Page 32 of Kiss & Collide (Racing Hearts #2)

A n hour later, he was knocking on Violet’s hotel room door. He hadn’t bothered to text her that he was on the way. She would have just told him not to come. She cracked the door and peered over the safety lock.

“What are you doing here?”

“Can I come in?”

She unlatched the door. She’d changed into that black silky robe he liked so much, and she was barefoot, leaving her several inches shorter than him.

“Where’s your family? And Madison?”

“Madison’s on the way back to LA. Tyler’s with my parents so I could come talk to you.”

She lifted one eyebrow, her fingers tracing the silky belt of her robe. “Talk?”

“We do that sometimes, you know.”

She rolled her eyes, which he knew she employed to convince the world how unconcerned she was, but frankly, he found it kind of adorable, like a hissing kitten. But he’d never, ever tell her that.

“What do you want to talk about?”

“Dinner last night. Why you ran away.”

“I didn’t run away.”

“Violet, you left skid marks.”

Letting out a frustrated huff, she turned and crossed to the other side of the room. She swiped a glass filled with ice and vodka off the table and took a swig.

“My family freaked you out. Why?”

“They didn’t. Your family is fine.”

He moved up behind her. “So then what was it?”

“I’m not a ‘meet the parents’ kind of girl,” she said quietly. “Parents usually hate me.”

“Mine didn’t.”

She let out a soft huff of laughter, still not turning around to look at him. “Really? My own do.”

Now they were getting to it. He reached out and took her glass from her hand, setting it on the table. Then he took her by the shoulders and turned her around. “Maybe you should tell me about them.”

She scoffed again, keeping her head turned to the side and her eyes on the window, closed off and shut down. “There’s nothing to tell.”

“Bullshit. Tell me about the ‘sperm donor.’ That’s what you called him, right? Was he not around?”

Her gaze dropped to her feet. “Oh, he was around. For a while at least. My parents divorced when I was twelve.”

“What happened?”

“If you ask my mother, he cheated. Which is true. But they were miserable long before that. As long as I can remember. If they weren’t outright fighting, they were giving each other the silent treatment or engaging in elaborate passive-aggressive sabotage.

It was like growing up in a fucking psychological experiment.

Nothing at all like that perfect couple you grew up with. ”

“No couple is perfect. But they’re great parents. I’m sorry you didn’t have that.”

“It is what it is,” she said with a nonchalance he could tell was forced. “Not sure it would have mattered if I’d had great parents. I was a hard kid to love.”

He hated hearing her talk about herself that way. “Why do you say that?”

Her eyes flashed to his, a moment of vulnerability, then away again. “I wasn’t exactly your typical little girl.”

“What’s typical? I’m guessing you were less Disney princess, more Wednesday Addams, right?”

She laughed softly, although it didn’t lessen the tension radiating through her body.

“A bit. Anyway, when my father finally started fucking his secretary and left Mum, she said it was because our family wasn’t what he wanted.

And by ‘family,’ she meant me. That wasn’t exactly news.

Kids can sense stuff like that. I mean, I started watching racing with him when I was six to try to make him feel better about having a daughter.

But that didn’t work. He barely tolerated me.

After he left, Mum said I’d been a miserable disappointment. ”

Out of nowhere, fury flared up bright and hot in his chest. “Who the fuck would say that to a little kid?”

“Mum is … well, I suppose to use therapy speak, she’s toxic. Not that he’s absolved, but I don’t exactly blame my father for leaving. I wouldn’t want to be married to her either.”

“What happened after he left?”

“She certainly didn’t decide to become mother of the year, if that’s what you’re wondering.

She got even more bitter, and quasi-obsessed with his new life, even though she hated the wanker.

Gathering up every morsel she could about him and the new wife became her hobby.

I honestly think she sometimes forgot I was still there. ”

“And what about your dad?” He very much feared the answer. It sounded like Violet had been set adrift by both of them, and left to parent herself.

“He had a baby with the new wife … a son … and basically forgot all about his old family.” Her voice was small and tight. Something like pain flashed through her expression, and to his shock, her eyes were glassy with tears. Jesus, Violet was about to cry.

He lifted his hands to reach for her. “Violet—”

She seemed to remember herself, shaking her head and drawing herself up before he could touch her. “I fucking hate him, but I can’t say I blame him much on that one, either. If I was a hard little kid to love, I was a rotten teenager. Of course he didn’t like me.”

“I’m sure he liked you. And if he didn’t, he’s the idiot. Not you. You were just a kid.”

She’d been as vulnerable with him as she was willing to get.

He could see it in the sudden set of her jaw, and the flash of temper in her eyes.

“Look, I know you’re used to those amazing parents of yours, providing all the love and support you needed to chase your dreams, or whatever, but a lot of people are born to a couple of selfish fuckups, and I’m one of them.

My parents don’t like me. Most people don’t like me.

I know that. I’m used to it. Fuck, I like that. ”

Fuck her parents. What kind of people deliberately make their kid believe she’s unlikable? Violet was one of a kind. If she said it, she meant it. And she was a fighter. When Violet was on your side, you could take on the world.

“Hey.” He took a step closer to her. She shifted uneasily in response, still looking off to the side, down at the ground, anywhere but at him. He reached up and set his hands along the sides of her long, slender neck. “Violet.”

“What?”

He traced the angle of her jaw with his thumbs, urging her face up.

Her eyes lifted to his, and he understood in a flash of clarity why she piled on so much steel-plated armor all the time.

He could see the truth in her eyes. Because underneath it, she was as vulnerable as an exposed nerve.

First her parents had effectively abandoned her, and refused to love her.

Then, when she’d thought she’d found belonging with Ian and his band—a new family—she’d lost that, too.

“I like you.”

VIOLET STARTED TO scoff again, her knee-jerk reaction to any human emotion that made her uncomfortable, but Chase cut her off.

“Hey.”

She looked back to him, even though meeting his gaze made her feel horribly exposed.

“I know you pretty well,” he said, rubbing his thumb along the edge of her jaw. “And I like you.”

Goddamn it. Her stupid eyes were burning again. She would not cry. She never cried.

“That’s your dick talking.” It came out as a whisper, nowhere near as flippant and confident as she’d have liked.

He cracked a smile, still smoothing his thumbs along her jaw, massaging the nape of her neck with his fingertips. “Sure, my dick likes you. But so do I. Kind of a lot.”

Then he held her face still as he leaned in and kissed her. They’d kissed a lot at this point. He’d explored every inch of her body with his hands and his mouth. But this felt different. This felt tender and sweet and a whole bunch of things they weren’t supposed to be to each other.

When he pulled back, the look in his eyes sent a spear of pure panic through her chest. Before he could give her some sort of declaration she wasn’t ready for, or ask one from her in return, she pressed up on her toes and kissed him back, hard.

This one wasn’t tender and sweet. She opened her mouth over his and found his tongue with hers, pulling her body flush against his.

Chase hesitated for a beat, then made a low sound of satisfaction in his throat and pulled her in tight against him.

Yes, this was what she wanted. This felt good and right.

She pushed against him, keeping her mouth on his, and he stumbled back a few steps until he was in front of the armchair in the corner.

She climbed into his lap even as he was sitting down.

Her knees slotted in on either side of his hips and his hands landed first on her waist, and then slid down to grip her ass and drag her forward, until her sex was pressed against the fly of his jeans.

She broke the kiss and sat back slightly, keeping her eyes on his.

Her hands went to the belt of her robe and tugged at the knot.

It came free and she shrugged, sending the silky black fabric slithering down her arms. She was naked underneath it.

Chase watched it slide down her body, his eyes hungry, then he reached for it, pulling it completely free and tossing it to the floor.

She reached for his hands and brought them to her bare breasts.

The expression in his face shifted, that familiar hunger sparking in his eyes.

It made the same hunger spark in her belly, and down lower, between her legs.

When he kneaded her breasts and gave each nipple a hard twist just the way he knew she liked it, she sucked in a breath and her eyes fluttered closed.

He did it again and this time she moaned.

“Tell me you like it, Violet,” he murmured.

“I like it.” Her voice was low and breathy.

“Tell me you want me.”

“I want you,” she panted as he twisted again. “So much.” She put her hands over his as he kneaded her breasts. “I love it when you do that.”

Maybe she wasn’t ready to bare her heart to him just yet, but this much she could do. She could tell him she wanted him. More importantly, she could show him.