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I’m an idiot. I can’t fight the heat creeping up my neck, and I bite my lip as he stares at me. I feel so stupid now, I don’t even know what to say to his question.

“Erm, no,” he says emphatically. “I thought I made it pretty clear that I not only want you, but I’m bloody crazy about you, and if this weren’t your family’s plane, I’d take you right here against this door.”

Oh.

And ooh!

“Why would I be saying goodbye to you? Talk to me,” Mason says, his voice soft.

I move my hands to his face and lower his forehead to mine. I close my eyes and speak from my heart. “Mum had a chat with Dad last night, reiterating all the ways this relationship is wrong. That the Collings Motors brand and family members will be dragged through the social media and tabloid cycles again, how furious Grandfather is going to be, and it isn’t worth it. I don’t know what my dad said, but I couldn’t see why you’d want to deal with this shitshow when you have enough pressure with just being in F1.”

Mason lifts his head ever so slightly to press a kiss to my forehead. A gentle, loving, reassuring kiss that tells me so much, I could nearly cry.

“Baby,” he murmurs, stroking his fingers through my hair, “nothing is chasing me away from you. I don’t care what people say on social media. I don’t give a shit if they dissect my life on a video or if the tabloids make up stories for clicks. I know I’m putting myself in a bad position with your grandfather, who owns me for the next two years, and with your family. I will go through anything for you. And only you. Catherine … I already think of you as mine. If you want to be, I mean.”

I stare up at him. The hope I see in his eyes—the hope that I will say yes to being his girlfriend—makes me want to cry.

“I want nothing more than to be yours,” I say softly.

“So it’s official. You’re my girlfriend.”

“And you’re my boyfriend.”

Mason seals the deal with another sweet kiss. After we break apart, I come back to our conversation.

“I’m sorry for ever doubting what you were feeling,” I tell him. “I just know you wanted to speak to my dad, and when I found out Mum had talked to him again about all her concerns, I was afraid you wouldn’t want all of these pressures and distractions. Even if the woman is me.”

His mouth quirks up into a smile, and just like that, I feel my heart lift inside my chest.

“Are you forgetting who I grew up with? I have to deal with my backer,” he quips. “Your grandfather and dad are nothing compared to someone furious their investment hasn’t paid out yet.”

Mason is teasing, but I instantly grow angry as the words come out of his mouth. “Your backer has already got his money’s worth. First, by having a good human as his son. And second? You are an F1 driver. One of the most elite drivers in the world.”

“Well, that’s not good enough for me, and it’s certainly not good enough for a man compounding interest in his head.”

I wince internally. I don’t want Mason to see it because I want him to keep opening up to me about his family life. But I hate his father for treating him like something in an Excel spreadsheet.

Mason takes his thumb and runs it underneath my lower lip, and I can tell he’s trying to fix the smudged make-up from our kiss.

“What did my dad say?” I ask.

“He’s not mad, so delete that worry from your head. I promised him I wasn’t going into this with a casual mindset. I reassured him I’m serious about you. That I would handle the distractions that come with dating his daughter without it interfering with my driving or responsibilities to the team. And I promised him we wouldn’t go public until everyone has had time to wrap their heads around the idea that we’re dating and you’ve spoken to your grandfather. But if it were just us? I’d be seen with you everywhere because you’re my girl.”

I immediately draw his mouth down to meet mine and kiss him. Not just any kiss, but a long, hot, seeking one that tells him exactly what I think of the idea of us. I feel Mason smiling against my mouth, and I smile back as we break apart.

“So you like being my girlfriend,” he says, the dimple popping out in his cheek.

I playfully put my thumb over that cute spot. “Yep.” I look into his eyes. “Let’s rewind for a second. Whilst I loved the kiss I got the second I walked in here, I’m not sure why you kissed me like that in the first place.”

“Because of what your dad told me,” Mason says. “He made it clear that after the trauma of what you went through as a teenager, there’s no way you’d open yourself up for that again unless I’m exceptional. The fact that you believe in me—in us—so much that you were vulnerable with your dad? I had to show you how I felt.”

“It doesn’t scare you?”

“It should. But it doesn’t.”

I’m so falling in love with him.

“I’ve wrecked your hair and make-up.”