“Rowdy.” I grab his elbow and trot beside him. “I’m so excited about the Tincat tonight. I was thinking we should do a picnic at the lake before.” I waggle my eyebrows so Rebel will take note. I talk fast as I follow him to a truck. “Please pretend you’re with me like we did in high school. Pretend we’re going on a date.”
Rowdy grins. “I was going to take you out for a homecoming dinner,” he says in a put-on act that’s so pathetic I want to disappear through a sinkhole. He always did suck in drama class. “A picnic at the lake, girl? Shit, I’ll bring beer and—”
“Pick me up at six.” I paste my fingers to his lips.
God help me. Don’t quit your day job, Rowdy.
“Don’t forget the whipping cream,” Rebel says, chuckling. “She used to like that as I recall.”
“Funny?” I glare at Rebel. “I don’t remember us doing anything with whipping cream.”
Rebel strolls toward me, his eyes at half-mast and drenched with arrogance. His sweat-covered chest is begging for a lick all the way from the low-slung band of his shorts to his hair-dusted, bulked-up pecs. I shouldn’t be ogling him like I’m in heat, but he makes it impossible not to.
“Shit. You know…you’re right,” he says. His gaze reeks of smug pride. “Must have been something I did with some other girl while you were fucking your way through the European Union.”
Balthazar and Wolfgang eye me up, smirks on their faces as I turn ten shades of raspberry in five seconds flat. Screaming on the inside, I approach Rebel. Damn him. I edge up onto my toes, getting so close I can smell the stink of his sweat. I wish it didn’t turn me on. It does. Oh, shit, it does.
But I’m so pissed that I push that wild emotion down. “I asked you nicely not to be a dick. But you can’t seem to get your head on straight. Maybe that’s because it’s stuck so far up your ass that you didn’t hear me the first time.”
Rebel cocks his head and licks his top lip. Then he drags his thumb along his bottom lip.
“I’ll say this one more time,” I tell him, my eyes stinging with impending tears. “You bring up me fucking other people and I will…” I spin and start jogging. Then I break into a sprint. Tears fall as I struggle for air.
If he follows me, I will punch him in the throat. Why is he punishing me? He thinks I deserve pain—more pain. If he knew what kind of pain his not showing up graduation night caused me, he’d never forgive himself.
I love him too much to hurt him. But does he love me enough to stop hurting me?
Chapter 15
Rebel
I knew she didn’t have a date with Rowdy. That look of surprise on his face when she whispered something at his neck while trotting after him like a lost puppy confirmed it.
She wants me so badly she’s gulping the air I’m breathing out. Now, I have to manufacture a girlfriend to keep up my end of the charade. Which I will do until Ruby produces that ring or a solid story. All bets are off once I see it dangling from her neck. And when I do, I’ll yank that chain in a snap, slide the ring on her finger, then slide my cock inside her, where it should’ve been nestled all those fucking years ago.
“Don’t worry, Rebel. I won’t touch her,” Rowdy says.
“I know you won’t, but thanks for going along with her bullshit.”
“Dude, not sure why you’re resisting that girl. But fuck, you might want to forgive her for whatever wrong she did,” Balthazar says, gently backhanding my jaw. “She all but fucked you with her eyes, and you were doing it right back. Hell, we’re in a parking lot and I felt dirty watching you go at it. What kind of heat do you two kick off when you’re alone? Might want to warn the fire department.”
“She knows what she needs to do,” I say. “And, when she does, I will split her with my cock, because it’s been hard for her most of my adult life.”
Rowdy whistles and nods. “Okay, then. But, if she climbs all over me while play-acting on this date thing, don’t kill me.”
“Just keep your dick in your pants and I’ll play along,” I answer.
“Poker, my house this week,” Balthazar says. “Bring the ladies.”
“I need to find one.” I shove a hand through my hair. “Someone smokin’. Any ideas?”
“I have a friend in from England who’s staying with us,” Wolfgang says. “She’s single, sexy, and a circus acrobat.” He waggles his eyebrows.
I fist-bump him. “Christ, perfect! Think she’ll be up for being my fake girlfriend?”
“No question. She’s a gamer.”
“Rowdy, you bring Ruby to poker night,” I say. “That work for you?”
“Happy to collude.” Rowdy chuckles. “Though I’m going for Hazel if she shows up at any of these get-togethers. Word is she’s an ass doc now. Can you fucking imagine Hazel fingering your ass?” He wipes his brow.
“I gotta go apologize,” I say, regretting what a dick I was. “She’s pissed.”
I’m in my truck, flying through town, searching everywhere for my girl. After swinging through the Stop-N-Go for an I’m-sorry donut, I drive out to her mom’s place.
When I pull in the drive, Monday, who’s wearing a hat and sunglasses so oversized that she could shade an island, is sitting in a kiddie pool with her swan, pink flamingoes stabbed in the ground all around them.
“Rebel, Rebel.” She lowers her sunglasses and fans her face.
“How’s Mrs. Rose doing today?”
“Happy as a dead pig in the sunshine.”
“Atta girl.”
“Just missed Ruby Mae, hon. Madder than a wet hen about something.” Monday reaches into a cooler next to the kiddie pool and snatches a bottle of beer. Then she pops the top and hands it to me.
I reach for the beer. “That would be me.”
“I don’t think so. She said she’s not talking to you. Said you broke her wrist, then her ribs, and her heart. You want to win her back? You might want to stop breaking things.”
“Yes, ma’am. I plan on it.” I take a swig of beer. Then I realize it can’t be eleven a.m.
“I have some more dresses for your daddy. I’ll have Ruby bring them over.”
“Thank you. Etta admires your style.”
“Everyone does,” she purrs out, nestling her head against Lake’s.
“Any idea where the pistol took off to?” I have a few ideas, but those’ll have me driving this whole town.
“Likely the same place she’s been going since junior high when she needed to blow off steam.”
“Guess I’m going fishing.”
Now, to tell Ruby I’m sorry for pissing her off without giving in too much.
Post renting a row boat from the marina, I head out into the bay. Immediately, I spot Ruby floating around and singing. If she hadn’t become a model, she sure as shit could have become a singer. The voice of an angel is nestled inside her lungs.
I bump my boat into the back of hers, causing her to jump. “Brought you something.”
She turns and stares; the torn look on her face pains me. Shit, I went too far.
“Sorry ’bout that back there.” I hand her the pink donut.
She grabs it, looks it over, then chucks it into the lake. “My ass you’re sorry. It’s one thing to disrespect me when it’s just us, and that’s crap too, but to do it in front of Rowdy and those other guys? You aren’t hardened. You’re a bigger…” She mops tears off her cheeks then looks away.
Dick. She was going to call me a big dick again.
“Ruby, look at me.”
Maybe I am being too hard on her. Maybe this isn’t the way to get her back. I’m sure honey isn’t going to get her to tell me anything though, either. What will?
“Hey.” I tap her shoulder then rub that spot.
Nothing. I work the tickle angle, and all she gifts me with is a pissy growl.
“Come on. We need to talk.”
She picks her book up and thumbs through pages. “I came out here to be alone. Why don’t you go to work or play ‘hide the wishb
one’ with that girlfriend I can’t wait to meet tonight?”
“It was a joke. I’m sorry. I should have shut my mouth.”
“Yeah? Feels more like I’m the joke around you. You won’t have to worry about me being your joke for much longer. I’m out of here after the move.”
My heart sinks. “You were going to stay?” I drag her chin toward me with a gentle tug. “Tell me, Ruby. Were you going to stay? And then tell me why.”
“Yes, I was considering sticking around for more than two weeks. But then…” She looks past me, a dreamy air in her eyes. Something filled with promise. Or is it lost promise?
“Never mind,” she says softly. A boat pulling two water skiers catches her attention as it hauls past us faster than it should be going, causing our boats to rock against each other.
“Ruby Mae Rose, look at me. Why would you stay?”
“A reason,” she says, brushing my hand away, dropping her chin to her chest. “I need a reason. And I don’t have any.”
Ouch. Deep down, ugly ouch.
“There is a reason,” I tell her. “You know damn well.”
She lifts her head, her sad, drooped eyelids and quivering lips weakening me. “I know what you want. But I can’t put that ring around my neck or on my finger. You don’t understand.”
“I want to.” I cup her cheek with my palm. “More than you know. Just talk to me. I know you, baby. I know you can do this.”
Do I tell her now that I’m the one who anonymously sent her the box? Do I ask her why my ring was on the necklace with the Kline boys’ crosses? And then I should ask another stupid question. Why was it in Etta’s possession in the first place?
Chapter 16
Ruby
“You don’t know a thing about me anymore.”
“The hell I don’t. You think you’ve changed?” Rebel grips my arm and squeezes.
When I squirm away, he eases up.
“A little,” I reply.
“So you went from broke to rich. Cute to sexy. Girl to woman.” He searches my face. Then his gaze meanders down my neck and onto my chest, which is rising and falling faster than I’d like. Every bit of emotion is right there under his raw stare. “So you’ve seen the world. Graced magazine covers and TVs. Big fucking deal. You haven’t changed.”
“I’ve changed inside.”
Maybe changed isn’t the right word, though. Been knifed. If I were turned inside out, he’d see my scars. They’d make him cry. You weren’t there to stop them. And I may never tell you that you could have changed my world if all you had done was show up like we agreed. I can’t because it would hurt you too much.
I twist out of his hand. I can’t have this conversation while he’s touching me. I can scarcely look at him without climbing into his boat and onto his lap.
“You can’t see inside me,” I say.
“That’s because you won’t give me what I want. I’m not asking for much, just a fucking reason. You still look at me like you want me. Like you want me to kiss you. You need me. I know you need me.”
“I don’t.” That sounded as believable as telling a fifteen-year-old the Easter bunny is real.
“You do.” He stares at my lips as I lick them. His gaze bumps up to mine then back to my mouth. “And you want me. You miss me.” He fingers the hollow between my collarbone. Then he stills his hand on my pulse and smiles. “You miss me undressing you thread by thread.” He traces a line down to the top of my blouse and unfastens one button, then another.
My breathing falters. “No. I don’t.”
I wrap my hand around his and shake my head. This makes him smile the smallest bit, and that smile dissolves me.
“Yes, baby. Yes, you do,” he insists. “You miss me unfastening your bra.” He slips his hand inside my shirt and glides it to the clasp on my back, which is open a second later.
“No, I don’t.” Please don’t stop.
He closes his eyes and sighs. Then he drags his plump bottom lip through his teeth. “And you miss me pulling your titties out for a good licking.”
Oh, those words and his dripping-with-need deep voice. I wilt.
My shoulders sag, and my pulse snowballs. “Rebel.”
“God, I fucking loved playing with your hard, ruby-red nipples.” He edges my bra off my chest and peeks down my shirt. Why am I letting him do this? I should stop him, but I can’t. “Ruby. Such gorgeous tits.” He cups his jaw, one thumb between his teeth, where I want my nipples. Yesterday.
“Don’t talk to me like that unless you plan on doing something about it.” Here we go, I might have jumped off the cliff. Will he catch me? Shit.
“Doing what?” He slips one hand to the back of my neck then wraps an arm around my waist, scooting me closer to him. “Sucking and pinching you till you come?” His bottomless voice sends a throb through my groin. An ache I need him to take care of. “Yeah. You need it bad.” He closes his eyes and drags a hand down his face, then rubs his jaw. “Fess up.”
Now he’s torturing me. It’s working. I knew better. What an idiot I am.
“Stop it.”
“Stop what?” Rebel’s breathing deepens, matching mine.
He’s too close, too sexy, too under my skin to mess with me like this.
“You don’t want me tracing my tongue down your belly?” he asks. “Unfastening your jeans with my teeth to find you commando just for me the way you used to do? You little sassy tease.”
“Just quit it.”
“Ruby baby, you loved to tease me. That was your foreplay…all that teasing and taunting.” He opens his legs and grips his filled-out groin.
I push away from him. “I’m serious. Knock it the fuck off.”
“Knock what off? Your jean shorts?” He hooks his hands under my bare legs and jerks me toward him as he climbs half into my boat. He leans against my neck. “Yeah, I thought so, Ruby. Knock ’em off so I can see your ruby-red pussy lips, part them, and taste you.” He groans out something sexy and dark.
But this is going nowhere. He’s teasing the tease.
“Fuck you!”
“Oh, baby.” He chuckles and winks. “I would have, wanted it bad. You never let me. Instead, I tongued you, pinning you down till you came again and again. Sometimes three…four times. Five on occasion. I know you remember.”
“Why are you doing this to me?” I ask. “What are you getting from it? Can’t you have faith in me, believe when I say I cannot put on that necklace or ring? Don’t you trust I have a good reason?”
“No, I don’t. There is not one reason I can think of besides…that you don’t want a future with me.”
He has no idea how his words shred me. Maybe his pain was so great that this is his redemption. Why do that to someone you love? He doesn’t love me anymore; that’s all this can mean. How can it be? I waited too long, stewing in my pain. Have I lost the only man I ever loved? Is this it…the end of us? Again. I never should have come here. Paris was safe. Teddy was safe even if I don’t love him like a woman should to get married. Rebel is trouble, and pain and memories I need to forget.
He scoots back onto his boat and stretches his arms over his head. Then he glances at his watch. “Anyway, my acrobat girlfriend is waiting for me.”
God, I want to slap him.
“Well, no wonder you love fucking her.”
“Oh, I do. Girl can bend and contort…do all kinds of things with her body.” He pushes his boat off mine, his chest puffed.
“Well, it’s good to know you believe in someone.” The words nearly die on my tongue.
Why doesn’t he like me anymore? Maybe that girl is truly gone in his eyes. Well, she’s partly gone in mine too. Thank God I became someone else—the pretty cover girl millionaire no one knew was dying on the inside. It’s amazing how much a smile can cover.
“Give it up, Ruby. And you’ll get everything you want.”
“Not even you can give me everything I want, Rebel. That was stolen a long time ago.”
Cha
pter 17
Rebel
I shouldn’t have sent that box to her, but the second I heard that Monday and Echo were moving into a house on the lake, I knew Ruby would come home. I’m assuming she got it. I would have done anything to see her face when she opened it. I’ll bet her guts twisted into a lethal knot—just like mine did when I found those things.
But what if she didn’t get the box? Is that why she can’t wear the ring? I never did think of that, and it’s a real possibility.
The day I found those things was a shocker. And it was also when the story first got sticky. When I asked Etta why she had those items in her possession, she claimed she was going to give the crosses to the twins for graduation. But she’s lying; they wore them at graduation.
I remember thinking how funny it was that those dickwads who were the biggest sinners and bullies in our school were wearing crosses. What the hell for? And I remember too. They weren’t wearing them at the graduation party Ruby never showed up to. I was so fucking pissed she never showed that I couldn’t even call her.
Why would Etta lie to me and tell me the guys had died before she could give them the crosses?
When I asked Etta for some explanation about the ring and necklace, she said that she found them at Opal’s gravesite after Ruby had left for Paris. And, when I asked why she never gave them to me, she serenely replied that I was married to Paris by then and she didn’t want to stir anything up between us.
Someone is lying; maybe more than someone. How many layers of lies are there between me and Ruby and the truth?
“How long you going to do this for?” I ask.
“What is it you think I’m doing?” she responds.
I collect myself for a quiet few seconds, afraid I’ll explode. When I look up, her lips are quivering.
“You’re lying about something, or protecting someone. Who?”
She faces away and snivels. I delay more questions as patiently as I can. How much longer must I wait? Years have gone by.
“Time’s up.”
Sunshine Bleeds A Black Edge (The Wild Things (standalone) Book 3) Page 8