Rebel (12 page)

“You are so sensitive,” he murmured. “If I dropped to my knees, would you take pity on me?”

Want swept through her in a fierce wave. Her eyes fell closed as she whispered, “There would be no pity involved.”

Air whooshed over her skin, and she opened her eyes. Wes was on one knee in front of her, one hand still gripping the railing, his other sliding around her waist. Rubi gasped at his touch. Every inch of her skin tightened in a ripple of pleasure.

His body remained perfectly still, his hand adding the slightest pressure to her lower back and drawing her belly toward his mouth. His warm breath touched her like fingertips, and she watched as he tipped his head, lowered those golden lashes, and opened his mouth against the strip of skin exposed beneath the edge of the corset.

Something tender and impossibly warm squeezed her heart so hard her chest ached. Something that definitely didn’t fall into the friend or sex category. Then the sensation of his mouth on her skin registered, and white-hot lust slid low, pooling between her legs.

“Oh
hell
,” drifted from her mouth in a desire-filled exhale.

A door downstairs opened, and Jax’s and Lexi’s voices touched Rubi’s ears, dragging her back from the blissful place Wes had taken her. Somewhere she desperately wanted to stay. But all her doubts from the past washed in, cooling her heat.

She combed a hand through his hair, slid her fingers under his chin, and lifted his mouth from her belly. With regret thickening her throat, she ran her thumb over his rough cheek.

“Find a girl tonight, Wes,” she told him, serious, resolute. “Because I can’t do this. Nothing’s going to happen between us.”

“You can. I know you can.” Wes released the railing and rose. His voice was soft and understanding as he drew her close and kissed her lips with a murmured, “Plenty has already happened between us. And it’s just the beginning.”

“Wes, get down here,” Jax said from the bottom of the stairs. “Lexi and Rubi need to work. And you need to get your ass to Lure before Bolton does something stupid.”

He turned and started for the stairs. With his foot on the top stair, he glanced back over his shoulder, but his gaze didn’t slide down her body as she expected. “Come keep me company when you’re done here.”

“No. I need some space.”

He held her gaze, and she swore she could see the reality of their situation solidify in his eyes. He glanced toward the floor and gave one nod before turning away and trotting down the stairs.

Rubi’s entire chest swirled with confusion, frustration, and loss.

She didn’t hear the words Wes and Jax exchanged, but she flinched when the door to the shop shut, signaling Wes’s departure.

Lexi climbed the stairs, picked up another style of lingerie, and wandered over to Rubi. “I’ve always stayed out of your sex life, haven’t I?”

Her gaze tore from the location she’d last seen Wes and jumped to Lexi. “What?”

“I’ve never told you what I think you should or shouldn’t do. Never nagged you about sticking with one guy. Never even whined about never getting to meet any.” She offered the lingerie to Rubi. “But this time, Rubi, this time, I really think you’re making a mistake.”

“Why would you say that?” Rubi scowled at her friend and took the lace from her hand. “We both know what would happen. I’d screw him once…okay, maybe twice, because he’d just be that damn good, and then I’d walk away. He’d be pissed and hurt. And how do you think he’d feel about hanging with me then? It would ruin what we have, Lexi—this comfortable, fun foursome. And imagine when he finds another girl and wants her to hang with us. God, what a mess.”

She strode into the bathroom and stripped the corset from her body. Her heart was beating too fast. Her breathing too shaky.

In the other room, Lexi said, “And what if the sky falls tomorrow?”

She wiggled into the translucent bra bordered in leather. Damn, Lexi made the most beautiful creations. “The chances of the sky falling are about one zillion to one. The chances of things going bad with Wes are 100 percent.”

“There is another side to those what-ifs,” Lexi said. “Like, what if…you screwed him once…okay,
definitely
twice, because he
would
be that damn good, and you
didn’t
walk away? What if…you stayed long enough to figure out if he’s everything you want and need in a man? What if…now I’m going out on a limb here…you actually admitted to yourself that you’re already half in love with the man and could easily finish falling if you even just tried on this friends-with-benefits deal?”

Rubi stepped out of the bathroom with what felt like a boulder in her chest. She could barely breathe. Both her fight and her flight reflexes were now amped to full power, gushing adrenaline into her chest. “You just told me you didn’t think it would work.”

“Not long-term, no. But I think it would give you the safety net you think you need to try with Wes.”

She was starting to sweat. Her heart beat even harder. “You’re delusional. Love has infected your brain. Just because you’re head over heels with Jax does not mean the rest of the world has changed. I have definitely not changed. I’ve never been a forever type of woman. Hell, I’ve never even been a more-than-a-month type of woman. And for the last five years I haven’t even been a more-than-one-night type of woman.”

Fear eclipsed her thought process. She had to work hard to think in a straight line. Extra hard to keep her arguments together. Because now that Lexi had gone and voiced those what-ifs that Rubi had suppressed in her subconscious, she couldn’t ignore them.

“Going around and around about this is just confusing you,” Lexi said. “You’re living off a script you put in your head a long time ago, one that doesn’t apply to who you are now.”

Lexi lowered to her knees again. Rubi knew she was blowing a chance with someone special, and that hurt. But she could handle being hurt if that meant Wes wasn’t. She could—she
had to
—let a chance with Wes pass if that meant he didn’t get damaged by her issues. As long as she was blowing it for herself and not for Wes, she could handle it.

Rubi turned according to Lexi’s gestures. As her friend pinned an area in the back of the bra, Rubi pressed a hand to her stomach. She didn’t like this. She didn’t want this. She just wanted to stay in her safety zone and keep Wes in his own safety zone.

“Just in case you were wondering,” Lexi said, “the reason you’re all jittery and sweaty and can’t think straight is because you’re
crazy
about him. Because you
care
. Because he
matters
. None of the others did. That alone should tell you everything you need to know.”

That was information Rubi didn’t need. And bringing it out in the open like this only complicated all her current struggles.

Yeah, she definitely needed some space.

Eight

Wes stopped the truck along the curb in front of Lexi’s studio, and the sight in his left eye blurred. Hard to believe he’d been in perfect health when he’d left here just four hours ago. No broken bones, no bruises, no blood—all of which he had now, after a few hours with Bolton.

He was relieved to see a light still on at almost one in the morning and pulled his phone out to text Jax.

WES: Are you and Lexi up?

JAX: The woman never sleeps, which means neither do I. Where are you?

WES: Outside.

JAX: Come in.

Wes pocketed his phone. The movement shot pain through his shoulder. “
Fuck
.”

Rage kicked into a boil again. He was livid. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so angry.

He put all his focus into moving without splitting his head open. The whole left side of his head and face throbbed with each pulse of blood.

Jax came to the studio’s entrance in gym shorts and a T-shirt and jerked the door open. “Do you need to go to the ER?”

“No.” His disgust came out in that one word. “I need ice and painkillers.”

Jax turned away and started through the downstairs studio toward an employee break room. “What happened?”

“That fucker Bolton happened.”

Wes passed through the decadently appointed main salon where ornate wedding dresses lined racks on the walls and dressed mannequins. Everything in the studio was shiny marble and plush carpeting, upscale carpentry and thickly padded seating arrangements. This was, after all, a millionaire’s mecca for the most elite, haute couture, and couture wedding fashions.

A full-length mirror caught his image, and Wes stopped. “Ah, shit.”

He brushed at the blood on the front of his white shirt and cursed the producer of the film. Again. Wes had often played unofficial bodyguard to a star he was doubling. Personal protection was one of the professional hazards of a stuntman. Men who defied death and dismemberment daily were typically smooth mediators and confident fighters, which kept unruly fans away. Or, in Bolton’s case, kept the actor reined in. But Wes had never doubled a star this messed up. Bolton seemed bent on beating every man he came into contact with and talking dirty to every woman within earshot—all after just three drinks.

“I’m adding a new shirt to the bodyguard bill. MacKenzie now owes me over three grand in payoffs, and this is a fifty-dollar shirt. Oh, and by the way,” Wes added as he eased to the corner of a desk chair and laid his forehead on folded arms, grimacing against the pain, “I quit.”

“You’re not quitting.”

Wes lifted his head as Jax returned with ice in a plastic bag. “Why the hell not? You’re not the only game in town, Chamberlin.”

“Sit up and stop whining.” Jax laid the ice pack over his swelling eye, and Wes swore. “Hold it there, and I’ll get some meds.”

Jax turned toward the main salon and the stairs to the loft, but Lexi appeared with a bottle of Advil in one hand, a bottle of water in the other. “Here.”

The sight of her brought back Wes’s other biggest frustration. “What did you tell Rubi, Lex? She’s trying to put the brakes on us again.”

“Hey,” Jax barked at Wes. “Watch your tone.”

“Stop,” Lexi said. “Both of you.” She looked at Wes. “I didn’t say anything negative to Rubi. I said just the opposite. She has a tendency to turn things upside down when she’s stressed.”

He swallowed the Advil and drank half the bottle of water, now even more pissed he had no direction for his anger. Setting down the bottle, he muttered, “Thanks.”

“Where’s Bolton?” Jax asked. “And what the hell happened?”

“Bolton’s in jail.”

“
What?
” Jax planted his hands on his hips. “You were supposed to prevent that.”

Wes already felt bad enough. He slammed the ice on the desk and glared at Jax through his right eye. Lexi gasped in horror at the sight of his face. “I could have if he hadn’t had a fucking dime of coke in his pocket. Or if the woman he groped would have taken my money instead of pressing charges. Some things are out of my control. Besides, the fucker deserves to spend the night with lowlifes for starting the goddamned brawl that landed me this eye. And I’m warning you now, if he tries to take credit for giving it to me, I’m going to leave him looking twice as bad.”

Lexi stepped between them. She wore white sweatpants that hit her midcalf with the word PINK curved over the ass in—of course—pink, and a matching pink tank. Her hair was up in a messy bun, her face pristinely clean of makeup. She looked every bit the sun-kissed Kentucky farm girl of her roots.

“Relax, both of you,” she said. “Jax, why don’t you make whatever calls you need to make and I’ll clean Wes up.”

Jax ran both hands through his hair. “This is insane. I’ll find a way to shoot every one of his scenes without his face in it if I have to. That’s why you’re not quitting, Lawson. Once Craig and MacKenzie get wind of Bolton’s shit, they’re gonna want to make you into the next fucking Hollywood star.”

He pulled his phone from his pocket and stalked into a quieter area of Lexi’s studio.

Wes yelled after him, “I don’t want to be the next fucking Hollywood star. I just want to do my goddamned stunts without an asshole causing trouble.” He fisted the ice bag and gestured toward Jax’s back. “Coke, dude. He was carrying a bag of fucking
cocaine
. Do you realize the mess that could have gotten us all into if he had it on the set? Or if he used before a fucking
stunt
?” His blood boiled with the ramifications. “Someone could
die
.”

As soon as he stopped yelling, the pressure in his head subsided, leaving a residual throb he felt all the way to his teeth. He groaned, closed his eyes, and let his head fall into his hands.

“Shh, Wes.” Lexi’s hushed voice instantly cut his tension. She put a hand on his shoulder and tilted his face up toward hers with two fingers. “He understands. He’ll take care of it.”

Wes let his anger ebb, closed his eyes, and blew out a breath through his teeth. “Sorry I got mad at you.” He opened his eyes and winced. “You’re not going to pin my mouth closed, are you? I don’t think I could take it.”

Lexi burst into laughter, her blue eyes sparkling. “Shut up.”

“Does that translate into forgiveness?”

“There’s nothing to forgive. I’m going to get the tackle box.”

“Oh no,” Wes groaned as she disappeared into the break room. “Not the tackle box.”