Marco snickered. "Didn't have to. Kimi read it aloud to me in Shanghai. We've been hooked since."
Shanghai.That was where Aurélie and I had gone to that café and I had teased her about the very same fanfiction that was now at the forefront of this conversation. My dick throbbed, still hard and aching for release as I thought about how real that fiction had almost become.
Kimi lifted his glass in a silent toast. "It has more plot than mostNetflix originals. Who knew fictional versions of you two could have so much drama? I hope it never ends."
I stared at the floor and felt her gaze shift to me. And in the middle of it all, sheblushed.My own face felt hot. I wasn't just thinking about the fanfic. I was thinking about her pinned to the wall, the way she moaned, the way she begged. Then our fight on the balcony and how hurt she'd been.
My head was a fucking mess.
"Kind of creepy," I grumbled. "If it's basically a porno but in words, don't you think it's a little odd that you're both reading about your friends having sex?" Aurélie almost dropped her glass, and I shifted so I could look at her. She wasn't as unaffected as she pretended to be.
"Nah, it's not like that. It’s a romance, it isn't just for the sex, mate. It's all about the love story," Marco defended. I arched a brow.
"He's right," Aurélie agreed, wiping her spilled drink off her thighs. I practically salivated at the idea of me licking it off her instead. "The sex is the payoff for all the plot twists and emotional carnage."
I stopped breathing, because we'd hadboth.And the payoff? Well, we were seconds from it in that hallway.
I smirked at her, letting her know I saw right through her bullshit. She turned away, cheeks and neck a beautiful shade of pink from the blush that I was certain ran all the way down to her pussy.
Reality had outpaced fiction—and neither of us knew what the fuck to do with that.
"Fanfictions aside, some of the videos are insane. I mean, they're really building a whole case for a real rivals-to-lovers story here." He tapped a few times before turning the screen toward the group.
Fuck.The video. The one I’d already watched ten too many times in the middle of my crisis over her Snapchats.
The slo-mo edit from media day. The smirk. The eye contact. My hand on her back. Me leaning in like I couldn’t help myself, like I was hers—and I fucking wanted to be.
Groans. Gasps. Teasing. The group was loving it.
I wanted to barge back outside and throw the fucking phone off the balcony.
We should’ve never exchanged Snapchat information a few weeksago; it clearly had opened a door we could no longer keep closed. And all because I asked her to send me a picture of the views from her flat in Paris, but was tired of messaging her through Instagram.
“Jesus,” I muttered, dragging a hand over my face like I could wipe the entire situation out of existence. It was pure torture.
Aurélie tilted her head, golden hair tumbling over her shoulder. “You’re really tracking all of this, Marco?”
Marco shrugged, all innocence. “It’s practically its own series now. That one already passed half a million likes.”
Everyone was watching the clip again. I tried to focus on the music, the glass in my hand, anything, but my focus betrayed me.
It went to her. Again.
She wasn’t laughing or looking at me. Her attention had drifted back to Kimi. She smiled at something he said, leaning in.
Something dark and ugly twisted in my gut.
Marco leaned toward me, his voice low enough to stay between us. “Mate, you two could power a fucking grid with that tension.”
I didn’t answer, because I could still feel her, even now. The feel of her body flush against mine. The slick heat of her around my fingers. Her breathless, “Callum, yes.” Her French slip-ups that branded themselves in my brain. She’d been seconds from coming. I’d been seconds from losing everything, and now I was losing her anyway.
I could barely breathe. It was all pressing in—the walls, the music, the heat of too many bodies in one space. I wanted to crawl out of my own skin.
Anxiety. It was anxiety. Something I hadn’t felt in a long time. Because I was losing control?—
“Not now,” I said tightly, wrenching my gaze away.
Marco’s didn’t falter. “You know I’m right. If you keep this up, the whole paddock is going to figure it out.”
