His Young Queen: (Steel Jackals MC #1) by Tiff P. Raine Page A

on the sex toy. If only he’d trusted himself enough not to hurt her. Trusted her enough to stay and talk to her about what was giving him so much trouble. Maybe then, the pleasure of her multiple releases wouldn’t have been so empty.
    And maybe the darkness that had been lifting little by little as they’d opened up to one another wouldn’t have had the opportunity to bear down and happily swallow her up yet again.

~ Chapter Eight ~
     
    Covering her mouth to hide yet another yawn, Tish pushed through the doors and welcomed the late Monday afternoon heat. She moved off to the side of the promenade to avoid being run over by students rushing home or to their after school jobs as she soon would be. Shivering, she tipped her face up to the punishing rays of the sun.
    She’d been frozen for days now. Before her mother had disappeared on Saturday afternoon, she’d laughed at Tish and asked her why she was so lazy, dragging her ass around the house with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Beneath that blanket had been Josh’s white T-shirt that he’d left behind—yes, she was that pathetic. She’d given her mother a cool look and told her if she couldn’t be nice to leave. Rachel had left.
    Just like Josh.
    Her head fell forward as the ache in her heart morphed into a white-hot anger. Where was he? Who was he with? How many times had he had her? Had he exhausted himself? Exhausted the lucky bitch he was fucking?
    Tears burned her throat as she tried to breathe through the jealousy ravaging her as more questions came. Why hadn’t he come back? Did he regret the things he’d said to her? Had he meant them or had they been something he’d said in the heat of the moment?
    “Hey, you waited. I thought you said you were getting a ride to work with Brian.”
    Tish quickly composed herself and shook her head as her best friend appeared beside her. Nina Samson was a tall, beautiful brunette. She had dark eyes and was a tomboy of the highest order who usually made no more effort with her appearance than to scrape her locks into a messy ponytail and throw on loose sweats and a pair of ratty Converse sneakers. Unless she was working. Then she donned a pair of shapeless coveralls and jammed a grease-stained cap on her head to shadow the smears of dirt and grime usually found somewhere on her cheeks. She was a certified auto mechanic and worked together with her dad in their family’s shop in town. She would graduate at the same time as Tish, only Nina would have a general accounting certificate.
    “I didn’t see him after all,” Tish lied. She’d seen Brian inside but hadn’t had the energy to call out to him. “Would you mind giving me a ride?”
    “Who was it you didn’t see? Him?” Nina raised a curved brow as she motioned to Brian, who was standing across the way having an intimate conversation with his girlfriend, Meredith.
    Tish didn’t have it in her to even be embarrassed. “Oh, yeah. That ride?”
    “Of course, silly. Come on. During the drive, you can tell me what the hell is up with you today.”
    They started walking toward the back of the parking lot where Nina always parked her baby.
    “How’s your aunt?”
    “Huh?” Nina gave her an odd look.
    “Your dad’s sister. You said you were visiting her in Phoenix. Isn’t that where you were?” Tish knocked her bag into Nina’s long leg. “If I sat by myself all weekend for nothing, I’ll kill you.”
    “Oh! Yeah. Uh, my aunt is fine. I don’t call her Aunt Laine, just Laine, so that’s why I got confused.”
    Nina unlocked and they tossed their bags into the back before taking their places up front in the sexy Camaro SS Nina and her dad had refurbished. Tish quickly debated sharing what had happened on the weekend. She knew what privacy meant to Josh and was loathe to blab their personal business, but this was Nina, and Tish badly needed to talk.
    “Josh is home.”
    The breaks chirped, stalling the car’s progress out of the parking