Page 28 of Green Flag (StormSprint #2)

Everly

Luca’s shoulders drooped an inch lower than usual as he walked away from a conversation in the pit box.

His jaw tightened after he cracked a joke, as if he cringed at himself.

His smile had a tightness that was foreign to his face.

It was an out-and-out lie. Even his gaze seemed to stare past us into some other place I couldn’t follow.

I hated it.

Even when we were investigating the planes, his smiles were forced.

We were real with each other. Always. Until now.

I hadn’t seen his dimples in weeks.

As the weeks passed, I expected it to get lighter. The pain. The agony I’d felt when my Nana passed had started to slip from a hounding constant thought to a niggling reminder whenever something reminded me of her.

The sport forced him to relive it.

Everyone else on the team knew Alv and focused on their own little worlds. They threw sympathetic smiles his way, but he was left to his own devices—in his trailer. Alone.

Even checking trailer weights had become a solo mission for him. He liked to be alone. He liked to have a purpose. On the odd occasion I joined him, we went back to his trailer after and he would cuddle me, but… There was this wall that I couldn’t break through.

The only person he normally bickered with or would force him out of his shell was Nix. When he returned from his two-week break, he was in his own cloudy mood.

The atmosphere in the pit box was so fake it made my teeth grind.

“You should come to the hotel,” I said, sitting on Luca’s lap and wrapping my arms around his neck.

He looked up but avoided my eyes, a smile plastered across his face. “Hello, darling.” His hand rubbed up my back.

Even our interactions — falsely romantic or purely platonic — had been etched with a hint of sadness.

I leaned into his ear. “I mean it. Not for show. Come to the hotel. My room, specifically.”

His eyes widened, something startling him for the first time in weeks. He needed something to shake him. To jolt him back.

“ Not for show?”

I shook my head and lowered my voice further. “I bought some panties that have a slit.”

He blinked rapidly. “Everly,” he said with a shake of his head. “Don’t go offering yourself just because I’m sad.”

I wriggled on his lap. “Not what I’m doing.”

“We said we wouldn’t… we said that we wouldn’t blur the lines.” But his hands gripped my hips, holding me tightly, stopping me from really having my way on his lap.

I flipped my hair back over my shoulder, surveying the pit box watching us. Dad cleared his throat and turned around.

Nix had his eyebrows raised as he looked up from his phone. But his judgmental gaze wasn’t aimed at me, but at his teammate.

Luca said in my hair, “It’s not a good idea.”

“You’re right,” I said, taking his chin and guiding him to look back at me. “It’s a great idea.”

His smile was soft and he reached up to kiss my forehead. “You don’t have to pity me.”

“I don’t,” I said truthfully. “Just come to my hotel room. Or the bar. That way, you won’t have to drink alone.”

Ces had stopped me in the tunnel and told me that last night, he’d seen Luca looking a little worse for wear and that he’d been drinking more than usual.

I couldn’t blame him, but drinking alone was just pretty sad.

He chewed on the side of his cheek, eyes narrowed as he tried to analyse me.

“I promise not to seduce you,” I laughed in his ear. “Only if you beg me.”

He rolled his eyes fondly, with a small smile and pressed a kiss to my temple. “You’re the worst.”

“And you’re the best.” And I’m worried about you.

He considered, but I couldn’t deal with the rejection, so I pressed, “I’ve got a dinner reservation and a dancing class booked.”

“Oh, you really are the worst,” he laughed and tapped my nose. “You know I can’t dance.”

“Did you miss the word ‘class’?” I asked. “I know you are rhythmically challenged, Mendes. And these are line dancing classes. You just have to move your feet. It’ll be fun.”

“And are you going to be twirling around in those panties with the slit? Might get cold down there.”

I wanted to fall about laughing, but I pressed my laugh into his shoulder. “I’m sure you could warm me up down there after.”

I didn’t know what was happening between us. I wanted him. Surely he could see that it wasn’t just pity?

We’d said we would still flirt. But this wasn’t friend-level of flirting… nor flanter, anymore. This was ‘I want to rip your clothes off and leave you undressed for days while we fuck’ and the tension was building and building…

It would snap eventually.

And I didn’t know where that would leave us.

But I was a little excited to find out.

I patted his thigh as I stood. “Room 331. Wear something cute. Be there or… be boring.”

“I’ll wear my cowboy hat,” he laughed as I walked out.

With that, I went directly to my hotel room.

I didn’t need to be there for their practice laps before qualifying tomorrow.

I’d gone to see Luca in the hope he was feeling better than when I’d seen him the week before at the funeral.

I’d avoided him and he’d gone out of his way to avoid me in front of his family — it wasn’t appropriate to introduce me as his…

what? Grid girl? Girlfriend? No. That was unneeded drama.

I shaved the entirety of my body in the shower, singing along to Erin Kinsey and acting as if the showerhead was my own microphone.

Because everything would be good.

Pedro was watching all of my stories and even liked the ones of me and Luca, which was progress. His jealousy would get the better of him eventually.

I was hardly out of the shower and into my black lace teddy when there was a knock at the door.

It was only 6.30 pm. My clothes were all over the floor. In my eagerness, I’d neglected to give Luca a time.

Shaking my hair out of the band and grabbing a towel, I called out when they knocked again, “One second!”

But a shrill note sounded on the other side of the door, stopping me as I wrapped myself in the towel.

“Hey, Quinnie,” Luca said. Was she in the corridor? “Yeah, I’m in the hotel.”

I flung open the door, head cocked to the side in question. His phone was pressed to his ear. When he looked me over, he quickly came in, glancing over his shoulder to see if anyone else had witnessed my half-dressed body.

That spike of protective violence turned me on even more.

Tonight, if he’d let me, I would probably give him everything.

Because I wanted to.

I had been nervous that first night, then insecure about him seeing my scars and flare up. I knew it was a turn-off, I’d been told enough times.

And if I wanted anyone to desire me, it was him.

But we could turn the lights off. It would be one time for us to break those rules.

Maybe he was right, though. Maybe we shouldn’t mess with our friendship.

I needed it more than I desired one night of sweaty orgasms.

Luca looked down at the floor as his hand became a fist. “Who do I have to kill?” he asked, voice tight and almost a growl.

Now that wasn’t playing fair because those words, that gruff voice, had my panties off. That had me on my knees.

“I’m coming, don’t worry,” he said, which got me mentally back on my feet and had me reaching for more clothing.

“What’s happening?” I whispered.

He waved a hand at me and gestured with a finger for ‘one minute’.

“I won’t be a second, Livie.” He hung up and released a long breath. “Something’s really wrong. I’ve got to go and see if she’s okay. You alright?”

I nodded, dumbfounded.

“Which is her room?”

“Two doors down,” I said, following him back to the door. “Should I get dressed and—”

“No,” he said with a shake of his head, hand already on the doorknob. “I don’t think she wants an audience.”

And he was gone. I watched him walk down the corridor, knock on her door and she threw her arms around him as she sobbed. He looked at me with a soft, guilty smile and entered her hotel room.

* * *

An hour later, Bella and I were in a bar two streets away from the hotel, one she claimed was “way too much fun for corporate types like Livie.” She was already two tequila shots deep, swaying to a bad remix of Womaniser and tugging me towards the dancefloor.

I downed my third drink — a pina colada, extra shot of rum and no ice — and slammed the glass down on one of the high tables, laughing as she lifted our hands in the air before twirling me around.

Normally, I didn’t get drunk so fast.

But I needed it and my body let me have it.

Because if the night didn’t start to blur, my brain would continue to replay Luca’s retreating back.

He’d said all the right things. He’d been the right person when I’d needed him.

And now… fuck, what was he doing with her?

It didn’t help that she was now my top contender for my dad’s accomplice. Though she’d hardly worked there a year, her relationship with my dad screwed up my nose.

They hugged. He smiled at her.

Like he was proud of her.

And Luca adored her too.

“Have they got something going on?” I shouted over the music. Of course I’d confided in Bella.

She shook her head. “Not that I’ve noticed! But she’s very protective of both him and Nix. They are of her too. Wonder if they’ve ever had a threesome.”

I coughed, startled by the mental picture, before bashing my palm into my head. Ew. No.

Luca and—

Absolutely not.

When the shot girl walked past, I grabbed two and downed them both.

I needed brain bleach. Industrial strength.

Bella laughed and when a guy came up behind her, pressing into her back, his hands on her hips, she wiggled her eyebrows at me and mouthed, “Is he hot?”

I shook my head — Bella had the highest standards when it came to her hook-ups: beautiful, feminine-featured women, or burly, bearded men.

Or singers like Henri Alho.

This man was neither.

She screwed up her nose, but swayed into his movements, pressing back into him and laughing at whatever he whispered in her ear.

When I felt warmth and then pressure behind me and I flinched as a hand gripped my hip.