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“Yeah, I get that,” he says as the tank finally fills. “I own a few nightclubs in the city, so nights have become my days.”
Is he seriously interacting with her? Where are the curt nods and cutting her short? Where’s all the bullshit he so comfortably gives me?
She creeps forward again, her eyes widening as she sucks in an exaggerated gasp. “Holy shit! A nightclub owner? That’s insane,” she laughs. “I’m not going to lie, I’m impressed. That’s got to be literally the coolest job on the planet.”
He grins, eating this shit up. “It’s definitely got its perks.”
Okay. Surely he’s just fucking with me. Is this payback for letting him think I was going out on a date tonight? Because judging by how he reacted when I told him I was meeting up with a Tinder date and then how jealous he got over the idea of me going out tonight, I can only imagine how he spent the last few hours.
“Would I be too forward in asking if I could check them out sometime?”
My hand snaps up to his, clutching his fingers with raw desperation as they grip the top of the open window. His gaze flicks back, colliding with mine through the dark window tint for the slightest moment, but that mere second is more than enough to know that despite this woman’s blatant attempts to flirt with him, he’s here with me, and nothing is going to change that.
Stepping closer toward the passenger door, his hand slips further inside the window and he adjusts his hold on my hand so that his fingers lace through mine, and my heart starts to race.
It’s everything.
I’ve held his hand plenty of times in the dark room, and for the whole car ride here, but this is different. In the dark room, it’s about a physical connection, about sex, and before pulling into the gas station, it was about comfort, about making sure I knew I was safe. But this is the first time he’s intentionally held my hand just because he wanted to, because the thought of pulling away is harder than giving in to what he really wants. He’s not out there stressing over what Austin might think or how this is so fucking wrong, he’s doing it because deep down, even though he might not realize it, I think he might love me too.
Izaac squeezes my hand, his thumb brushing across my knuckles, and as he focuses his attention on Star, he gives her yet another polite smile. “Of course. There’s always room for more customers at my clubs. Look up Scandal. It’s my newest one. Bring your friends and have a great night out,” he tells her. “But if you wouldn’t mind, my girl has had a bit of a wild night, and I need to get her home.”
“Your girl?” she gapes with horror as her gaze shifts to his arm and follows it down to his hand that’s shoved through the small gap above the window. It takes a moment, but her stare finally meets mine through the dark window tint, and seeing how unimpressed I look, she quickly inches back from Izaac. “Oh, shit. I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize.”
“It’s fine,” he says. “Happens to the best of us.”
Star offers him a tight smile before scurrying away like a mouse that’s just been caught red-handed, and honestly, I wasn’t sure the human species was capable of moving that fast.
Once she’s flown out of the gas station, Izaac releases my hand and puts the gas pump away before finally making his way back around the car and into the driver’s seat. He turns on the engine and slowly drives out to the main road, the two of us now sitting in uncomfortable silence, his hand kept way over on his side.
I let out a heavy sigh. This constant tension between us is becoming a pain in my ass.
The silence is unbearable, but luckily for me, I’m not the one to break. “What the hell was that back there?” he asks, a few streets away from his place.
I fix my stare out the window. “What was what? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Bullshit. You grabbed my hand because you were jealous.”
I scoff, my head whipping toward him as my eyes widen like saucers. “Me? Jealous? Yeah fucking right,” I laugh. “I hate to break it to you and bruise that precious ego of yours, but I’ve had to watch you fawn over random women for years. If I were the type to get jealous, I would have gone insane years ago.”
He smirks, reaching for my hand, and naturally, I lift it right into his, letting him lace his fingers through mine again. “Whatever. You were jealous.”
Fucking asshole.
I roll my eyes and let out a frustrated sigh. “Like you’re one to talk. If the shoe was on the other foot and I was the one out there flirting with Star, you wouldn’t have been able to handle it.”
“You and Star?” he questions. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like to share, but that would have been hot.”
“Ugh,” I groan. “Need I remind you of how you acted when I had that Tinder date? You called Austin and sabotaged it. Not to mention, I saw the jealousy in your eyes when you thought I was leaving for a hot date tonight.”
Izaac scoffs. “That wasn’t jealousy. I was just trying to control my raging erection after you tried to seduce me.”
“Tried?” I question. “There was notryingabout it. I succeeded.”
Izaac falls silent, and when he discreetly pulls his hand out of mine, acting as though he needs it to drive, I watch as he rebuilds the walls around him. Apparently, my hero for the night has disappeared, leaving me with the usual broody asshole who does anything in his power to pick a fight.
Disappointment spreads through my chest like a disease, and it becomes all too clear that this is a pattern for him. He starts thinking something could happen, starts believing that everything is going to be okay, but then he gets inside that idiotic head of his and shuts down like an old computer malfunctioning with a virus.
He’smyvirus.
