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Fuck. She’s infuriating.
“Youwalked away from me, remember?” I seethe, stepping into her and forcing her back against my truck, eating up the distance between us. “Youwere the one who decided on the future of our relationship, not me.Youwere the one who ended a six-year relationship with nothing more than a half-assed conversation that came out of the fucking blue.Youwere the one who took off for the big city and decided that what I could offer you here in Blushing wasn’t enough. Andyou, Blair, were the one who couldn’t so much as offer me the chance to fight for us. You didn’t even ask if I would be willing to come with you. So yeah, I have every fucking right to act any way I want. You. Walked. Away. From. Me.”
She breathes heavily, her chest pushing up against mine as silence falls around us, but the tension doesn’t break. She holds my stare, the two of us locked in a trance, impossible to look away. My thumb shifts over her knuckles, and before I know it, my other hand is on her waist.
Her lips are only a breath away, right there for the taking, and the way she’s looking at me, she knows exactly what I want to do. And damn it, she wants it too.
Blair raises her chin, closing the gap just a little bit more, and I watch as her tongue slips out over her bottom lip. I try to resist, try to tell myself to pull back and walk away, but I’m rooted to the spot, unable to move even an inch when the sound of Oxley’s Dukes of Hazzard horn blasts through the silence breaking the trance.
I pull back from Blair, my gaze shifting to Oxley as he hangs out of his window, a stupid grin stretched wide across his face. “Better late than never, right?”
Fucking lovable asshole.
12
BLAIR
Oxley’struckfeltlikea million bucks as he drove me home from the airport yesterday, but today, it feels like a prison sentence.
I sit right between Oxley and Nick, my thighs pressed against theirs, and if I weren’t in such a foul mood right now, I’d probably be coming up with all the dirty scenarios that could possibly play out in this truck. But unfortunately, Oxley hasn’t got the taste for pussy, and as for Nick . . . Well, considering nothing has changed, I’m sure he’s not down to share. Perhaps this particular fantasy will have to remain in the confines of my filthy mind.
Oxley hits the gas with my half-singed tree in the back, leaving yet another truck in my wake, while completely unaware of the thick tension between me and Nick. Or if he is, he deserves an Emmy for his performance because he certainly doesn’t let on that anything is out of the ordinary.
“Figured you guys needed a hand,” Ox says, cranking the heat when he realizes just how cold we are. Though now being pressed right up against Nick, it dawns on me just how kind he was to offer his coat while he froze. His skin is so cold to the touch that it must be painful for him. “Tried both your cells and when it went straight to voicemail, I figured you were either out here fucking in the snow, or something had happened.”
“Plenty happened, but there was certainly no fucking in the snow,” I tell him, unable to get that moment up against Nick’s truck out of my head. Everything changed in that split second. The heat of our argument turned into something wild, and all I could think about was his kiss. If Ox hadn’t shown up when he did, maybe there might have been some fucking in the snow.
Oxley laughs and shoves his elbow into my ribs. “You know, if you had just put chains on your tires, none of this would have happened. You’d probably be home with a fully decorated tree, sipping on hot cocoa while doing your best rendition of Mariah Carey’sAll I Want For Christmas Is You.”
I roll my eyes. “If I have to hear about the damn tire chains one more time, I’m going to scream. I get it already. I fucked up. I’m the monster around here. I should have taken a second and figured out how to put the tire chains on.”
“Naw, come on. Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re not a monster,” Oxley chimes, a smirk stretching across his lips. “You’re a fucking bratty devil with a sharp bite, but a monster, you are not.”
“I . . . I don’t even know how to respond to that.”
“It’s fine. Stew on it for a few hours and text me your comeback later.”
I can’t help but laugh as we fly back toward Blushing, reaching the point on the highway where the cell service returns. “Thanks, I think,” I say, listening as both mine and Nick’s phones start dinging with all of our missed notifications, and I have to admit, I’m surprised by just how many notifications he’s getting. Shit, perhaps Rena really did start DMing all his socials with the picture of my newNaughty List.
God. Rena is going to be the death of me one day.
Nick silently fumes beside me, his gaze locked out the window as though he could magically make me disappear if he ignores my presence enough, but his douchiness only has me ready to animatedly tell Oxley about my whole life, making sure to leave Nick out of it while purposefully mixing up details and giving credit for the things he did to other random men. Hmm, I wonder how he’d react if I told Ox how I lost my virginity to Billy McDonald in the back of his pickup. The story is still slightly true. I did lose my virginity in the back of a pickup, only the fuming asshole beside me was the one to have that pleasure.
“Shit, darlin’,” Ox continues, not missing a beat, and sure as fuck still oblivious to the tension between me and Nick. Hell, does Oxley not realize how wound up I am by the way Nick’s arm brushes against mine, his big, strong thigh sitting right there, begging me to sink my nails into it? “You’re lucky my cousin was just finishing up a job. Who knows how long you would have been stuck at that old farm if he couldn’t come down and save you.”
“I’d hardly call it saving me. He took me from one shitty situation and put me straight into another,” I mutter. “Maybe I would have been better off. Who knows? If I got stuck at the Christmas tree farm, Billy’s old man might have even invited me in for coffee and I could have stayed in the warmth of their home instead of being stranded on the side of the road with no cell service while being screamed at by my ex for two hours.”
“Who knows?” Nick throws back at me. “Maybe if you’d stayed, you would have burned down their whole house and farm instead of just the one tree in the back of my truck.”
I resist shoving my elbow into his ribs. “You’re impossible.”
“And you’re a fucking stubborn brat who’s incapable of accepting help and being grateful for any that comes your way.”
God. I’m going to throttle him in a moment. He knows I’m grateful, but he also knows that I’m far too stubborn to admit it to him. Oxley, on the other hand . . .
I whip around, fixing Oxley with a wide, genuine smile. “Have I mentioned how grateful I am that you came looking for us and saved me? If we had been left there much longer, I’m sure the snow would have eventually taken me whole. Thank you so, so much. I owe you. Whatever you need, all you have to do is ask. Actually, can I offer you a warm meal when we get back to my place? It’s the least I can do. But I have to warn you, I’m not the best cook in town, but I’m really good at ordering in.”
Oxley grins wide as Nick starts muttering something under his breath. “You know, little lady,” Ox says. “As much as I’d love to stay for a bite to eat, in the spirit of surviving my cousin, I’ll have to give you a rain check.”
