“What the hell is wrong with you? You’re throwing a tantrum because I went to a party with one of your racing rivals! Is that it?”
“I’m not throwing a tantrum. I’m pissed off because I warned—” He cuts off.
“You what?” I take a step around the bar toward him. “Warned Leandro off me. Yeah, I know. He told me.”
He flashes me a furious look. “Silva’s a fucking prick who needs to learn to keep his mouth shut.”
“‘Silva’s a fucking prick.’ God! Do you hear yourself? You sound like a child! The only prick around here is you! Warning him off me. What are we? In school? You had no right to do that!”
He swivels his stool around to face me, his feet hitting the floor. His eyes are wide and livid. “I had every right! Just the same right I had when I asked you not to go to that fucking party with him, but you still went! Were you doing it to piss me off? Because if you were, then it fucking worked!” he roars that last part at me.
It takes me back a step, and I falter for a moment. Then, my gloves go straight back on. “I went because I can! I’m free to do as I please! I don’t have to answer to you! I’m not yours!”
I barely get the chance to register what’s happening before he rushes me. Gripping me by the back of my head, fingers tangled in my hair, he slams his lips down on mine, hard.
There’s only a millisecond of hesitation before I kiss him back. A moan of pleasure works its way up my throat as our tongues touch then tangle together. I can taste the whiskey on him, feel the absolute desperation of his kiss, and it sends me spiraling, switching on a light inside of me that I’m not sure I can turn off. Or if I even want to.
But I have to because he’s with someone else.
God, what am I doing? This isn’t who I am. I don’t do things like this.
I shove him away, using all my might. Stumbling backward, breathing heavily, I press the back of my hand to my lips. I can still feel him there.
“I can’t believe you just did that,” I whisper, hating myself for letting it happen…for how much I wanted it—him.
“It needed doing. You needed to be kissed by me as much as I needed to kiss you. Still fucking do.” The predatory look in his eyes ignites and enrages me.
“I’m not sure your girlfriend would agree,” I bite back.
“She’s not my girlfriend.”
“No? Well, that’s not what she tells anyone who’ll listen, and she’s here, sleeping in your bed, so I’d say she’s as close to being your girlfriend as it gets!”
He squeezes his eyes shut, his jaw clenched with obvious annoyance. “I’ll say this one more fucking time. She is not my girlfriend.” His eyes flick open, and he pins me with his stare. “Never was, and whatever the fuck she was before, she isn’t anymore because I ended it.”
Oh.
That takes me back a step. “You ended it? Why?”
Sighing, he looks to the floor. When he looks back up, I meet his eyes and see the blatant unease in them.
“Because of you.”
My heart putters to a stop.
“Me?”
“Yes…you.” The way he’s looking at me, the softness in his eyes, is touching me like a warm caress.
“Sienna was a mistake that had gone on for long enough, and I realized that tonight in La Rascasse…when you said what you said about her being here.”
Fucking oh!
I know where he’s going to go with this, so I try to distract him away from what he’s going to say because I can’t go there with him right now.
“Is Sienna okay?”
He raises a brow. He knows I couldn’t give two shits whether she’s okay or not. But still he answers, “I’m sure she’s fine. It’s not like she actually gives a shit about me. All Sienna wanted me for was what I represent, what I could give her—visibility outside of the UK. She’s more upset at losing that than me.”
How can he even think that? How could anyone have Carrick and recover from losing him? It’s not possible.
I know I couldn’t—hence, the reason I find myself in the position I’m in.
I take a step back to him. “Are you okay?”
His eyes lift, holding mine. “No. But not for the reason you’re thinking.”
“And what reason am I thinking?” My voice is jumpy, all over the place. Just like my mind.
“That I’m down here, drowning my sorrows over Sienna. But you’re wrong. I couldn’t give a shit about her. I was just using her as much as she was using me.” He drives a hand through his hair, disharmony pulling down his gaze. “I stayed down here because I needed to see you. I needed to know that you came back, that you didn’t go with him to his…hotel.”