Drive me Wild, Rival(BL)

Nico

He almost drowned himself.

The thought had been clawing at the inside of my skull on a relentless, agonizing loop ever since I dragged him out of the surf.

How the hell could that have even happened? I had been wondering why he was so on edge ever since we arrived at japan.

But this? Walking straight into a deadly undercurrent without so much as a backward glance? It didn’t make any goddamn sense.

What the hell was he doing at the center of the ocean?

The crunch of heavy footsteps on the wooden deck broke through my spiraling thoughts. My head snapped up instantly, my heart throwing itself violently against my ribs. For a fraction of a second, I thought it was Alaric. I thought he had finally come to his senses.

But it wasn’t him.

"You don’t look too happy to see me," Sophia said, her voice smooth and entirely too calm as she headed towards me. "Let me guess... I’m not exactly the person you were expecting?"

Without waiting for an invitation, she glided over and settled into the plush lounge chair right beside mine. We were in a strictly VIP, restricted section of the resort’s private beach club—hidden behind high bamboo screens and overlooking the dark, crashing waves.

It was supposed to be completely empty.

I didn’t give her an answer. I just kept my eyes fixed on the horizon, leaning back as I took a slow, agonizingly deep drag from the Cuban Cohiba cigar gripped between my fingers. It was a thick, expensive smoke—the kind of top-shelf luxury item I normally reserved for celebrating a podium finish, but right now, I needed the heavy burn of the tobacco to keep me from completely losing my mind.

Formula 1 drivers aren’t supposed to smoke; the strict athletic training regimens don’t allow it. But in this exact moment, with my chest feeling like it was about to cave in from sheer pressure, I couldn’t bring myself to give a shit about the team’s health codes.

I followed the heavy smoke with a burning swallow of Louis XIII Cognac from the crystal glass in my left hand, letting the alcohol sear my throat.

"What are you doing here, Sophia?" I muttered, not even bothering to look at her. "Are you here to lecture me about something? Because if you’re not, I want to be left the fuck alone."

Sophia let out a soft, knowing chuckle, crossing one elegant leg over the other as she smoothed down her dress. "Oh, stop pretending, Nicholas. I know about you and him."

My hand froze midway to my mouth. I slowly turned my head, exhaling a thick plume of gray smoke right past her face. My voice dropped to a lethal, dangerous whisper. "What the hell did you just say? What is that supposed to mean?"

"I said I know," she repeated, her expression entirely unbothered by my hostility. "There’s no point in trying to hide it from me anymore. I already suspected something was going on the night of that charity gala. I followed you, Nicholas. I heard everything. And if that wasn’t enough, a few weeks ago I saw you slipping into his penthouse late at night when I was on my way to visit him."

A sharp, ugly knot tightened in my stomach. But out of everything she had just confessed, my brain completely bypassed the fact that our secret was out. Instead, a toxic wave of possessiveness flared up inside of me zeroing in on one specific detail.

She had gone to visit him.

I didn’t care that she knew we were sleeping together. I cared that she was still trying to get close to what was already mine.

"Why the hell were you trying to visit him?" I demanded, letting out a sharp, mocking chuckle that tasted like pure poison. "Do you honestly think that because you two spent so much time apart, you can just slide back in? Are you hoping you and Alaric are suddenly going to have some grand reunion? Is that what you want?"

The moment the furious words left my mouth, my own chest tightened. Why the hell did I just ask that? Why did I sound so violently defensive? Why was I even remotely concerned about who Alaric chose to let into his space? This was just sex. It was a game. He was a distraction, and whenever I get bored of a distraction, I move on. I always do.

This entire arrangement was supposed to be a tool to get under Alaric’s skin. I was using him to break his focus on the track. I shouldn’t give a single flying fuck about whatever history or future he had with his ex-girlfriend.

Sophia stared at me, her eyes widening slightly before a soft, almost pitying look took over her face. "You sound incredibly protective right now, Nicholas. Almost possessive. Do you actually like Alaric that much?"

I flinched inwardly, my jaw clenching tightly around the Cohiba. I took another heavy pull of smoke, staring blankly ahead. "I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about."

Sophia raised her hands in a gentle gesture of surrender, shaking her head. "Alaric and I were together for years, you know. We were best friends long before we ever tried dating right before his accident, so I used to know him better than anyone. Before we drifted apart, he was... amazing. Gentle, kind, the most genuine man anyone could ever ask for."

Every syllable out of her mouth felt like a physical strike against my chest, making my heart pound with an erratic, furious rhythm. Why the hell is she telling me this? Is she trying to lay claim to him again? Is she planning to take him back?

A dark, violent instinct roared to life inside me. There is no fucking way I am letting her have him. Alaric was mine. It didn’t matter how broken he was, or how much we fought—he belonged to me.