Rebel (Renegades #2)(76)
Author: Skye Jordan

“God…”

Her teeth closed over his shoulder and a scream rumbled in her throat. Her pu**y clenched around him, the muscles convulsing, squeezing his orgasm forward. He let his own scream of release come, filling the cab with the guttural sound of pleasure. Let himself feel the thrill roll through him in waves.

Rubi’s forehead rested on his shoulder. Her hot breath streamed through the cotton of his T-shirt. Her heart beat quickly against his chest. And Wes felt the impact of that figurative brick wall, his head wobbly and dazed.

“Lawson,” she said between breaths, “you rock my world.”

That tickled something inside him, and laughter rolled up his throat. Then he had to catch his breath again before he said, “You f**king…floor me.”

“Well…we’ve got that…going for us, right?”

He dropped his head back on the seat and lifted a hand to push the hair from her eyes. They were heavy-lidded, smoky, and sated. Her full mouth a little more swollen from his assault. Christ, he’d missed her so much, it hurt to look at her. He kissed her gently. “We’ve got a hell of a lot more than that going for us, baby.”

So relaxed after that blockbuster quickie, Rubi almost fell asleep on Wes’s shoulder. He was warm and quiet, his arm tight around her shoulders, his fingers sliding through her hair in a barely there caress that soothed her toward sleep.

Then the car slowed, turned, and gravel crunched under the tires.

She came awake quickly and with a fresh ball of unease in her gut. In the headlights, the house where she’d met Birdie and Claudia stood illuminated. But now it didn’t look at all tranquil. The quiet country home bustled with activity. Cars and trucks lined the drive. Golden light spilled from every window. People stood in the kitchen, sat in the family room, wandered the living room. Children streaked between the rooms, and their voices reached Rubi all the way out where Wes parked, a dozen yards or more from the house.

“Um…” She lifted her head from his shoulder as he turned off the engine. “Are they having a party…or something?”

Wes grinned, but it wasn’t as wide or bright as his carefree smile. “Not exactly.” He unwrapped his arm from around her shoulders. “My parents are back—they went to Kansas City today on business. Looks like Whitney is here, and, well, a few other relatives.”

“A few?”

“We’ve got a big family that seems to congregate whenever there’s a wedding, birth, death, holiday…or, in this case, surgery.”

A flutter in her stomach carried the knot toward her throat. “Ah.”

Her mind was busy darting between skipping out—she could think of a million excuses—and staying. For Wes. She knew meeting his family was important to him, and she already felt bad over the realization that she’d originally come for selfish motives.

Wes opened the door, slid out, and turned, reaching for her. He gripped her waist and pulled her into him, kissing her as he lowered her feet to the ground. His lips were gentle, the kiss slow and tender. “I can’t wait to get you…”—he kissed her again—“in a bed…”—and again—“for an entire night.”

Rubi’s nerves coiled. The idea sounded blissful in some ways, terrifying in others. And that streak of discomfort that kept popping up whenever she experienced a solid foundation of happiness annoyed the hell out of her. Even acknowledging the conditioned response for what it was didn’t do anything to make it less terrifying.

“Hey.”

Rubi turned her gaze from the house—where she hadn’t realized she’d focused—back to Wes.

“You don’t have to meet them tonight,” he said. “You’ve had a long day. Want me to find someplace to stay? We’ll go there.”

She couldn’t stand the disappointment in his eyes. “No. It’s fine. I just…”

I just don’t know how to socialize in normal situations. Put her in a bar, a club—even a sex club, and she knew how to control the situation. Put her in a group of studly men, like the Renegades, and she could pull their strings like a puppeteer. Put her in a business meeting, and she could hold her own with the brightest minds in the industry. At a photo shoot, she owned the cameras. On the runway, she possessed the crowd.

But put her in a room full of relatives, people who had a myriad of invisible connections with each other, who loved each other, felt obligation and fondness and duty to each other, and she was a sailboat in a storm.

“I’m just warning you,” she said, sliding her hands over his biceps, “I’m not good at this.”

“You do it with me and Lexi and Jax and the other guys all the time.” He threaded their fingers as they made their way up the stairs. “We’re like family. Just think of this as meeting extended family.”

Easier said than done. Especially for someone who didn’t understand the concept of family. But for Wes, she smiled and nodded.

Approaching the house, Rubi realized the scene inside was even more chaotic than she’d first suspected. There weren’t just people in the kitchen and living room, but milling deeper in the house as well. And there were more children, more than just Wes’s two nieces.

Anxiety sang over her nerves. For a reason she couldn’t begin to understand, she flashed back to her life as a kid and all the turmoil with her father. Their millions of fights. Her dozens of nannies—only a few of whom were ever good to Rubi.

At the door, Wes leaned forward and gripped the handle. But he paused, settled those beautiful gray eyes on Rubi. “I’ve got your back, okay? Just be yourself, baby. I know my family, and if I love you, they’ll love you.”

One of the kids inside squealed—the pitch so high, the sound so loud, Rubi winced. A houseful of laughter followed, but that didn’t settle Rubi’s nerves. Wes opened the door and pushed it wide, his other hand settled on her lower back, ushering her into the house.

Panic gripped Rubi. Stepping over the threshold felt a hell of a lot like stepping off an emotional cliff. And she had the most surreal sensation of time slowing as she stood there on the polished hardwood floors, just where she’d been earlier today.

The house slowly went eerily quiet as conversations stopped and all attention turned on them. Correction—on her. She swore every person in the room gave her a slow sweep with their eyes, from the very tip of Rubi’s head to the pointed heels of her pumps. She calculated most of the gazes filled with shock. Not exactly a surprise she didn’t fit in.