Chapter Nineteen #3
Since I met the man, we’ve butted heads, in my mind we’re too alike, too quick to get angry, to do the reckless shit, which means we shouldn’t be around one another.
Yet, he settles me in a way no one else has. He doesn’t get in my head, or tell me everything is going to be all right. It isn’t. I have a lot to work through. Locking it up in a corner of my mind doesn’t work.
Since I told him about my parents and Eloise, I’ve felt lighter, but I feel guilty because Colt tried to do that for me, and it hasn’t made me feel the way I do when I’m with Rebel.
Of course, the dirty, bloody sex is not something my cousin can provide. Ew. I shake that thought off fast.
“Is a solution anywhere near?”
“Maybe,” he looks out at the water. “We’re figuring shit out.”
“I don’t mind.”
His head swivels back, but I keep my gaze on the water. “Mind what?”
“Being the place you need.”
He’s silent for so long I feel my cheeks burning again. Was that not what he wanted to hear?
“Getting involved with me is risky, Kinsley.”
“We blew right past the getting involved stage a couple of weeks ago, River.”
He grunts another laugh. “I’ll kill Raven for that.”
“Well, you were being an asshole, she wanted to piss you off.”
“That’s what she does,” he agrees. “We have a problem.”
I sit back and look at him, he isn't talking about the club anymore. “What kind of problem?”
“Not being able to stop.”
We’re getting far too good at talking around things, but I guess that’s who we are. We both know what he means, and truth be told, I feel it too. I think about him all the time. I wonder what he’s doing, if he’s safe. It’s a bad idea. We both know it.
“We should go back,” he says, getting to his feet.
I guess the hard stuff is over. There is no point in pressing him. Getting this much was hard enough. There is nothing conventional about us and I don’t think it could ever last, especially because I am planning to go back to LA. Or I was.
After putting all the trash in a garbage can, Rebel waits for me to get up, and we walk back to the bike. It’s not that late as we ride back and I keep tight hold as I did before, only this time I rest my head on his back and move my hands slowly up and down his chest and abdomen.
My meaning is clear, and when he strokes the underside of my thigh, i know he feels it too.
My heart is pounding at the thought of him taking me back to my place and relieving the growing ache between my thighs. My fingers graze lower and I’m not surprised they’re met with the hardness of his cock.
He rolls the bike to a stop on the churches side of the street, using his feet to hold it steady while I climb off, his thick thighs making me that little more desperate to tear his clothes off.
The sound of voices breaks through the way we’re caught in each other’s gaze, and Rebel looks away first.
The tension in his face makes me look too. It’s Colt and Marisol coming down the steps. Marisol is chattering away and Colt is giving her that patient smile, but he glances our way.
It’s written all over his face he’s checking I’m okay, giving Rebel a cursory once over.
“That dampened the mood,” Rebel mutters.
He’s right. It feels wrong to drag him back to the annex now. Not that Colt will judge me, but I don’t think Rebel is the guy he will encourage me to be with.
“I’ve got shit I need to do,” he says reluctantly.
“I understand.”
He hooks his fingers into my waistband and tugs me toward him. I half expect him to pull me into a kiss, but Rebel won’t do that. Not here in front of the clubhouse, or my cousin.
“Stay inside tonight. Don’t go back to the bar.”
“You think because you bought me Mexican food you can order me around?”
“I think you like it when I order you around.”
“Don’t even try to pretend you don’t like it when I do it too.”
“Fuck,” he shakes his head and leans back.
“Not happening,” I smirk and step away.
He grumbles about being cockblocked, and turns the bike toward the building beside the clubhouse.
The roar of more bikes makes him pause, he doesn’t want to cross in front of them as they draw near. Marisol waves at me, so I head toward them.
“Kinsley!”
Rebel’s yell shocks me enough to whirl around, as the two bikes race towards him, they’re not slowing down.
He jumps off his, not caring that it falls to the ground.
He’s running toward me before I hear the popping sounds.
Someone screams and we go down in a pile of limbs and Rebel yelling again.
He rolls to the side so he doesn’t crush me, but he has his back to the bikes that are now racing away.
“What the hell?” I shake my head, trying to understand what happened. There is more noise, voices yelling, more bikes starting up.
Rebel glances behind him, then shifts a little, running a hand down my body.
“Are you hurt?”
“Besides you landing on me. No… What was that?”
His face is a mask of pure rage. “Are you sure you’re not hurt?”
“No, I don’t think so. Were those gunshots?”
He sits up and helps me. “You need to get inside. Now.”
I nod, and he helps me up. That’s when I see them over his shoulder.
Colt and Marisol.
Both lying on the ground, both still, with blood running down the steps of the church.