Why Jeremy had fixated on the Maserati, Harper didn’t know. She couldn’t see anything special about it—at least, no more than any other sports car. “I’m sorry about that.”
“You don’t need to keep apologizing for him. Like I said, I like your brother.” Another one of those gorgeous smiles curved his lips. “And I want to take you out, because I like you, too.”
Rushing ahead of them, Jeremy hadn’t stumbled, but Harper almost did just then. “Excuse me?”
“Dinner. Tonight. You and me.”
The shock of his invitation—and just how badly she wanted to say Yes!—sent her pulse into the danger zone. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Don’t think, Harper. Just say yes.” He gave her another smile, this one a little devious. “I already asked Jeremy, and he said it was fine if I took you out.”
“You’re joking.”
“I’m perfectly serious. Hey, Jeremy,” he called, “didn’t I ask on the drive over if I could take Harper to dinner?”
“Yup. I said okeydokey.”
Knowing that she was seriously out of her depth with this man, Harper said, “I can’t date you.”
“Why not?” he asked reasonably. “You’re not afraid, are you?”
“Of course I’m not afraid,” she said quickly. Too quickly, perhaps.
Because the truth was that she was afraid. Afraid of just how much she wanted to go on a date with Will. Afraid of just how badly she wanted to feel his mouth on hers. Afraid of just how much she loved seeing him smile at her. Afraid of being so starved for male affection that she’d be tempted to let herself become a plaything for a billionaire who couldn’t possibly want her for anything more than that.
In the end, given the jumble of emotions inside of her, the best reason she could come up with was, “I don’t like to leave Jeremy alone at night. And it’s too late to get anyone to stay with him.”
“Then how about tomorrow night, so that you can find someone to watch your brother?”
“Tomorrow night is okay, Will,” Jeremy called from inside the garage, and she wondered how on earth he’d heard the conversation.
But she wasn’t ready to concede. “This is ridiculous. I don’t even know you. We just met, and only because my brother wanted to see your cars.”
“That’s why people go to dinner, isn’t it?” He smiled again, clearly a deliberate tactic, given that he had to know his smiles made her heart jump around inside her chest. “To get to know each other better.”
“Come on, Harper, say yes,” her brother added. “And then I can come back to see more cars.”
She shot Jeremy a shocked glance. She might have to ground him when they got home. Permanently.
“If you say yes,” Will said in a low voice, “I promise I won’t drive faster than you want me to.”
But that was exactly what she was afraid of. That she would want him to go faster. That she might even beg him to go faster. All because those thrilling moments sitting beside Will in his fast car this afternoon had been the best ones she’d experienced in a very long time.
Only, even though there were at least a dozen reasons she should say no, when she opened her mouth the word that came out was, “Yes.”
*
Will knew he shouldn’t lead Harper on. She was a good girl. She was someone who deserved the fairytale, a guy who was as good as she was. Not an ex-thief who still battled his demons, who knew that he could never change the blood he came from, no matter how much he wished he could.
Speed had taken away far too much from Harper already—her brother’s independence and her parents’ lives. And yet, he could feel that she craved it all the same. Craved the rush, the thrill, just as much as he did.
Just as much as he craved her.
Will wanted Harper with an intensity he’d never felt before. And maybe if he hadn’t felt that same intensity from her, even as she’d tried to hide it, he could have let her go. But as he stood in the late afternoon sun watching them drive away, with Jeremy waving madly out the window as they took the downhill curve and disappeared, Will knew he couldn’t let her go. Couldn’t let either of them go, truth be told.
Will had never known anyone with such high spirits or as much freshness as Jeremy. He had almost died all those years ago, and he’d probably been in rehab for a good part of his life since. Yet he had a boundless nature.
A Birdcage Maserati. On the drive over from the hangar, Jeremy had enumerated all the reasons why Will should build the car, most of which came down to the fact that it was awesome. And Jeremy was right—it was a truly incredible car. Having finished the Cobra a few months before taping Hot Cars, Will could use another project now. The problem? As he’d told Harper, there was no such thing as a Maserati kit car.
Then again...his friend Daniel Spencer had recently told him about a guy in Europe who could scrounge up just about anything.
Will started to get an idea, one that fired him up. He’d told Jeremy he wasn’t a genie, but maybe he could grant the boy’s wish after all.