Page 18 of Ignition

“Yeah!” I said, unable to stop myself now that I started, the words tumbling out of me so fast that I even surprised myself. “He’s out of his mind wanting to play happy family! Newsflash, old man, moving some fucking girl into my house isn’t going to fix things with Mom. Honestly, it's probably just making this whole thing worse?—”

“You think he should forgive her?”

“I don’t fucking know!” I half-shouted, still too loud for the cramped interior of the car. “I don’t care, I just want my life to go back to normal. And that’s not going to happen if he keeps doing this shit. A fucking step-sister? Come on! I’m a grown-ass man! Her room will probably be right across from mine, too, so avoiding her is going to be fucking impossible. These money-grubbing sluts are worse than goddamn bedbugs. I just wanted to enjoy my break, spend some time with you?—”

“Sorry, I know I said anything,” Nick interrupted with a roll of his sweat-shiny shoulders. “But can we avoid talking about a hot omega while I’m in rut?”

“She’s nothot,” I snapped, glaring at him.

“Sheis,”Nick insisted. “And if you weren’t so fuckin’ blinded by hatred, you’d see that.”

Irritation crackled through me in sharp bursts, like Pop-Rocks. Nick wasmy best friend.He was supposed to be onmyside.

“You need to get fucking laid, man,” I seethed. “Your judgement is starting to deteriorate.”

“You don’t say,” he growled, using a hand to press against his stiff erection.

I averted my gaze, or at least I tried to, looking out the window beside him toward the palm trees, swaying in thewind. The sky was so dark that you could hardly make out the ocean anymore. Somehow it looked like the rain was pouring up and down, with no signs of letting up any time soon.

But what I could see was Nick reflected in the glass, palming his cock with subtle presses as he attempted to relieve some of the pressure.

“I-I-I thought you hooked up with that girl a couple of weeks ago,” I said, my heart lurching into my throat, making the words come out thick. Or maybe that was the nearly all-encompassing need that was brewing in the base of my spine.

“Girl?” Nick asked, his dark eyes moving to mine curiously. “What girl?”

Of course he was going to play stupid, like I hadn’t seen them together. I’d dropped by the shop with the intention to try and get this awkward not-talking shit behind us to find some bitch with pushed-up tits and her hip resting against the open hood of a commuter car, leaningwaytoo close to Nick for my liking.

“At the shop.”

“What’re you on about? The shop? You haven’t even called me since you’ve been back.”

I wasn’t sure if I imagined the bitter note to his voice, but I didn’t have long to dwell on it. It would cost me something to admit this next part, and I didn’t love the idea of being vulnerable with Nick when I was struggling with keeping the drool in my mouth from his pheromones.

“Red head, big tits, white car?”

“You didn’t stay to say hello.” It wasn’t a question, Nick's sharp gaze making me shift under the intensity of it.

“See!” I said, victory in my tone. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

He raised a dark eyebrow. “Not that it matters, but Ididn’t fuck her, Cal. She was trying to flirt her way into a discount, but I wasn’t interested.”

“Why not? She was—” Fine, I guess.

Hot.

It pissed me off.

Nick laughed, wiping the sweat dampening his hair from his forehead with his forearm. “Not my type.”

“Big tits aren’t your type? Since when?”

“I like brunettes,” he said, catching my eye in a way that made my pulse race. “Why do you care so much anyway? You jealous, Braye?”

Heat flamed up the back of my neck, and I forced out a choked, entirely unconvincing scoff. “You wish, man.”

“You seem jealous,” he pressed.

“I’m not,” I lied, turning my eyes away.