Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 62492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 312(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 208(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 312(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 208(@300wpm)
His phone went off.
Cam ignored it at first, intoxicated by the softness of Scott’s lips and the way Scott kissed him back with equal hunger. But the phone kept ringing.
It wasn’t normal.
Tearing his mouth away reluctantly, Cam picked up. “Richter,” he barked, still looking at Scott’s wet, kiss-swollen lips.
“Get to the factory now.”
Cam frowned. It was Daniel, his team principal. And he didn’t sound amused in the least.
“What’s wrong?” Cam said.
There was silence on the line and then the sound of Daniel taking a deep breath, as if trying to calm himself down. “We had to pay a TMZ journalist half a million dollars to buy photos of you that he otherwise would have published.”
Cam stiffened. “What photos?”
“It isn’t a conversation to have over the phone,” Daniel said, his voice clipped. “They were taken through windows. Probably with a long-range lens.”
Cam’s stomach dropped somewhere to his feet. His face must have betrayed something, because Scott had sat up straighter and was looking at him with a frown.
“Understood,” Cam said stiffly. “I’ll be at the factory as soon as I can.”
“What is it?” Scott said when Cam ended the call and got to his feet.
“Someone must have papped us through the windows,” Cam said tersely as he walked into Scott’s bedroom to grab his suitcase. He’d have to catch the first flight to the UK.
“Fuck,” Scott said softly, following him. “Are you in trouble?”
Cam grimaced. “With my team principal? For sure. But this might be bigger than TMZ. The pictures might leak somehow anyway. I need to talk to Daniel, find out how bad it is.”
“Do you want a lift? I can have my jet ready within the hour.”
Cam hesitated. The urge to say yes was nearly irresistible, but arriving in the UK on Scott’s private jet probably wasn’t the wisest idea—not until he knew how bad the situation was.
“No need,” Cam said. “There are plenty of commercial flights from Geneva to London. I should be able to catch one.”
The light in Scott’s eyes dimmed. “Oh,” he said. “All right.”
His jaw working, Cam stared at him for a moment. He kind of… he wanted to pull him close and kiss him goodbye. But that would be… it wasn’t something they did. Kissing Scott goodbye would eliminate any pretense of this being a casual friends-with-benefits thing—which it was.
“I’ll text you once I know more,” Cam said, shoving his hands into his pockets.
“Right,” Scott said, blinking. He chewed on his bottom lip. “Of course.”
Later, Cam would regret the way they’d parted.
But he didn’t know that yet as he turned and strode out of Scott’s apartment.
Chapter 20
Daniel Simmonds wasn’t a man who lost his temper easily. Cam could count on his fingers the number of times his team principal had become angry over the course of his career.
This was one of them.
“I don’t give a fuck where you stick your dick in, Cam!” he bit off. “But I do give a fuck when you do it in public and get papped!”
Cam’s jaw clenched as he stared at the photographs in front of him. He and Scott in Scott’s living room, half-naked, kissing. Scott’s hand stroking Cam’s cock over his pants. In one of the pictures, they were captured just talking: Scott’s head thrown back in laughter, Cam’s back to the camera as he pulled him flush against him.
Scotty looked so happy.
Cam tore his gaze away from the picture. “It wasn’t a public place,” he said, very evenly. “It was private property. We thought no one was around.”
“Well, you thought wrong!” Daniel snapped. “You do realize that your career will be over if this gets out?”
Cam bit the inside of his cheek. He’d have liked to argue, say that Daniel was being overdramatic, but he knew he was right. Formula One had never had an openly gay driver for a reason—not an active driver at least. Homophobia aside, Formula One raced in four Middle East countries, and not being able to race there meant kissing one’s championship chances goodbye.
“I know,” he said tersely. “But the pictures didn’t get out. Everything is fine now, isn’t it?”
Daniel huffed. “Everything’s fine? No, everything isn’t fucking fine, Cam. What if this pap won’t keep his word and sells the pictures to someone else?”
Cam’s stomach knotted up. “What do you suggest?” he said, his hands balling into fists.
Alice, the team’s PR officer, cleared her throat and spoke for the first time since Cam had entered the room.
“We move preemptively. Cam, we’ll arrange an interview where you’ll be asked about your support for LGBT rights, specifically your friendship with Scott Palmer. You’ll obviously say Scott has your full support. Then, almost in passing, you’ll mention that Scott’s latest boyfriend bears a striking resemblance to you and that it’s led to a few awkward moments when people mistook you for him.” She glanced at the photos spread across the desk. “That gives us plausible deniability if these pictures eventually leak. They were taken from a considerable distance, and the quality is poor. For all anyone knows, it could just be a lookalike.”