My stomach flips violently just looking at him. At over six foot, he is the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome with his rugged, dangerously good looks and a smile that makes my insides melt. It’s the dark eyes that do it; the wicked glint that has my core clenching just from one look in my direction. My eyes zoom in on the person standing beside him. Fuck knows who she was. There was always some girl or two hanging around him. At one time, I thought he might be interested, but who was I kidding? Max was never interested in just one girl, hence my nickname for him—Max ‘Manwhore’ Morgan. Even after all this time, jealousy twists in my stomach when I look at him with his arm slung over her shoulder. Over the past few years, I successfully managed to avoid seeing him whenever I’ve visited. Mainly because I refused to take a trip to the quarter mile, saying instead that I’d rather spend time with my dad or the little family I have.
But I can’t avoid him now. This won’t be some fleeting visit; a collapsed lung, broken collarbone, and fractured ribs take time to heal. I don’t want my dad doing anything stupid like going back to work too early or, god forbid, agreeing to another race.
No, it’s time I faced Max Morgan head-on. Surely, after four years, things will have changed and hopefully for the better. Max and I have always had this ability to rub each other the wrong way. In fact, we went out of our way to annoy the hell out of each other. Like two rivals, we never mixed, and our friends never mixed, either. Every time we saw each other, it was a pissing contest to see who could wind the other one up the most. Who could trade the best insults and have the wittiest comebacks. Most of the time, it was him, and he irritated me like no one else ever had, but I hope that I irritated him just as much.
The night before I left, at Aaron’s twenty-first birthday party, something happened between us that I never dreamed would happen. Since then, I’ve avoided him like the plague.
Max caught me on the landing as I came out of the bathroom, almost as if he was waiting for me. His mouth tipped up at the edges, a wicked smile spreading across his full lips. But for once, I didn’t have it in me to fight with him. I didn’t want to. If anything, I wanted him to kiss me… all over my naked body.
What was up with that?
Mentally, he appeared to be lining up his insults, but then he reached for me, snagging my wrist in his hand and tugged. Willingly, I went to him.
“Tell me what I’ve done to piss you off.”
“I’m not pissed at you.” And for once, I wasn’t.
“You usually are.” He stepped closer, trying to gauge my reaction. I didn’t stop him, so he moved even closer, his hands resting on my waist. Up close I noticed, not for the first time, how gorgeous he smelled. I couldn’t even blame alcohol for feeling lightheaded because I was stone-cold sober.
Forcing my eyes to meet his, my breath stuck in my throat. Long dark eyelashes framed dark eyes that stared down into my green ones. There was a warmth to them that I’d never noticed.
In slow motion, he lowered his mouth to press his lips to mine. When I didn’t protest, he kissed me again, his tongue running along the seam of my lips. Butterflies soared and swooped in my stomach and my hand slid up to his neck to finger the hair at the nape. One of his hands fisted in my hair at the base of my skull, and he moved closer so our bodies brushed against each other.
Desire mounted the longer our tongues dueled with each other and with a growl, he pulled away, grasping my hand in his before fumbling with the doorknob next to the bathroom. It was the guest bedroom, and thankfully, it was empty. Max led me in and slammed the door behind us. The next morning, I left as if nothing happened. But everything changed that night.
It has remained our secret. Even Beth doesn’t know. There is no way I’ll manage to stay out of his way, but a small masochistic part of me wants to see him. To see whether he can still affect me in the way he always did. As much as we used torment each other, I always wondered if it was my way of not admitting how I really felt about him.
Max Morgan is dangerous to my heart, body, and soul. Which is why I need to keep away and not have a repeat of that night, despite how much I might want to.
Chapter Two
As I pull up behind the haphazardly parked cars on the road to the abandoned quarry, a ripple of excitement works its way through me. It’s all exactly as I remember it. The noise from the banging stereo and speakers hooked on the back of someone’s flatbed blares out. All the headlights are on and I always used to wonder how none of them ever ran their batteries down. The girls in skimpy clothes drape themselves over the souped-up cars. It doesn’t matter if the racer is as ugly as sin, as long as he has a kickass car and knows how to drive it then the girls don’t care. Of course, some of them change their mind once they lose the race. They have no loyalty or very few of them have. Beth, on the other hand, has never cared whether Aaron wins or loses. It helps that he isn’t as ugly as sin, and he does have a kickass car.