Page 105 of Red Flag
“You can stay here,” Nix said, hands still on my shoulders.
I rolled my eyes, secretly wishing he would be able to see.
“You’ve already got some pictures from yesterday to use and you deserve the break. You’ve had quite the week. Enjoy yourself.”
“Can’t you stay for a bit, too?” Ben asked, eyesping-pongingbetween the two of us.
“If only I didn’t have a race to win,” he said with a light laugh, patted my shoulder and left. I only knew of his absence as Ben and Griff watched him leave.
They both let out breaths when he was out of eyeshot. Griff’s was whimsical, Ben’s was of relief.
“Oh my fucking god,” Griff said, beating my brother to it. “That was hot. He’s hot.”
Ben looked at me critically.
“I want him to manhandle me,” Griff laughed. “The way he forced you to sit down… telling you to enjoy yourself. The cockiness of saying he’s going to win the race… damn. You work with him every day?”
Ben answered for me: “She’s not just working with him.”
Griff’s mouth dropped open comically and he pulled his legs up underneath him on the leather chair. “Right. Tell us everything.”
I shrugged and tried to casually observe who was around us.It was quieter than usual. The grid girls would still be giving tours, but there were the normal VIPs, and Abbe was nursing his gin as usual at the bar. “Not much to tell. And keep your voices down!”
Griff was on his phone, typing quickly. “He knows you’ve had a tough week and wants you to relax. I think I’m in love with him.”
Ben rolled his eyes, still quiet as he observed.
There was so much to say. I didn’t know where to start, but I knew I was so ready to get everything off my chest, ready for the relief it would bring.
“He’s not normally that cocky. He knows he’s winning the race because if FrankFeldtdoes, he’s expecting me to go on a date with him. He also wants to impress you.”
“Impress us?” Griff asked, looking up. “The man simply has to exist to impress me. Not wanting you to go on other dates? That’s not just fucking.”
“We, er, aren’t just fucking,” I admitted.
Ben leaned forward. “Doesn’t he have a girlfriend?”
“It’s not… it’s a stunt. That was arranged before we… started things.”
“So, areyouhis girlfriend?” Griff asked, still scrolling. He parachuted up, sitting straight. “Oh my fuck, he’s a model!”
He turned his phone to show a picture of Nix, shirtless, dripping wet, looking like a god. The naked photo shoot. Though I was one of very few privy to the uncut pictures.
Ben covered the phone with his hand. Griff only hummed and continued scrolling, muttering a ‘hot damn’ or ‘fuck me’ every now and then.
My brother shifted my chair around to face him directly, and I wanted to run away, pull the chair back and get to thepit box, but instead, I had to confront my father’s pouted, disapproving expression.
Sometimes, they looked so alike.
“So, I know why you’ve had a shit week but I do not know why you haven’t moved a single thing into ours or asked for help moving it into a storage facility,” he said, eyebrow cocked.
I squirmed, sitting further back in my chair.
“Please tell me it has something to do with having too much sex and nothing to do with anything else.”
Griff looked up.
I didn’t speak.
