Page 34 of Fast & Reckless
“Friend,” he echoed.
“That’s all I can be.”
More silence. His face was impossible to read as he turned that over. Finally, he gave a small nod and let out a tired exhale. “Right. Friends.”
“I think I should go.”
He nodded tightly. “I’ll get us a car.”
“No, you don’t have to—”
“Mira, I’m not letting you go back to the hotel alone at this hour.”
“I won’t go alone. I’ll find Violet.”
“Then I’ll take you both back.”
“You don’t have to go—”
“I’m not staying here without you.”
Lacking the strength to argue with him, she slipped past him and went to look for Violet. She found her at the bar, chatting with a guy—not the one from earlier.
“Violet, sorry to interrupt, but I need to go.”
Violet spun to face her, eyes dancing between Mira and Will, and whatever she saw made her bite back the questionsshe so obviously wanted to ask. Instead, she just nodded. “Sure. Let’s go.”
AS THE UBERwound through the dark Melbourne streets back toward their hotels, Will’s mind was back there on the dance floor, pressed up against Mira, wildly turned on and ready to do everything he’d been fantasizing about since he’d met her.
But now she was on the other side of the cab, curled into a little comma of misery, staring out the window blankly, not saying a word. He’d told her he’d follow her lead and forget what had happened. But that was a lie, because there was no way he was ever going to forget what she felt like, what she tasted like. Even now, as he sat in tense silence in the back of a dark cab, just thinking about that kiss had his blood heating and his dick impossibly hard.
It seemed pretty fucking clear that she was every bit as attracted to him as he was to her, but for whatever reason, she was refusing to indulge it. His spine itched with frustration and thwarted desire, but there wasn’t a damned thing he could do about it. She’d cried. He’d kissed her and she’dcried. Remembering that cooled his lust a fraction. A very small fraction.
The car pulled up in front of his hotel and he leapt out the door.
“I put in your hotel as the second stop,” he said. “So you should be set.”
“Thanks,” Violet said automatically.
Before he closed the door, he hesitated, glancing over at Mira, who was pointedly turned away from him, looking out the window. Violet looked from him, to her, back to him again, and shrugged.
Fine. He wasn’t getting answers from her tonight. He might never get them, because that was her prerogative. She’d told him no. So now he just needed to get over it and move on. As if it were that simple.
“Text me when you get back to your hotel,” he finally said.
Mira didn’t reply, so Violet jumped in after a beat. “Sure thing. Thanks for the drinks.”
He ran a hand through his hair, still humming with frustration. “Any time.”
He stood outside for a bit, watching the car disappear down the street, before heading into the lobby.
Almost immediately, he spotted Rikkard, one of Lennox’s reserve drivers, on his way into the bar off the lobby. “Hey, look who it is! Mr. Motherfucking Second Place!”
“Hey, Rikkard.”
Rikkard was from Finland, twenty years old, and just starting out his career. He showed a lot of promise as a driver. Actually, Rikkard reminded him a lot of himself at that age: raw talent in need of experience, and a tendency to party hard. Right now, he was quite obviously and significantly drunk.
“Will, come with me.” Rikkard slung an arm around his shoulder. “There’s a bar full of women in there desperate to congratulate you.”
