He pulled back slowly, his gaze still dark and intense, making her pulse beat even harder. After he secured his belt, he started the engine with a roar, and put a hand on the gear shift. “Ready?”
With a man like him, she didn’t think she’d ever be ready. But she managed a nod.
He took off with a burst of speed, and she hung on to the door with one hand, clutching the seat tightly with the other, down by the gear box where he wouldn’t see.
“Don’t worry,” he yelled over the rush of wind, “I won’t go too fast.”
Didn’t he get that everything he was doing was already too fast?
Her hair whipped around her face, and she had to let go of the seat to pull it back. She needed two hands to bunch the thick locks at the back of her head, out of her eyes and her lipstick. She was flying free beside him, held in only by the harness, as the wind screamed past her ears.
And he was smiling, watching her.
“Look at the road,” she shouted at him.
She felt him brake as he went into the turn at the end of the runway. It felt like they were going too fast, but the back end didn’t slide as he went into the second turn, heading down the opposite runway. Her body swayed and jostled in the leather seat. She could taste the salt air on her lips. In the distance, she could see Jeremy jumping up and down, punching his fist high.
Will went faster and faster, making her blood pound in her ears and the wind beat against her chest. She should have told him to slow down, to stop and let her out. She should be calling him a maniac, even screaming at him.
Yet right then, Harper had the insane urge to raise her arms in the air like a teenager on a roller coaster. A crazy voice inside her whispered, Do it.
Unable to resist the pull of excitement and the thrill of the speed racing through her, she let herself go, throwing her hands up and her head back.
It was as exhilarating as it was terrifying. Maybe it was the combination of fear and danger and the pure joy of soaring through the air that made her feel so alive, with every nerve firing.
Or...maybe it was the man beside her.
* * *
Harper was utterly gorgeous, the sun sparkling in her wind-tossed hair, ecstasy glowing on her face. She didn’t shout or cheer—but she did hold up her arms. And she smiled.
The most beautiful smile Will had ever seen.
He wasn’t even near freeway speed, yet the shriek of the motor, the rumble of the pipes, and the open sky above them made it seem as if the car were flying at over a hundred miles an hour.
Just as he’d promised, he took her around only once. He didn’t want to push her limits.
Not yet, anyway.While harnessing her in, it would have been so easy to touch her, to let his fingertips graze her gorgeous skin. His heart had hammered with the desire to put his hands on her. Even now, his fingers sizzled with her heat, and her sweet scent filled his head. But he could tell that she wasn’t like the women he usually spent his time with—women who knew the score and were in it for what they could grab before he moved on.
Harper Newman was different. And he liked that, liked knowing that wooing her would be unlike anything else he’d ever done in his life. Even if a voice in his head reminded him that he shouldn’t be looking for anything more than a quick roll between the sheets with her.
Not because she didn’t deserve more, but because she did. So much more than a fundamentally broken man like Will could ever give her.
He slowed after the last turn, heading back to her brother. Back to sanity for both of them.
For now.
She let her arms drop, and her sleeve brushed his arm as she said, “That was fast.”
She was trying for a noncommittal tone, but he could hear the breathlessness she was trying to hide. She might normally be good at hiding her feelings, but Will was too interested in her to miss one single thing. Especially the thrill of the speed still coursing through her veins.
“Too fast? Or just right?”
Her eyes met his and sparks jumped between them again. Sparks that had been there from the very first moment they’d looked at each other.
Finally, she admitted, “It was good,” her words a little huskier than he imagined she wanted them to be.
Ahead of them, Jeremy was hopping, skipping toward the car. He looked so happy. Which, Will was glad to see, made Harper very happy, too.
They rolled to a stop and he said, “Let me give you a hand.”
But she didn’t wait for his chivalry, simply unbuckled before he could help her and said, “I’m fine, thanks,” then turned to grab the roll bar and hoist herself up.
Jeremy ran over to them. “Wasn’t it cool, Harper?”
“I enjoyed it.”
Her answer was far too tight-laced, but Will knew that for a few moments out there, she’d been one with the car and the rush of speed. Just as he had.
“But once was enough,” she added, smoothing her jacket, then her skirt, and finally her hair.
“Once is never enough,” he said softly.
Despite how hard she was working to rein herself in, he heard her breath catch on the slightly sensual undertone to his words. Will knew that if her brother hadn’t been standing right there, he would have done something crazy, like grab her and kiss her.
No, he wasn’t good enough for her. But that knowledge didn’t keep him from wanting her. If anything, he was even more powerfully drawn to the good in her, to the sweetness and warmth she shared with her brother.
“I don’t have to be anywhere special for another couple of hours. I can show you the Aston Martin at my place.”