He drops back down into his Mustang, the engine revving so loud that it vibrates right through my chest. The Ferrari hits the track and slowly drives around, putting on a show as he goes. I don’t know who’s driving, and honestly, I don’t give a shit.
The Ferrari settles into place, and I watch as the head cheerleader of Bradford Private struts across the track in nothing but a skimpy bikini top and a pair of shorts that lets her ass hang out the bottom. She holds a scrap of material above her head and meets both the drivers’ stares through the tinted windshields. It’s too loud to hear anything that’s going on down there, but that doesn’t make this moment any less intense. My hands are balled into fists at my side as nerves pound through my body. Nerves that have no right to be there.
Ilaria said he was good, and I trust her. No one gets to the top of the leaderboard doing something like this without a hint of talent, but I won’t truly understand until I can watch him for myself. Logan was amazing and if Tanner is sitting higher than him, I can only imagine just how good he really is. I’m not going to lie, I want to resent the fact that he’s so good at everything he does, yet there’s a hint of pride that eats at me. I want him to be the best, but just for a moment, I want him to know how it feels to be knocked back, if only a little. I want him to hurt.
Without wasting another second, the cheerleader drops the material, and the two cars take off like lightning, dirt spitting up beneath their tires and leaving a thick cloud of dust behind them.
My eyes are glued to the track, and I find myself inching forward, needing to be even closer. “They have to do three laps,” Ilaria tells me, gripping my hand and squeezing as her eyes remain locked on the two cars across the track, the sound of their engines booming in my ears.
The Ferrari is on the inside and as they hit the first corner, he takes the chance to push out in front of Tanner and my back straightens. Maybe Tanner might just get beat after all, but something tells me that he hasn’t even gotten started. He’s just playing with the guy.
The Mustang sits right on the Ferrari’s ass, not allowing him even a chance to get ahead, despite holding the lead. They hit the next few corners and nothing changes, not even an inch between them. “Don’t worry,” Ilaria says, squeezing my hand and making me realize that I was cutting off the circulation to her fingers, squeezing so hard with the anticipation of the race. “Tanner’s just playing with the guy. He attacks once and once only, but he’ll make it count.”
I bounce on my feet, unable to stand still as I watch the cloud of dust following behind them. They reach the far corner of the track, quickly drifting around it and bringing them back up the other side, effortlessly gliding as though they’ve done it a million times over.
Fuck it. I don’t want him to lose. I want him to dominate this bastard and I want him to make it count, even if it makes me look like a desperate, needy loser who can’t let go of something that was never mine in the first place. I can worry about the hurt later, right now, I want to be in the moment, I want to enjoy this for him.
The cars finally reach the top of the track, the corner closest to me, and while they’ve only been racing for less than thirty seconds, it feels as though a lifetime has passed. The two cars fly past us and my hair swooshes back over my shoulders, the force of them flying by like nothing I’ve ever felt before. “HOLY SHIT,” I boom, my eyes squinting as the dust cloud follows, covering me head to toe, hating that once again, Tanner Morgan is making me feel something. “That was awesome.”
There’s no doubt about it now. I’m more than wet. If Tanner asked me, I’d climb him like a fucking tree, sit on his shoulders and suffocate him as he ate my pussy like a fucking animal. I’ll deal with the fall out after, no matter the cost to my heart.
What the hell is wrong with me?
Tanner remains on the Ferrari’s tail as they complete their first lap, and the second is exactly the same, but as they start the third, I sense the Ferrari driver growing nervous. His movements across the track are sharper, jagged, trying to keep an eye on Tanner, waiting for him to make his move, while also trying to push ahead, going faster and faster, but Tanner sticks to his ass like a bad rash.
They whoosh past us for the third time and my nerves spike like never before. They’re running out of corners and Tanner still hasn’t made his move, but in the very next moment, they hit the last corner, and rather than slowing like the Ferrari does, Tanner speeds up and cuts inside, both cars drifting around the corner at the exact same time, then like lightning, Tanner hits the gas and flies like a fucking bat out of hell.
The Ferrari driver never even saw it coming, but by the time he completes the corner, Tanner is already long gone, proving again that his crown will never be knocked off his head.
Tanner’s performance makes me laugh, and I stand here watching, feeling like the Ferrari. I never saw Tanner coming, and by the time I realized what was happening, he was already gone, his crown still firmly intact.
Tanner flies across the finish line, and just like before, the crowd erupts into ear-shattering applause, and I can’t wipe the smile off my face. Hell, I might even cheer for the fucker too. I can’t tear my eyes off him, watching as he slows and brings the Mustang to a stop, the Ferrari pulling in behind him.
The crowd surges onto the track and Ilaria and I are pushed with them. “Time to party,” she shouts just as loud music blasts through the speakers erected around the property. I laugh, my eyes widening in disbelief. I was wrong, rich kids don’t just know how to have fun, they know how to shit all over everything I ever knew and blow my fucking mind.
Chanel and Arizona find us, and before I know it, an hour has passed and we’re standing on the outskirts of the property, watching over the massive party, our feet aching from dancing and our throats raw from laughter.
It’s been an incredible night, made even better by my ability to avoid Tanner and his band of assholes, but it’s not hard. All I have to do is search for the crowd and they’re right there in the middle of it.
This party is so much better than the lame Hope Falls party I was just at. No wonder we never saw Bradford kids crashing. Why would they come and hang with us when they were partying it up like this? All I know is that I’ve been missing out.
We talk shit as the girls point out people in the crowd, telling me everything there is to know about my new classmates. I’m filled in on all the town gossip, whose mom is having an affair with whose dad, which family is committing tax fraud, whose parents are dirt poor … you know, apart from my mom, and most importantly, they share with me the long line of Tanner’s conquests. Not that it should matter to me. In fact, I do my best to zone it out, already scarred with the image of Tanner getting his dick sucked through his bedroom window.
Chanel ends up in a drunk fight with Logan, only it seems more like a contest over who can swing their dick around the most. Insults are flying and with Chanel on the verge of tears and Logan looking as though he’s only warming up, Arizona rushes in to save her, leaving Ilaria to drag me back onto the track to dance.
It takes all of two minutes for some guy to move up into Ilaria and she grinds back against him, grinning as his hands fall to her waist.
Ilaria’s eyes meet mine, and I don’t need another word to know that she’ll be going home with this guy tonight. My gaze sweeps over Mr. Handsy. He looks nice enough, and since Ilaria hasn’t been drinking, I trust her judgment. Plus, she said only people from Bradford come here, so I’m sure she has known him a lot longer than she’s known me.