Rebel (11 page)

Sex when we want to fuck and friends the rest of the time.

Rubi’s hunger surged to life. How long would that kind of arrangement last? But more importantly, what would happen when it ended?

Keaton crumpled with a grunt, stumbled back, and slammed his body against the concrete. Even standing only a few yards away, knowing it was fake, Rubi’s stomach cramped with each hit.

Keaton swung his arm around Wes’s neck, his handsome face in a grimace as he pretended to choke the life from Wes.

“You want to do all the work, fine,” Bolton said. “I’m still the one who gets paid.” He turned away from them and covered his dented ego with a superior grin and a swagger on his way out.

Rubi refocused on the mat, just as Keaton hooked his left fist at Wes. Rubi sucked in a breath, but Wes leaned back, gripped Keaton’s arm and threw him. Keaton twisted three times in the air before he hit the mat.

“Now
that’s
a fucking fight scene.” Danny straightened, grinning at Rubi. “I’d better get that man a costume. Looks like we’re going to get some real filming done today.”

Seven

“What is wrong with you?” Lexi frowned up at Rubi from where she knelt in front of her. She held straight pins between her teeth and one between her fingers poised to poke the lingerie Rubi wore. “Did you take espresso shots on your way here? If you don’t stop fidgeting, you’re going to become a pin cushion.”

Rubi planted her hands on her hips, took a deep breath, and blew it out. That didn’t help the knot at the center of her body, but she managed to find stillness.

“Hands down,” Lexi ordered.

Rubi rolled her eyes and dropped her arms.

Lexi tugged the fabric of the panties at Rubi’s hip. Jax’s rich voice floated up to the loft from where he sat at the desk downstairs in the main studio of LaCroix Designs, Lexi’s couture wedding dress storefront, talking on the phone. Lexi took the extra fabric at Rubi’s hip between her fingers, pinned it, then measured it with the tape measure hanging around her hip and removed the pin, jotting the numbers on a tablet.

“Quarter turn,” Lexi said. “You’re going to make it to see the house day after tomorrow, right?”

Rubi crossed her arms to keep them out of Lexi’s way. “Yes. How many does this make now?”

Lexi shot her a look from her spot on the floor and muttered around the pins between her lips, “Eight.”

Jax wanted Lexi to move in with him, but his Malibu house was too far from Lexi’s studio to be practical. He’d talked her into looking at houses with him, but the whole thing made Lexi as jittery as Wes made Rubi. In this way, they were similar. Their scare-levels of commitment might differ—for Lexi it was the financial commitment, for Rubi, the emotional commitment—but the fear was the same.

“What’s going on with you and Wes?”

Rubi’s jitters returned, and she had to fight to keep still. “I don’t know. It’s…maddening.
He’s
maddening. I keep pushing him away, and he finds all kinds of manipulative ways to get even closer. He’s a conniving little shit.”

Lexi laughed as Rubi made another quarter turn and Lexi smoothed her fingers across the lace band over Rubi’s hips. “You
like
him.”

A little too much girly giddiness filled Lexi’s voice and sent an uncomfortable shiver down Rubi’s spine. “Of course I like him. I wouldn’t hang out with all of you if I didn’t. We’re great as friends, but you know I’m not going to stay with one guy. We both know what happens when I try that.”

“We know what used to happen. You’re a different woman than you were five years ago. Don’t try to feed me that shit.”

“It’s not shit. It’s real. And I’m not
that
different. Even the thought of a week down the line sets off an anxiety attack.”

“I get it,” Lexi said. “I feel the same thing. Daily. But you work through it. One day at a time. Because a good relationship is worth it.”

“I’m not you, Lex.”

She laughed softly, shaking her head. “No, you’re so much stronger. So much smarter. So much…more.”

The affection in Lexi’s voice warmed Rubi. She thought back to the same loving tone in Wes’s voice and her chest tightened up. Frustration clenched her jaw. She didn’t
want
to feel like this. She just
did
. And the lack of control over her emotions added fuel to her self-directed anger.

“He’s suggesting a friends-with-benefits arrangement,” Rubi said.

Lexi’s fingers paused. Her big blue eyes held surprise and disbelief as they lifted to Rubi’s. “
Wes?
”

“Yeah, that was my reaction.”

Lexi pushed to her feet and folded a pucker in each bra cup, pinning it. “Okay, corset’s next.”

Rubi stepped into Lexi’s tiny bathroom and changed the bra and panties for a corset and new panties. Every piece in Lexi’s signature line was done in crimson leather. Buttery soft, thin, embossed crimson leather, and the feel and scent made Rubi high.

She squeezed her boobs into the push-up cups and held the sides as she returned, her high heels clicking over the hardwood floor. She turned her back to Lexi, who tightened the crisscross lacing along the spine. Rubi faced her, and Lexi lowered to her knees again.

“I can’t really see a friends-with-benefits thing working with you two,” Lexi said. “I mean…” She shook her head, shrugged. “Shit, I wish you’d just go for it with him.”

“That’s your romantic side talking, not your realistic side.”

“How is that not realistic? You’ve never gotten along better with someone. Never been so close with a man for so long with such good results. In some ways you two are so alike it’s frightening. In others you’re so opposite you complement each other perfectly.”

“You’re kinda freaking me out. Can’t you just tell me it’s the stupidest idea ever and leave it at that?”

“I think friends with benefits is the stupidest idea ever, how’s that?”

Rubi closed her eyes and made a supremely frustrated sound in her throat. “You’re right. And it’s not what he wants. I don’t know why he’d suggest it.”

When she made the final turn to face Lexi again, her friend was staring thoughtfully up at her. “He’s either testing new waters—which is rather obvious by going for you and not one of his typical sweet girls—”

“Hey.” Rubi laughed out the word.

“You know what I mean. Or…he’s looking to hook up with you because you’re hot, and he wants to tide himself over until he finds another one of those sweet girls to settle with.”

“True.” Rubi’s lips twisted in consideration. “I don’t know how I feel about that.”

“Or”—Lexi pushed to her feet—“he’s as crazy about you as you are about him, and he’s taking what you’re willing to give because a spoonful of Ben and Jerry’s is better than nothing.”

“Would you stop saying I’m crazy about—”

“If Bolton starts another fight tonight”—Wes’s angry voice pierced the space between the studio’s main floor and the loft—“I’m quitting this fucking movie, dude.”

“
Shit
.” Rubi stiffened. “What’s he doing here?”

“I don’t know. But Jax told me MacKenzie wants him to watch Bolton again tonight.”

A ribbon of unease followed the lacing down Rubi’s spine. “
Not
a great idea.”

“I know this sucks,” Jax said from below. “But MacKenzie had a long talk with him today. He’s promised to be on his best behavior.”

“Then he doesn’t need a fucking chaperone.” Wes tossed back.

Rubi stepped up to the railing.

“At least come with me, dude,” Wes said. “Go change and grab Lexi and get a night out. Then you can save him when I’ve got my hands around his neck.”

“Lexi’s doing the fitting with Rubi, and I’ve got to work up this bid by eight a.m.”

A slight hesitation, then, “Rubi’s here?”

Rubi closed her eyes and hung her head.

She’d been with him half the day. She’d called it quits when the fight scenes had moved outdoors and he’d practiced the moves with Keaton shirtless—beneath the blazing late-summer sun with sweat slicking his tanned skin. The thought made every cell in her torso ache. She needed some freaking space and had been looking forward to a night of relief from the heat he stirred inside her.

“Where?” Wes asked, the anger draining from his voice. “Upstairs?”

“Don’t go up there, dude,” Jax said. But by the way he raised his voice, Rubi knew Wes was already headed her way.

“Wes, stay out.” Lexi swung toward the stairs. “We’re not decent up here.”

He stopped on the top step, still head and shoulders above Lexi. He was grinning as he gripped her upper arms and set her aside so he could pass. “That’s just how I like Rubi best—indecent.”

Rubi huffed a laugh and leaned against the railing. “Don’t bother, Lex. He seems to do whatever he pleases nowadays.”

His gaze darted toward her voice, and he froze. One hand gripped the side rail, the other landed flat against the wall. His shocked gaze slid over her from shoulders to toes and heated Rubi everywhere. The shock quickly shifted to pure lust, and his gaze returned to hers.

“If that were true, baby,” he said, “I’d have done you by now.”

Rubi laughed. That comment probably crossed the friends line—even though they’d flirted like this before anything changed, but the man never failed to make her smile.

“You are such an asshole.” Jax appeared behind Wes, averting his gaze from Rubi—although she was wearing far more than she did on the beach in her bikini. “You’re about to get an attitude adjustment.”

“You can do that later.” Lexi fought a smile and pushed past Wes, taking Jax’s arm and pulling him behind her. “Come downstairs with me.”

Jax’s and Lexi’s voices faded and a door downstairs clicked closed. Wes still hadn’t moved. His gaze hadn’t stopped inventorying every inch of her body. And his gaze wasn’t the only thing heating her from the inside out.

He looked spectacular. He wore black suit pants, a black suit jacket, and white dress shirt, every piece hanging perfectly on his muscled frame. His hair looked damp and was combed off his face, but he hadn’t shaved, and the day’s golden stubble dirtied his jaw.

“Well, don’t you look”—Rubi caught herself before she said
edible
and replaced it with
—
“amazing?”

He’d never looked sexier and Rubi had urges she’d never had before. Urges that included more than simply fucking him. She wanted to undress him slowly, not rip his clothes off. Wanted to explore his body, not just use it. Wanted to laugh and tease and please him in bed, not just get it done so she could move on.

Every thought terrified her more than the last.

“You weren’t kidding when you said you didn’t follow rules,” she said.

His mouth kicked up in that sexy way that made her stomach float, and his fiery gaze wandered downward again with a look of longing both sweet and sultry.

“Are you just going to stand there and stare?” she asked. “It’s kinda…rude.”

His gaze drifted up and met hers. Those deep-gray eyes were heavy-lidded and on fire. “Would it be less rude to throw you down on the table and fuck you?” His rough words shot fire between her legs. Then he reached down with one hand and adjusted that amazing package. The sight sent her blood into a boil. “’Cause, I’m fully equipped and extremely capable.”

Rubi’s grin spread. “You definitely have no self-esteem problems, do you?”

He pushed up the final stair, eased his suit jacket back and planted his hands on his hips. “Give me a few hours alone with you, and I’ll let you tell me if I should develop some.”

He started toward her with a predatory look that pinched her belly with lust. Rubi held her ground but gripped the railing so tight her fingers tingled from the blood loss. When he was within five feet, his scent drifted to her. Clean, spicy, sexy. It curled around her, along with his body heat, and made her dizzy.

He closed his hand on the railing an inch from hers. “I don’t think I told you how adorable you looked on set today.”

Humor tickled Rubi’s gut. “Jeans and a T-shirt? That’s adorable?”

“Tight little jeans that hugged your awesome ass. That diamond in your belly button teasing me. And a T-shirt that clung to every last perfect curve. Then there were those pretty toes of yours. I might be pushing that friend boundary a little here, but what I’ve got planned for those sensitive toes has given me a hard-on I’ve been living with all damn day. “Now I’m really crossing the line…because we’re alone…and because I really want sex…” He took her wrist, covered her hand with his, and pressed her palm to the front of his slacks, then curved her fingers over his package. “And I’m hoping you do, too.”

Rubi gasped and pulled back, but Wes’s heavy hand covered hers and guided it along his length. His
entire
length. Which kept going. And
going
. She thought she’d gotten a good feel for him at the club while he’d been grinding against her ass, but…no. She was getting a literal firsthand take of the thickness, length, hardness, and heat of his cock.

A wickedly urgent need closed her throat. Oh, yeah, she wanted sex.

“Baby,” he said, his voice soft. “Are you drooling?”

Rubi’s mind righted from its sideways slide, and she found herself feeling him through his pants, no help from Wes necessary, although his hand still covered hers. Christ, he felt…delicious. A heavy weight lay at the bottom of her belly, casting heat between her legs.

“I…um…” She lifted her gaze. His expression was tight with desire. “Might be…”

Wes laughed, the sound rolling into a groan as he pulled her hand away. “Just one of your many benefits.” He threaded their fingers and brought her hand to his mouth for a kiss. “To do with as you please.”

A laugh curled in her throat. He might be acting sweet now, but she’d seen his many sides, and she’d bet he could be a very intense lover. She’d never thought any man would be too much for her to handle, but something about all his facets made her wonder.

His free hand lifted, and he skimmed the back of one finger along the curve of her breast at the corset’s edge. The featherlight touch sent gooseflesh across her chest. Her nipples puckered, and the crimson leather showed every last curve of the hard nub. He watched the reaction with a hunger she felt all the way through her.