Hellion, a New Adult Romance Novel (The Rebel Series) (11 page)

“What?
 
You think I should stick with a girl even when it feels wrong?”

“No. I just can imagine what you did to the poor girl before you dumped her, though.”

He frowns.
 
“Oh, yeah?
 
What’s that?”

“Wined her.
 
Dined her…”

Teagan adds, “Sexty-nined her…”

Half his mouth goes up in a charming grin.
 
“You guys are nuts.”

I seriously want to hug him right now.
 
He could not possibly be cuter.

The door to the apartment opens and Mick is standing in the doorway, looking at all of us.
 
He scowls when his eyes first land on me smiling my head off and then at Colin.

“What’s up?” he asks, moving into the room.

My smile slides down and I force myself to breathe slowly, focusing on managing my blood pressure.
 
I don’t know what it is about this guy, but whenever he’s around I start losing it.
 
It ticks me off that I can’t seem to control myself.
 
I don’t want to like him, and I don’t want him to send my system offline every time he’s near.
 
Too bad I’m not the one calling the shots up in my brain.
 
Down, Hootchie, down!
 
Control yourself!

“What’s up with you?” Colin asks, finishing off his beer. When Mick moves towards the kitchen, he calls out, “Get me another beer, would ya?”

“Get your own beer,” Mick says, coming back with a soda in hand.
 
He sits down in the armchair next to Teagan, completely ignoring his brother.
 
“You okay?” he asks.

Colin gets up and slaps Mick on the back of the head when he walks past him, headed for his next beer.

Mick’s expression goes dark, but he doesn’t go after him.
 
He waits for an answer from Teagan.

“I’m fine.”
 
She focuses all her attention on her milk.

“You gonna stay here tonight?” he asks.
 
His voice has gone soft.

My heart crushes for Teagan.
 
She’s so lucky to have this family looking out for her.
 
I almost feel replaced, and I try not to feel concerned about that.
 
I probably shouldn’t worry; no way can these guys girl-talk like I can.

“She can stay at my place,” Colin says when he comes back in the room.
 
Using the bottom of a lighter to lever the beer cap off, he looks over at Teagan.
 
“You can have the couch or the bed, your choice.”

“She’s not staying at your place, Trouble,” Mick says.
 
He looks at Teagan.
 
“You can stay at mine if you want.
 
I’ll just stay here.
 
Or you can talk to Rebel and work it out.
 
I know that’s what he wants.”

She lifts her chin.
 
“Well, I don’t really care what he wants right now.”

“Okay, so you decide,” Mick says.
 
“Where do you want to go?”

Teagan goes silent for so long I’m starting to wonder if she’s fallen asleep with her eyes open.
 
But then she speaks and startles me with her vehemence.
 
“Here!”
 
She takes a breath.
 
“I’m staying here. And I’ll talk to Rebel, but not tonight.
 
I’m tired.
 
I’ll sleep on the couch.”

Colin stands.
 
“I’m out.”
 
He looks at me.
 
“You want to come over to my place for a second?
 
I’ve got something to show you.”

Mick stands too, scowling at his brother.
 
“She doesn’t want to see anything you’ve got.”

I look at both of them and don’t know what to say.
 
Colin isn’t giving me the sexy look, so I really don’t think his goal is to make a move on me or anything.
 
And when I look at Mick, he’s got that expression on his face I saw once before, when he was standing on the dance floor facing off with Mark.
 
For some reason, it gets my back up.

I stand, as cool as cool can be.
 
“I’ll come over for a few minutes.
 
After that I need a ride home, though.”

“I can handle it,” Colin says, his words smooth as silk. “Where do you live?”

Ignoring Mick completely, I walk over to give Teagan a kiss on the cheek and hug goodbye as I answer.
 
“Baldwin Hills.”

“You’re not driving her.
 
You’ve been drinking,” says Mick.
 
He’s mad.
 
He reminds me of my father.
 
Protective. Bossy.

“Two beers is nothing.”
 
Colin goes to the door and holds it open.
 
“Come on.”
 
He looks over at Teagan and raises his palm towards her.
 
“You good?”

Teagan nods at him and then raises an eyebrow at me, but says nothing.

I continue to ignore Mick, as difficult as it is.
 
I want to look at him and explain myself.
 
Maybe I’m hoping he’ll make me a better offer.
 
But none comes and Colin is waiting, so I go.

We get out into the hallway and he walks ahead of me. When he gets to his door, he looks over his shoulder and gives me a heart-stoppingly handsome grin.
 
“I’m going to show you something I’ve never shown anyone else before.”

I hesitate before stepping over the threshold.
 
Looking back at Rebel’s door, I want to believe I see it opening.
 
That Mick is on his way out to stop me.
 
But that doesn’t happen, so I continue inside, shutting the door behind me.

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE PLACE IS A DISASTER.
 
I stop in the entrance and take it all in.
 
Dirty dishes cover the coffee table in front of the television.
 
Clothing is draped over all the furniture, most of it way past the stage of needing a washing as far as I can tell.
 
There are art canvasses of different sizes leaning in stacks against the walls and what I guess to be an easel in the corner of the room nearest the windows with a sheet draped over the painting that’s underneath. Paintbrushes are standing in old coffee cans on the windowsill and there are multi-colored paint spatters all over the tarp that’s on the ground and even the walls nearby.
 
It smells like a paint store in here.

I could have sworn Teagan told me that she’d been in here before, but she never mentioned any of this to me.
 
I make a mental note to discuss this with her, because if her powers of observation somehow missed all of this, I’m going to recommend she get a brain scan of some sort.

“You want something to drink?” he asks, moving over to the stereo to turn it down.

“Nah.
 
I’m kind of drinked out right now.”
 
I don’t tell him that I’m worried anything that comes out of this apartment is going to be contaminated by some rare and deadly virus.
 
I lick my lips, suddenly very thirsty.
 
That would be my self-torturing personality that likes to make me want exactly what I can’t have at the most inconvenient time.

“Yeah, I’m done too.”
 
He puts his hands in his back pockets.
 
“So…”
 
Grinning at me, he rocks up on his heels a little.

“So…”
 
I cock an eyebrow up at him, “…what’s this mysterious thing you want to show me?
 
I hope it’s not your junk.”

He laughs.
 
“Nah, it’s not my junk.
 
But we can pretend that’s what it was to make Mick crazy if you want.”

I shrug.
 
“Why would I care what he thinks?”
 
My heart-rate picks up at the mere idea.

Colin takes his hands out of his pockets and backs up towards the windows.
 
“I don’t know.
 
Kinda seemed like you cared.”

“Nope, not me.”
 
I put extra cheer into my voice to be more convincing.

“He seems pretty worked up over your personal business. You sure there’s nothing going on there?”

I cross my arms.
 
He’s got the most devious expression on his face.
 
“If you really think there’s something going on between us, why did you invite me over here?”
 
I tap my toe impatiently.
 
I don’t like being played.

“Ah,” he says, taking the edge of the sheet and lifting it.
 
“Sometimes life is dull.
 
Maybe I like to liven things up from time to time.”

I’m in the process of responding, but my jaw drops open and the words get hung up in the system somewhere between my frontal lobe and my mouth.
 
For the first time that I can remember, art has made me totally speechless.

I walk towards the easel slowly as he turns a lamp on nearby.

“No! Turn it off,” I say a little too loudly, my arm flying out to somehow protect the vision I saw from the harsh light of reality.

He flicks it off and looks at me with a new expression on his face.

A glance at him tells me he’s worried.

“What do you think?” he asks.

“I think I want to have your babies,” I say in a near-whisper as I step up to the canvas and stop.
 
It’s about three feet high and two feet wide.
 
I frown and take a few steps back in the direction I came from.
 
My smile comes back.
 
“Holy fucking wow.”

“I’m going to take that as a thumbs up.”

I look at him, recognizing his expression for what it is now.
 
Vulnerability.
 
The artist exposes his inner soul.

“You are
really
amazing, you know that?”
 
The words just pop out of my mouth.
 
“Ten thousand fucking thumbs up.
 
Seriously.
 
Give me your sperm.” I point at the painting. “I want my children to have those genes.
 
I’ll take it in a to-go cup if that’s convenient.”

He grins bigger than I’ve ever seen him grin before.
 
And there’s zero sexiness to it; all I see is joy.
 
He looks like how I’ve always imagined the archangel Gabriel.

“That’s why Mick didn’t want you over here.
 
He knew as soon as you saw my junk you’d be mine.”

I burst out laughing right along with him.
 
It feels good to let all the stress of the night go like that.
 
My eyes are drawn back to the painting and my laughter fades.

“How did you do this?
 
When?” I have never been able to fathom people with this level of talent.
 
It makes me wonder what the holy hell he’s doing living over a car garage.
 
He could be in New York City selling his stuff for a mint.
 
He could at least afford a maid if he sold one of these once in a while. “You seriously need to get this into a gallery.”

My gaze roams every corner of the painting and then the middle too.
 
The image there on the canvas is Teagan, but then again not.
 
She’s looking at something I can only guess is Rebel, because she has that serious goo-goo expression on her face. And for once she doesn’t look stressed or mad or worried about something.
 
She looks older.
 
Wiser.
 
More mature, like maybe how she’ll be in ten years. I used to see her stress-free face once in a great while at school, but this summer it’s been completely absent.
 
I guess I haven’t been around her and Rebel enough.
 
I almost want to reach out and touch it, but I don’t because I wouldn’t want to put a single speck of anything but Colin’s touch on this miracle.

“She’s so beautiful.” Now, instead of laughing, I feel like crying.
 
“You captured the essence of my little Tea-Tea.”

“Tea-Tea?” He leans over to look at the painting.
 
“That’s not Teagan.
 
That’s Mick.”

For a second I’m stunned because he looks so serious. But then we both start laughing again. I cannot believe the amount of awesome brain chemistry I have floating through my system right now.
 
I’m literally high on life, and it’s all thanks to Colin.

I’m bent over, holding on to his shoulder so I don’t fall on the ground, when the door to his apartment opens up.

Colin flicks the sheet down over the painting and stands up straight, causing my hand to drop back down to my side.
 
I turn my head and see Rebel at the door.

“What’s up?” Colin asks, all signs of humor gone from his face and his voice.
 
Suddenly it’s like that moment of sheer joy between us never happened.

“I need to talk to you for a minute.
 
Let Mick take her home.”

Now my humor’s gone too.
 
Stupid Rebel.
 
“I’m not riding with Mick, thank you very much.”

“Then I’ll take you,” says Rebel.
 
“And I’ll just talk to Teagan when I get back.”

I narrow my eyes at him.
Well-played turd-basket.
 
I glance at Colin but his face is a mask of nothing.
 
Since I know that putting Colin in a position of going face-to-face with his brother is a bad idea, I sigh out my defeat.
 
“Fine.
 
I’ll go with Mick.”
 
I grab my purse off the couch and walk over to the door.
 
“But I’m
not
going to like it,” I say in Rebel’s face.