“I’m parked right the fuck next to you! Where the fuck was I going without my car?”
My eyes went round.
Slowly turning my head, I registered the vintage Jeep that Jamie was always driving if he wasn’t riding his motorcycle, parked right beside my Volvo.
Well, shit.
“My mind was on other things! I wasn’t paying attention,” I confessed, which was true. Both counts. I looked back at Jamie. “You know it was an accident. I would never intentionally do something like this. Not ever.”
“Yeah, right, ’cause you gotta lot of love for me,” he argued, heavy on the sarcasm.
“That might not be the case but I wouldn’t hit you with my car!” I insisted. “I’m not crazy!”
He stared at me for a beat, jaw twitching, eyes flashing, and breathing heavy. Jamie didn’t look convinced. Then he pushed a hand through his hair and shook his head, murmuring, “Figures I fall for psycho pussy,” under his breath as he reached into his back pocket and tugged out his phone. He looked down at the screen.
My gazed hardened. Psycho pussy? Um, no. I don’t think so.
“I am not psycho pussy, and I know what you’re doing.” I pointed at him when he lifted his head. “You’re mad I shot you down and bruised your precious ego and now you’re planning on making up lies about me.”
“Bruised my ego? Bitch, I think you did more than that when you ran my ass over.”
“I did not run you over! God! Stop being so dramatic!”
Reaching behind me, I felt for my phone in the back pocket of my shorts, fished it out, dialed Syd’s number, and grinned right in Jamie’s face when I pressed the phone to my ear a good two seconds before he did.
He flipped me off.
I flipped him off back, then spun around so he couldn’t see the tremble in my lip I couldn’t figure out or explain.
I was on the verge of tears.
Why? Because I’d tapped him with my car?
“Your girl’s bitch of a friend is certifiable, man,” Jamie said behind me. “Fuckin’ straitjacket shit. No joke.”
“Hey, Tori,” Syd greeted me in my ear.
“It was an accident,” I said quickly, fighting against nerves and nuisance and this weird, unsettling hurt I couldn’t shake. “Okay? It was an accident, and if he says differently, he’s lying. I would never purposely do something like that.”
“What are you talking about?” Syd asked. Her voice was heavy with confusion.
“She ran me over with her fuckin’ car. Can you believe that shit?” Jamie spat, each word feeling like a knife sticking into my back. “Tori. Yeah, I’m serious, brother. That bitch is crazy.”
I pulled in a breath.
Not because of the crazy. Or the bitch. I was oddly immune to those names at the moment.
No. I pulled in a breath because Jamie called me Tori. He never called me Tori in places I could hear.
Until now.
The hurt I couldn’t explain somehow grew denser and spread through my bones, weighing me down. It was the strangest thing. I didn’t understand anything I was feeling except for the regret. That I understood.
I really didn’t mean for this to happen.
Honest.
So I held on to that emotion and wrapped my heart in it as I glanced over my shoulder, met Jamie’s eyes, and confessed my truth to Syd.
“I sort of hit Jamie with my car.”
But my other truths involving Jamie? Those stayed locked inside.
I was never letting them out.
Chapter Two
JAMIE
I knocked on the front door of the house my best friend shared with his girl. As I waited for someone to let me in, I took a step back on the porch, shoved my hands into my pockets, and turned halfway so I could see the driveway and monitor that shit.
Because if a motherfucking yellow Volvo pulled in behind my bike, I was rolling the fuck out.
It was Sunday night, meaning it was family dinner night at Dash and Syd’s place, something I never passed on considering the good food and good company, but I was willing to start skipping them if Legs and her psycho pussy showed up.
Jesus.
Never imagined I’d be thinking that shit. Nine months of wanting had me fucked in the head for this girl. I’d never pass up an opportunity to get an eye and an ear full of Legs and her smart-ass mouth. Hell, I’d go out of my way to get it.
Now I knew she was crazy. Didn’t matter how hot she was, I’d be passing up opportunities left and right just to steer clear.
Tori Rivera took bitch to a whole new level.
Dash told me she was working tonight when I called a couple hours ago for a heads-up, but I knew schedules could change, which was why I was turned around and keeping an eye out.
It’d be just like her to show up, knowing I wouldn’t want her here but doing it anyway out of spite, shoving her shit in my face like she was always doing and baiting me for a taste, then luring me outside somehow and running my ass over a-fuckin’-gain.
Not happening. Her hot ass wasn’t luring me anywhere.
She’d probably do permanent damage this time if she got a second go at it, crushing my junk since she’d most likely be aiming straight for my dick and balls.
I’d never fuck again.
No doubt Tori would be fucking elated, even though we both knew how hard up she was to ride my shit.
Jesus. That fucking moan …
No matter how many times I’d tried, I couldn’t get that noise out of my head. She’d wanted that kiss just as bad as me. Fighting it but getting it so good her body was failing her.