The Billionaires Collection. Оливия Гейтс

      ‘You weren’t winning then,’ Matteo pointed out.

      He looked terrible, Abby thought.

      There were black smudges under his eyes and she guessed he hadn’t shaved for the best part of a week.

      ‘What time’s the press conference?’ he asked.

      ‘Eleven.’

      ‘I’ll stay for that and then I have to head off. I’m catching up with Kedah and we’re going out on a friend’s yacht. I’ll be back tomorrow for the race but then I have to fly out straight after.’

      ‘Matteo.’ Abby took a deep breath. They hadn’t even slept together and they were sniping and avoiding the other and so she told him what she had been building to since the morning he had left her hotel room.

      ‘Can we just take it back to business?’

      He closed his eyes and then nodded.

      ‘You don’t have to avoid me,’ Abby said. ‘Look, as much as you turn me on, I don’t want to sleep with you.’ She just said it, not knowing that the waitress was standing beside her waiting to take the breakfast order and then he laughed and said that he’d like his eggs sunny-side up please as Abby just about face-planted the table.

      And then, just like that, they were friends again, but even as they smiled, there was, though, for Abby, something more that needed to be said. ‘Matteo, thank you for the other night. I mean that. I have no regrets—it was amazing but...’

      ‘There’s always a but.’

      ‘Not really. I know you don’t want to take things any further and I get that. I respect that...’ She gave him a smile. ‘I don’t have to like it.’

      He liked that she was honest.

      ‘I need more though.’ Abby told her truth. ‘I’ve waited a long time. Or rather I’ve been so messed up that I’ve missed out on an awful lot and I just want, well, when I do sleep with someone, it has to mean something.’

      ‘I understand.’

      ‘So thanks for the offer of a sex lesson but I shan’t be taking you up on it.’

      Matteo let out a breath of both relief and regret.

      Relief that they were finished with.

      Regret that they would never be.

      ‘Are we good?’ Abby checked and he took her hand and gave it a squeeze.

      ‘All good.’

      * * *

      And so they stood, side by side, but not holding hands, as the stars of the show took their places.

      It was the deciding race tomorrow and Evan, Hunter and Pedro were all a chance.

      The winner would take all.

      But though the desire to win burnt bright, it was no longer driven by revenge. There was next year, Abby thought.

      It didn’t all have to be now.

      She wanted next year. More than that, she wanted the team she had built to all be together, but then a journalist asked Pedro the question that was on everyone’s lips.

      ‘Are the rumours true about you signing with the Lachance team next year?’

      Pedro looked over to Abby and she gave him a smile and a very slight nod, letting Pedro know that he could answer with the truth—they had made a deal after all.

      ‘I’ve been approached.’ Pedro shrugged.

      ‘And?’

      ‘In fact, they asked to speak with me yesterday,’ Pedro continued, ‘but as I said to them—their cars are as dated as their drivers.’

      There was a small stunned silence at the obvious provocation and then the cameras started flashing and Hunter got up and walked out.

      ‘Game on,’ Matteo said.

      The practice race went well and then Matteo disappeared to get ready for his night on the town. Abby had a lot of work to do on the car and so it was Perpetual Pedro who hung around.

      ‘Go!’ she said to Pedro when it was close to seven. ‘I don’t need a babysitter and you need to sleep.’

      ‘Abby...’

      ‘Pedro,’ she warned. ‘I have every right not to walk in fear and I’m exercising it. Go.’

      Reluctantly, Pedro did and Abby worked till after ten, fine-tuning the engine till she was as happy as she could be with it and then she took a cab back to the hotel.

      She was ready simply to go to bed and to do her best not to think of what Matteo was up to now that she had let him off the hook.

      Abby climbed out of the cab, wondering if she could be bothered to get room service. The moment she walked into the foyer though, there was Matteo walking with Kedah, both looking like the two playboys they intended to be tonight.

      Clearly they were just heading out.

      Matteo had shaved and was wearing a suit and had that arrogant, rich gleam in his eye and he was, Abby knew, about to exercise his right to get royally laid.

      ‘Abby?’ He frowned as she passed them and he saw that she was alone. ‘Where’s Pedro?’

      ‘In bed, where he’s supposed to be before a race!’ Abby angrily answered. ‘Don’t ever mess with my team and tell them what to do. You were supposed to be hands off, remember!’

      ‘I was just...’

      ‘Well, don’t! It’s not your job to look out for me and neither do you have the right to interfere with Pedro’s build-up to the race.’

      A car was waiting for them in the forecourt and as Kedah climbed in he waved to Matteo to get a move on.

      ‘Your friend’s waiting for you,’ Abby said. ‘Have a great night, Matteo.’

      She just brushed past him, loathing herself for the anger and jealousy that had shot from her lips. He didn’t deserve any of that. They had agreed to no-strings sex and she had been the one that had backed out.

      What the hell was he supposed to do? Abby thought as she closed the door to her room and stripped off her greasy overalls.

      She ran a bath and, as it filled, sat at her desk, trying to type up the adjustments she had made to the car but the figures all blurred before her eyes. There were emails she had to answer about order of events for after the race but all she could think about was Matteo and where he was right now. Then she suddenly remembered the bath.

      Thank God for the overflow, Abby thought, and then she climbed in the overfull bath and cried.

      For him.

      For them.

      And for the wish that she had at least slept with him.

      Once.

      Her first because, if not technically, Matteo would have been her first, and the way she felt about him it felt right that it be him.

      It was his lack of feelings for her that hurt.

      She lay in the bath and let the hot water relax her and over and over she topped it up and tried not to think about Matteo and Kedah in some sordid hot tub.

      Bastard!

      Except he wasn’t.

      He had been completely lovely with her.

      She got out of the bath and it was close to one and she knew that she had to be up at five and was just about to take her robe off and climb into bed when there was a knock at the door.

      And despite brave words that she was fine without a bodyguard, Abby felt a prickle of fear.

      Matteo was out,