Racing Hearts (Hollows Garage Book 3)

By Saturday, I was on edge. I had tried to stay busy with cooking, and Riot, and quite literally anything that would keep the dirty thoughts about my roommate at bay, but nothing was working.

I should have known only being friends with Jax would be almost impossible. He wasn’t helping by apparently doing anything he could to remind me how much he liked me. And I couldn’t get through one day without him reminding me how good he thought I looked. As someone with huge insecurities with my body, it was a shock to have someone constantly reminding you of something like that.

And to know that my grandpa seemed to love him wasn’t helping. Before we left, my grandpa had let me know that he wanted us all to come back soon, and even hinted that he would like to come by the garage. Next thing I know, my grandpa was going to be out at the street races with the crew.

I was annoyed about it because I secretly loved it.

The fight with Jax, then having to be friends with him, and now wanting him close, but also wanting to leave, was putting me in such a bad mood that even standing here alone in the kitchen was pissing me off.

Jax walked back in after apparently spending the morning out with the guys at some car event. I hadn’t wanted to go even though I had been invited, preferring to seethe in peace instead of watching Jax walk around all morning looking hot and untouchable.

I reached for a bag of chips, needing something to angrily snack on as I baked. As though the world was cursing right back at me, I immediately struggled to open it, trying to rip it open, and only growing more frustrated when it wouldn’t.

I heard the front door shut as Jax walked into the kitchen smiling as he saw me. I could feel the annoyance and anger boiling. My life was somehow falling apart again, and this bag not opening was the last straw.

He walked over to grab water, not interfering with my ongoing temper tantrum as I turned my back to him.

“Can you hand me the scissors?” I asked, knowing he was watching my every move. He came up behind me, wrapping his arms around me and grabbing the bag from my hands.

“Here, let the big, strong man do that for you.”

“Jax,” I warned as he pulled away. He hadn’t added any sweet nicknames, but I knew he was trying his best to be flirty and cute to make me happier.

“What are you —” My mouth dropped open as he walked to the other side of the kitchen, grabbed a pair of scissors, opened the bag, and handed it back to me.

“There you go. See, your big strong man is always here to help.” His tone teasing me now as he patted my cheek.

“Jax!” I yelled again, my temper rising before he looked at me and smiled.

The playful grin on his face making me smile back at him before I could stop it. The one flaw in Jax was that there was no being mad at him. The sweet eyes and bright smile made it impossible.

“I’m glad that sunbeam science is back. A little sun on your face, and you can’t stop smiling.”

“You are ridiculous. Stop making being mad at you so hard.”

“Oh, don’t even worry. I know even with your smile, you are still mad at me.”

“Good,” I said, trying to be pissed off again. “Because the smiling and cute stuff like that, and the joking around, is really getting under my skin.”

He laughed, leaning against the counter next to me. “There’s my little witch. Back again with her scowl. I’m surprised your hands aren’t always around my throat now that all my charm has worn off.”

“Well, I’m sure you’re looking forward to that. I know I am.”

I could feel the heat of him right next to me now, the light scent of him taking over, and I tried not to let it show how much it was affecting me.

“You say the filthiest things. It’s no wonder why I was so shocked to find out you were a virgin.”

I spun, looking up at his smiling face. “Maybe it wasn’t meant to be filthy. Maybe it was meant to be threatening.”

“Then please forgive me when I get hard as your hands wrap around my throat.”

A huge part of why it took me so long to lose my virginity was because of my lack of interest in most guys and my insecurities surrounding my body. Getting naked with someone was not as fun when all you were thinking about was how horrible you might look.

But with him I wasn’t. Not nearly as much as I had with everyone else. With Jax, I could almost believe I was beautiful, and that was a powerful feeling.

I trailed my hand up his stomach and chest, reaching his collarbone. His head tilted up, giving me all the access I wanted as my hand reached for his throat. I could feel him swallow as my fingers wrapped around his thick neck, and my nails dug in a little harder as he groaned before I let go, dropping my hands back down to his chest.

He pulled in a ragged breath. “I already told you what’s going to happen. I won’t be apologizing for it.”

“Something wrong?” I asked, moving in close until I could feel how hard he was. His nostrils flared and his chest heaved.

I liked this.

A lot.

“I’m fine,” he said, his throat tight.

“Great, then do you mind helping me and stirring this batter?” I dropped my hands and stepped back, losing all contact.

His breathing was still erratic as he began to stir the brownie batter. I didn’t actually need his help, but I wasn’t quite done with this game yet.

“That’s good. Let me taste it?”

His eyes narrowed as he smirked. “Of course.” He stirred once, filling the spatula with the batter before lifting it towards my lips. Right before it reached my lips, though, he dropped it down, letting some of it drop to my chest.

“Oops, my bad. Let me clean up my mess.” Before I could say anything else, his head dropped and his mouth was on me, licking and sucking off the batter.

I wove my fingers into his hair, pulling his head away. “What are you doing?”

“Cleaning up after myself,” he said, an innocent smile across his face as I held his head back by his hair.

“I think it’s clean enough.”

He was laughing hard as he stood up, swiping a finger across the spatula until it was coated in batter. “Fine, here,” he said, moving his finger along my lips. “Lick.”

I usually hated being told what to do, my first reaction was to always do the opposite, but every time that need to fight back fell apart when he gave those commands.

I sucked his finger into my mouth, not missing the way he groaned as he pushed down onto my tongue. I couldn’t help my hum of pleasure at knowing that everything I did was affecting him.

“I thought you were in charge here, little witch. Now you’re the one moaning as you suck on me,” he said, the deep rasp of his voice almost making me moan again. I pulled back instead, licking my lips as he stared at my mouth.

“I was only moaning at how good my brownies were. Did you think that was for you?” I asked with an innocent smile.

A smile grew on his face as he licked at the same finger that I had just had in my mouth, cleaning the rest of the batter off. “Such a brat,” he said, as his other hand reached up and wrapped lightly around my neck. “You want all that control over me, but don’t even know what you want to do with it now.” His thumb stroked along the side as he gazed down at me, the thoughtful look in his eyes making me freeze. “We are all going out tonight. A friend is having a party. Would you like to come with me?”

“Is this a safe-party-for-me to go to or could certain people be there?”

“Safe. Very safe.”

“Then yeah, I would like to go,” I said.

“Good. Be ready in two hours,” he said before disappearing into his room, shutting the door behind him.

TWO SILENT HOURS LATER, I was dressed and ready to go. As soon as I stepped out, Jax’s eyes jumped to me and he groaned.

“Again?”

“Again what?”

“You know damn well what I’m talking about. Why are you wearing that?”

I ran my hands over the white frayed and torn sweater, the sharp v in the front showing off the leather harness underneath.

“Do I really need to explain each piece again, or are you asking to get a better look? You have already seen some of this.”

“Neither,” he said, shaking his head. “I can already see everything I need to.”

“Not true. Do you know that this specific harness isn’t just a bra?” I lifted the sweater, my mesh bodysuit under it all, but I was showing off where the harness disappeared under my skirt. “It’s an entire body piece.”

He stepped closer, and I could see his chest rise and fall harder now as he leaned into me.

“Fuck,” he said, shoving a hand through his hair. “You know, for a virgin, you dress like you tie men up and make them beg to cum.”

“Maybe I do,” I said. “I don’t have to fuck anyone to make that happen.”

“I believe that considering it’s the only thing on my mind and you’re not even touching me.”

I stepped forward until our lips were only an inch apart, his body flush against mine.

“Would you like me to tie you up until you beg to cum, Jax?”

“Yes,” he hissed. “No. I meant no. We need to go.” He didn’t move. “What happened to the uncertain virgin that was in my apartment before? She didn’t seem to want anything to do with me.”

“She’s not a virgin anymore? She liked it? She’s suddenly feeling very confident?”

“Fucking hell,” he whispered as he moved back.

I pulled away, grabbing for my bag and phone before turning back to him. He was still staring, looking me up and down over and over.

“Stop,” I snapped.

“I don’t want to. You look amazing.”

Heat covered me until I remembered that we were friends. Nothing had technically changed that.

“Great. Hopefully everyone there will think so too,” I said, turning to leave.

I heard him cursing as we walked out and went down to the car. He didn’t say a word as everyone pulled out and we headed across town, and he still didn’t speak when we pulled up in front of a large house. Cars littered the huge driveway, the yard, and front porch covered with people. It was nice. No, not just nice, mansion nice.

“Are these more of your friends?”

“Yeah, I’d consider him a friend now. Someone Ash knows, Ollie. It’s his birthday, so he’s going all out. No one you know should be here to bother you, so I’d say it’s perfectly safe tonight. I’ll still be around for you, though. I won’t let anything happen.”

“I know,” I said, not attempting to leave the car. “I was more surprised at the fancy mansion. I really don’t think Slaughter would be going to a place like this.”

He smirked. “Right, of course. Yeah, Ollie’s one of Ash’s friends so they all grew up pretty rich. He’s great, though.”

I nodded as he leaned in closer. “Did you want to go inside or stay out here?”

“Stay out here and do what?” I asked, my breath hitching as he leaned a little closer.

“I can keep you entertained,” he said.

“More entertained than a party in a mansion?”

He groaned. “Maybe. Hopefully.”

I laughed and patted his arm. “We’re going in.”

“Fine, hold on,” he said, getting out and coming around my side of the car. He pulled open my door, and I only stared for a second.

“What are you doing?”

“Opening your door for you?”

“Why?”

He gave a hard sigh, reaching in for my hand to pull me out. “Because I want to be nice to you. Brat. Now get your ass into the fancy party because the faster I get you inside, the faster I get to take you home and that is quite literally the only thing I’m looking forward to about this night. Which is ridiculous, considering you will want to sleep on the couch again.”

“Oh,” I said as he pulled me out and shut the door behind me. “Well…you’re demanding tonight.”

His hand laced in mine as we made it to the door. “Because I’m losing control of all this, and I’m trying to stay nice so I don’t drag you back to the car caveman style.”

“What’s wrong? Did I finally push the sunshine boy to his limit?”

He pulled me to a stop, spinning me to face him. “Close, really fucking close and if you choose now to call me sunshine, I can’t promise not to actually lose my fucking mind,” he said, leaning down to run his nose along my neck. “Plus, I think you know this, but one of my newest kinks is these outfits. And you wearing this out pretty much assures that I won’t be thinking of anything else all night.”

“Come on, Sunshine. It sounds like you need to get your mind off things,” I said, dragging him inside behind me.

He started to yell my name, but the music drowned him out as we walked in. The crowd grew thicker as we walked in, and I could only push closer to him. Finally, we found some relief when we made it out back of the house on the porch.

“Where did the crew go?”

“No idea. Did you want a drink?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright, just stay right here and I’ll get them. Don’t move or I may never find you again,” he said with a smile.

I reached out to stop him, but he was already gone in the crowd. I hated this, I hated the crushing of bodies, and loud music. I pushed back towards the side of the house. I thought I was doing a pretty good job at being invisible until a girl walked right up to me, looking me over before plastering a smile on her face. I frowned harder.

There was no good reason that someone would be coming up to me, of all people, with that big of a smile.

“Hi! Are you here with Jax? I thought I just saw him.”

The girl seemed nice, but the way she was looking me over seemed off.

“Yeah, I am, and you are?”

Jax walked up behind her, his eyes catching mine, before he looked at the girl in front of me.

“Gina? What are you doing here?” he asked.

“Jax! Hi! I’m here with one of my friends. She’s dating one of Ollie’s friends, so we all came. I wasn’t expecting to see you here, though.”

He handed me my drink, coming to my side. “Carly, this is Gina. My ex.”

I turned to him. “Your ex?”

“Yeah, the one I told you about.”

“You talk about me?” Gina asked, her smile growing.

“Not in the way you hope,” I said.

Her smile finally fell, and she looked at Jax, apparently deciding to ignore me now. “I haven’t heard from you in a long time. How are you?”

I don’t know if it was the speech Jax had just given me or knowing that this girl was so nonchalant about hurting him.

It’s not like Jax could do no wrong, but I don’t know what he could have done to deserve someone making him feel so bad about himself.

“I’m fine. Did you need something?” He sounded so annoyed, upset even after the happy, sweet tone he just had with me minutes ago.

“Wow, no need to sound like an asshole. I just wanted to say hello and talk more,” she said.

“Well, I have nothing to talk about with you,” he said, the words clipped as he looked out at the sea of people instead.

He’d stand up for me all day, every day, his friends too, but was apparently going to take her calling him names. Apparently, Jax wasn’t as good as standing up for himself.

“Don’t call him that,” I said.

Gina seemed more like what I had been expecting when I met the girls. The rude, bitchy type that seemed to love starting shit. These were the types that Slaughter always hung around. Gina just happened to dress better.

“I’ll call him one if he’s acting like one.”

“Well, he’s not, so don’t do it again.”

“Who the fuck are you? And why are you getting involved in our private conversation?” she asked, waving her hands over me.

 Her perfect hair hadn’t moved, and her designer clothes didn’t look out of place at this party, and I knew mine did.

“Why are you coming over to me and then acting like I’m intruding? You’re interrupting our date, not the other way around.”

“Date? You think he’s going to date you? He dates people like me.”

I knew exactly what she meant, and it only pissed me off more. I was sick of people that could tear down others and not even think twice about it. Especially people like Jax.

“What is your problem? Just go away,” I said, trying to take a deep breath.

“Yeah, it’s time to go, Gina. Go on before this gets worse.”

“Worse? I’m not even doing anything.”

“Yeah, of course not–” Jax’s words were cut off as Gina stepped closer.

“See, even you agree. Maybe you shouldn’t be a dick and then we can talk about things.”

I stepped between them, my back to Jax, and Gina’s eyes went wide.

“Stop being a bitch and calling him nasty names.”

Her mouth dropped open, and before I knew she was reaching out, her long nails slicing across my neck as she hit me.

“Gina! What the fuck?” Jax yelled. He reached for me, but I kicked my foot up, my boot pulling back until I kicked, hitting her right in the stomach as she stumbled back with a scream.

“Fuck,” Jax said, grabbing me to face him. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine.

Gina was still yelling, the people around us crowding her more, but Jax was already pulling me away.

He kept pulling until we reached a bathroom. The door slammed behind him as he pushed me back against the sink.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said, not wanting to touch the painful spot on my neck.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m—” My words were cut off as his lips crashed into mine.