Stolen (Book One) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) (5 page)

A quick search showed her that Pelletier Raceway was a dirt track just outside the city. She could be there in less than thirty minutes.

No. Bad idea.

Very bad idea.

But maybe…maybe I could just watch him from afar.

Her phone buzzed. A message from her mother.

The judge denied your father’s request. The trial will be here in Boston.

And just like that, the slide into complete and utter shitdom had started.

H
arper gripped
the edge of her seat as the cars whipped around the track, spraying gravel in their wake.

This race was only twenty laps and Ethan had been on the leader’s ass for the last six. There were only three to go.

His car was number twenty-one and had been painted bright yellow with what looked like waves done in blue down the sides. There were stickers in back of the front bumper that she couldn’t read because every time the cars zoomed past where she sat, it was all a blur.

The only reason she knew Ethan was number twenty-one was because his name was on a huge board that listed his stats every lap. The cars were going close to one hundred miles per hour and the noise of their engines was deafening.

Last lap flashed on the sign in big red letters.

The crowd was on its feet when the cars came around the last turn. Ethan and number eleven were bumper to bumper on the straightaway. Harper screamed along with the rest of the people, their excitement too contagious to ignore.

Ethan pulled ahead a little. Then a little more. When the cars flew past the finish line, he’d been half a car’s length in front. Harper sat down and pressed her hand to her chest. Under her fingers her heart pounded furiously.

Holy shit that was intense.

By the time she got her pulse under control, the bleachers had almost emptied out. She stood and made her way down. At the bottom she stopped. If she turned right, it would lead her out into the parking lot.

If she turned left, out toward the middle of the field where the drivers and their teams were now working, she would see Ethan.

Right it was. She started off, her heart sinking as she realized that this had been a bad idea. The depression and aching in her chest was worse than ever.

“Harper?”

Shit. He was walking up behind her. She turned to face him, an embarrassed smile on her face as she shrugged apologetically. “Sorry, I know I’m the last person you probably want to see right now.”

“Given the coincidences in the past few weeks, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that you’re here because you write a secret racing blog on the side.”

A sad laugh burst from her throat. “No such luck. I just came here to watch you. Congrats, by the way.”

His hand settled on her shoulder and even though he had gloves on, she felt the warmth. His hair was wet and hung over his face. He still had on a white racing jumpsuit but he’d unzipped it enough to pull it off his arms and it hung loose at his waist.

The dark grey t-shirt hugged his chest and she had a hard time looking away. He dropped his hand and tugged on the fingers of his gloves with his teeth until he could shove the pair into his pocket.

“You took off yesterday before we had a chance to really talk.” His gaze was steady and there was no sign of the anger that had flashed there in the courthouse.

Of course she wasn’t angry anymore either. “We didn’t say everything that needed saying?”

“Did we?” He tilted his head and stared at her, deep into her eyes. He was much more like the man she’d been with in Tahiti. There was heat in his gaze and it made her pulse pound in her neck.

“The world is a damned big place,” she said. “You could have been anyone…” She didn’t have to spell it out. He knew what she meant.

His eyes grew stormy. “But I wasn’t.”

She wasn’t able to take her eyes off him. He was so damned
there
, all hard muscle and confidence and it made her fingers itch to run along his strong jaw. Instead she clenched them at her side. Any other man in the entire world. That’s all he had to be.

Instead he was the single one that she needed to avoid. She really should go.

He reached out and ran his thumb over her bottom lip. Her lips parted on a gasp and his jaw hardened. Without the beard she could see every hard line of his face. His eyes had gone black and she could see the way his chest rose faster now.

“Fuck,” he growled. His hand slid back, curled around her neck and inch by torturous inch, he pulled her head closer. “This is the most epically fucked up thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“I should go,” she whispered against his lips. If he kissed her, every last argument to leave would fly out the window.

Their fathers were enemies. Like, enemies to where either of them would truly like to see the other dead and buried.

This couldn't happen, she and Ethan were an impossibility in every sense of the word.

The heat in his stare pinned her to the where she stood.

“Probably,” he murmured.

The barest of touch whispered over her lips, but it might as well have been a thousand lightning bolts striking at once. Heat ignited in her gut and a low moan crawled out of her throat.

“I…I couldn’t resist seeing you,” she whispered softly.

“Christ, you’re killing me here, Harper.” his other hand settled at her waist and his finger stroked the sliver of exposed skin above the waistband of her shorts.

She sucked in a breath. Once again he’d barely even touched her and she was ready to climb his body and wrap her legs around his waist.

“You have to be the practical one.” Harper looked up and was so close to him that she could see the barest sliver of color around his pupil. There was a wildness building just under the surface and she could feel it by the way his muscles tensed when he pressed closer. His fingers tightened on her neck and a thrill shot down her back.

He barked out a laugh. “You don’t know me very well if you think I’m going to be the practical one,” he said.

“Well I sure as hell won’t be,” she gasped. “I can’t even think straight.”

He slid his arm all the way around her waist and pulled her against him. The hard bulge of his cock pressed against her stomach. All she could think about was how much she wanted him again, circumstances be damned.

She wasn’t her father and Ethan wasn’t his.

Harper wrapped her arms around his neck and arched her chest against him.

Ethan buried his face in her neck and sank his teeth into the flesh just under her ear. A sting of pain made her gasp, but then he ran his tongue soothingly over the spot. Her nipples tightened and ached when she slowly moved from side to side. One of his legs pressed between hers and suddenly, the friction that she craved was right there. She rocked her hips, needing more.

“You’re playing with fire, Harper,” he growled in her ear. “I’m already wound tight as fuck from the race. In about three seconds, I’m going to have my way with you.”

Bright light danced in her vision. Holy hell, she was so close to orgasm and his dirty words were going to push her over the top. She groaned so loud that it echoed around them. His entire body hardened and he swore under his breath. Then, he stood a foot away, his hands on her shoulders.

His chest rose and fell as he gulped in huge breaths.

It took him a minute to lift his head, to look into her eyes. The want that radiated from them almost made her knees buckle. She reached out and ran her fingers down his chest. This time he groaned, but he caught her hand and held it still.

Harper could feel his heart slamming into his ribs.

“You have the most amazing fuck me eyes and it’s killing me,” he said. After gulping in another breath, he eased his hand off hers. “But I’m not going to take you against the wall of concession stand in the middle of broad daylight. No matter how badly I want to.”

Harper blinked against the haze in her head. He was right. Anyone could walk by and if they were looking to get pictures of Ethan, they might get her too. And if her father saw them...

She nodded her head.

Tension eased from his body and though he still looked like he wanted to devour her, his face relaxed. The urgency inside her had dimmed but it wasn’t gone. She didn’t want to leave. Not yet.

“Will you stay while I help pack up? We can go back to my place after?” He stroked his thumb over her collarbone and she leaned into the touch.

“I’ll even help you pack your gear,” she said, grinning. “Maybe I can be your roadie for the day.”

He shook his head and laughed. “You have a lot to learn, Harper.”

They both knew this was a bad idea, but neither wanted to admit it.

She knew this wasn’t going anywhere except for Ethan’s bedroom. Their time together was limited and any chance of a real relationship was completely doomed.

Harper understood all of that, but she wasn’t going to stop until the whole thing went down in flames, as she knew it eventually must.

* * *

E
than was
silent almost the whole drive back to the city.

Harper had stood to the side while he helped his crew load up the car and when he’d come out of the small trailer in jeans and a t-shirt, his shoulders were tense and his stride a little too long.

After a few tries at conversation, Harper gave up. Something was off. Ethan’s leg had not stopped moving and his thumbs tapped on the steering wheel. He was on edge. Cagey. Maybe he was mad at her for coming to his race out of the blue. Or he’d remembered that they were enemies but felt bad admitting his change of heart.

But he pulled up at a high-rise in the city and helped her out, his hand at her elbow. They went inside and he guided her to the bank of elevators.

“Ethan?” she finally asked when the doors dinged closed.

He still had his sunglasses on and she couldn’t see his eyes, but she could feel the weight of his stare.

“If you want me to go…” the elevator dinged at the forty first floor and he pushed away from the wall. Once again he guided her ahead of him along a brightly lit hall until he stopped in front of B304.

The door opened, she stepped inside and it closed behind her. The place was beautiful. She could see the river out of a wall of windows straight ahead.

“This is…” She turned to tell him it was stunning, but he’d taken his sunglasses off and his eyes were smoldering.

He took a step toward her, then another. Some primal instinct rose up and screamed for her to run. That she was the prey and he the predator. The back of her knees hit some piece of furniture and she had to stop.

His gaze roved over her body and left her breathless. He looked like he wanted to devour her.

“Take off your clothes, Harper,” he gritted out.

Her breath caught in her throat when he reached behind his head and pulled his shirt up and over. Her imagination had not tried to trick her after all. The tanned muscles that she remembered, that delicious dip on the side of his hips, had not just been in her imagination.

He toed off his shoes and flicked the button on his jeans open.

Not once had his stare strayed from her face. His jaw hardened, and the tension that had been radiating from him since the track, now she knew what it was. Her skin tightened and her pulse leapt.

“Clothes. Off.” The deep command sank into her bones and she forgot how to think for a second.

The zipper on his jeans came down and he shoved them over his hips, standing in only a pair of black boxer briefs. And holy shit, if she had any doubt at all whether he wanted her, there wasn’t any now. His cock was rigid, pushing against the thin cotton.

“Time’s up.” He stalked the few feet between them, dipped down and lifted her off her feet. When she tried to squirm from his hold, he smacked her ass.

“What are you doing,” she squeaked, and then she was on her back in his bed.

“I already told you I was wound up from the race,” he said, setting a knee on the bed and reaching for her shorts.

Harper groaned out loud as he slid her shorts and panties down her legs.

Before she could scoot back, he grabbed her ankles, tugged her to the edge of the bed and sank down to his knees on the floor. Holding her thighs wide, he wasted no time. His hot mouth closed over her clit and he sucked.

“Oh my god.” She arched her hips and dug her fingers into the blanket. His tongue stroked over the hard nub while he kept it pulled between his lips. He dragged his fingers down her thighs until his thumbs ran along the outside of her pussy. He pushed up, opening her even more, holding her exposed so that he could stroke his tongue over her clit again and again.

The pressure started to build and Harper drove her hands into his hair, holding his mouth against her as she rocked her hips. Tension grew, her stomach clenched and it felt like it was all too much.

Ethan shifted and slid two fingers inside her, pumped them once, twice and the pressure burst apart, sending her spiraling over the edge. Light exploded behind her eyelids. She lifted off the bed, cried out so loud that it echoed off the walls.

Nothing in his expression had changed. If anything, he looked even more feral, his eyes almost glowing.

She watched as he fisted his cock and her sex clenched. God that was hot. The bed dipped and he slid his arms under the back of her knees. Once more he held her open and leaned forward, pressing into her inch by agonizingly slow inch. He had her pinned, unable to lift her hips to take him faster, deeper.

“Ethan,” she groaned low and long.

His dark chuckle sent shivers up her spine. When he was finally buried deep, he hovered, her body bent so that her knees were only her shoulder and his lips only inches from hers. His face was hard, teeth clenched so hard his jaw was rigid. His eyes were black as he stared down at her.