Chapter 18
CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN
GUNNER
The first time I ever thought of kissing Rebel Hart, I was twelve years old. Rebel came to the farm with her mom and I watched her from afar.
She played in the daisy field, stringing together a daisy chain and weaving flowers in her hair. The sky had been the exact color of her eyes and I thought she was an angel.
Her laughter had been a symphony in my ears and though I knew I couldn’t talk to her anymore, I really wanted to run out and join her.
Rebel lifted one of the plucked sunflowers to her lips and kissed it, probably making a wish. I’d, desperately, made a wish of my own. It was to be the sunflower in her hands.
The next time I thought of kissing Rebel Hart wasn’t so innocent.
I was eighteen years old and at Buddy White’s birthday party.
Buddy had a huge crush on Rebel back then, so obviously, she’d been invited too. After a while, Buddy suggested we all play truth, dare or kiss.
It was a childish spin on the game of ‘truth or dare’, and it was designed for Buddy to make a move on Rebel, one she couldn’t easily back out on.
I didn’t want to play, but Buddy was going to carry on with or without me. So I decided to join in, just to keep an eye on things.
We played a few rounds and every time the bottle fell on a guy and a girl, they chose to kiss.
Then it was my turn.
I spun.
And the bottle stopped on Rebel.
My eyes had fixed on her and my heart had stopped. We hadn’t spoken in years. She’d never once glanced my way since her freshman days, but that wasn’t the same for me.
I was very much aware of her.
Every time she walked down the hallway, her ponytail bouncing and her laughter ringing through the corridor, I looked.
Every time she worked on a car with April Brooks in the school parking lot, her hips snug in a tight pair of jeans as she bent over to inspect an engine, I looked.
And that night at Buddy’s party, she was looking back at me.
Rebel was no longer the little kid in the flower field. She was every teenaged boy’s dream, especially in that tight, pink T-shirt and shorts that showed off her long, long legs.
I’d hesitated, so everyone had started chanting ‘kiss, kiss, kiss!’.
Their voices barely registered. In that moment, it was just me, Rebel and the bottle.
My heart had thudded in my chest as Rebel rolled her eyes and leaned forward, being a good sport about the game.
Her soft-as-rosebud pink lips were right there.
Right in front of me.
But I knew if I ever kissed her, I’d be doomed for life. So I backed away and chose truth instead. She’d flushed with embarrassment and, after that day, there was an extra chill to the cold shoulder she gave me.
I never thought I’d get another chance. Then I started dating Victoria and it became wrong of me to want another chance, so I pushed it to the darkest corners of my mind.
But now, many years later, there’s nothing holding me back.
My hand draws Rebel’s face to mine. My mouth presses into her lips like I’ve been waiting all my life for this moment.
She tastes incredible—a mix of candy, sugar and honey. As syrupy sweet as every pink-tinged item she owns.
It’s too much and not enough all at once.
I lean forward for more.
Tilting her head so I can get a better angle, I move my mouth over hers while my heart thuds like a wild horse loose out the gate.
Is this a dream?
Am I in bed right now?
But no, I wouldn’t have allowed myself to imagine a moment like this.
Especially when Rebel opens her mouth a tad wider. It’s a small, unconscious invitation. But I barge in like she threw the door open wide.
I suck on her bottom lip. I nip her top lip between my teeth. I sweep my tongue against hers in a lazy swirl and she mewls.
That sound… I didn’t imagine that.
I’m kissing Rebel Hart.
Have mercy.
The temperature in the car spikes.
My skin feels hot enough to burn clear off my bones.
I push further across the console, hovering over her until her head tilts back from the force of my unrelenting kisses. My fingers grip the back of her head to keep her steady and I stay right there, savoring and suckling her mouth as if I’m drawing every breath from her body, as if I’m desperate for her oxygen.
Rebel moans again. Her hand comes up to my chest.
Is it to push me away? To slow me down?
Somewhere in the back of my head, I hear a warning to ease up on her. I’m being too aggressive.
Rebel hates me. She didn’t ask for a kiss, especially not one this intense. She may be uncomfortable.
The thought is a cold bucket of water over my head. I wrench back, breathing hard. It took me a lifetime to be close to Rebel and yet, here I am, trying to force an eternity of waiting into one kiss.
Rebel’s chest heaves up and down. She inches back until her shoulder hits the door. I notice the fog clouding the window and wince.
“Y-you made your point,” she says quietly, a hand to her mouth and a blush spreading across her cheeks.
My point?
Suddenly, two sweeping headlights pierce my back windshield. A car speeds up and then screeches to a stop beside us. The passenger window lowers and I see mom and Victoria in the dark cabin of the car.
“Why’d you park on the side of the road? Did your car break down?” mom hollers.
I start the car and it rumbles to life, purring like a well-oiled machine.
“If nothing’s wrong, why’d you pull over?” Mom insists.
Rebel blinks rapidly. “We… I mean, I…”
“We were kissing,” I say bluntly.
Victoria’s face tightens.
Mom rears back in horror. “Gunner Kinsey?—”
“We were lost,” Rebel pipes up. Her laughter sounds as high pitched and screechy as a bird at dawn. “That’s why we stopped. Can we follow you to the restaurant instead, Carol?”
Mom’s shrewd eyes take in Rebel’s face, narrowing on her mouth. Then her eyes lock in on me.
I don’t move an inch, but I hear Rebel squirming around in her seat. There’s no need to turn my neck for confirmation. It’s clear what she’s feeling right now. Waves and waves of embarrassment are wafting from her skin.
I shift forward to shield Rebel from mom’s razor-sharp inspection. “Didn’t you say we’d be late?”
“Stay close behind me.” Mom frowns.
I dip my chin down.
“I’m assuming there will be no more…” Her nostrils flare, “unexpected stops?”
No promises.
But I know better than to say that.
I nod again and wind my window up. A moment later, mom’s car zooms in front of mine and she gases it down the highway.
I move off at a more legal speed and peek at Rebel from the corner of my eye. Immediately, I notice what put mom in such a foul mood. Rebel Hart looks like a woman recently ravished. Her face is flushed pink, her hair is tousled from my fingers, and her mouth is wet and slightly swollen.
My conscience hammers into me.
You impatient, insensitive bull dog. Look at what you did to her.
Rebel clears her throat, pulls the sun visor down and starts raking her fingers through her hair to get it back in order. While it helps a bit, it’ll take a lot more than her finger combing to hide the evidence of our kiss.
The caveman inside me steps up, banging his chest.
Not sorry. Mine. My woman.
I wrench my gaze away and swipe a thumb over my bottom lip.
My mouth is wet too.
Rebel clears her throat again. “S-so…”
I wait for her to say more.
She doesn’t.
Awkward silence fills the car.
I don’t look at her. I don’t know what I’ll find in her eyes when I do. Disdain? Disgust?
“Uh… y-your mouth, I mean your mom .” She blows out a breath. I can practically hear her heart beating out of her chest. Or is that my heart? Rebel tries again. “Your mom probably bought that, didn’t she? I mean, I bought it.”
I arch a brow at her. Bought what?
“But I still don’t think it’s enough to convince her we’re together.”
So what? She wants us to do more kissing? I’m okay with that.
“I have a feeling she’s going to test us during dinner.” Rebel hides her face behind a curtain of blonde hair as she rummages through her purse for something.
Finally, she pulls out a bottle of pink lipgloss and uncaps it. “I’m usually good with parents, but Carol Kinsey won’t be easy to fool. We, our, you and I…” Rebel blushes prettily again. “The physical part is one thing, but your mom won’t respect our fake relationship if that’s all we can do to prove we’re together.”
I’m only half-listening, stuck at the ‘you and I’ part of her sentence. Why did that sound so good to my ears?
Rebel coats the mouth I’d just kissed in her lipgloss and it’s as if she ingested a magical elixir. Her shoulders straighten out and the confidence returns to her voice and mannerisms. “Just follow my lead later, alright?”
I nod, feeling quite certain that I’d follow Rebel Hart anywhere.