Rebel (Renegades 2)

“You’ve just made every five a. m. workout worth it. ”

“Get to work. ”

She forced her gaze to his legs as he pulled one knee at a time toward his chest. But the flex and release of his abs with the movements made her want to lick the dip and swell of every muscle on his body. Curl, release. Curl, release. She dragged her lower lip through her teeth. Lift, lower. Lift, lower.

She put up her hand in a stop gesture. “Fine. Enough. I have what I need. Just e-mail me a list of the exercises he’ll be doing. I’ll program the rest. ”

He rested his legs against the sofa. Kept his hands behind his head and stretched out. “What’s the matter, Russo?”

“Not a thing,” she said, voice heavy with sarcasm, and bent to take one last look into the open hinge. Wes reached out and grabbed her bicep so fast, she started at his touch. By the time she’d enacted some resistance to his tug, it was way too late. Wes dragged her on top of him.

“Wes. ” Rubi dug her knees into the sofa, straddling his hips, and pressed both hands against his chest, trying to push off him, but Wes was too strong.

“Relax. Stretch out. It’s been forty-eight long-ass hours since I felt that beautiful body against mine. Besides, my head is killing me. I’m in no condition to maul you. ” All the humor had disappeared from his eyes. They were smoky gray and sensual, serious. “But a kiss would make me feel so much better. ” He eased her closer. “Just…one…kiss…”

Rubi’s mouth hovered within a breath of Wes’s, his steel-blue eyes looking deep into hers. “This is really what you came over for,” she said, “isn’t it?”

“Actually no. ” He lifted a strand of hair off her forehead, then let his finger slide over her cheekbone, down her jaw. “I came over to pick that amazing brain of yours, but baby, I think I’ve just run out of strength to resist you. ”

A warm spot opened in her chest, and with it, a flutter of panic. She was thrown into that impossible catch-22 again—wanting him, yet terrified of him.

And instead of continued coaxing, he simply lifted to meet her. His lips closed over hers in a possessive but gentle, kiss. And when his lips moved against hers, she couldn’t fight the sensual feel of them. Or the craving that exploded at the feel of his tongue teasing her lips open. For a moment, Rubi forgot why she couldn’t enjoy him. Forgot all about their differences, their challenges, all the reasons she needed to push him away. And her lips parted.

His tongue slid into mouth like it belonged there, and he sighed into her mouth. An unfamiliar sensation washed through her body, one that softened her muscles and eased her mind. She released the lock on her elbows, sinking into the kiss. He had a beautiful mouth. A sensual way with that tongue. His hands came up and framed her face instead of feeling her up. He held her there while he lightened the kiss, pulling his mouth from hers to sip at each lip, then trail kisses over her jaw and behind her ear.

Tingles spread across her skin, and Rubi shivered. She shivered. She never shivered.

“Wes. ” She sounded breathless and dazed, because, well, she was. The panic had softened, overtaken by the soft intimacy between them.

“Hmm…” he murmured as his lips started down her neck.

His teeth skimmed gently over her collarbone, and a sound ebbed from her throat, half sigh, half moan. Her sex ached, and she had to force herself not to lower her hips and press herself against the erection she knew was rock hard and waiting.

One hand moved down her back. She waited for him to grab her ass—that would be what she needed to wake up. To do what she knew she needed to do. But his hand shaped and molded her waist, her hips, back up to her ribs, floated down her spine. Never going for the take. He turned his head and planted soft kisses to the opposite collarbone. Rubi forced her eyes open. She was dizzy with lust. With affection. That warm space inside her continued to grow, and with it, an intangible sense of dread.

She needed to stop. He needed to stop. They needed to stop. Before this went somewhere it shouldn’t and their friendship fell apart.

“Wes,” she said again, searching for the strength in her arms to push back. “What do you want from me? I need to know. Are we going to just fuck and be done, or are we going to stay best fr—”

He tipped his head back and kissed her mouth again. Hungrier this time. Fierce. Possessive. Despite the shot of need traveling down her spine, Rubi pushed back.

Wes’s eyes eased open, heavy-lidded, and he gazed up at her through his light lashes. “It doesn’t have to be either-or, baby. We can have both. ”

Rubi stared down at him a long moment while her mind struggled. “You can have both,” she said. “I can’t. ”

“You’re wrong. ” A familiar steely determination settled into his gaze. “You’re damn wrong, Rubi. You know it, and that scares the shit out of you. ”

Damn right she was scared. She couldn’t think when he was close. He had a way of getting under her skin and making her believe. Making her hope. And belief and hope had always ended in pain.

Rubi needed to break this damn spell he cast over her every time they were close.

She called in reinforcements. “Rodie,” she said, still looking at Wes. “Kiss, kiss. ”

Rodie, who’d been lying beside the sofa, jumped to his feet, tail swinging, and planted his paws on the cushion. He went for Wes first—probably because Rubi was usually lying in that position when she set her computer aside and asked Rodie for kisses. His tongue rolled out and stroked Wes’s cheek, his nose, his lips.

“Oh shit. ” Wes turned his head away, wiping his mouth with a grimace and laughing a groan as he released Rubi to fend off Rodie. “No. Down, Rodie. Stop!”

As soon as Rubi climbed off Wes, Rodie jumped up, and Wes’s laugh rolled from his chest as he tried to hold the seventy-pound dog away from his lower body.