4. Nick #2
The first few uneven spatters of rain hit the windshield, and he made a face as he leaned away from the window, rolling his window up.
I wanted to tell him to stop, but it finished before I could, and Caleb leaned over me to press the button for mine as well, bringing with him another painfully heavy wave of his scent.
Fuck.
A muted purr slipped from my throat, and I hoped the low music and steadily increasing sound of raindrops against the car camouflaged it.
Beads of sweat started to form on my forehead.
Was I getting sick?
“How long have I known you?” I barked, letting my full voice come to the front.
At least a growl was better than a purr.
“I know when you’re serious, Cal. And you keep just fuckin’ around with this girl who, by the way, nearly took your eyes out with a fuckin’ ashtray.
” The damn thing was crystal and shattered everywhere when it hit the wall, just barely missing Caleb in the process.
Even bitter with anger, his pheromones had me revved up. I tossed my empty cup into the holder, folding my arms over my chest to keep my hands from getting any big ideas.
“Who are you to talk about relationships? It’s been months since you’ve even hooked up with someone. And you don’t call me back anymore, so what are you even busy doing? Jerking off to SLCK’d and praying some slut will look your way?”
My smile was mean, angry. “Oh, I get it now,” I said, my hands moving to grip the steering wheel.
“What?”
“You’re such a little fuckin’ attention whore you keep goin’ back to Marissa because I’ve been busy.”
“That’s not—” Caleb shouted, way too loud for us to be sitting only a few inches apart, but I wasn’t done.
“News flash Cuck-leb, not everything is about you. I’m selling my family’s fuckin’ house. I’m trying to get this car running so I can race for even the chance to make some extra money.”
I’d never been this blunt with him about anything, but it was all true. Not only did Dad fucking off lose Nina and me his paycheck, but he took all of his savings with him, including Nina’s college fund.
Fuckin’ piece of shit bastard.
And while I could only help her afford a state school, I’d be making damn sure that she wasn’t too stressed out to keep her grades up to get in.
“How many times have I told you to just let me help!” Caleb shouted. “You hard-headed, stubborn—”
“I don’t want to owe you anything!”
“It can be a gift then. I don’t need it back.”
“Will you just shut the fuck up?!” I snapped. “I’m not some charity case. I don’t want your stupid fuckin’ money.”
Caleb opened his mouth to continue arguing, and I rounded on him, my hand wrapped around his throat to grip it hard. He stared at me wide-eyed, uncertainty at what was coming next obvious in his dark eyes, and I was right there with him.
I wanted to shake him until his useless, selfish brain rattled around his skull. I wanted to push his head down to force him to take my cock, rigid against my thigh, into his throat over and over until we forgot what we were even arguing about. I wanted—fuck, I wanted Caleb.
And I was so sick of not getting what I wanted, especially when it was right in front of me, that before I knew it, I was hauling him forward.
My lips smashed into his, not sweet or gentle like I might’ve imagined it’d be. Hard, demanding.
Claiming.
Caleb froze, not kissing me back at all. Not even breathing. But I didn’t care; I needed this. I sucked his lower lip into my mouth, biting down on it, hard.
His previously burnt and sour scent turned heavy, sweet, and thick like syrup as it flooded the car, a moan somewhere between pleasure and pain rising above the music, and it was enough for me to keep going. I licked over the bruise I’d just created, and he opened his mouth eagerly, letting me in.
I didn’t think I'd ever been this hard in my life. My knot throbbing so instantly that I had to press my hand onto it to relieve some of the pressure before my cock exploded.
The hand around Caleb’s neck slowly trailed into his hair, until I was right at the nape of his neck, gripping the short strands.
I yanked his head back so I had better access, using the controlling hold to force us closer together, awkwardly over top of the center console until he was practically in my lap.
“More,” I snarled softly, kissing him again and again, squeezing my cock with my hand as we devoured each other’s mouths.
Eventually, Caleb pulled away. “I can’t breathe,” he gasped, sucking in several deep mouthfuls of air.
I was panting, but that didn’t matter.
I didn’t need air. I needed him.
Caleb.
And then it hit me.
“Fuck!” I yelled, slamming my open hand on the steering wheel as I forced myself backward, trying to clear the scorching wave of desire from my mind.
The outburst made Caleb jump, and he overbalanced, falling against my chest with his hand landing on my rigid length. “W-What?” he asked, and I could feel the heat coming off his skin as he realized what he’d gripped onto.
“I’m in rut,” I managed, hips pressing into his fingers of their own accord.
He didn’t pull away.
Why wasn’t he pulling away?
Rut would explain… a lot actually. It’s not like I had the time or money to go to the heat clinic for a fix. And I’d been irritable and restless for weeks, just… ignoring it completely.
Caleb, seeming to remember that it wasn’t normal for him to be giving me a handy over my clothes, pulled his hand back. “Why don’t we head back, man? I’ll drop you at a heat hotel.”
I grunted, adjusting in my seat, the sound of the radio like sandpaper against my skin. I pressed the button to shut it off, and the sound of the rain soothed me enough that I attempted to buckle my seatbelt, jaw clenched so tightly that I was sure my teeth were going to crack.
He slid back into the passenger’s side, and I yearned to have the alpha back in my lap where he belonged.
The belt was too tight, the pressure against my chest oppressively restrictive, making my emotions even more unstable than they’d felt just moments ago.
I realized, with a kind of mounting horror, that there was no way I was going to be able to drive like this, fumbling for the release of the belt desperately.
It gave on the third try, the silvery material flying away from my hips and chest, offering me the barest bit of relief in the form of being able to take a full, deep breath.
“Can’t.”
“Can’t? What do you mean, can’t? Why the fuck not?” Caleb asked, grabbing my arm in a weak attempt to push me out of the driver’s side. “Stop being an asshole, Nick. Get out, I’ll drive then.”
“You don’t know how to drive stick,” I growled at him, catching his wrist. “How the fuck are you supposed to drive when you couldn’t even start the fuckin’ thing?”
Caleb blinked stupidly. The posh fuck spent so much time looking down his nose at me he never considered that there were things I could do that he couldn’t. Especially something as simple as driving a car with a manual transmission.
“So what, you want to just… wait it out?” he asked lamely, eyes bouncing between my face and my cock.
“Unless you have a fucking better idea?” I snapped, giving him a hard shove away and closing my eyes for a deep, steadying breath.
Humiliating. That was the only way to describe what it was like to be half-feral with want for the approval of an alpha who barely considered me to be on his level.
A sudden flash of light illuminated the world outside of my eyelids, and a boom of thunder followed. I opened them just in time to catch the rain starting in earnest, pouring from the sky in heavy sheets that bounced back upward instead of landing.
Typical Florida fucking weather.
Caleb cleared his throat, running a hand through his well-styled hair, the product starting to lose hold with his constant fussing. “Come get in the back. Maybe a little less air in your face wouldn’t be a bad thing. More, uh—comfortable, right?”
He threw his door open and scrambled to get out of the car, the rain pelting against him making his white button-down see-through.
I watched for a moment. Raindrops accumulated in his hair, running down the side of his neck to dampen the collar of his shirt, swallowing thickly. “Yeah, sure. Whatever.”
Keeping my eyes averted, just in case Caleb had somehow picked up the ability to read minds and caught onto the less-than-friendly thoughts I had about tonguing the hollow of his collarbone, I slid out of the car, closing the driver’s side door with a heavy snap as I climbed into the back.
I was soaked through with just those few moments outside, the rain mixing with my sweat until I couldn’t bear the feel of my shirt anymore. I rucked it away from my body, tossing the t-shirt into the front seat with a relieved sigh.
It was too fucking hot for clothes anyway.
I looked up in time to catch another slow blink from Caleb, like he was trying very hard not to have any thoughts at all.
Or, maybe he was just pissed off that he’d finally come across a problem he couldn’t solve with his stupid wallet.
It wasn’t like a rideshare was going to pick us up all the way out here, even if I wasn’t in rut.
“Uh,” he started, and I realized he was still standing outside, trying to determine if he should even get back in the car with me.
Quickly growing annoyed with the rainwater accumulating on my freshly detailed seats thanks to the open door, I leaned toward my friend.
“Are you getting in or what?”