All Chapters of Tired of me, Mr. Taylor?: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Serena made it as far as her apartment before the first tear fell.It slid hot and humiliating down her cheek while she stood inside the locked door with her purse still hanging from her shoulder. She wiped it away immediately, only for another to follow.“Seriously?”Her laugh came out wrong.Serena dropped her purse onto the console table and kicked off her heels as Damian’s voice returned with vicious clarity.I’ve grown tired of you, Serena.She could survive that. At least, that was what she told herself.People got tired of people. People changed their minds, arrangements ended, and theirs had always carried an expiration date. Three months from now, Serena would have been required to face the possibility of Damian ending things anyway.It was everything else he had said that lodged somewhere much deeper.I won’t risk tainting her innocence if any of this ever comes out.Serena closed her eyes before walking toward her bedroom, reaching behind herself for the zipper of her dress

The engine roared beneath Serena’s hands, and she smiled.There it was. That was the sound she had missed—not phones vibrating across tables, champagne glasses clinking beneath ballroom chandeliers or clients asking whether ivory napkins looked warmer than pearl, but the mechanical violence of an engine answering her right foot.Serena tightened her grip on the steering wheel as the car tore down the straight and the speedometer climbed past one hundred and twenty, then one hundred and thirty. The braking marker rushed toward her, but she waited until the last possible moment before hitting the brakes hard.The harness caught against her body as she shifted down and turned in. The rear moved just enough to demand a correction, and Serena made it without thinking, settling the car before clipping the apex and burying the throttle on the exit.A laugh escaped inside her helmet.She hadn’t done this properly in far too long, and apparently she had been an idiot for staying away.The next

Serena arrived at Laurent Motorsport at seven twenty-three on Monday morning, thirty-seven minutes before her test was scheduled to begin.By seven thirty-one, she was standing beneath the fluorescent lights of the main garage with her curls pulled into a high ponytail, studying the car Theo Laurent intended to put her in.It was beautiful, although beauty had clearly been secondary to function. The GT sat low and wide, every line designed for speed rather than admiration, even if it earned plenty of that too.Serena walked slowly around it, crouching beside the front tire to examine the brakes before straightening and continuing toward the rear.“You’ve been here eight minutes and haven’t said good morning.”Theo’s voice came from behind her.Serena glanced over her shoulder and found him standing several feet away with one of his engineers, coffee in hand.“Good morning.”She promptly returned her attention to the car.Theo dismissed the engineer and approached her. “That’s all I ge

Serena crossed the finish line third.For half a second, she didn’t trust the number glowing on the display.P3.Then Marcus’s voice came through her headset.“Third. That’s third, Serena.”A laugh escaped before she could stop it. “Tell me Moreno got a penalty.”“He didn’t.”Serena exhaled. “Then I should’ve taken him in Seven.”Marcus was silent for a beat before she heard him laugh. “You just went from eleventh to third after three years away, and that’s your first thought?”“He was slow through Seven.”“You’re impossible. Bring the car in.”Serena smiled inside her helmet.Three weeks ago, she hadn’t known whether she could still do this. Today she had gone from eleventh to third against drivers who had continued competing while Serena built Ellis Atelier Events and convinced herself the part of her that missed racing had been safely buried.Apparently, it hadn’t been buried nearly as well as she thought.By the time she entered pit lane, Laurent Motorsport was waiting for her. Me

Damian entered the Street Nation strategy meeting eight minutes late.Nobody commented. They rarely did.The conference room occupied the east side of Aella headquarters, enclosed by glass on three sides with a long black table running through the center. Street Nation’s brand and marketing teams had already taken their seats along one side, performance engineering occupied the other, and legal had claimed the far end.A presentation filled the screen at the front of the room.Damian glanced at it as he removed his jacket, then stopped before he reached his chair.Serena.Her face filled nearly the entire screen.It wasn’t a photograph from the Golden Chalice gala, nor was it one of the Laurent Motorsport images Sophie had sent him. This had been professionally shot, carefully composed and designed to introduce Serena as part of the company.She stood beside a dark performance coupe with one hand resting lightly against the roof. Her curls fell over one shoulder, and she wore black tr