“I need more. What’s your first name, Doc? Tell me about yourself. The sound of your voice soothes something in me,” he huffed.
“My name is Aspen Belle, and I’m thirty-two years old.” As I kept repeating my mantra for him, I could hear his deep breathing become quieter by the minute. “Are you able to continue driving?”
“I will because I must. If I hadn’t heard your voice, I’m not sure I could have continued on. Thank you.”
“It’s my job, Mr. Crew.” I’m not sure why I felt the need to remind him, but I did. The company he raced for was paying me three months’ worth of wages for one week of intense therapy.
“I know it is, but there’s something about your voice. I feel it deep inside of me when you speak.”
A flicker of something I shouldn’t have felt started deep in my belly.
For the next hour, we continued on with me talking over the radio. If I stopped for longer than a few minutes, Callum’s breathing would race, so I’d start reading from a book. It felt wrong to delve too deep into personal information. If I was to stay distanced from my client, we needed to keep it strictly professional. By the end of Callum’s driving, he was able to keep calm and only ask that I read to him.
I waited up in the stands as he excitedly jumped out of his car and spoke to the crew. While today had been a success, I wasn’t sure what would happen when he was in an actual race. Could the man in his ear calm his racing heart and breath?
Loud footsteps came from the stands, making me turn to look over my shoulder. A tall man with a lopsided grin moved toward me.
“Dr. Belle, I’m Colton Donavan. I’m the owner of Callum’s team. He’s down below spouting how you’re a miracle worker.”
I stood and met him with only two rows between us. “While he’s doing amazingly well, I’m no miracle worker, I can assure you, Mr. Donavan.”
“Yes, that’s what I’ve come to speak to you about. Callum believes that only by hearing the sound of your voice, he’ll be able to drive. I believe that if you’re not there when he drives, he’ll fail.”
I’d had the same fear as well.
“Do you not believe whoever speaks to him over the headset will be able to help him in any way?”
“Kaspar would if he could, but he’s not trained in any way to guide Callum from losing control. I wasn’t there when he wrecked.” He looked off into the sun as he finished speaking. “The team left him alone, and I believe it got into his head. Now I can help him.”
“How can you help him?”
“I want to hire you to be a part of the team for the rest of the season. Be there for him before and during the race. You won’t have to be in the elements while he races, but he needs you there.”
“Mr. Donavan, while I understand why you’re offering, I have clients here who need me. I can’t leave them,” I tried to make him understand.
His lopsided grin faded and turned into a thin line. “Will one of them die if you hand them off to another therapist? I believe if you’re not there with Callum, he very well could die out there on the track. If it’s money you’re worried about, I will pay you more than you could ever make in a year.”
I didn’t like the fact he was trying to guilt-trip me or trying to buy me. I wasn’t sure how I would ever live with myself if anyone died on my account, though.
“I can see you contemplating my proposal. Think about it. You’ll get to travel around the world with plenty of time to see the sights. Callum doesn’t want anyone to know it, but he’s the cheesiest tourist wherever we go. I’m sure he’d love some company while he journeys out.”
I seriously doubted Callum wanted anyone with him. While he was charming, he also seemed to be a bit of a loner.
“It’s only until the beginning of December.”
“Until December?” I sputtered out. “But it’s only May.”
“It’s a long season. I can’t possibly travel the tour with my wife in California and my duties to my company. It would give me…and Callum great relief to have you with him.”
Turning back to the track, I had no idea what to do. The thought of Callum getting hurt or worse because I wasn’t there with him was unbearable. But what of my other patients? They were just as precious as he was.
I didn’t turn back to look at him when I asked. “Can I think about it?”
“Of course, you have a few days before we fly out to Monaco.” I could hear the triumph in his voice even though I hadn’t agreed, making me grind my molars together. “I’ll leave your ticket with Callum. Good day.”
I spun around, only to see his back as he walked away. Unwilling to follow, I sat back in my seat and tried to sort the jumbled thoughts in my head. I had an impossible decision to make.
Callum
Monaco
Aspen waited until the day before I was set to fly from Spain to Monaco to make her final decision. Most racers dreaded the track here, but I loved it. Rumors were flying about whether I’d ever race again after what happened in Bahrain, but I planned to show them I was a better racer than before.
With all my free time, I’d been working out more than ever. I was stronger, and I believed with one hundred percent certainty that with Aspen talking to me, I couldn’t be beaten.
“I can’t believe we’re stuck in this tin can during a storm,” Aspen grumbled to herself from her seat.
“If it was bad, they would have gone around, delayed our flight, or landed. We’ve done none of those things, so we must be safe.”
“Safe,” she scoffed.
While Aspen had tried to keep me from knowing anything personal, I had learned she hated flying. It seemed crazy that I was fine flying across the ocean during a storm, yet I couldn’t race without the woman beside me. I knew it was all in my head and hoped now that she’d agreed to follow me through the season, I’d eventually be able to race without her.
Even if I desperately wanted to fuck her.
Perhaps Colton had seen me checking out her ass as she walked away, or maybe it was the desperation in which I needed her that had him demanding that we agree to keep our relationship strictly a doctor-patient one. We could be friends, but nothing more.
Aspen shifted in her seat, making her shirt dip to show more of her cleavage. The unintentional move had my dick twitching in my pants. One peek of her creamy breasts, and I was like a teenage boy hungering for more.
“Doesn’t the flying from country to country get old?” she asked, breaking me away from staring at her chest.
When I looked up, she gave me a knowing look, but I saw the slight upturn to her lips. She didn’t mind too much. I knew she was just as attracted to me.
“It’s not so bad. Maybe for the crew who fly from one location to the next, packing and setting up in city after city, but I like to stay and explore. If I was hopping on a plane the day after a race, I doubt I’d enjoy it too much.”
The plane jostled from turbulence, causing Aspen to grasp onto the armrests on her seat and look over at me with big brown eyes that were pleading with me to somehow get her off this plane. Her face went white with the next bump as she squeezed her eyes closed.