“Prison or pussy? Sounds like an easy decision if you ask me.”
Chapter 1
QUINLAN
“Whoever thought to put a race in wine country sure as hell knew what they were doing.” I take a sip of wine and glance over to meet my sister-in-law Rylee’s amused gaze.
“They did indeed,” she agrees, a laugh falling from her lips that sounds slightly on the giggly side, making me believe she’s riding the road to tipsy right beside me.
I lean my head back to appreciate the unprecedented cool breeze in the Sonoma valley mixed with the sun’s warmth on my face. It’s a welcome feeling compared to the endless hours in the classroom that wait for me in the coming weeks. Fluorescent lights, tedious hours researching for my dissertation, and the always draining sessions where I fulfill my teaching assistant duties loom on my mental calendar.
So I enjoy this, appreciate the downtime to spend with my family here at Colton’s race before I return to the crazy schedule of my graduate studies. An engine hums in the distance, the reverberation vibrating in my chest and the wine in my glass, as it approaches our location.
I lift my head back up just in time to see Rylee’s head snap to the left when my brother’s car moves past pit row, easing with a skilled finesse around the road course where we’re currently sitting in the infield. Her relaxed features immediately pull tight as she watches Colton’s open-wheel Indy car navigate the turns of the course until he goes out of sight again.
“Still worry you?” I ask her although I know the answer since the sight of him in the car makes my heart pound with anxiety despite the amount of times I’ve sat and watched him. Because regardless of how many times he’s crossed the finish line safe and sound, it’s the one time he didn’t that still holds my heart hostage. The crash when we almost lost him.
“Yes and no,” she says, a soft smile spreading on her lips, the love for my pain-in-the-ass brother evident there. “Yes because of the nature of what he does. The speed he goes. No because he loves it. I can’t tell him not to do what he’s so passionate about.”
And it’s as simple as that. Incredible that he found someone who could handle his flaws and soften all his hard edges.
Someday. Way far off I’ll find a person like that … but romance is not on my current horizon.
“You deserve a medal for putting up with his shit,” I tease her, our long-running joke causing her to laugh again.
“He has his merits,” she teases in return, her words reinforcing the affectionate smile on her lips and love written across her face. “So what about you? How’s things in the man department?”
I roll my eyes with a sigh. “I’ve written off men for a while.”
She snorts out a laugh. “Uh-huh.” She looks over her wineglass, eyebrows raised, eyes telling me to talk.
“I’m the furthest thing from a doormat—”
“You can say that again!” She laughs.
I just shake my head, wondering why if that’s the reaction I get from her, why does every man I choose treat me like one. “It’s just too much work, honestly. You know me—I want some fun. I want some good sex. I just don’t think the cliché ‘happily ever after’ is for me.”
“Well, sometimes, right in the middle of everyday life, love gives you a fairy tale when you least expect it.” Of course she thinks that way after the way her courtship with my brother has turned out.
But she’s not me.
“I doubt it in my case,” I say, “but I’ve been kissing a whole helluva lot of frogs if it is.” My mind flickers to my last few boyfriends and how I’ve been completely blindsided by the shit they’ve pulled. It’s almost as if the easier sex is to get, the harder love is to find for me.
“Well, I guess I’m not one to give advice since I was told to have some wild, reckless sex with a guy and look where that landed me.” She smiles as she holds up her hand and wiggles her ring finger, the diamond reflecting the sun and sending prisms sparkling all around us.
Our laughter is drowned out as Colton loops back around the track. The noise of the engine fades, and I’m just about to speak when I hear someone knock on the door of our observation booth.
“Well, if it isn’t Quinlan Westin.” The voice sends a slight thrill mixed with irritation through me.
I meet Ry’s eyes briefly, and her lips fight to hold back the knowing smile as she stands. She’s heard some of the heated discussions between Colton and me over Luke and his determination to take me out. She’s even intervened a few times to explain that just because they competed for the same girl way back when doesn’t make him a bad guy. Her comments fell on deaf, testosterone-plugged ears.
“Hey, Luke,” she says, tone void of any kind of hospitality. “I was just going to find my glass slipper. Excuse me.” The expression in her gaze tells me she’s escaping to save herself the drama that will ensue when Colton finds out he sought us out.
Smart lady.
I on the other hand couldn’t care less what Colton thinks of Luke Mason because I have my own opinions. I’m just still trying to figure out what they are but, hell, if his persistence isn’t admirable in trying to get a date from his arch-nemesis’s baby sister.
He must have balls the size of cantaloupes walking in here and purposely poking the sleeping bear. I have to give him some credit though—he never fails to find me at the track, never neglects to ask one more time even though he knows the answer is going to be a resounding no.