Then he couldn’t resist touching the edge of her racing jacket, tugging her a little closer, bringing her in between his legs. He liked her in his space, he liked the scent of her skin, and the heat of her body. “For life’s hottest moments . . . Untamed.”
Her gaze met his and her laughter died out. She licked her lips and bent down towards him, like she was going to kiss him.
Evan went instantly hard, his hand snaking around her waist.
Then she seemed to realize where she was and she snapped straight up. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be!” The director started clapping. “I’m going to roll that back, but people, I think we have a wrap.”
What the shit? “What are you talking about?” Evan moved Kendall and her Texas-sized hair out of the way so he could see the guy’s face. “We were just joking around.”
“And we happened to still being taping, thank God. That was amazing! Perfect. The sexual tension between you two was fabuloso.”
“But I just made that line up.” Evan felt a little stunned. This wasn’t good. That wasn’t going to hang well with Carl. And everyone in America would see that there really was something between him and Kendall. Either that or assume that the two of them were willing to fake it for cash, which weirded him out. Actors faked romance for the camera. Stock car drivers did not.
The other guys would give him hell for this.
And Kendall would kill him. Cut his balls off.
Except when he looked at her, Kendall just looked relieved. “We’re done? Hallelujah. Can I change?”
Her eyes looked a little glassy, and Evan suddenly wondered if she might actually faint. “Hey, you okay, babe?”
“I think I’m sleepwalking,” she told him. “It’s like my body is separate from my head. Or my face. Or something.” Her arms waved around. “Parts aren’t working right together.”
“Alright. I’m taking you back to the hotel. Hang in there. We’ll be there as soon as possible.”
“Are you going to tuck me into bed?” She gave him a loopy grin.
“Yes.” And under no circumstances was he going to take advantage of her weakened state to talk her into making love to him.
He didn’t think.
CHAPTER TEN
EVAN looked down at Kendall, completely passed out in his lap in the cab, and fought the urge to run his fingers through her enormous hair. She looked so young and sweet and vulnerable, her cheek on his thigh, her fingers clasped into praying hands on his knee. If anyone should be praying at the moment it was him.
Looking at her, seeing her eyelashes flutter in her sleep, her lips slightly open as she breathed deeply in and out, Evan was feeling emotions he shouldn’t. She looked eighteen again. Back then, she had lain in his lap like this when they watched TV together and he had felt so strong, masculine, so protective of her. Kendall could take care of herself, then and now, but he liked the idea of being there for her. Of having her back.
Very, very dangerous feelings.
His hand reached out when he couldn’t resist the impulse any longer.
“Don’t touch her,” Kendall’s assistant said next to him.
Evan froze with his hand out, feeling like a kid caught reaching to swipe his finger through the icing on a cake. “Excuse me?”
“Seriously. Don’t touch her. This day is disastrous enough.”
Trained to consider where his words might end up, Evan glanced towards the cabdriver, but the driver was talking on his wireless headset in a foreign language. “How is my brushing her hair off her face disastrous?” And why was it any of this woman’s business?
“Look. I know who you are, who your family is. I’ve been in this business a long time. I may be just a personal assistant but I’ve seen everything. I mean, everything.” She pushed up her glasses and held out her hand. “Frankie Halliday. I used to work for Martin Fairfax before he retired.”
“Evan Monroe. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Evan shook her hand, impressed with the firm grip. “Fairfax was a legend.”
“And a horn dog. I can’t tell you how many indiscretions I had to cover up for him. But owners, fans, the media, they forgive a man . . . they’re harder on a woman. It’s just a fact. And Kendall is special. She’s breaking the glass ceiling here. A whole generation of little girls will be watching her and dreaming of the day they can drive their own race car.”
Elec’s seven-year-old stepdaughter, Hunter, popped into Evan’s head. There was a girl who was itching to grow up and drive. “I agree. Kendall is special.”
“She’s showing the industry you can be feminine and still kick ass on the track. And I’m not going to have her career compromised by rumors and a bunch of white noise bullshit.”
Frankie was pretty damn smart, and more than a little scary. “I would never do anything to hurt Kendall.”
“Which is why, if you want to spend time alone with her in her hotel room, you will not carry her up there yourself, or walk up there with her yourself. You will enter the hotel separately, wait an appropriate amount of time, then go to her room.”
He liked the way Frankie thought. “She’ll be asleep. She’ll never hear me knocking.”
“But I can give you a key.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Are you serious? Why would you do that?”
“Because Kendall deserves to have a little fun.” She opened her handbag and pulled out a condom.
Evan hadn’t blushed since the sixth grade, but he came dangerously close to doing it with that foil packet thrust at him by this total stranger. “Kendall’s on the pill,” he told her. Then realized he shouldn’t know that.
But Frankie still gave him the condom. “That I know. What I don’t know is where your disco stick has been.”
Now he was really embarrassed. “Nowhere.”
“Uh-huh.”
When feeling uncertain, turn it around and make the other person feel uncertain, too. That was his theory. “Aren’t you worried you could get fired for this? I mean, what if Kendall really doesn’t want me in her room?” Evan gave her a grin. “I know, it’s hard to believe a woman wouldn’t want me around, but Kendall can be stubborn.”
“I know she does, because before she passed out she told me if she had a little more sleep she would jump your bones.”
Speaking of bones. Evan’s c**k shot up at attention at those words. “Really? She mentioned me?”