Rebel Heart (3 page)

“What brought you out tonight? I don’t remember seeing you at other bonfires...”

Stella arched a brow and giggled.

“You’ve been keeping tabs?”

Kade shook his head.

“Nah. I just know my crowd, that’s all.”

“I see,” Stella answered.

“I’m just trying to be more social, you know. It’s summer. Kind of a time for change.”

Kade nodded and let go of her hand as he flicked the butt of his smoke.

“You seem like a smart girl,” he noted.

Stella shrugged, feeling a blush creep across her cheeks. She had never been around a man that made her feel so validated. Still—she knew the reputation Kade had around Falls Creek, especially with women, and it wasn’t a good one.

“I try to be.”

A nagging voice in the back of Stella’s mind told her that there was no possible way Kade Colton, of all people, could share her feelings. She felt his hand rub across her cheek and shivered, turning her back so that she was facing away from him. He took a step forward, closing the distance between them until their bodies were touching and their faces were only a few inches apart.

Stella moaned softly. Kade lifted her chin and hesitated with his lips parted.

“What are you doing?”

Stella’s voice was hoarse and strained. She tried to pull away but Kade tightened his grasp on her waist, making it difficult. His tongue darted out from between his lips. Stella held her breath and awaited his next move.

Control.

Kade had always had it, but Stella was certainly giving him a run for his money. He roamed his hands down her body, urging her to give in. The sound of someone exiting the bar tore him away from her. Stella giggled at the bulge that had sprung to life in his pants and shifted her gaze from his.

Kade nodded at two leather clad men who had parked in front of the bar, exchanging greetings with them. As they entered the bar, Stella caught a glimpse of the worn in patches that adorned the back of their cuts. They were Sons. Kade reached for her hand and pulled her towards the door.

“Come on.”

In that moment, something came over Stella.

The eerie sensation that her life would never quite be the same as it was before Kade Colton had stumbled back into it.

Chapter Two

L
ike with every great romance, it started with a drink. And that drink led to another, and before either of them knew what was happening, they were knee-deep in vitriolic stories of their upbringings. Stella told Kade that she loved the club she was raised in but hated how much it had worn on her father. That she was going to school to become a doctor. And after three shots of tequila and a momentary lapse of silence, Kade began to talk about his mother. The one subject Stella was sure he would never breach.

“Do you miss her?”

It was a stupid question. Of course he did. But the words had surfaced from her throat before she could stop them. She couldn’t help it. She felt lightheaded and relaxed in the presence of the man she had once felt so nervous around. The wheels of conversation had been greased and she couldn’t find it in herself to feel silly for asking.

Kade nodded and took a long drink of his beer, surveying the half-empty bar.

“Yeah.”

“I think about her every day.”

He washed down the statement with a shot and lost himself in his thoughts. Stella could see that he was lonely. He had told her early on in their discussion that he felt like he had focused too much of his life on doing and saying the things he felt like he had to.

Fighting men who so much as looked at him the wrong way amplified his tough guy image. Sleeping with women whose names he never seemed capable of remembering reminded everyone of what a ladies man he was. And straddling the seat of a bike...well. That made his father proud.

All those things made Kade who he was—at least on the surface.

The bartender informed them that it was closing time and Kade slapped a crumpled twenty on the counter, sliding on his leather cut and reaching for Stella’s hand.

And so it went.

They walked outside together. Kade held the door open for Stella and when she passed him, something came over her. An uncharted feeling quite unlike anything she had ever felt. As Kade’s hand grazed hers, she made an impulsive move and angled her face so that it was a few inches away from his, tempting him to kiss her.

Intoxication engulfed them as their tongues tangled. It was messy and spur of the moment and more than anything, it felt right. When Stella finally broke the kiss, she was breathless and incapable of speaking in full sentences. Kade stroked a hand over her face as she exhaled a deep breath.

“Wow...”

Like with all decisions made in the haste and fueled by lust, neither party made a wise decision. Or maybe they did, depending how you looked at it. Either way, what was done was done. In the desolate bar parking lot a few feet away from Kade’s bike, they did the awkward dance so many had done before them.

“Do you want to go home or should I take you back to your car...”

Kade’s question lingered in the air. He seemed all too aware of the answer. Stella shook her head and indulged him. The drive back to his place was a short one, which she was grateful for. Neither one of them were in any position to drive. Aside from their obvious lack of sobriety, their attention was elsewhere.

Stella pressed her head against Kade’s back and explored his muscular chest with eager hands. It wasn’t the behavior of a virgin, but that little tidbit wasn’t something she had any intention of mentioning. All it ever did was scare men away.

Not that Kade was most men.

Then came the parking and the fumbling of keys at the front door as lips and fingers clashed. Kade’s shirt was the first piece of fabric to come off as the door opened. The pair tumbled inside the dark trailer in a frenzy driven by passion and vulnerability. With a trained hand, Kade reached for the light switch beside the door. Stella pulled him back, not wanting to interrupt the veil of night.

There was something about it that she found comforting. Romantic even.

They did a clumsy waltz into Kade’s bedroom, bumping into furniture as their drunkenness settled in, mixing with sheer need. Stella was shoved onto an unmade bed in the center of the dimly lit room as Kade pounced on top of her in a predatory straddle.

In the darkness it was hard to tell who went in for the kiss first. The last of their clothing was stripped off as teeth bumped together and tongues danced. A hot breath escaped the corners of Stella’s mouth as she moaned. In the diffused moonlight that soaked through the blinds hanging in the window behind them, the details in their sweat-covered flesh emerged.

Their naked forms moved synchronously. Fingernails dug into flesh. Hot breath grazed along flushed cheeks and strained necks. It was almost animalistic in nature; the way their legs twisted and their hips clashed. Thunder boomed outside as heavy raindrops began to fall against the window, but their moans overpowered the noise, eventually dissolving it entirely.

It came to a sudden end with a tight squeeze, a grunt, and a sudden wave of warmth that flooded through them both, followed by a long exhale. When their heads had stopped pounding, they embraced in a sweaty, breathless heap.

After sharing a
post-coital cigarette, grogginess pulled at them as it often did, and they drifted into it an alcohol and pleasure induced slumber.

Morning came and with it, clarity. Stella’s eyelids fluttered open. She sat up and focused her pupils, wiping the sleep from her eyes as she attempted to regain hold of her surroundings. The realization of who was lying beside her made her suck in a sharp breath. Her body was intertwined with Kade’s and one of his arms was tucked around Stella’s waist.

Her kneejerk reaction was to run, to scramble for her clothing and leave before he awoke. Instead, she remained still, frozen by the reminder of barriers they had already crossed. Her face flushed red as she carefully shifted under his weight, feeling the taut lines of his chest as he turned in his sleep.

Shit.

Kade’s skin was warm to the touch and it distracted Stella from her main goal, which was to escape. She forced herself to concentrate as she detangled her body from his. When she was finally free, she stretched, basking in the yellow light that splashed in through creases in his blinds. She examined Kade’s sleeping form, tracing her chipped fingernails over the mirage of scars on his back as his chest rose and fell.

His slightly chapped lips parted as he snored. His dark hair curled near his temples. The sunlight illuminated the faint blue veins beneath his olive skin.

Stella had a good feeling about him.

And maybe that was her first mistake, because it wasn’t a secret to anyone in Falls Creek that Kade Colton was incapable of being tied down.

Still, Stella saw the value in him. It didn’t seem to matter much that up until that moment, value to Stella had been an undefined concept—something prescribed to her by Seventeen magazine advice columns and grandiose fantasies of being swept off her feet by a knight in shining armor.

But real life never seemed to turn out that way now did it?

Stella pulled on her clothing, careful not to wake Kade. Then, she walked the short distance to Mel’s house, feeling giddy and lightheaded.

Mel threw open the front door before Stella could even raise her fist to knock. Right off the bat, there was something about her that struck Stella as different. She stepped over the threshold and into Mel’s tiny trailer, scanning the room for any sign of Maddox.

“He left an hour ago,” Mel said, reading Stella’s mind.

Stella looked over at her friend with wide eyes, flashing her a smile.

“Mel!” she gasped, giving her a playful nudge.

“You naughty, naughty girl!”

Mel blushed and took a seat at her kitchen table, reaching to pour herself a glass of OJ. She waved her hands in the air, feigning innocence.

“Nothing really happened...we mostly just talked...”

“And made out...” she added with a passionate sigh.

Stella giggled and took a seat at the table beside her friend. She stole a pancake off her plate, stabbing it with a fork and taking a bite.

“So,” she spoke through mouthfuls.

“Give me a play by play.”

Mel thought it over.

“Well, it’s really not that exciting...”

Stella shook her head.

“So? I still wanna know!”

“OK,” Mel said.

“Well, we had a few more drinks at the bonfire. Then we came back here and we talked...about everything, really. And we kissed...”

Mel smiled in reflection.

“Yeah...come to think of it, we did a lot of that.”

She let out a dreamy sigh.

“He’s so hot Stel. I never thought a guy that hot could be so interested me!”

Stella laughed. She knew the feeling.

“Anyway,” Mel changed the subject, taking a drink of her orange juice.

“Enough about me. Tell me about your night! What happened with Kade?”

Stella sighed. Where did she even begin?

“Well...for starters...I slept over at his place.”

Mel grinned from ear to ear and sat up straighter.

“And...?”

Stella blushed. Mel gasped.

“Oh my god! You totally slept with him didn’t you!”

Stella started to deny it but there was no use.

“Maybe...”

Mel exploded into a fit of laughs.

“Stel! You can’t just sleep with a guy on the first date!”

Stella pouted.

“Even the really hot ones?”

Mel nodded.

“Yes! Even the hot ones!”

Mel always had been the more responsible one. Stella snickered and stood up, collapsing on her couch.

“Wait a second,” she spoke up, turning to look at Mel suspiciously.

“You said Maddox just left right?”

“Where did he sleep? Because your couch feels pretty cold...”

Mel was quiet as she tried to formulate an answer. Stella could read the guilt in her expression without even trying.

“Oh my god!” Stella yelled, bursting into laughs.

“You slept with him! Don’t lie Mel! I can tell.”

Mel tried to appear distracted with gathering dishes off the table but it was obvious that Stella had caught her red-handed.

“I knew it!”

“You slept with him, and then you made him breakfast. How domestic of you!”

Stella’s tone was playful and lighthearted, but even so, Mel appeared visibly embarrassed by her candidness. Sleeping with a guy on the first date was no her usual MO.

No. In fact, she and Stella had both been holding tight to their virginity, although for different reasons. Mel had been waiting for Mr. Right and Stella simply hadn’t found any guy worthy enough of doing the deed with. Not that she hadn’t done her fair share of...
other
stuff.