Page 125 of Rebel (Renegades 2)
“You’re standing there pretending you don’t love me. ” He rested his head in his hand. That trapdoor beneath her feet creaked. She could almost feel the tentative happiness they’d found dropping out from under her. “Where is this coming from?”
“Might have been the ‘fuck’ when I asked you to move in with me. ”
“Wes, we’re barely settled into what’s happening now. Moving in together is… I just…” Panic balled in her stomach and turned her spine to ice. “Why do you keep springing these things on me?”
“Because my feelings for you are so strong, they overflow. I love you. I want to be with you every minute we have. And dammit, Rubi, you’re going to be homeless in a week with a seventy-pound dog. ”
The strap tightened until she felt like she was going to pop out of her skin. She wasn’t handling this right, but that was one of her problems—she didn’t know how to handle this type of thing.
She inhaled slowly. Exhaled slowly.
She could figure this out. She could.
“I’ve never lived with anyone before—not even a roommate. I…don’t know how to live with someone. ” All the problems that could arise glared in her mind. “And to make that decision after we’ve only been together for a week—”
“You know we’ve been leading up to this for months. Don’t use the short time we’ve been having sex as the beginning of our—”
Wes’s phone rang. He jerked it from his pocket with a concerned frown marring his forehead. After he looked at the display, he closed his eyes and rubbed them as he answered, “Hey. ”
The female voice on the other end of the line was high-pitched and frantic. Rubi’s chest tightened, sure it was Tori reporting a problem with Wyatt.
“Is that all he said?” Wes asked. “Yes, I know he’s—”
The woman cut him off with more hysterics.
“Did you call the police?” he asked and paused for her answer. “Are your doors locked? Did he say where he was?”
Fuck, it wasn’t Tori. It was Melissa, calling about her drama with the ex.
“I know, Mis. Okay, okay. I’m coming. Just keep the doors locked, and don’t answer until I get there. ”
As soon as Rubi had heard the words “I’m coming,” all the rationality she’d been clawing to hold on to evaporated. As soon as Wes disconnected, she said, “You’re doing what?”
“Dillon threatened her. She’s terrified he’s going to come over. I’m just going to calm her down. I need to tell her about Wyatt anyway, and it will get her mind off Dillon. ”
He pushed to his feet.
A familiar sensation of being dismissed overcame her. “Hello. We’re discussing something important here. Why can’t she have the police calm her down?”
“She called them. ” He took that annoyed, cocky stance, leaning into one hip, head tilted. “They can’t do anything about an alleged phone call. And you and I aren’t talking as much as arguing. ”
“That might be because you keep bombing with emotional bombshells. What we’re talking about is kind of a big deal and, goddammit, you should be more interested in straightening this out with me than in calming your ex-girlfriend down over something that hasn’t even happened—and doesn’t even involve you. ”
“It does involve me, Rubi. We’re friends. ” He gave her an irritated, condescending look. “And this is what friends do for each other. ”
That hit deep. And low. As if she didn’t know what friends did for each other. Because she didn’t have many.
They were both tired. Both stressed. She knew. But that didn’t give him the right to abandon her in the middle of something important.
“And I’m the woman you love,” she said, drawing the line between a friend and a lover clearly. “Don’t walk out on me. ”
“For Christ’s sake, Rubi, I’m not walking out on you. ” He gripped her upper arms and kissed her forehead, then turned for the door. “I’ll be back in less than an hour. ”
Rubi’s heart hardened over. She followed him out into the hall and gripped the banister as he skipped down the stairs. “Wes, don’t—”
Whitney stepped into the foyer, and Rubi bit back her words. His sister’s gaze darted up to Rubi, then landed on Wes as he reached for the door. “What’s wrong? Where are you going?”
“Melissa’s having trouble with Dillon. I won’t be long. ”
