He looks across at me with a smirk that could melt my underwear right off my body. “Now that I’d like to watch.”
I shake my head and cross my arms over my chest. “Get moving, Romeo.”
With that, he laughs to himself and peels out of the race track. Twenty minutes later, we’re pulling up at Parker’s place, ready for a good night.
Chapter 18
The second Nate and I step out of his car, we go our separate ways, just as we do at school. I walk around Parker’s home and squeeze myself through the throng of bodies as I watch Nate with a scowl as the bodies just seem to part for him before a beer is thrust straight into his hand and girls start gravitating towards him, hoping to be the special one he chooses to bury himself in tonight.
Hell, maybe if they’re lucky, he might choose a few of them. The jealousy rips through me and I have to remind myself that we’re not together and remember the fact that Nate was an asshole for nearly five years of my life. I’ve been forgetting that a lot over the past two weeks, especially when he treats me so good and makes me feel things that I’ve never felt before.
“Tora,” I hear my name being called from across the room.
My head whips around to find Brooke sitting on Maxen’s lap with a red cup in her hand, and from the look of it, I’d dare say she’s already wasted. I hold my hand up to say ‘wait a minute’ and duck past the kitchen to get myself a drink.
I find Jesse there, lining up a row of shots for a few girls and I grin as I come up next to him. “You’re here early,” I say. “I thought you would have been, ah… entertaining a little longer.”
He stops pouring the shots and turns so he can narrow his eyes on me. “And just what are you implying, Tori?” he says, using the nickname he knows I hate.
I can’t help the laughter that bubbles up within me. “Oh, nothing,” I tell him. “Just that it mustn’t have lasted very long.”
“I’ll have you know,” he tells me. “I absolute blew that girl’s mind. Three times, actually.”
“Uh huh,” I laugh as I steal one of the shots and throw it back before pouring myself a drink. “What was the girl’s name?”
“Why?” he questions. “You want to go and check with her just how good I was?”
“No,” I laugh. “I want to see if you can remember her name.”
“Oh, um, it was…,” his eyes narrow further, though this time it’s in pure concentration. “It was… Shit.”
Laughter comes tearing out of me. “That’s what I thought,” I say before scooping my drink off the table and heading back towards where Brooke’s three seconds away from giving Maxen a lap dance. “Hey,” I say as I fall down into the space beside them.
“Hey,” she mimics with an annoyed tone. “Where the hell have you been? The party started ages ago.”
“I was at Nate’s race,” I explain as her eyes narrow on me.
“Huh?” Maxen grunts, leaning forward to see me around Brooke. “What do you mean you were at his race? Who’d you stay with? We were all here.”
“What are you talking about?” I question as Brooke continues watching me.
“Me, Parker, Ty, and Jesse. We were all here while the race was on so he must have left you with someone.”
“No,” I say shaking my head. “I was with him.”
“During the race?”
“Yes,” I say, completely confused.
“Whoa,” he says, sitting back with a look of astonishment on his face.
Brooke turns around and fixes him with a hard stare. “You better start explaining yourself or you can go find someone else to screw tonight.”
He gives her a fond smile before turning back to me. “Nate doesn’t race with anyone. It’s like his golden rule. None of us boys have even been in the car with him while he raced, not even Jess.”
“Really?” I grunt. “Because he did it last week as well. Though that was because he was trying to scare the shit out of me, which it worked by the way, I nearly crapped myself. Do you have any idea how fast he goes?”
Maxen nods his head before a knowing grin comes over his face. “Yeah,” he laughs. “I’ve seen it.”
Brooke gets up off his lap and looks down at me. “We need to talk,” she demands before reaching down and grabbing my hand. She hoists me up out of my seat and pulls me along behind her. She drags me over to the massive staircase and turns to face me. “Spill it,” she says. “What the hell is going on between you and Nate?”
“Nothing’s going on,” I lie, hating how easily the lie came out of my lips. “We just live together. I was more than happy to stay home tonight, but the boys demanded I get ready and leave. I didn’t even know there was a race on until two minutes before we left.”