CHAPTER NINE: AUSTRIA
Andy
If I had to choose a second home, Spielberg, Austria would have to be up there—the food, the scenery, the fresh air filling your lungs. The place astonishes around every corner. My father took us skiing in Austria every winter. It would be the highlight of my year, the time when we most felt like a family even if my father couldn’t handle the cold. We weren’t exactly swimming in snow back in Texas.
Austria is a relatively new addition to the F1 calendar. For over a decade it was off the program until a year or two ago, the aptly named Red Bull Ring became one of the easier circuits, not that Carl I’m-A-Cock Heinz isn’t going to put up a fight. The Championship is slipping through my fingers and it’s seriously fucking up my head. I’m feeling something I haven’t felt in a long time.
Fear.
Fuck that. I don’t let my emotions rule my head. I don’t get distracted. I get off my ass and get to work.
I’m on my way to speak to Klaus when I see Sara emerging from the back of the trailer—Steven’s office. Against the rolling greenery in the background she looks positively European.
I’ve always hated the little manager’s room tucked up the back of the transporter. It’s claustrophobic, filled with framed pictures of Steven with celebrities and politicians, playing a bit of hover hand with Miss World. From the moment I saw those photos I knew he was a fraud. You won’t find sentimental shit in Luigi’s office. No, the walls are filled, but it’s with data, track charts lit with highlighter and pen. Formula One is that man’s life, not a hobby or box to be ticked on a bucket list.
Sara has her arms crossed over her chest. For all the beauty around us she appears rather glum.
I cut her off. “Everything okay?”
Since what happened in the pits at Baku we’ve hardly spoken. She’s been going out of her way to avoid me, which only makes me want her more.
Maybe I shouldn’t have pushed her to go further, but I’ve never been real good at taking it slow. If she wants another go she’ll have to come to me this time no matter how much I want to feel her up, kiss her, and suffocate between her legs.
She looks defeated, eyes lacking a little of their usual luster. “Just a little sit-down with Steven.”
“About the team order thing?”
“Yes,” she replies simply.
Prick took his time. “Fuck, I’m sorry, but you shouldn’t let him push you around. Caliber’s a big fish as far as sponsors are concerned. You have real power.”
She looks sideways, speaking to the hills. “No, he was right. I shouldn’t have passed on confidential information.”
“You did the right thing. I’m being railroaded out of the Championship for Christ’s sake.”
She looks down and up, finally meeting my eyes. “Maybe, but I can’t afford to lose this deal for Caliber. My job’s on the line, a job I’ve worked really, really hard for.”
“He wouldn’t dare, Sara.”
“He might and it would be justified. Whatever’s going on between us, whatever was, we need to cool it.”
“You don’t mean that.”
But her eyes remain tired. “I’m sorry, Andy.”
She walks off and I’m getting awfully sick of seeing the back of her. I consider storming into Steven’s office and tearing it apart, maybe his face too while I’m at it, but I know it would achieve nothing. I’ll speak my mind on the track. The hills are going to be alive, alright, but it sure as fuck won’t be with the sound of music.
*
I make pole position—barely. If Carl was any closer to my ass he’d be a hemorrhoid. Even in the main event I can’t seem to shake him, even through Wurth Kurve. It’s like the other drivers don’t exist. It’s the two of us—mano y mano.
Steven’s a little more vocal than usual in my ear, but I’ve become good at zoning him out. I concentrate on the wheel between my hands instead, the line, the tactility of my foot against the pedals. I drop a second or two during the tire change, but Carl gets held up in pit lane. The win seems certain until Carl pulls another cock maneuver, literally risking his entire car to take the inside line on Turn Eight.
It’s too much. I can’t claw back the ground before the checkered flag, the second tier of the podium becoming an all too familiar place.
I make it out from a scrum of reporters, easing into the shadowy alley between the pits and track.
“Andy.”
I turn around, Lui bent over trying to catch his breath.
He shakes his finger. “You walk too fast. We’re two-thousand feet above sea level.”
“And you smoke too many cigars.”
He straightens up. “You shouldn’t have let Carl get under your skin like that. You should have seen it coming.”
He’s right. That’s what I love about Lui—all of the passion with none of the bullshit. He might wear red, but he’s black and white when it comes to speaking his mind.
“I know,” I concede. “I can’t work what’s going on in my head.”
“You’re not yourself.”
“No.”
“What can I do to help?”
“Thanks, Lui, but I don’t think Steven will be too keen having you show up to team meetings.”
He laughs. “Perhaps not, but I have to remind you, you need to retain the championship if you want a place with Ferrari next season. Maranello was very, very clear on this. You have to be the one holding that cup.”
I nod. “I understand. I won’t disappoint.”
Lui places his hand on my shoulder. For an old bastard he’s got a hell of a grip. “I know.”
*
Lenny Kravitz stands beside me at the bar toweling himself off.
“Great show,” I offer.
“I’m a big fan of your work, too, my man,” he replies. He leans in closer. “Promise me one thing, though.”
“What’s that?”
He pulls down his sunglasses. “Prove to them you’re more than a one-hit wonder.”
I smile down into the amber pool of my whiskey. “I’ll do my best.”
“Lenny!” someone calls, and he’s gone.
He’s replaced by Stacey.
I turn, admittedly a little surprised. “Not that I recall them, but you have some balls showing up here.”
“It is my party.”
“Your company’s party,” I correct, “and truth be told I’m really fucking surprised they keep you on after the shit you pulled. Daddy help out with that?”
She ignores me and runs her hand along the bar. Every move she makes is with seduction in mind, but what once would have made my cock hard now makes me want to puke. “You’re going to let that ruin what we have going?” she purrs.
I’m tempted to smash this glass into her botoxed fucking face. “We have nothing,” I hiss. “You are fucking scum.”
She reaches to take my hand, but I’m wise to her tricks now. I snap it away, looking to the back of the room. “Where is he?”
She acts dumb. “Who?”
“Your photographer friend. Oh wait, I found him, didn’t I?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I speak casually, calmly. “By the time I’m done with you there won’t be a kid’s birthday party that’ll let you in.”
She acts shocked. “You’re threatening me?”
“No,” comes a familiar voice at my back, “I am”.
I swivel and there’s Sara right behind me looking fucking amazing in a violet minidress, her hair out for the first time and framing her features to perfection. God what I wouldn’t give to bury my face in it right now.
Stacey’s lips tighten. “Sara, nice to see you again.”
“Pity I can’t say the same.”
Stacey points between us. “Are you two…?”
Sara steps around me, gets right up in Stacey’s face. I have to admit, it’s fucking hot. “Maybe, maybe not, but all you need to know is that if you don’t stay the fuck away from me, from Andy, I’ll release all the photos.”
Stacey laughs, phony. “What photos?”
Sara holds up a phone, scrolling through the full sequence of shots the photographer took that night showing me pushing Stacey away. It makes the entire thing clear.
Stacey remains resolute. “Two lovers having a fight. So what?”
Sara pats her clutch. “Not with the bartender’s statement or those from the seven patrons who witnessed the so-called ‘kiss’.”
Stacey’s face hardens. “This isn’t your world.”
Sara stands taller. “I’m making it my world. Now fuck off.”
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so New York.
Stacey’s lips tighten, but she’s out of ammunition. She snorts and vanishes back into the party.
“Thanks,” I offer, “not that I need you to fight my battles”.
“You were falling into her web again, Andy. She’s so obvious. Can’t you see it?”
“I can.”
“It sure as hell didn’t look like it.”
She seems frustrated. No, it’s something else. “What’s going on? You’ve hardly said ‘boo’ to me in two weeks and suddenly you’re here flying the Fortes flag. I don’t get it.”
And then it clicks.
“What?” she snaps, but she knows I can see it.
I reel back in mock surprise. “Holy fucking shit. You’re jealous, aren’t you?”
The way she blushes and turns away says it all. “Am not.”
“Which completely confirms it.”
“And if I am?” she counters.
“Then we should leave this party ASAP.”
“Okay.”
“Okay,” I reply, like we’ve just signed a custody contract.
We remain locked like that for a moment, a DJ spinning the decks behind the bar, the noise of chatter not helping the build-up of sexual energy that’s threatening to overflow between us.
“Room Eleven,” she says, quick as can be, darting off to the front doors.
I wait as long as I can, but soon I can’t look at the bottom of my glass any longer. I’ve never wanted to catch an elevator more in my life.
*
I can’t get to her room fast enough. I’m tense, nervous, the head of my cock caught between my belt and navel rock-fucking-hard and growing.
This is it.
All the teasing, the flirting, and I have been reading the signs. She wants this as much as I do, but something, whatever it is, is stopping her from taking it to the next level.
Maybe she’s a virgin?
Doubtful. Virgin’s don’t flirt like that. They don’t stand up to girls like Stacey, vagina-fronting and playing the bad-ass. Sara’s upbringing was clearly tougher than I gave her credit for. I swear to god another minute and she would have been hauling that bitch to the ground by her hair yelling in a thick New York drawl, ‘That was my cab!’
My kind of girl.
The hallways of the Hotel Steirerscholoessl are surprisingly modern given the classical exterior. I take a breath and knock, the door swinging open with a whine.
The suite is dark. I step inside giddy with anticipation. “Sara?”
“Down here.” Her voice is coming from the back, weak, uncertain. Nervous?
The balcony doors are open, the gauzy curtains fanning back into the room with the breeze like twin apparitions. Between them Sara leans against the railing, her heels gone.
Slowly, I come up behind her, pause with my hands extended.
“It’s freezing out here,” I note, seeing the goose bumps on her shoulders and arms, the earthy aroma of her alarmingly seductive.
“Guess you better warm me up,” she says, continuing to stare into the mountain-peaked distance.
I place my hands on her hips and exhale. Her back arches. She moans, low, already wanton.
I run them down to her ass and nuzzle into her hair, using one hand to lift and sweep it aside so I can trail tiny kisses down the side of her neck, along her exposed collarbone so fragile and delicate.
She stiffens and releases, pushes her ass into my crotch, trapping my cock between her cheeks, only fabric keeping us from skin-to-skin contact.
I don’t notice the cold as I run the hand on her hip around the front of her dress and let it plunge. I kiss around her bare back, pull the skin there tight, suck it and work my way back up to the coral shell of her ear, the way she whispers, clouds of cold leaving her lips.
“Andy,” she whimpers, wanting to add more but losing her line of thinking as I let my hand slide under her dress, let the fabric bunch up over my wrist as I run my hand down the front of her panties.
She’s bare there, shaved smooth as I cup her hot mound, letting my fingers split the silky lips of her pussy and run through the hot fissure in wait.
She jerks, jamming herself back against my cock, grinding, gripping onto the railing with ivory knuckles as I hold my lips against her ear, breathing hard and close to losing it. I let the tip of a finger play in soft circles around her clit, ease it out from hiding until it’s a pliant pebble under my touch.
She shakes, but not from the cold, repeating my name over and over as I hook a finger and prepare to run it inside her body. When I do, she gasps, presses down upon it while I ease it out and in, her musky arousal floating upwards, the heat and wetness between her legs unlike any I’ve known.
I slide my finger in to the second knuckle, curl it against the ribbed patch of flesh marking her g-spot until I’m sure she’s going to come, the skin on her back patchy and flushed, her body shivering and bent on release.
“Come,” I whisper.
At my words she does, her pussy clamping tight against my finger, the convulsions causing her to flail between the railing and my cock, stunted ‘ah, ah, ah’s leaving her mouth as I pull her earlobe between my lips.
It goes on forever, the capture and release, my entire hand soaking by the time I pull it away.
The stillness of the night falls and she turns. I lean in to kiss her, but she holds me away.
No, not again.
“Sara, don’t. I want to be inside you. I have to be.”
She weaves underneath me and heads for the bathroom. “Thanks for, but… I need time to think, Andy, please.”
“Sara…”
“Please, Andy.”
“Sara!” I say it more forcefully than I intend to, her face pulling together in fright.
She looks back at me from the doorframe, eyes pooling. “Please, Andy, just go.”
The bathroom door closes and I’m left there with another raging erection and nowhere to put it. If this is all part of a larger master plan, I don’t understand it.
What the actual fuck?
I don’t understand it, but I can respect it, so I leave.
Simple as that.