The Rebel of Raleigh High (Raleigh Rebels Series Book 1)

by Callie Hart

  I wince as I take a mouthful of the coffee, pretending not to notice how sweet it is. I never told her that I was just nervous at the diner by the lake; I emptied those packets into my cup because I just needed something to do with my hands. I actually take it black, too, but it doesn’t matter. I will down every last drop of the liquid in this cup, because Silver fucking made it for me.

  Everything’s been normal up until now. If I don’t say something to her soon, it’s gonna get weird, though, and I don’t want to spoil however much time we have to spend with each other tonight. Grabbing Silver by the hand, I take her back into the living room and sit her down on the couch. She knows what’s coming; she looks like she’s about to bury her face in the couch cushions and hide when I clear my throat, trying to think of how best to begin.

  “You read it,” she rushes out, before I can even open my mouth. “The email. And now you think I’m tainted goods, and you wanna trade me in for a less broken model.”

  I arch an eyebrow at her. “Is that really what you think I’m gonna say?”

  She smiles weakly. “I don’t know. Probably. Most guys would run a mile…”

  “The guys you’ve had dealings with are obviously disgusting pieces of shit, Silver. A guy like Jake would run. And I am nothing like Jake. You know that, don’t you?” If she doesn’t, it’s going to fucking gut me. We’ll never make it if she doesn’t know that.

  “Of course I do. You couldn’t be more different from him if he tried. I guess I’m just…afraid. I don’t want you to think about me and see the ugliness that I wrote about in that email.”

  “Silver, when I think about you, I see the girl who stripped in a cabin for me and drove me fucking insane. That’s all I’ve been seeing at the moment, period. You have no idea how fucking hot that was. It’ll be burned into my brain for the rest of fucking time, so you don’t need to worry about that.”

  She smiles a little sadly, looking down into her coffee mug. “But?” she says. “It sounds like there’s a but in there somewhere.”

  “No buts. That’s it. I think you’re sexy as fuck, and that’s never going to change.”

  She looks at me, and the blue of her eyes is as crisp and clear as Lake Cushman. “And…you don’t think it was my fault? For going up there with Jake? You don’t think I lead them on?”

  I suddenly feel like I’m burning up. Anger roils in my gut. “No. Fuck no. Don’t ever think that. If someone’s told you that, I will fucking destroy them.” She laughs softly, dismissing the comment. She has no idea how serious I am. “I spend a lot of time with a lot of dangerous people, Silver. I could have Jake buried up the side of a mountain in less than three hours, and they would never find the body. If you say you don't wanna use violence, that’s fine. I’ll respect that. But I’m never going to judge if you tell me you want him to hurt the way he hurt you. All you need to do is say the word and it’ll be done.”

  She seems to shrink in on herself, her shoulders rounding in, gripping her coffee cup so tight her knuckles go white. She stares silently at the edge of the coffee table for a minute, and I let her think. I know her well enough to know that she’s going to reject that offer out of hand. I still want to let her know it’s a real option, though.

  “What would you do?” she asks quietly.

  “You already know the answer to that question.” She can see it in my eyes. She knows I’d have already dismembered those motherfuckers and tossed their mangled corpses into the ocean. I would have had no fucking mercy.

  She nods slowly. Her eyes don’t meet mine when she speaks. “I don’t know what to do. Everything’s gotten so confusing and complicated. I honestly don’t even want to think about it anymore. At least not tonight. I just want to be here with you.”

  This is a plea. Now that we’ve acknowledged the email, she wants it to be done with. She doesn’t want it looming over us for the rest of the night. I get it. I understand. I also just wish she’d give me the green light so I could jump on the back of the bike, go and find every single one of those motherfuckers and mess them up so badly they'll never walk again. That'd be satisfying beyond words. I'm not going to push the matter, though. It was a massive leap of faith for her to tell me what happened in the first place. “All right. Done. No more email talk. We can save the dark stuff for another time. Or never. It’s your call. When’s your curfew? If we have time, we can throw on a movie?”

  “Actually…” She pauses. Looks a little awkwardly around the living room. “There is no curfew. I’m free for the night. I was hoping I could crash—”

  “You’re staying here? Tonight?”

  “If that’s okay with y—”

  She squeals as I lunge for her, lifting her off the couch. “I have no idea how you pulled that off, Argento, but you just made my week,” I growl into her hair.

  “Alex! Put me down! What the hell?” She’s laughing. The smile’s right there on her face, so I know she’s not mad about the fact that I’m dragging her off toward the bedroom, but I still need to want to make sure…

  “You wanna help me break in that bed, Dolcezza? ’Cause I’ve never even slept in it, and I’ve wanted to tear your fucking clothes off since you walked through the front door.” I really have wanted to get her naked since she arrived, but I’m not a monster. I could wait. I’d be happier than a pig in shit if she wanted to curl up on the couch and watch a movie, but I don’t think that’s what she needs right now. She needs to know just how bad I fucking want her. She needs to see for herself just how attractive I think she is. How that email isn’t going to affect my need for her in any way, shape or form.

  Silver winds her arms around my neck, digging her fingernails into my shoulder blades. Her eyes shine brightly as she reaches up to kiss me. She runs her tongue over the seam of my mouth, tugging on my bottom lip between her teeth, and my dick begins to throb, screaming for attention. Needy bastard. I come to a halt outside the bedroom, resting my hand on the doorknob. “Say the word, and we can eat ice cream on the couch and watch Seinfeld.”

  “Or…?” she asks breathlessly.

  “I take you in here, and I eat you until you come.”

  Her color is high, a small, dazed smile on her face. “Open the door then. Seinfeld can wait.”

  I’m crowing in my head as I kick the bedroom door open and carry her inside. Silver yelps again, laughing, as I throw her down onto the bed. I have her shoes off, her jeans down, her panties on the floor and my fingers inside her before she can even draw breath. She grabs my wrist with both her hands, catching hold of me, stilling me so I can’t move. Her eyes have doubled in size, and her mouth is hanging open…

  “Oh, fuck. Alex!”

  God damn, she is so fucking beautiful. Everything about her is perfect. In the small hours of the morning, when the prospect of the future has kept me from sleeping and I’ve laid there, considering what will probably come of me, the life I’ve pictured for myself has been far from promising.

  Stuck working at the Rock for starters, putting in years for Monty. Maybe joining the M.C. Doing runs, dropping off guns, or drugs, or dirty money whenever the need arises, not asking questions, keeping my head down. When I’ve felt optimistic, I’ve allowed myself to imagine Ben here. That I’ve gained custody of him, and I’m a good role model to him. I keep him safe. The one thing I have never, ever imagined, though, is a girlfriend or a wife. I never thought I’d meet anyone I’d want to factor into my life…but now there’s Silver. I’m almost panicked by the idea that she might like me as much as I like her. I don’t want to mess this up. I don’t want to hurt her. I don’t want to risk fucking losing her…

  Fuck, what the hell are you doing to yourself, Moretti? Now’s not the time to be worrying about that stuff. Just kiss the girl. Make her feel good. Make her fucking come.

  I take my own advice and shut all thoughts of what could be out of my head as Silver pants on the bed. She looks like something out of a fucking dream, her hair spread out over the new duvet cover. Her ey
es are locked onto my hand between her legs. She’s staring at it, as if she’s fascinated by the fact that I’m actually touching her.

  “Fuck, Alex. Oh my god, that feels so good.”

  She’s already turned on and ready when I begin to pump my fingers inside her. Her pussy’s wetter than wet. I had just my middle finger inside her, but I add my index finger, sweeping them up and toward myself in a beckoning motion, and Silver lets go of my wrist, grabbing hold of the duvet cover instead, fisting it in her hands.

  “Shit. Ahh, shit. What…the…hell?”

  Her head is rocked back, her eyes closed tight, so I allow myself a smug little smile. If she thinks that feels good, she has no idea what I have planned for her. We both wanted each other so badly back at the cabin that it was pretty much impossible for either of us to hold back. I still really want her now, but I’m going to keep a tight leash on myself this time. I plan on bringing her to the edge of insanity tonight. I’ve already given her a taste of how good it can be between two people if they care about each other. Now, she’s going to get the full experience.

  She whimpers, eyes flying open when I remove my hand from between her legs. She watches me, a little stunned as I slide my fingers into my mouth, sucking the slickness of her pussy from them. “Fuck me, Silver. You taste so fucking good. You’re gonna be the death of me.” My voice is rough with need. My dick is urging me to hurry the fuck up, hulk out of my clothes, shred her shirt and her bra from her beautiful body and sink myself inside her, but that’s not how it’s going to go tonight. I take a couple of breaths, waiting for my heart rate to even out, and then I begin to slowly take off my clothes.

  Silver watches, transfixed. I still can’t believe I’m lucky enough to have a girl like her look at me like that. It just doesn’t make any sense. She’s so good. So strong. So innocent in so many ways, and I’m nothing more than the dirt beneath her fucking feet. I shrug out of my shirt and stand there, looming over the bed, looking down at her with ravenous eyes.

  Her legs are fucking phenomenal. She arches her spine, taking hold of her shirt and pulling it up over her head, shedding it in a quick movement. I was planning on undressing the rest of her, but I can’t seem to find it in me to stop her as she unhooks her bra and tosses it onto the floor.

  I spend a lot of time around strippers, so I’ve seen a lot of naked women. I don’t even really see them anymore; I’ve become desensitized to the sight of so much bare flesh when I’m working at the Rock. It’s not the same with Silver, though. Her tits are fucking amazing—flawlessly proportioned with the rest of her body, the perfect shape, not too big and not too small. Her nipples are a faint blushed pink color, very pale. Her skin is the color of fresh poured cream. I can’t tear my eyes away from the slight rise of her hip bones, and the way the moonlight flooding in through the window plays over her body, casting shadows across the flat plane of her stomach and up her throat.

  “Feels like I’m breaking all the rules, having you here like this,” I rumble. I meant for the words to come out light and easy, but they come out hard and coarse; I want her so fucking bad, I just can’t keep the desire from my voice. “I never thought I’d get to see something so beautiful.”

  “Alex,” she whispers. “Don’t just look. I want you to touch. I want you to lick. I want you to taste. Please. I need you…”

  God fucking damn it. Does she have any idea how hard it is to hold myself back when she says something like that? I grind my teeth together, sucking in a calming breath as I unbuckle my belt and lose my jeans. It’s probably best if I keep the boxers for now—

  Silver sits up, positioning herself on all fours, edging down the bed. Her tits sway as she crawls toward me, and I have to bite back a groan. “What are you doing? You’re not leaving those on,” she says.

  “I’m not?” She’s so damn sexy. She sits back on her heels, hooking the material of my boxers beneath her index fingers, slowly wiggling them down over my hips.

  “Nope. I want to look at you. I want to be able to see every last millimeter of you.”

  She’s a hell of a lot more confident than she was back at the cabin. There’s still a hint of nerves in her eyes, though, as she—

  Holy fucking shit!

  “Ahhh! Fuck, Silver. Jesus!”

  I was expecting her to work my boxers down my legs and then lay back on the bed. I sure as hell wasn’t expecting her to take hold of my cock, press her lips to the tip and suck it into her fucking mouth.

  She looks up at me, eyes searching my face as she slowly slides her mouth down onto my dick. A string of curse words flies out of my mouth. I have no idea what I say, though. My brain has seized. All I can do is watch as Silver carefully takes me deeper into her mouth, deeper and deeper, until I can feel the head of my cock butting up against the back of her throat.

  She bobs her head, slowly moving up and down my dick, and I can’t—I have to stop her. Jerking my hips back, I pull out of her mouth, and my cock makes a wet popping as it springs free from her lips.

  “Did I do something wrong?” she pants.

  “No. But I wanna fuck your mouth so badly, Silver. I want to grab hold of your hair and shove myself all the way down your throat, and I’m trying to be a fucking gentleman.”

  She smirks, glowing a little, looking a little pleased with herself. “I take it that’s why you were swearing in Italian?”

  I laugh, noting with vague amusement that I sound a little shaky even to my own ears. “I didn’t even realize I had.”

  “Sounded very aggressive. You’re gonna have to teach me how to say some of those…”

  “Anything. Fucking anything. I’ll give you whatever you want if you lie on your back and let me see that perfect, pretty little pussy.”

  She tries to act cool, tries to pretend that she isn’t blushing as she rolls over onto her back and spreads her legs, but I see the bright spots on her cheeks. They make her look so damn innocent.

  I fall on her like the savage monster I am, grabbing her thighs and closing them around my head as I sink my tongue into her pussy. She pants and shakes against me, writhing, rocking her hips, screaming out a few curse words of her own by the time she comes.

  It nearly fucking kills me to show some restraint, but I accomplish what I set out to do. Silver surrenders up two more orgasms before she literally begs me to fuck her. I make her come once more on my dick before I finally allow myself to ride out the wave of my own climax, holding her tight in my arms, shuddering against her, and she clings to me, sighing out my name like a promise.

  For a long time, I bury my face into her neck, and I just breathe her in. She smells like summer, like gardenia, and violets, and bright spring mornings. Eventually, I stroke back her damp hair from her face, pulling her close to me and catching her up in the circle of my arms. “This the part where you make your excuses and leave?” I whisper against the crown of her head.

  She laughs quietly, pressing a kiss against the ink on my chest in return. “No. This is the part where I realize you’ve stolen my fucking soul, and I have no chance of ever getting it back.”

  She borrowed my line, but I don’t mind. If it’s the truth, if I have managed to lay a claim on her like that, then she can borrow as many of my lines as she damn well wants. Fuck it, she can have them all. We fall asleep, wound up in each other, spent, exhausted and delirious on endorphins.

  29

  SILVER

  “What the hell do you want me to do with that?”

  The next morning, I look down at the helmet in Alex’s hand like it’s about to jump up and bite me. I woke up tangled in his arms, and for the first time in a string of seemingly endless, torturous days, I wasn’t immediately crushed by the knowledge that I’d have to go to school alone and face Jacob and Kacey. I knew I’d have at least one ally roaming the halls of Raleigh High, and that, along with the surprisingly crisp, unexpected sunlight flooding in through the bedroom window of Alex’s trailer, had me feeling surprisingly upbeat about the day a
head.

  Now that same sunshine means I’m supposed to ride to school on the back of Alex’s bike, though? He laughs mercilessly. “No getting out of it, Argento. It’s a nice day. No ice on the road.”

  I wrinkle my nose, eyeing the bike. “I don’t think so.”

  “What? You don’t trust me?”

  “Sure, I trust you. It’s all the other people on the road I don’t trust.”

  Alex takes the helmet and places it on my head before I can stop him, pushing it down firmly. “Don’t worry. I got you. I’ll take care of you, I promise. Now get on the damn bike.”

  He throws his leg over the motorcycle, the blacked-out visor on his helmet hiding the highly entertained look on his face, and starts the bike, gunning it so I can feel the throb of the engine through the soles of my feet.

  If my mother knew what I was about to do…urgh, who am I kidding? She probably wouldn’t mind. Dad had a motorcycle in high school, and she rode around on the back of that thing for years. It’d be reassuring to think there was someone out there, willing me not to follow Alex’s command, and that they’d be highly disappointed by my reckless actions, but I think even Grams would tell me to stop being such a pussy and get on.

  I mimic Alex’s easy leg swing, and though I’m sure I look a hell of a lot less graceful than he did, I manage to get on without falling flat on my face. I feel rather than hear Alex laugh when I wrap my arms around him as tight as possible. The guy’s gonna end up with bruised ribs by the time we arrive at Raleigh, but it’ll serve him right for insisting I do this. I bite back a shriek of surprise when he kicks back the stand and we surge forward. My fears are forgotten the moment he pulls out of the trailer park and hits the main road, though.

  The wind pulls at my jacket, rushing through the open vents on the helmet, and a feeling of pure exhilaration sweeps over me. Alex leans into a corner as we hit the winding road that leads down into the valley toward Raleigh, and I let my body lean, too, resisting the urge to fight gravity…