“I get it. I really do. It helps to re-center you and focus on what you really want.”
He glanced over at me, “Exactly, Princess.”
We bumped over the railroad tracks, passing by the garage. “Do you think Leelee will be there tonight?”
“More than likely.”
“Does she race?”
“Naw, she’s more on the other side, fixing up the cars.” We passed by the house we had picked up Frankie from, and there was another group of guys hanging out on the front lawn. I hoped Luke wouldn’t let Frankie ever go over there again.
“Did you ever hear from your aunt?”
“Yeah, she called at about two this afternoon, apologizing up and down. She promised it would never happen again. Let’s just say that isn’t the first time she’s said that.”
“Are you going to let Frankie go over there again?”
“When she has her license and own car, but before then, no.”
I sighed, thankful. “I think that’s a good idea. If Frankie ever wants to hang out, she can always come over to my place. We spend time at the library together, but maybe she’d like to hang out when I’m not working.”
Luke looked over at me and smiled. “I’m sure she’d like that, Princess. I know she misses hanging out with my mom. They were really close before she died.”
“I couldn’t imagine losing my mom at that age. It was hard enough when I was in my early twenties.”
He reached over and laced his fingers with mine. “I’m sure losing your parents is hard at any age, Princess.”
“Yeah,” I whispered. Luke and I had both gone through losing our parents, and we had more in common than I thought. “Were you close with your parents?”
“Yeah, I guess as close as I could be. Once they had Frankie, I was ready to get out of the house, and I actually didn’t see them very often between work and school. They were so busy getting used to taking care of a baby, they didn’t really have time for me. I really struggled that first year I left home, but I couldn’t tell them that. They had their own problems to worry about.”
“I’m sorry, Luke.” It just goes to show you never really know someone else’s struggles.
“I’m glad it was rough that first year, Princess. It made me want to succeed even more. All I did was work and sleep that year. I had to prove to my boss that I knew what I was doing, and I deserved to do more than change oil. Now I can finally step back and take a breath.”
“I’m glad you got what you always wanted, Luke.”
“Me, too, Princess.” He squeezed my hand and winked at me.
“So, enough of that serious talk, tell me what the heck this is going to be like.”
“Why don’t I just show you, Princess,” He smirked, nodding his head out the windshield.
I looked forward, and my jaw dropped. “Holy shit,” I muttered. There were people everywhere. We were driving down the middle of the street that was filled with people and we slowly inched down the road. “How do you race with all these people?”
“They move out of the way, Princess,” he laughed. He raised my hand to his lips, pressing one last kiss to the back of it and let go. He pulled over to the side, parking on the lawn of someone’s house and turned to look at me. “You ready for this?”
I looked out the window one last time and nodded my head. If this was part of Luke’s world, it was time to see if I fit in.
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Chapter 17
Luke
I kept my eyes on Violet, waiting for her response. She was about to see the other side of me. Racing was something I loved and thankfully excelled at. She nodded her head but didn’t say anything. “I can take you home if you want.”
She whipped her eyes to me, “Do you want me here?”
“If I didn’t want you here, Princess, I wouldn’t have asked you to come.”
“Then no, I don’t want to go home. Although I do feel that I’m a bit overdressed.”
I shrugged my shoulders and grabbed her hand, pulling her across the seat to me. “I like how you’re dressed, that’s all that matters.”
She rested her hand on my chest and bit her lip. “I’m not sure what we’re doing Luke, but I like where we’re headed. I want to see what you love. I know this is a big part of you, and I want to try and be a part of it.”
I leaned in, sealing my lips with hers and threaded my fingers through her hair. “You have no idea how much that just turned me on,” I growled against her lips. She wrapped her hand around my neck and rested her forehead against mine.
“Hmm, I think we might need to save this for later.”
“Definitely later, Princess.” I pressed one last quick kiss on her lips, wanting more but knew I was going to have to wait. “Just stick with me, Princess, and you’ll be fine.” She nodded her head, looking more than doubtful of my words but didn’t say anything.
I grabbed her hand and opened the door of the truck, and we were instantly swarmed with people. She clung to my arm as I pulled her out of the truck and closed the door. “It’s crazy that all of these people are here to see you race.”
“They’re not just here for me, Princess.”
“Well, they should be.”
“You’ve only seen me run three times, and you already have faith in me that much?”
“I can tell when someone is good or if they’re just talking a big game. You’re good, Luke.”
All I could do was shake my head and tug her behind me as I made my way over to where Mitch and Kurt were set up.
“This is kind of like a street fair,” she called.
I looked around, and she was right. Seeing as tonight was the first part of Street Wars, everyone had shown up. There were people selling everything you could think of that was car related. A DJ set up on someone's lawn, pumping out music, and there were, at least, four food trucks that we had passed on the way to my car. “Yeah, you’re right.”
“About time you two showed up.” Mitch and Kurt were leaning against the car, both with their arms crossed over their chests. “I was getting ready to send out the search party for you guys.”
“You know Violet works until seven, dipshit.”
“Yeah, but it’s almost quarter to eight. It doesn’t take forty-five minutes to get here from the library,” Kurt smirked, loving ribbing the shit out of me.
Violet stiffened next to me, and I glanced over seeing a blush rise on her cheeks. “Whatever, ass. You got the car ready or do I need to do that, too?” I felt like I finally had Violet opening up to me, I didn’t need these assholes to fuck it up for me.
“All fueled up and ready to go. You should whip everybody no problem. I watched Southside Boys run their cars, the only one who might give you a bit of a run for your money is AZ. From the looks of it, he finally did those upgrades he’s been running his mouth about.” Mitch’s eyes looked over my shoulder, and I glanced behind me, seeing AZ and his crew lined up on the other side of the street.
“Is that AZ?” Violet asked, looking behind us.
“Yeah. AZ is the tall, skinny fucker with all the girls hanging over him.”
“What does AZ stand for?”
“He’s from Arizona,” AZ nodded his head at us, smirking. “Not sure what his real name is. All he goes by is AZ.”
“How original,” Violet mumbled.
I wrapped my hand around her neck and pulled her close. “Feeling feisty tonight, Princess?”
“All you have to do is look at him, and you can tell he’s an assclown. I mean, who the hell calls themselves a state?”
“Feisty,” I whispered. She rolled her eyes and opened her mouth, but I pressed my lips to hers, silencing her. She melted into my arms, molding her body to me and moaned as I deepened the kiss. I was tempted to say fuck the race and drag Violet back to my truck and fuck the hell out of her. Her naughty librarian clothes were giving me a hard-on that wouldn’t go away. Watching her get all feisty over AZ for me drove me insane with need fo
r her. “Say my name,” I growled against her lips.
“Luke,” she whimpered, following my retreating lips. “More.” I buried her head in my neck and closed my eyes. Holy fuck.
“Holy shit, I felt that kiss all the way on the other side of the street.” Great, now Leelee was here. Violet wrapped her arms around me, trying to burrow into me. I’m sure she was embarrassed, and I was fucking horny. If I had kissed her five seconds longer, I would have laid her out on the hood of my car and stripped her naked.
“Who the hell invited you?” Kurt snapped.
“Last I checked, this was a public street that anyone can be on, Kurt. Plus, Luke said I could come and hang out while he races.”
“Dude, really? Not only do I have to watch you suck face with your hot girlfriend, now you invite Leelee to hang with us? You’re fucking killing me here.” Kurt walked to the back of the car, mumbling under his breath.
“You OK, Princess, or am I going to have to figure out how to drive the car with you in my lap?” I whispered in her ear.
“Do you think that’s possible?” There was hope in her voice that I wasn’t joking around.
“I’m going to have to go with no on that one.”
“Damn,” she cursed tilting her head back. “If you could not kiss me like that until we get back to my place that would be great. I don’t think I could take much more of that without trying to take your shirt off.”
“I’ll try to keep that in mind, Princess,” I chuckled, pressing a kiss to her forehead. I looked to my left, seeing everyone move to the front of the cars racing tonight and knew they were about to draw to see who raced who. “I got to go figure out who I race first, Princess. You want to come with or stay with Leelee?”
“Did you really ask her to come hang out with me tonight?”
“Yeah, that and I figured it would be good for her to be front and center during a race. I figure with her experience with cars, I’m sure she’ll be at all of my races now that she works at the garage.”
“Oh, well thanks.”
“So, you coming or staying, Princess?”
“Um, I think I’ll stay. I think we put on enough of a show just now. I don’t need to be the clingy girl that follows you everywhere. I can be a buffer between Leelee and Kurt anyway.” She stood on her tiptoes, pressed a kiss to my lips then wandered over to Leelee.
Mitch walked over, his hands in his pockets. “Try to pick AZ the first round. Wouldn’t that be some shit if you manage to knock him out right away.” It would be fucking awesome if I could knock his punk ass out right away, but things never seemed to go that way. “I’m telling ya, he’s your only competition.”
I watched the group picking names and shook my head. “As much as I’d like to think I have this in the bag, I know once I get in that car everything could change.”
“True that. I guess just go out there and give ‘em hell.” Mitch clapped me on the shoulder, and I headed over to the group.
“It’s about time you pry your pussy whipped ass over here. I was beginning to think you weren’t going to come up for air,” Razor laughed, holding his hand out to me.
“You know how it is, brother.” Razor was one of the other racers tonight that I got along with. Hell, I had basically built his car for him. He was one of my best customers.
“Yeah, more like I knew how it was. Nessa and I getting married put a kibosh on that shit. Throw in a baby now, and the only time I see her tits is when she’s feeding the baby.” Razor pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and flipped it in between his fingers.
“Thought you gave that shit up?” I nodded at the cigarette, and he shook his head.
“I did. I still need the fuckers in my hand, though. Something about just touching them makes the urge to light one up go away. Nessa would chop my balls off if I started smoking again.”
“You’re turn, Luke.” One of the race bunnies held out a hat with a few slips of paper still in it.
“How many are we down to?” I asked.
“Six left. AZ already pulled.”
I grabbed a slip and opened it up, “York.”
“Well, it’s safe to say you’ll have an easy first round. York was having problems even getting his car to start earlier.” Razor took his turn, grabbing a name and laughed. “Out of every one I pick Nessa’s cousin. She’s going to be pissed when I beat his ass.”
“All right, brother. Good luck,” I said, walking away, “I’ll see you next draw.” I shoved my slip into my pocket and walked back over to the car.
“Please tell me you didn’t pick AZ first round. I want him to get comfortable and then when he races you, I want you to blow him out of the water.” Leelee rubbed her hands together, her eyes full of excitement.
“Nah, I pulled York. Should be an easy race. Razor said York was having problems earlier. I shouldn’t even have to open her up all the way.”
“That’s good, right?” Violet asked, looking at me nervously.
“It’s real good, Princess.” I grabbed her hand and pulled her next to me, throwing my arm over her shoulders. “We got to clear the street and get all the cars staged. Stick by Leelee, OK?”
She looked up at me, “Alright. I think I might hit up that taco truck we passed on the walk here, though. I’m starving.”
I pulled my wallet out of my back pocket and handed her two twenties. “Grab me something, too. I’ll try to come over before the first round.”
She pushed the money back in my hand. “I can pay. Don’t worry about it.”
“I’m not worried about it because I just gave you money.”
“Luke, you don’t need-”
“Violet, take the money. Now.” I wasn’t going to let her buy my dinner. No fucking way.
“Fine.” She grabbed the money, shoving it into her pocket and crossed her arms over her chest glaring at me.
“Stop distracting me.” She sputtered at my words, having no idea how much she looked like a disapproving librarian who was going to teach me a lesson.
“How the hell am I distracting you? I’m just standing here.”
“Exactly.”
“Are you drunk? Like, in the two minutes you went and picked a name, did you get drunk?” She put her hands on her hips and looked me up and down.
“Not drunk, Princess. Just starting to see things the way they should be. I got to run. Grab some dinner and text me where you end up.”
“OK. But just know you’re going to explain that whole distracting you thing. I don’t want to distract you. You need to focus on the races, not me.” She wagged her finger in my face, and I nipped at it.
“I’ve never been more focused, Princess. Don’t worry.” She yanked her finger out of my mouth and wrapped her arms around my neck. “Although I could use another kiss for good luck.”
“Hmm, from the sounds of it, you don’t need luck. You’ve got this wrapped up with a bow on top.”
“Just fucking kiss me, Violet. I’ll find any excuse to get your lips on mine.”
“So bossy,” she whispered right before her lips touched mine. I don’t know what it was, but every kiss was better than the last. Just one touch and I was ready to strip her naked and devour her. I delved my fingers into her hair as our tongues tasted and danced, neither one of us wanting to let go. “Hurry up and race so we can go home,” she panted, stepping away. Her eyes were glazed over with desire and her breathing shallow.
“Text me when you find a place to stand.” She nodded her head, and I turned away before I did something stupid like tell her she was the perfect girl and I loved her. Way too soon for that shit. I glanced over my shoulder, and she was still standing there, dazed with a slight smile on her face. Fucking gorgeous. “Leelee, can you go with Violet and grab something to eat?”
“Hell yes. I eyed up that taco truck on the way in. Good luck, Luke.” She patted me on the shoulder and threaded her arm through Violet’s, and they headed off in the direction of the tacos.
“You ready to win this
, or is your head wrapped around Violet at the moment?” Kurt asked.
“I’m good. What the fuck is your problem?”
“Nothing. Let’s just win this fucking thing so I can get the hell out of here.” Kurt stalked away, cutting through the crowd.
“He’s pissed about Leelee. I don’t know why the hell he’s letting her get to him. Don’t worry about it. Eventually, they’ll work it out.” Mitch opened the passenger door and slid inside.
I knew they would eventually get over it, but I just didn’t know if they would end up in bed or end up killing each other.
I glanced back in the crowd, seeing the top of Violet’s and Leelee’s heads before they disappeared. I wished like hell I didn’t have to leave her, but I had a fucking race to win, and as soon as I was done, I was going to make Violet mine.
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Chapter 18
Violet
“Twenty-four tacos, three nachos and five waters.”
Holy shit that was a lot of food. Leelee and I had managed to find the taco truck, and we had finally made it to the front of the line. I was worried that we were going to miss Luke race, but Leelee swore up and down that we were not going to miss it. With every minute that went by, I doubted her more and more. “It’s going to take forever for them to make all of that.”
“No, it won’t. They have all the shit made, they just need to throw it together.” Leelee grabbed a handful of napkins and thrust them at me. “Stick those in your pockets.” She grabbed the five waters, handing them one by one to me then walked around to the back of the food truck.
“Hey, where are you going?” I asked following behind her as I juggled the waters in my arms.
“Gracias!” Leelee opened the back door of the truck and grabbed the big box that was handed to her. “See, I told you it wouldn’t take long. Plus it helps that I went to school with Hector who runs the grill. I showed him my boobs freshman year, and he’s given me free tacos ever since.”
“Good Lord, I have to believe that our high school experiences were completely different. I had Ginny riding my ass while you were under the bleachers flashing your boobs for free tacos.” We headed back, into the massive crowd that seemed to be growing the closer we got to the start line.
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