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"Nope," I say, taking another spoonful of soup. "But no one knows me here. I'm not Jonas's little sister in Nashville. I'm just a random girl. I like it."
I don't mention the fact that moving in with Jonas was my only option. My parents were not going to agree to let me leave the country unless I came here. I may be grown, but I'll never be that grown to my parents.
We eat in silence for a few minutes before I work up the courage to ask him what I've been dying to know since he brought it up earlier. "Did I really um…" I try to think of a delicate way to put it but I can't think of one. "Well, the first time we met, were you really…?"
"Are you trying to ask if I was lying about you making my dick hard, Rebel?" he asks, leaning back in his chair with his hands laced together behind his head. His cocky smirk and the amused glint in his amber eyes is far too sexy.
"No. Yes." I huff. "Maybe."
"I wasn't lying." He meets my gaze, his unyielding and honest. "I haven't been able to get you out of my head since then. You think I was only at that club last night because Jonas asked me to help him get in?"
"I…" I lick my lips. "Yes."
"I was there for you." He rises to his feet, causing his chair to scrape across the cement. My heart thuds in time to his steps as he circles around the table to me. One step. Thud. Two steps. Thud. Three. Thud. Four. He wraps his hand around my chin, tilting my head back until my eyes meet his again. "Had Gordon touched you, I would have ripped his fucking head off."
"Oh," I whisper.
He holds his hand out to me, waiting until I extend mine to pull me up from my chair. He's so close, my nose brushes his chest. I feel the heat rolling off him. Lord, he's ungodly powerful. I'm not a small girl, but he dwarfs me, his frame swallowing my shadow like a black hole. Only it isn't destructive, cold, or terrifying. It's grounding, warm, and exhilarating. He centers me, makes me feel a little less chaotic.
Most of my life, I've been spinning like a top, unmoored and directionless. I don't feel that way now. For the first time, I feel like I'm right where I'm supposed to be, doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. There is no rush to escape, no wildness threatening to burst free. I'm just…still. Content. I don't think I've ever been to either of those things before now.
"I thought about you," I confess, craning my head back to meet his gaze again. "Um, at first, I thought it was just because you annoyed me. But I never really stopped thinking about you." My tongue dances across my bottom lip as nervous energy fills me. "That's part of the reason I went to the club last night."
"Explain."
"I've been thinking about you nonstop but had this thought in my head that you didn't even remember I existed. You were so rude the first time we met." I shrug helplessly. "I guess I was tired of thinking about something I couldn't have."
"You wouldn't have found what you were looking for in that club, Rebel."
Except…I did find it. I found him. Or he found me. Either way, he's standing in front of me right now, saying things that still feel surreal to me. He barely knows me. Yet he's risking everything for me. Yet he's touching me like I matter. Yet he looks at me like he wants to devour me. Yet he makes me split pea soup just so I can have a taste of home.
Who is this man?
"I think I found exactly what I was looking for in that club," I murmur, tangling my hands up in his shirt to draw him closer to me. It's a bold move. But he makes me feel bold.
His smirk lets me know it's the right move. "You're going to be all kinds of trouble for me, aren't you, Rebel?"
"Who me? Never, Superstar."
Chapter Five
Kellan
"Who me? Never, Superstar."
The gorgeous little minx is lying through her teeth. She's going to be nothing but trouble for me. Ask me if I care. I made my decision when she texted me this morning. Hell, maybe I made it as soon as I set eyes on her at the club last night. I don't know. All I know is that our course is set and there's no going back.
I'm playing for keeps now. She may not know it yet, but she will.
Sooner or later, she'll realize I'm only playing by the rules she set until they're no longer convenient. As soon as we bring home the Cup, I'm telling Jonas about us. And then I'm making her mine permanently.
