? Did he want more than one night?
Did I care?
Usually, I did, but right then, I didn’t have an answer for any of those questions, and when he led me around to descend the lower platform stairs and then up again to the back of the stage, I sucked in a breath and blew it out. The sounds from the band were muffled, but still loud enough. As Krash played onstage, their vibrations and darkly melodic guitar chords pounded through me, like my heart would explode, since it wasn’t just the music making it pound furiously.
It felt dark and private, despite the noise. Pushing me up against the stage wall, I felt my back hit the thickly woven curtain. I gripped it in my hands to steady myself as Tyler got into my space and looked down at me.
A loud pop from the stage caused us both to freeze, but we both relaxed when we smelled and saw the stage smoke... just part of the act.
With the seriousness now back in his heady stare, he looked down at me again. I offered no resistance when his hands slid up the skirt of my dress. When his lips burned against mine, tongue dancing with tongue, I moaned against him as the vibrations of Krash’s fierce strumming and kick-drums surged through us, our mouths locked as one. He broke the kiss and my eyes widened as Tyler descended to his knees before me. He ran both hands slowly up my ample thighs and then around the back of them.
“You have gorgeous legs, Charlyse,” he murmured, his fingertips lingering on the backs of my thighs as he looked up at me.
The deep desire lacing his tone made me suppress a moan. The proximity of his face to where he’d just made me wet was causing my breaths to speed up.
“Thank you,” I whispered, secretly shocked, as no one had ever said I had nice legs before.
Must like them thick, I thought to myself.
He stood up, and, without breaking eye contact, reached around to the back of my head, pulled the clip out of my hair, and dropped it to the ground. He then grabbed my hair at the scalp. Using it to control my head, he leaned down and sealed his mouth over mine, kissing me hard again. With his other hand, he looped it around my lower back and pushed me in closer to him, where I then could feel how much he wanted me.
“I don’t know how you’ve done this to me, but I’m never this out of control,” he whispered into my ear after breaking the kiss.
I shuddered... hard.
“I want to take you right here, but I’m not going to. You deserve better than being fucked up against a random wall. The first time with me will be memorable, Charlyse,” he promised.
Swallowing hard at his words, I looked up at him and nodded. I may have batted my eyelashes, too, because, well... Tyler Dalton.
If the connection was this strong, it would surely be nothing short of explosive when we were ready to give ourselves to each other. But first, I wanted to get to know the mysterious billionaire. I decided right then that if I only wanted just a one-night thing, I would call Antonio.
Although, the burning chemistry between Tyler and me was nothing like what I had with Antonio. Where he was all playful and fun, Tyler was like the end of a flame, ready to ignite and burn anything it touched... and that scorching touch was exactly what I’d been waiting for all my life.