REBEL, a New Adult Romance Novel (The Rebel Series) (22 page)

“What the fuck!” the guy yells, dancing off to the side.
 
He’s hopping up on his toes like we’re about to go twelve rounds together.

I hold up my hands in surrender.
 
“Don’t shoot.”

His cocked fists drop to his side and he comes down on his heels.
 
“Who the hell are you?”

Standing most of the way up, I hold out my hand to the brown-haired, broad-shouldered bad boy who can only be one person.
 
“Colin?
 
Hi, I’m Teagan, queen of files, nice to meet you.” I take several deep breaths to control the pain in my toes. First the hammer and now Colin.
 
Oy.
 
The guy isn’t nearly as bulky as Rebel, but he’s tall.
 
And he seriously crunched my toes.

Rebel’s door opens just as his brother and I are clasping hands together.
 
I look over in time to see him scowl.

“Who’s this?” Colin asks Rebel, his heart-stoppingly handsome face marred by a harshly devilish grin.
 
“She your girlfriend?”

“Oh, God, no!” I say immediately.
 
My ears go red at the idea that he’d think that.
 
It’s like he somehow uncovered my secret lust for his brother with that one question and put it out there in the air between us.

Colin chuckles.
 
“Sounds like she’s not a fan, Rebel.”

“Go to bed, Colin,” Rebel says, sounding tired.

“Yeah, right.”
 
Colin leans against his doorframe.
 
“So … Teagan … what are you doing sneaking around my hallway at night if you’re not Rebel’s girlfriend?
 
Looking to party?”

My jaw drops open and I back away.
 
“Sneaking around?
 
Party?
 
Uh, no.
 
I don’t think so.”

“She was staying in your place while you were gone,” Rebel explains.

Colin reaches behind him and pulls something red out of his back pocket.
 
“I guess these are yours, then.”
 
He grins again, a split second after the expression of horror crosses my face.

“Give me those!” I squeak, snatching them from the air where he’s dangling them.
 
I cannot believe I left a pair of underwear in his place and that he had them in his pocket.
 
What the hell is my problem? And what the hell is his?

I look from Colin’s trouble-maker expression to the dark clouds hanging over Rebel’s head and decide the idea of taking off into the night isn’t so bad after all.
 
I turn to go and make it partway down the hall before I’m blocked.

“Where are you going?” Rebel asks, standing in my way.

“Move.”
 
I can’t look up at him.
 
I’m in panic mode.
 
Now I really am homeless, and I was so looking forward to a warm shower.
 
Plus Rebel has seen my underpants now.
 
Maybe he’ll think I left them in his brother’s place on purpose so I can join the Colin fan-girl club.
 
Gah!

“You don’t have to go,” says Colin, his tone low.
 
“You can stay here in my place.”

Rebel looks at his brother.
 
“Why?
 
You leaving?”

I stop breathing, waiting for Colin’s answer.
 
If he leaves I can stay and I won’t have to sleep in my car.

“Hell no.
 
She can stay with me.”
 
His tone goes sexy playful.
 
“I have a double bed.”

I take a step to the right to get around Rebel, but he steps with me and causes me to bounce off his chest.
 
But I can tell he’s not really paying attention to me. I look up at his face when I realize how tense his muscles are.

His eyes tell me he’s blazing mad.
 
“Stay the hell away from her, Colin.
 
I’m not kidding.”

“Whoa, easy, bro.
 
She looks old enough to take care of herself.
 
Besides, she said she’s not your girlfriend.”

I turn around and scowl at him.
 
“Dude, don’t even go there, okay? Not interested.”
 
I face Rebel again as Colin laughs in a surprised way, staring up at him and willing him to look down at me.
 
When he does I continue.
 
“I can’t stay here.
 
I have to go.
 
Could you please move?”

Rebel grits his teeth over and over, his jaw moving with the rhythmic pressure.
 
“Where are you gonna go?” he finally asks.

I shrug.
 
“Back to my apartment.”

He frowns.
 
“Why’d you just make that face?”

I smooth my features.
 
“What face?
 
There’s no face here.”

“She’s lying,” says Colin from behind me.

Rebel and I join together and both shout, “Shut up, Colin!” at the exact same time. We share a look of surprise and then a very small smile appears on Rebel’s lips.

“Fuck, you guys are harsh.
 
Can’t a guy joke around anymore?
 
Jesus.”
 
Colin walks into his apartment and slams the door shut.

“That wasn’t very nice,” I say to Rebel, trying to make my smile go away with the scolding.
 
It refuses to leave.

Rebel doesn’t respond.
 
He’s just staring at me intensely.

I sigh heavily.
 
“I have to go.
 
Could you please move your wall of muscle so I can get past?”

“Stay here.”

I stomp my foot.
 
“Stay where, Rebel?
 
In your hallway?
 
In the office?
 
I can’t.
 
I need a bed and a shower and a door that locks.”

He leans over and pushes on his door.
 
It swings in revealing the interior of his apartment.
 
Again, he doesn’t say anything.

I shake my head.
 
“No.”

“No what?”

I seriously want to sucker punch him in the gut right now.
 
“I don’t even know, Rebel!”
 
I grab a pony tail elastic out of my front pocket and angrily put my hair into a bun.
 
“You aren’t even talking to me, you just point and grunt and shit.”

“Why are you putting your hair up?”

My hands slow and then stop.
 
“What?”

“Your hair.”
 
He gestures with his chin.
 
“Why are you putting it up?”

I throw my hands out to my sides.
 
“What difference does it make?!”

“I like it like that.”

All my anger fizzles away.
 
I go warm from the inside out, and suddenly the world seems a little bit brighter.
 
“That’s a stupid thing to say.”

“Why?”

“Because. We’re fighting right now. You can’t compliment my hair in the middle of a fight.”

He shrugs.
 
“Why not?”

I put my hands on my hips.
 
“Rebel, if you ask me why or why not one more time, I’m going to do it.”

“Do what?”

“Punch you right in the kisser.”

One eyebrow twitches up as a ghost of a smile haunts his mouth.

“I’m serious.
 
I’ll do it.”

“You’re going to knock me out for asking a question?”

“Yeah.
 
That’s what I said.
 
Now for the love of Pete, would you please get out of my way?”
 
I really don’t want him to move.
 
Some ridiculous part of my messed-up personality wants to stand in this hallway and argue with him all night.
 
As long as I can see his face and have his giant wall of a body standing between me and the boogie man who’s stalking my car, I’ll be fine.

“Pete wants you to stay here,” he says.

I pull my head back, totally confused.
 
“Who’s Pete?”

“The guy you love, apparently.”

It’s twitching of Rebel’s eyebrow that finally clues me into the fact that he’s making a joke.
 
“Oh, for the love of …”
 
And I can’t finish my sentence, because he’s so damn cute and sexy at the same time that it’s clearly made me insane.

I throw my arms out and launch myself into him, hugging him as hard as I can.
 
“You’re a jerk,” I say into his chest.
 
I’m lying.
 
He’s totally my hero and the object of my unrequited secret lust.

He grabs me around my back and lifts my feet off the floor.
 
Before I realize what’s happening, he’s taken four steps and deposited me in his apartment.
 
I catch just a glimpse of his face as he breaks away from me and goes outside, dragging the door closed behind him.

“What the …?”
 
I’m staring at a closed door.
 
I’m inside the apartment and he’s out in the hallway.

I grab the door handle and yank the door open.

Rebel is rapidly disappearing down the hallway.

“Hey!
 
Where are you going?” I ask.

“Work.
 
Go to sleep.”

“I can’t sleep in here!”

The door to the stairwell closes behind him and I’m left staring at the glowing red exit sign.
 
All I can hear now are the deep beats of some kind of dance music coming out of Colin’s apartment.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

MAYBE I SHOULD GO, BUT instead, I put on my pajamas consisting of flannel pants and a big shirt that says
Haters Gonna Hate
and lie down on Rebel’s couch.
 
As long as I don’t go into his bedroom or otherwise indicate my desire to see him naked, I should be fine, right?
 
That’s what I keep telling myself; maybe in one of these endless minutes ticking by I’ll start believing it too.

The leather couch makes me sweaty, but no way in hell am I going to take my pants off. He’ll think I’m trying to be sexy and that I’m making a move on him. I’ve already made such a great impression with the underwear thing in Trouble’s apartment, especially after all those warnings Rebel gave me. Not smooth.
 
Not smooth at all.

Tossing and turning, I cannot get the visions of Rebel out of my head.
 
He’s beyond frustrating.
 
There’s a huge list of reasons why I shouldn’t be in lust with him.
 
First of all, he’s way too old for me.
 
Then, he’s my boss and I desperately need this job. He owns a successful business, and I’m about ten years away from being in that kind of position myself, probably longer.
 
He’s hotter than hot, so it makes me feel goofy and childish whenever I’m around him.
 
And just the sight of his naked chest makes me go all gooey inside.

I hate to admit this to myself, but I’m almost thinking he’s too much man for me.
 
I’m used to idiots like Perry running around my heels.
 
Guys like that aren’t my ideal, but at least they don’t make me go into panic mode just by looking at me.

All of this rational thinking gets me nowhere.
 
I’m still in lust, and now that I’ve looked at all the reasons why Rebel is totally wrong for me, I want him more.
 
I seriously need to get my head examined.
 
He is really wrong about Colin, too.
 
That guy is so utterly
resistible
compared to Rebel it’s not even funny.
 
Rebel is the one who should be called Trouble, with a capital T.

I get up to pour myself a glass of water thinking maybe that’ll help me sleep, get my mind off Rebel and his damn chest.
 
God, why does he have to walk around work all day without his top zipped up?
 
Okay, so maybe he’s only done it a couple times … but still … it’s very distracting.
 
I’m complaining, but the idea of him zipping up from now on is positively depressing.
 
Ass?
 
Hole in the ground?
 
I no longer know the difference between you two.

As I’m swallowing the water and trying to douse the heat that’s building inside me over thoughts of Rebel, I hear the main garage door going up.
 
It makes me curious about what he could be doing.
 
It’s after midnight and way past the time for car repairs.
 
Maybe he was serious about working, and if that’s true, he really needs to get a life.

I pad over the soft carpet to the front windows, watching with my mouth hanging open as he pushes my car into the garage.
 
I can’t decide whether to be mad or grateful.
 
At least inside the garage no one will be able to press his stupid stalker face up against my windows.
 
But why would Rebel do anything with my car?
 
I never told him about the Prius murderer guy.

I throw on my flip-flops and a sweatshirt to hide my braless look, and I leave the apartment.
 
Tiptoeing down the stairs, I’m as quiet as I can be.
 
I want to spy on him without him discovering me in my jammies and ratty hair-bun, even though he said he liked it that way.
 
It’s completely ridiculous that I’m deliriously happy over that fact, but there’s no denying it.
 
I’ll never put my hair down again.

Standing at the bottom of the stairwell, I have a perfect view of Rebel and the middle of the garage where my car is parked.
 
He has the engine compartment open in the back and he’s standing behind the car staring at it.
 
Then he walks to the driver’s side door and opens it up.
 
When he sits inside and gazes over the dashboard, I can’t help but come out.
 
I guess he’s going to have to see me looking my worst.
 
It’s probably a good idea; seeing him cringe at how I look will make him way less sexier.