"Cheer up Harps!" Dan patted my shoulder as he walked past me in hospitality.
"She's got the post holiday blues." Emma replied as I stood next to her watching the rain pelting down outside. Dan grinned at us before putting his baseball cap on and bolting across the paddock into the back of his garage, with forty minutes to go until qualifying he would be going for a quick chat with his mechanics and engineers. I sighed and took a seat at a nearby table, crossed my arms in front of me and rested my head on them.
"What's up with Harper?" Seb walked in from a brief meeting with his engineers.
"Post holiday blues." Emma repeated the words as I lifted my head to see him taking a seat opposite me.
"Still finding it hard are you schatzi?" He smiled at me.
"What do you think?" I answered.
"It's just as hard for me too." He glanced down at his lap and winked at me. "If you know what I mean." He added.
"TMI." Emma said, putting her hand up.
"Can't we just leave here and go back to the yacht?" I looked at my handsome boyfriend.
"I'd love that, but I'd also love to race this weekend, or at least try to if Suzie let's me." He smiled. "I promise we'll get some time tonight." He stood up and patted my shoulder before walking away, although he'd let it be known to the team and Christian that we were together, we had agreed to remain professional when at race circuits, he didn't want pictures of us popping up in the press and wanted to keep our relationship private. I was already finding it hard keeping my hands to myself, I'm one of those annoying people who loves to hold hands, share little touches and kiss in public, whereas Seb is the opposite. We'd been lucky that our little display on the Sunday night in Hungary hadn't been made available for public consumption.
"Jeez you're worse with Seb than I am with Antti." Emma giggled. "Totally love sick. Come on, let's go and join the guys in Seb's garage." She tapped her nails on the table, I smiled and got up from my seat, being around him in the garage would be better than not seeing him at all. We left hospitality and I tottered across the paddock as quick as my heels could carry me in the rain. Seb's team was working on Suzie with the music on pumping out some 90's tunes, with quali just over half an hour away I knew the music would soon be switched off.
"Oh yes!" Jonesy nodded his head as another track started. "Come on Harper, dance with me baby!" He walked towards me, trying to beckon me to him with his hands. As he started to rotate his hips and move his feet I realised he could actually dance, I laughed as he pulled me to him, took me in to hold and tried to make me move with him. "Move your hips like this." He put his hands on my hips and with his guidance I started to match his movements. After getting Rocky to restart the track he let go of me and resumed his original hold, I started to follow his movements, even his footwork to a degree. I grinned, I was actually dancing and in heels too. As the track carried on I was aware of another pair of hands on my hips, Seb's.
"Hey beautiful." He murmured into my ear, I smiled and leant my head back a little. This was a big thing for me, and probably for him too, physical contact while camera lenses were peeking inside, watching us dance. Although you could argue that Seb was just larking about and that nothing was actually going on between us.
"Yeah! Threesome going on right here!" Jonesy yelled as the track changed and his rotating hips became a little more like grinding ones. Seb stayed with us though, and I have to admit I found it a bit of a turn on, not that I fancied Jonesy or anything like that, I just loved feeling Seb moving behind me. The music slowed and so did our movements, Jonesy started to sway his hips and I followed making Seb do the same. Emma was now filming us on her phone along with Dan who had heard the volume of the music increase and had come to see what was going on. I glanced towards the pit lane, the were now more lenses and even a couple of tv cameras and presenters. I knew we were going to have to stop soon which was a shame as I enjoying myself now.
"Right, party's over guys." Rocky turned the music off causing most of the garage to groan.
"We'll make a dancer out of you yet Harps!" Jonesy grinned before getting back to his work.
"Cheers, I bloody enjoyed that!" I high fived him.
"You'll be my dancer first." Seb smiled as he shrugged his arms into his race overall.
"Lap dancer knowing you Sebby!" Jonesy winked.
"Your dancing has caused quite a stir!" Britta came walking in. "I was in hospitality and you two were on tv with Jonesy. They've gone crazy on Twitter too!"
"We made it on to the tv? Nice one!" Jonesy laughed. "Strictly Come Dancing, here we come!"
"You will never get me on a dancing show." Seb said as he zipped himself up.
"You'll let me borrow Harper though, won't you?" He asked. "She'll look fucking awesome in one of those short, sequinned dresses."
"No one gets to borrow Harper, she's all mine, and I don't share." Seb replied making me blush. Yep, I was all his and he was all mine.
I opened my eyes to the daylight filling the hotel room, I closed them again. I was so not ready to wake up, I was too comfortable snuggled up against Seb and I buried my face against his chest. Then I realised why I was so comfortable, we'd slept on the sofa. Again.
"Seb." I murmured as I nuzzled my nose against him. "Schätzchen." I used a nickname I'd heard him call me and nuzzled my nose against his chest again. I inhaled his scent, I was addicted to it, he smelt gorgeous. That was kind of a mistake as the hairs on his chest tickled my nose causing me to sneeze rather loudly.
"Whoa! Heilige Scheiße!" He jumped so much that he nearly pushed me off of the sofa, his arm flew back over me only just stopping me from falling off the edge.
"I'm sorry, I sneezed!" I lifed my head to look at him before starting to laugh. "I'm sorry but your reaction......" I laughed harder. "What the fuck was that?!" I sat up and looked back down at him.
"Finding scaring the shit out of me funny are we?" He arched a brow at me, but couldn't stop the smile on his face.
"You'll have to translate that! That sounded good!" I giggled. "I should do that more often!"
"Holy shit is what I said, and what you'll be saying in a minute!" His hands flew to my sides, pulling me down and he launched a tickling assault on me, making me squeal loudly and writhe beneath him. He had quickly flipped us around so that he was on top of me, trapping me while his fingers dug into my ribs. He knew exactly where I'd be the most ticklish.
"Seb! Please!" I yelled, laughing and gasping for breath. "I'll piss myself!" A loud cough suddenly made us stop. We both looked to our left to see Britta standing there with an amused look on her face.
"You've got twenty minutes to get to the circuit." She tapped her watch. We both looked at each other.
"Shit!" The word came out of both our mouths at the same time, making us giggle like kids. "Fuck!" Seb flew off of me and ran to the bathroom, I don't think I'd ever seen him move so fast.
We arrived at the circuit ten minutes late after encountering some traffic on the way in, Seb ran down the paddock ahead of me, I had heels on and no way was I even attempting to run in those. He was due for a breakfast meeting with the team, including Christian, and I hoped he wouldn't get a bollocking for being a bit late. The sky was dull with dark grey clouds, it looked as though it could rain at any moment and the air was cool. I wished I'd remembered my Red Bull branded jacket on the way out and I was starting to feel cold. I made my in to the large hospitality unit and then upstairs to Emma's little office. I was desperate for a hot coffee to warm myself up but thought I'd best check in first.
"Ah there you are! Morning chick!" Her face lit up when she saw me. "You'll like what I've got lined up for you." She grinned.
"That means I'll either hate it or you're actually telling the truth and I'll love it." I put my bag down next to her's.
"Does the name James ring any bells?" She asked, smiling.
"Of course it does." I leant her against her desk.
"Good because he's due here in about an hour with a friend of his and he's asked specifically for you. His company has put their name to Dan's car so he'll be here as a guest today." She headed to the stairs. "You look cold, let's go grab a coffee." I nodded and followed her down the stairs. James was coming here, the last time I saw him I was single after things with Seb had turned sour due to him getting back with Emilie, then we'd had the awful row in the car on the way to Germany over James, Seb had been convinced I'd slept with him. I had a feeling he wouldn't happy with James' presence here today.
With an hour to go until lights out and Seb out on the driver's parade truck I finally met up with James in hospitality. He'd been running late back in Monaco and had to get a later flight over to Belgium. I hadn't seen Seb to talk to him and let him know about James being here today as he'd simply been too busy, I'd only got brief glimpses of him.
"Hello Harper, so good to see you." James leant in placing a light kiss on each side of my face while Emma stood there ogling his mate. "Hello Emma, thank you for organising today for us." He greeted her with kisses too, breaking her away from her obvious staring. "This is Andrew, he's recently become my business partner, Andrew this is Harper." He gestured to me with his hand. "And this lovely lady is Emma, who was so kind as to organise today for us."
"Ah so you're the beautiful girl he was telling me about." He took my hand. "Lovely to finally meet you Harper." He smiled as he shook it. "And great to meet you Emma, I've been looking forward to today very much."
"Shall we head in to the garages." Emma smiled. "We'll let you have a look around and then pop back for a drink before the race starts."
"Lead the way." Andrew replied, I noticed his eyes flick down to her behind as she walked in front of us. Antti won't be liking this guy very much!
"Its so good to see you Harper." James spoke softly as we walked. "You're looking amazing."
"Thanks." I gave him a small smile, inside I was feeling a little uncomfortable. I knew I should tell him about Seb but I daren't without his permission. We walked across the paddock and into the garages, stepping into Dan's side first so that the two men could see their company's name emblazoned on the RB10. They stopped and spoke to one or two of Dan's crew while Andrew was taking photos of the car and then some of himself and James with me and some more of the crew. Dan arrived back, grinning when he saw me so I knew Seb would be about also. After being introduced to our guests and saying a quick hello to me he left to get changed as the pit lane would be open in just under fifteen minutes. We walked into Seb's garage and Andrew stepped away from us to take a close look in the cockpit of Suzie, looking for the nameplate that was installed in every one of Seb's racecars.
"Are you ok? You seem a little tense." James put his hand on my shoulder and leant in as he spoke.
"I'm fine." I smiled. "Just in work mode I guess and I get a little nervous before the race." My eyes quickly spotted Seb as he entered the garage with Antti, his race overall on, but unzipped. His eyes soon met mine, a frown on his face telling me he recognised the man I was with.
"I guess being friends with the drivers would make you nervous about them racing, they are in very high powered cars after all." He slipped an arm around my waist. "I've missed you, I've thought alot about you since May, its shame we've not been in touch. How have you been?"
"Oh, you know, busy with work. Never in one place for very long." I mumbled as my eyes darted around the garage, where had Seb gone?
"Why don't we slip away when the race gets underway, we could pop back across to the hospitality suite for a catch up?" He spoke softly, obviously not wanting people to hear him, his fingers were gently brushing up and down my waist.
"My girl watches me race from in here, don't you liebe?" Seb's hands landed on my hips from behind me, making James move his arm away.
"Oh, I didn't know you two were dating." James looked at me in surprise and then at Seb.
"We've been keeping it a little quiet, but we've been together for just over a month now." He placed a brief kiss on my head and I looked round behind me at the gorgeous German, I loved his possessive streak. I then glanced at Emma who stood there open mouthed. I knew what she was thinking, Seb had just put on a little PDA, it was a very unusual thing for him to do, and with tv cameras and photographers milling about outside there was a chance he'd been caught by a lense too.
"Well, I'm glad Harper has found happiness with someone." He smiled at me and then looked at Seb who was now standing in front of us. "I hope you will take good care of her, she's a beautiful lady, she deserves someone who will treat her like a princess."
"Harper knows I'd give her the world." Seb crossed his arms as he spoke.
"Right, why don't we go and show you the pitbox equipment and then nip across to the pit wall." Emma spoke up, sensing a possible pissing contest coming up.
"Harper will follow you out in a moment." Seb gave Emma a look and I could see that she daren't question him. I watched as she led Andrew and James away, who gave me a little frown as he looked back at me. "Come with me." He looked at me, it was an intense, arousing look. I followed him as he walked to the back of his garage and into his driver's room, he opened the door and we stepped inside. The second the door closed he grabbed me, pulled me to him, and kissed me. It was hard kiss, as though he'd been desperate to kiss me for days or weeks or maybe even months. I kissed him back with just as much ferocity and felt his tongue almost fighting with mine as he backed me up against the door with a thud, he put his hand at the back of my left thigh, lifting my leg up as he ground himself against me while his other hand went into my hair, sliding to the back of my head. I kept my hands in his hair, running my fingers through it, wanting him to keep his lips on mine. He groaned as he started to calm down and his kiss became more gentle. He pulled away and looked at me, stroking down my face with his hand. "God I needed that." He breathed. "You make me crazy, even more so when he's making it obvious he's interested." He gave me another brief kiss and let go of my thigh.
"I hope you know that James has got no chance." I fiddled with the zip of his race overall, sliding it up and down. "I love you."
"I love you too." He pressed his forehead to mine. "So much."
"Seb? You in there?" There was a knock on the door. "Ready when you are mate!" Rocky's voice could be heard the other side making Seb let out a breath.
"Time to go." He murmured, placing his lips on my forehead before stepping back so that I could open the door.
"Be careful Seb." I reached up and placed my hand on his cheek.
"Always." He replied. He took hold of my hand and kissed my palm before letting go. I left his room and re-entered the garage to find James stood waiting for me. We both watched as Seb swept past us and began to get ready to get into the car.
"You know, if that driver of yours ever let's you down I'll be more than happy to step in." James leant in close, I could feel his breath on my face and he slid a hand on to my bum. "Or if you ever get bored of playing second fiddle to his career......"
"James, don't!" I stepped away from him. Suddenly Seb launched himself at James, pushing him backwards and up against a workbench, pinning him there with an arm across his chest.
"Seb, no!" I cried out, the last thing I wanted was for him to hit James and then lose his job.
"You lay one more fucking finger on her........" He looked at James with blazing eyes, I'd never seen him like this before.
"That's quite enough Sebastian." Christian stepped in to view. "You have a race to prepare for."