Chapter Forty-One #3
“I have to, K-Kaia. This date was so important to me. I don’t know if you’re lame and corny.
Or if you know my detail is watching. Or if you still see me as CJ’s little sister.
” Or if he worried about paying the tab.
“It doesn’t feel right between us.” When they texted, words came so easily from both of them.
She’d expected the same on an actual date.
“I value myself and my time too fucking much to sit here and feel so awkward.”
He stared at her a moment, then burst out laughing. Walking around the table, he hugged her.
“I’ve never had a chick read me the way you did and stand up for herself all in one breath.
” He kissed her cheek, settled his hands on her upper arms, and smiled.
“My family doesn’t have money. I went to Ridge Moore through financial aid, funded by the school.
I had to maintain my grades so the debt would be forgiven. Same with Kayce.”
“Ridge Moore has financial aid?”
He nodded, then dropped his hands and stepped back. “Don’t go, Reb. Please?”
She hesitated.
“I know those bikers are here for you. I know they’re packing and it makes me a little fucking nervous. If I do the wrong thing, I can get my ass shot off.”
“They won’t do anything. Luckily, they couldn’t hear you say you want to kiss me.” She flushed at the thought, then looked at the table where the guys sat, staring in her direction. “I can ask D. Elliot to put us in a private room.”
“No!” Panic flared in Kaia’s eyes. “They’d barge in and shoot me on GP.
Besides…” He thrust a hand through his sexy hair.
“Fuck, man, I’ve never wanted to impress a girl as much as I do you.
After taxes, I clear just under five hundred bucks a week.
I’m saving for a car. I live over a garage and pay a grand a month.
I…fuck! Girls usually pay my way on dates. ”
She snapped her brows together. “I didn’t think to pay our tab. I did consider how to help out, though, by having our date put on my daddy’s account.”
He winced. “That would’ve been worse.”
“Actually, it would’ve been the best you got. There’s no fucking way I’d take out my debit card and pay for a date you invited me to.”
She returned to her seat, so he sat again as well.
“You suggested J’s,” he argued.
“You asked me where I wanted to go.”
He nodded at their menus. They had yet to pick them up. The minute the hostess guided them to the table, D. Elliot was there.
“You’re so gorgeous,” Kaia said. “I was expecting you to be in jeans, T-shirt, and boots. But you look like a doll.” He leaned closer. “A fuck doll.”
She blinked. Those voices rose again. She couldn’t turn and see about the commotion. Kaia’s gaze held her captive.
“I like you a lot, Rebel. But I want to fuck you, too—”
Before he finished, a crash interrupted and startled Rebel. She jerked toward the sound. The handymen had all converged at the bar and—
“Reb?”
She jerked in surprise and swung around. Somehow, Bishop ended up behind her and she hadn’t noticed.
Heated whispers carried to her. They almost sounded like—
Bishop grabbed her hand. “We need to talk,” he announced, glaring at Kaia, who flushed.
Tugging her toward the booth with Torrin, Narci, and Potter, Bishop stood so firmly at her side and walked so fast, the clutch of handymen was little more than a blur.
“We don’t like the way he’s looking at you,” Narci said flatly, the moment she arrived at the table.
Rebel glanced over her shoulder. The distance from where she stood to the table she sat at with Kaia was close enough to decipher facial features, she supposed. But something about Narci’s statement struck her as odd.
Torrin chomped into a piece of bread. “If he keeps it up, we have to yank his tongue out.”
“Tongue?” Rebel echoed. It was as if they’d heard her conversation.
Of course they had! She probably had a tracker and a microphone on her. Huffing, she glared at the four of them. The moment she returned to her table, she’d give Bishop her purse.
Let them listen to each other!
“This is my private date, dickheads,” she whisper-yelled. “Stop listening to me. Your presence is already intimidating him.”
“He sounds like a fucking pussy,” Bishop complained.
Glaring at him, she whirled around and stormed back to the table, unsurprised that Bishop stalked behind her.
At the table, she snatched her bag and smacked his chest with it. His big hands gripped her purse.
“Take it,” she screeched. “Stop spying on me!”
Instead of responding, Bishop glared at her date. “Behave, motherfucker. Understand?”
Kaia gulped. “Yeah, Bishop. Just chill, dude.”
Why did those words sound so familiar?
Rebel’s skin crawled. “CJ set me up,” she said, suddenly so crushed and defeated she didn’t know what to do. “You don’t really like me—” No wonder they couldn’t find anything to talk about in person .
Panic touched Kaia’s face before it disappeared, and he shook his head. “That isn’t true, Rebel. CJ has repeatedly warned me to keep my distance from you.”
“You know Bishop,” she accused, her eyes stinging, her body warm. She felt as red as a beet.
“I’ve met him before,” Kaia admitted without hesitation. “Bishop has come to school to drop shit off for CJ. Sometimes, he stayed for practice.”
She fingered her necklace. Absently touched the stone.
“She’s a fucking virgin and she will be for the next five or ten years, Kaia,” Bishop said. “Not only that but she’s underage. Keep your fucking hands to yourself.”
Rebel gasped and threw Bishop a violent look. If she had a gun, she would’ve shot him. “You’re a fucking asshole.”
“I gave up time in Nyx’s pussy to be here,” he grouched.
“Whose fault is that? You could’ve turned Momma down.”
“It isn’t her fault. It’s yours. You didn’t have to look so fucking gorgeous. If you’d just worn fucking jeans, I’d be balls deep in pussy.”
“Eww. That’s disgusting.”
He smirked at her. “No, that’s how it is when you fuck. You stick your cock into pussy all the way to the hilt.”
She searched her mind to recall the porn she’d snuck-watched on Diesel’s account.
“No. That isn’t true. Cocks go in and out.
Sometimes. Most of the time,” she amended, images whirling through her head, “it’s only halfway in.
It clearly cannot go all the way,” she added, ignoring Bishop’s choking and Kaia’s shock and interest.
A high-pitched scream startled her. She jerked her attention toward the bar, but Bishop planted himself in her line of vision .
“What…? Reb… Uh… Fuck…” He gaped at her. “How the fuck do you even know that?” he finally pushed out.
“Flicks,” she responded, trying to remember a cooler name than pornos and a less generic one than adult films.
Bishop mumbled something, turned, and rushed back to his booth. He grabbed his drink and emptied the glass, while Potter, Narci, and Torrin stared at her.
She saluted them, then reseated herself, pleased she’d outsmarted them by giving up her purse.
“You’re dangerous,” Kaia said. “Too fucking innocent to know better. Too fucking gorgeous to be ignored.”
She disregarded his words. “Tell me the truth. Did CJ recruit you? My brothers are against me going on a date. I could see him trying to make me happy while keeping control of the situation.” Lowering her lashes, she studied her water glass.
“He’s smart and kind and loyal. I couldn’t ask for a better big brother, but the thought that I’ll never date without his or Daddy’s interference is crushing.
He can live his life however he pleases.
Daddy will advise him. Momma fights for me, but we’re both up against them .
They always find a way to get what they want. ”
Kaia gave her a tender smile, took her hand in his and kissed the back of it. He stared into her eyes and said, “no, CJ didn’t recruit me, sweetheart.”
“They got Grant, my cousin—who’s not really my cousin—to ask me out.”
“Mrs. Harrington’s grandson, right, babe?”
She grinned, pleased he’d paid attention to her. “Yeah. Anyway, he fumbled his invitation. Your awkwardness would track with his clumsiness. Grant is so charming and smooth. But he didn’t really want to ask me out and you don’t really want to be here. I’m just a favor.”
“That isn’t true, Reb. ”
She suspected it was. “I dressed for you,” she said quietly.
She felt so stupid. “Momma and I went shopping just for this date.” She held up her hands, her sapphire blue false nails shimmering with nail art.
“I even got a manicure.” She wanted to cry so bad, her throat was beginning to hurt.
“But it was all for nothing. You don’t even like my outfit.
Just another sign we really don’t have anything in common.
I’ve always loved to dress in my mother’s evening clothes.
” She smiled. “I used to. I’m seven or eight inches taller than her now. ”
“I noticed.”
“Can we go? I release you from your obligation. I won’t tell CJ I figured it out. I’ll just tell him it didn’t work out. Besides, we haven’t even chosen our meal and I’m getting hungry.”
“Do you like me, Rebel?”
Irritation surged through her. “Go fuck yourself.”
He chuckled. “I’m not trying to get you to admit to something to tease you, babe.
I like you. A lot. Everything I said to you is because I like you.
I have never paid for a girl in my life.
I get girls to do whatever I want. The girls I hang with prefer jeans.
CJ is so fucking proud of you. He trusts your judgment.
Not only would it please him that you love him so much, he’d never disrespect you by recruiting me to ask you out.
Think about it, sweetheart. You were cutting class the day we met.
He didn’t know your location because he didn’t know what you did, so he couldn’t have sent me to you. ”
She released the breath she’d been holding and her belly unclenched. “You’re right.” The words mirrored CJ’s advice.
Kaia remained silent.