Bastard.

I wanted to be angry with him, but I couldn’t.

“He’s so damn good looking. What I wouldn’t do to spend just one hour in his bed,” some girl behind me said. Turning, I gave her a fake smile. “Tell me you don’t agree,” she said to me.

With a smirk, I said, “I’ve graced his bed plenty of times.”

With a huge smile, she said, “Lucky bitch.”

I rolled my eyes as I pushed all thoughts of Emmit and my horny body away.

The freedom of not feeling the need to have Emmit’s hands all over my body lasted for a whole minute. Once his gray eyes found mind, I held onto my breath.

There was so much more to Emmit than how he made my body feel during sex. One of my favorite things he ever did was place his hand on my lower back as he guided me through a room. Or, to a table for two in the corner of a romantic restaurant. Oh, yes . . . there was so much more to him.

Giving me a smile, Emmit said something else to the reporter and then nodded his head and turned to his team as they continued to celebrate. Daddy had gone up and given Emmit a quick hug and said something to him that caused Emmit to let out a laugh and agree with whatever Daddy said.

Emmit took the champagne and shook it up as he sprayed everyone. Security had allowed Ashley to go up to Emmit. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her for a good thirty seconds before pulling back and kissing the tip of her nose. Cookie was jumping and calling out Emmit’s name, but he either didn’t hear her or he ignored her. Both thoughts made me happy.

My heart dropped as I thought about how much I wished that had been me. I started making my way through the crowd. I needed to go back to the hotel and think over what Jack and I had talked about earlier.

I chewed on my lip as I thought about his offer. I still couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that he had offered me a job. And a job that paid top dollar. I had until next Saturday to give him my decision.

Glancing back over my shoulder, I watched as Emmit posed for pictures and continued to celebrate his win. Turning back to the front, I wondered if he would even notice I had left.

I made my way past the garages and headed back to my father’s bus. After everything settled down, I’d catch a ride back to the hotel. The buses usually pulled out pretty quickly after the race. I was guessing Emmit would be here longer since he needed to do more interviews and pose for more pictures. I’d seen enough guys win to know what the deal was.

As I walked, I glanced and saw another girl walking slightly behind me. Looking at her, I smiled. She gave me a smile back and said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before.”

I reached my hand out for hers and that’s when I noticed she was pregnant. “My father is Waldo Morgan.”

Her eyes lit up as she looked me over. “Wow. You’re the girl.”

Taken aback by her comment, I asked, “Excuse me?”

Holding her hand up, she said, “Oh my God, that was so rude of me. I’m so sorry. My name is Kristin Whitmore. Doug is my husband. Number seven. Doug and Emmit are pretty close, as well as teammates. We’ve spent many a night with him and well, when he gets to drinking too much he talks a lot . . . about you.”

I pulled my head back as I stared at her with a dumbfounded look as my stomach dipped. “W-what?”

“Adaline!”

His voice invaded my mind, and my body immediately came to attention as I spun around and watched as Emmit ran up to me.

He came after me.

He noticed I left.

A rush of excitement tingled throughout my body as I watched Emmit make his way over to me. Stopping in front of me, he gave me a smile that melted my heart and had my insides shaking. “Hey, before you go I wanted to ask you . . . well . . . I mean . . . I wanted to say thanks for sticking around and watching the race.”

I was positive a look of disappointment washed across my face, I glanced over to Kristin and then back at Emmit. “Oh um, of course. It was one of the whole reasons I came this weekend.”

Emmit lifted his eyebrows. “One of the reasons?”

“Emmit! Emmit over here, can we talk to you for a few minutes?”

I bit on my lip as I watched Emmit’s smile grow bigger. “Don’t leave yet,” he said as he turned and started answering questions.

I turned before the whole world could see how Emmit Lewis just made my entire body flush with three words. I started walking again. Kristin walked next to me, and when we got far enough away she bumped me on the arm. “Please tell me you’re not going to leave ’cause I’m dying to know what happens! I’m a romance reader and this is like a live action romance book!”

With a giggle, I shook my head. “I’m sure it’s nothing but Emmit wanting to apologize for our fight earlier. That’s all. He probably has a date with Cookie.”

“Cookie? Like as in a cookie you eat?”

I shook my head as I laughed. “No, her name is Cookie, and he didn’t get to hook up with her last night, so I’m sure that’s why she’s here.”

Kristin’s eyes widened in horror. “He told you that? Why would he tell you that?”

With a shrug, I didn’t even realize I walked right past my parents’ bus. “No. He didn’t tell me that, but he did fill me in on the last two and half years of his life. One thing about Emmit is he has always been one-hundred percent honest with me. I guess he felt like he needed to let me know he turned into a male slut over the last few years.”

Kristin laughed and shook her head. “You have to know that men are stupid. They think mindless sex is the cure-all for everything. Doug told Emmit once to go out and just get screwed. He said it might make him . . . well um . . . oh gosh how do I say this?”

My attention was dangling on the edge as I waited for what she was about to say. “Say what?” I asked.

“Well, I don’t want you to have a bad impression about my husband, but he was the one who told Emmit, and I quote, ‘If you get laid, you’ll forget about her’. I guess you were pretty hard to forget because well, Emmit tried really hard to forget about you.”

Jealousy flowed through my veins as I thought about other women in Emmit’s bed. We had been each other’s first and knowing that Emmit had slept with other women killed me. I knew it was my fault and I couldn’t be angry. Okay, I could be and I was. “Kristin, may I ask you one thing and I’m not even sure why I’m asking?”

“Sure you can.”

I glanced down at my feet as I kicked at the ground. “Did he bring them back to his bus?”

I hadn’t been on the road with Emmit very long in the beginning, but the times we shared on his bus were some of the most amazing moments of our relationship.

“God no! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a girl in that bus except for Lola and Emmit’s assistant.”

I tried not to smile as I nodded my head and started toward the door of the bus. Going to open it, it was locked. When I turned to see I was at Emmit’s bus, I blushed and took a step back. Lola started barking and the door opened. A young boy walked out and said, “May I help you?”

Kristin was smiling from ear to ear. “Funny where your heart leads you, huh?”

I went to say something but instead, I stood there in silence. I had nothing to come back with.

“Johnny, this is Adaline. She’s a very good friend of Emmit’s. You let her in and out of his bus until he gets back okay?”

My head snapped over to Kristin as I said, “Oh no, I meant to go to my father’s bus and well we were talking about Emmit and—” I pointed to the bus and tried to think of the next words that should be flowing from my mouth.

“And you decided to arrange for dinner after Emmit’s long day at work. So sweet of you, Adaline.”

Lola came up and stood at the entrance of the door and wagged her tail in excitement. Blowing out a breath of air, I looked at Johnny and then back at Kristin. I knew what Kristin was doing by planting that in my head. “Well, I mean I guess he does have to eat and all.”