Prologue
Ceci and Clarke
DM: From @RacingRivers To @ChicaneClarke
Andretti said, “There will be many times when you are invited into a gap … The trick is to find one wider than your car.” If a woman invites a man in, it’s up to him to figure out if he’s got room enough to fit. You thought she was willing, turns out she wasn’t. Stop whining to the press and on social media. You lost. Ian Anker won. Period.
DM: From @ChicaneClarke To @RacingRivers
Your use of metaphor reveals more about the preoccupation of your mind than it does about this race. I’m curious. What would you say when the woman extends an open invitation only to slam the door in his face when he accepts it?
DM: From @RacingRivers To @ChicaneClarke
Are you suggesting Ian instigated the crash? On purpose? And that I encouraged him to do so? Here’s some advice: avoid any attempt to sound witty using one of my metaphors, Sir Stick Up His Ass. It’s cringe. You may know what to do behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car, but I’m fairly certain you wouldn’t know the first thing what to do if you got behind a woman.
DM: From @ChicaneClarke To @RacingRivers
Well, we agree on one thing. Any metaphor of yours, Miss Rivers, is cringe. I’ve heard enough from you to last more than a lifetime.Maximum exposure seems to be what you’re after—and at any cost. I suspect when you played hide-and-seek as a child, no one ever tried to find you. So now you’re working overtime to get the attention that failed you in your youth.
DM: From @RacingRivers To @ChicaneClarke
Oh, really! Well, I suspect were I to look up the definition of starched and stiff in the dictionary, I would see an image of you! You’re like an ironing board—straight, flat and absolutely no fun to lean on.
DM: From @ChicaneClarke To @RacingRivers
Ironing board? Interesting. Correct me if I’m wrong, but they do fit in tight spaces, do they not? And as for being stiff, I would think you’d be the last woman to complain about such an attribute.
Chapter One
Clarke
So, Man in the Iron Mask, are you going to go up to her or not?
And if you do?
Mask on or off?
He still had yet to decide.
Leo Clarke was certain of only one thing. He wanted her to feel what it’s like when someone else is in the driver’s seat.
Clarke crossed his arms as he eyed the woman across the ballroom. It didn’t matter that she was in costume, he recognized her immediately.
If you leave the mask on, it’ll be easier. She won’t know it’s you. You could be anybody.
He sighed. Then again …
If you leave it on, it’ll be easier. She won’t know it’s you. You could be anybody.
So what would be the point?
But then what was the point of any of this?
Angry with himself, he fisted his hands.
Why did I agree to this stupid bet?
If he could channel that guy that had sent those DMs, he would have approached her already.
