Rebel (Renegades 2)

He meant Daniel Craig, the Bond film’s star.

She slid her phone into her back pocket as she came up behind him, and pressed both hands to that tense space between his neck and shoulders. His body was warm and damp with sweat. The same delicious sensation she’d had at the club slammed into her again, creating a fist of want deep in her belly.

She squeezed Wes’s muscle, and he groaned a long exhale, then massaged the tight, dense muscle—something she would have done regardless of what had happened the night before. Something she would have done for any Renegade.

Right.

“Tired today?” she asked.

“Yeah. Someone wound me up tight last night. Took me forever to fall asleep. ”

“I think you’ve got the winding-up part backwards,” she said. “How’s your brother?”

“So far, so good. ” He turned and glanced up at her. “Hey, can we talk more about those hinges?”

She had known this was coming. After last night, it seemed spending time with him would be an ongoing issue. “Of course. ” She pushed on his shoulders. “Lean forward. You’re too tight to be throwing your body around like that. You’re going to hurt yourself. ”

He groaned as he braced his elbows on his thighs and his head in his hands. Rubi angled her elbow into the thick muscle at the base of his neck and added pressure until the muscle resisted, then held it.

“Holy…fuck…” His breathing turned choppy. “What…are you…doing?”

“Releasing your muscle. Don’t tense against me. Let go. ”

His muscle melted beneath her pressure as he let the tension ebb. “Oh my God…that’s…better than an adrenaline rush. ”

Rubi smiled. “That’s saying something. ”

“Got that right. ”

Silence fell, and Rubi chewed on her bottom lip. Easing pressure off the muscle, she moved her elbow toward his shoulder blade and slowly leaned into the compression. “We…should talk about last night. ”

He reached back, grabbed her forearms and used them to pull her around in front of him. Then he gripped her waist, separated her knees with his and pulled her into a straddle across his lap.

She gasped and grabbed his shoulders. Her heart rate spiked. The chair had no rungs. Nowhere for her to plant her feet and lift off him. He gripped her hips and pulled her closer, growling when his package rubbed between her legs.

“Wes—“

“I want you looking into my eyes when you try to trash our arrangement. ”

“We didn’t make an arrangement.

“What does that make last night? Other than a fucking fantasy come true, I mean?”

A mistake. She scooted off his lap and stood. Crossed her arms. But that didn’t stop the desire flooding her body in a waterfall of heat. “Look, Wes, our friendship doesn’t fit the whole friends-with-benefits model. I really think—”

He laughed, eyes closed, smile stretched across his handsome face. “Baby, you’ve been spending too much time in business meetings. Where’d you get this idea of a ‘model’?”

Embarrassment flushed her face and she bit the inside of her lip. “Internet. ” As soon as his smile grew again, she added, “Don’t laugh. It makes a lot of sense. ” She covered her face, rubbing at the tingle in her cheeks. “And I seem to need help making sense right now. ”

He sat forward and pressed his elbows on his knees. His gray eyes were clear and serious, but also rich with affection. “If you need help making sense of us, listen to your body. It knows exactly what you need. And even if there were some type of ‘model’ to this friends-with-benefits thing, I wouldn’t follow it. I was born to break rules, baby. We both were. All we need is an understanding between the two of us, not a one-size-fits-all list of ‘shoulds’ created by some geek staff writer for an online rag. ”

Damn, she didn’t know what to think or how to feel. She only knew she wanted to escape the pressure caused whenever she thought about this situation.

“I know this freaks you out, so let’s keep it simple for now—sex when we want to fuck and friends the rest of the time. ”

Her belly burned with the implications. A huge part of her wanted to scream yes. Absolutely. Let’s start now.

Instead, she frowned, narrowing her eyes on him. “You think you can do that?”