Page 63 of Reckless Rebel

Treacherous thoughts cloud my mind as I think about making her mine. What would it be like to give into my impulses, to have her pressed against me like this with no barriers between us? I shift us around and my hard dick brushes between the apex of her thighs and I note the surprise and desire in her eyes. She swallows deeply and I feel her chest rise and fall rapidly against my own.

I’m playing with fire, but I always did like the burn.

“You’re looking at me like you want me to kiss you again, Riles.”

She smiles softly. “Maybe I do.” I track a droplet of water that cascades down her cheek, pausing slightly at the edge of her lip before dripping off. The need to trace the pattern it just followed is like no other. Her legs tighten ever so slightly bringing her pussy down onto my cock and I have to fight back a groan. I need to move, we can’t cross the line again, we shouldn’t.

“We should go,” I whisper, and I don’t miss the flash of regret on her face before she smiles and nods, letting her legs fall from my waist and swimming away without another word.

I swim after her and we reach the rocky shore at the same time, and I fall in line behind her as she storms towards where we left our clothes. She picks up a towel and begins to pat herself dry, but I can’t tear my eyes away from her to do the same. She catches me looking but chooses to ignore me until I take a step towards her.

“Riley?” I whisper her name like a curse and her head snaps towards mine.

“What, Jace?” She says my name with a plea like she is tired of fighting against me, like she is as sick of this thing between us as I am. “What do you want from me?”

I must pause too long at her words because she shakes her head and goes back to the task of drying off. I move to step away from her but the pull between us is too strong. She is too good for me, but sometimes the bad is too much fun. Fuck it.

I grab her by the back of her neck and pull her towards me. “I want everything from you, Red.”

I slam my lips to hers and she gasps in shock at the contact allowing me to slip my tongue in her mouth. It tangles with hers in the most tantalizing, erotic dance, and I moan at the taste of her.

Our lips move in tandem with one another and I know immediately that one kiss will never be enough. That this one kiss changes everything. My hands lightly grip her throat and I tip her chin back to deepen the kiss. She follows me easily, pressing her damp body against mine and moaning when she feels my hardness on her stomach. I swallow it down and beg for more, she tastes so fucking good.

Her hands aren’t shy as they roam up my arms and onto my shoulders, her fingers tracing the ink of tattoos as she goes. Her grip tightens around me like she thinks I might disappear, and I let one of my hands drop so I can slide it down her spine and grab her ass, pulling her against me even more. My cock is screaming for attention and I know she can feel it as she rises onto her tiptoes and attempts to gain some friction of her own.

I don’t know how long we stay like that, lost in each other's kiss, but when I pull back we are both breathless as we stare at one another. I lean in and drop a gentle peck to her lips, and then drop my forehead to hers as I catch my breath. I know I have just made a big mistake in kissing her, but being in the wrong has never felt so right.

“You kissed me,” she whispers, her breath warm against my mouth. “I thought you didn’t kiss anyone.”

I laugh, “You aren’t just anyone, Red.”

I see the slight shake of her head, “You were not part of any of my plans.”

I pull back to cup her cheeks again, “So wreck the plans, Riles, wreck them for me.”

I stare into her eyes as I wait for her to say something else, anything else, but as she opens her mouth to speak her phone ringtone blares into the tense silence between us. She sighs and I let my hands drop from her face, but I don’t move, not until she does, and the loss of her body against mine has me having to stop myself from dragging her back. She leaves nothing but ice in her wake and all I can think is, why the fuck did I just kiss her?

Good girls don’t fall for bad boys.

32

Riley

He kissed me. That is still the only thought swirling around my brain hours later as I lay awake in bed. We ate dinner on the deck as a family and he didn't speak to me once, concentrating solely on entertaining Sofia. He barely looked my way after we left the waterfall, and I could almost think I imagined it, if it weren’t for the fact my lips are still swollen from his brutal, lust-filled attack. I haven’t kissed a lot of people, just Rick, and a few other boys from school, but I have never been kissed the way Jace kissed me today. His kiss consumed me, like he wanted to prove he owned me through the power of his lips, and the worst part of it all, it worked.

Silly little crush, three meaningless words I wasted my mind on, this isn’t just a crush, this is it, the thing people search for. When someone comes into your world and lights it on fire, burning everything around you until all that is left is the two of you. It’s barely been two months since Jace crashed into my life and turned it upside down, but time is insignificant with something like this, the only thing that matters is how you feel.

Being with Rick felt like being home, he was a safe space, something that I’d always known. Someone I thought I could trust, someone I thought I loved, but I’m not sure anymore, because being around Jace feels like being on the front row of a roller coaster, my heart is in my throat, butterflies in my stomach, and adrenaline coursing through my veins. He's the kind of guy who asks you to close your eyes and jump, and you do it just for the thrill. Just to say you held his hand and took a leap of faith. When I'm with him I feel more like myself than ever, so why was his kiss laced in regret?

The push and pull between us has my insides doing somersaults, one minute he is keeping me at arm’s length and telling me he can’t let me in, and the next he is bringing me to orgasm in a closet and kissing me senseless at waterfalls. How can I know how he really feels if he constantly pushes me away? I’m not stupid, I heard what he said after the party, what he did, but I don’t believe for a second that it makes him a bad person, it was just a bad situation.

I can't lay in bed a second longer while I am this restless, so I get up, throw on some of my dance gear and quietly leave my room. I grab a bottle of water from the kitchen, bypass Jace’s room, and head outside onto the deck. I go through the motions of my stretches, letting the rustling of the leaves, and the howl of the wind be my soundtrack for the evening. I have been dancing ever since I was a kid, something I started as a hobby but it soon became something much more to me. Dancing is the only time I truly feel like myself, whether it be ballet or contemporary, it’s a way for me to show off and say things I can’t communicate with words.

I shut off my mind and allow my body to take over, moving to a silent rhythm as I spin and prance across the deck. Inspiration for new moves and routines pour through me and I dance until I am panting and breathless, only stopping when I can barely catch my breath. I stumble to the rail, inhaling deeply to try and get air back into my lungs and feel the sweat clinging to my back.

“Not sure what I did to deserve a private show like that, but I give thanks to all the gods.” My head snaps around at the sound of his voice.

“Jace,” I say breathlessly, startled by his presence lurking in the darkened corner of the deck, smoke billowing around him as he inhales a joint before stubbing it out. “I didn’t know you were out here.”

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