Rebel: Enemies to Lovers Bully Romance

by Savannah Rose

  She’s kissing me back with as much urgency as I’m pouring into the exchange. My hands find her ass and I grab and spank her only to be rewarded with a slight moan. That part is for show. But still, Janey Bradshaw has a sensual side. Who knew?

  “Alright, alright, that’s enough,” Gabriel calls out and I step back from Janey and stare at her. Her brown eyes are on fire and she’s panting as hard as her heart is throwing beats against her chest. I can’t say that my own heartbeat isn’t out of control. And I can still feel Janey on my lips, can still taste the hint of strawberry from her gloss. I shake my head and try to throw away the memories of this along with the way she’s looking at me right now.

  She’d better not think too deeply into that.

  It meant nothing.

  I walk back into Gabe’s office. “Alright champ, what’s the favor?”

  “I need to borrow Rick’s bike.”

  He’s quiet for a moment, thinking it over before fishing out the keys to the Harley from the locked drawer.

  He tosses the keys to me. “There’s a curfew,” he reminds me.

  “I know.”

  “You can’t come back tonight so makes sure you do long strokes.” He smirks and I want to wipe the smirk off his face with the bottom of my shoe. Instead of shooting myself in the foot, I nod my head and turn to leave.

  Back in the hallway, I find Janey settled into the sofa, looking small enough to be swallowed whole by it. Her fingers are knotted in her lap and she’s going to work on her bottom lip. She perks up when she sees me, and I glance behind me at Gabe who’s decided to walk me to the door.

  “She looks like a good girl,” he comments, and he’s not wrong.

  “Good girls give the best head,” I respond, and I know it’s the right answer because he returns to his office without another word, chuckling to himself.

  4

  Janey

  I’ve pictured my first kiss maybe a thousand times and never had I once pictured this. My lips and body are buzzing from Kace’s erotic assault and I don’t think my heart remembers what it’s like to beat normally.

  Touching my lips lightly, I find myself smiling at the memory of his taste. It means nothing, I know that. But at the same time, it felt like everything. So much so that the fear of being where I am right now, is replaced with something nonsensical.

  Lucky for me, my thoughts are interrupted by the door. Kace is talking to that Gabe character who, though different in every single way, shares a slight resemblance with Kace. He’s saying something I can’t quite make out and I strain harder, stopping my breath to listen. The smattering of the conversation I catch has something to do with giving good head.

  I hope to God he’s not talking about me. It was just a kiss. A really great kiss. One I’m sure I’ll be thinking about for weeks to come, but I’m not giving him head, not even if he held a gun to mine. This certainly looks like the kind of place to hold guns to heads. Grim walls, decorated with a slap of ‘I don’t give a shit’. There’s no love in the décor, no pictures on the walls. Despite the fact that it’s worlds cleaner than the outside, and everything is pretty much in order, it’d be a longshot calling this place a home.

  ‘Not now Janey,’ I try to calm myself down and I’m relieved when Kace motions with his head for me to follow him. We walk down to a garage and I watch as he draws a cover from a motorcycle. My mouth falls open as I realize what’s happening.

  No. No. No. No! “I’m not getting on that thing,” I protest, and I can hear the fear in my voice.

  Kace seems exasperated and not the least bit concerned with how terrified I am.

  “I really don’t have the time for this. You’re either getting on or you’re walking the fuck home.” He climbs on and with the turn of the ignition, the motorcycle roars to life. He looks like sex personified, no kidding. That doesn’t exactly help to tame anything inside of me. My mind flashes back to the kiss, to the heat of his lips against mine and how impossible it’ll be not to revel in that if I’m pressed up right against him on the back of this machine.

  “You’ve got five seconds. What’s it going to be?”

  There’s a dare buried somewhere in his face. I know Kace better than to think that he won’t ride off into the sunset without me, just to prove a point, which means I have one option and one option only. Rise up to meet the challenge.

  When I step towards him, he hands me the helmet resting on the handlebar. I fix the ponytail he had me tie on top of my head before sliding it on. Turning slightly, Kace offers a hand to help me on the bike. As I settle on the back of the bike, I’m still trying to adjust the helmet. It’s stuffy in here, claustrophobic even. Deciding that this is as good as it’s going to get, I stop fiddling around and wait for Kace to put his on. But he never does.

  “Ever ridden on a bike before?” he asks over his shoulder, giving me a better view of those lips that were just on mine.

  I shake my head.

  “I didn’t think so,” he smirks.

  He does something with his feet and the motorcycle moves.

  “Hang on to me,” he calls back, and I rest my hands on his hips.

  “Around me Janey. Put your arms around me.” He smirks again, and I do as I’m told.

  “Where am I taking you?”

  ‘Anywhere but here,’ I find myself thinking as I take a deep breath and inhale his scent. I can’t quite place it, but it makes me feel safe even when it shouldn’t.

  “Janey?”

  “Yeah?”

  He sighs and I can tell he’s frustrated. I snap out of whatever random spell I found myself under and clear my throat.

  “Where am I taking you?”

  “School.”

  “School? You really can’t get enough of that place, can you?”

  “That’s where I’m parked.” I blush and he nods.

  “Hang on.”

  The roar sounds more powerful this time and my hands naturally find their way around him as though they were always meant to be there; like they’d been there my whole life.

  “Don’t let go,” Kace whispers, and I feel myself swoon for what must be the millionth time in the past twenty minutes.

  Something tells me that even after this ride is over, I still won’t be able to let him go.

  5

  Janey

  “Hey, are you coming?” Erika is standing at the bottom of the school steps with her hands on her hips waiting for me to emerge from the trance I’m in.

  “Yeah,” I mumble.

  “Why do you keep staring at that motorcycle, anyway?” she asks, and I blush.

  How do I explain to her what happened last night?

  What I saw. What I did.

  I can’t seem to find the words. Besides, I’m quite sure she won’t understand because I’m still struggling to wrap my brain around my own impulsive behavior, and all the new and exciting thoughts that have been racing through my mind and across my skin since last night, leaving me dotted with goosebumps.

  I shake my head and walk over to her, taking one last glance back at the life-changing vehicle.

  “You’re being weird,” Erika notes.

  “No more than usual, I hope,” I quip, making a silly face at her and she smiles.

  I’ve known Erika for what seems like forever.

  Both our fathers went to law school together and after years of separation, wound up reconnecting at a company function where they discovered that they were working for different branches of the same firm.

  Erika and I met for the first time when we were around five and we’ve been inseparable since then. She likes to think that she knows me better than anyone. Cori would disagree, I’m sure, but Erika is definitely a close second.

  However, neither Cori nor Erika know anything about last night and I haven’t decided which one of them to tell first. Or if I’ll tell any of them at all. Somehow, keeping it to myself does seem like the most attractive option. Besides, this isn’t a story that necessarily paints me in
the best light.

  Eighteen-year-old woman follows a man known to exhibit irrational and sometimes hostile behavior into an unknown community at night, only to find herself literally in the waiting room of hell and escorted out on a speeding metal death trap after being manhandled and kissed by the hellion she decided to stalk in the first place.

  It hadn’t ended there either.

  I had tried to talk to Kace when we got to the parking lot, but he had completely shot the conversation down.

  “Janey, this is getting old and I’m losing patience. I don’t need a tail. Stay the hell out of my business or you’re going to wind up getting yourself seriously hurt. I have no interest in coming to your rescue again after tonight. You got lucky, but your luck is running out, do you understand me?” His voice was stern. “If you pull shit like this again, I swear you’re on your own and your blood won’t be on my hands. Got it?”

  It felt like I was being lectured, which I’m sure I deserved after the antics I had pulled, but I still didn’t like it. I had gone home in a foul mood, sulking at Kace’s rebuke, but the moment I entered the shower, everything changed.

  The sting of his rebuke melted into the foam of my body gel and swirled its way down the drain in a hushed whisper as the warm water caressed the smoothness of my tingling skin. All tension seemed to leave my body as thoughts of his lecture were replaced by a vivid, though possibly exaggerated recollection of our heated exchange.

  My lips tingled with the taste of him and my butt felt as though his hands were still on me. I closed my eyes and let the steam from the shower engulf me as I tried desperately to purge my thoughts. It had only gotten worse after I left the shower and climbed into bed. My nipples tightening beneath the smoothness of my silk nightdress, and the air conditioner in my room did nothing to help the situation either. As I wrapped myself in my blanket, I imagined that it was Kace’s arms wrapped protectively around me.

  I thought about how eagerly I had thrown my arms around his neck in that miserable alley and groaned from embarrassment. Not at all my smoothest moment. I had waited eighteen years to feel something like that and my body was committed to dragging out these new sensations long after I made up my mind to go to bed.

  My dreams were like the scenes from a movie. Kace had completely invaded my senses and there seemed to be no escaping him. I could see his strong jaw and alluring smirk. I could still smell his unique musk and taste his lips on mine. I could hear his voice rumbling my name and feel it vibrating through me, sending shockwaves to my core, eliciting a strange desire from within me.

  When I woke up this morning, it felt as though I had not slept.

  It’s completely irrational, but I have a burning need to see him. Just to confirm that I’m not losing my mind. That last night actually happened, and that he’s okay.

  When I drove into the school compound, I was surprised to see the bike was still parked in the parking lot. Kace has never once arrived at school before me. Not even in his prime.

  As we walk to first period, I manage to get away with minimal participation in Erika’s monologue about whatever teenage crisis she is suddenly going through. The drama queen in this adorable nerd is always going through one crisis or another.

  Apparently she had an argument with Charley last night and she’s starting to reconsider what she ever saw in him. I know better than to get my hopes up. These two have had a near-catastrophic argument at least once per month and a break-up at least once a term for at least a week for as long as they’ve been together.

  It’s ridiculous.

  Like I said, Erika could do so much better.

  “What do you think?” Erika asks with a frustrated sigh as we get settled into Geography class. I actually have no idea how we got here, let alone what I think.

  “I think you guys will work it out. Somehow, you always find a way back to each other.”

  Erika peers at me over her glasses with knowing eyes.

  “You weren’t listening to me, were you?” she asks.

  I shake my head and fish my pens from my bag. As the room starts to fill up, I try not to look too obvious as I occasionally glance up to check if Kace has arrived.

  Mr. Saunders’ stomach enters the room before he does, clearing the way for the rest of him. When he has fully appeared, he closes the door behind him and proceeds with the class. I feel my spirits dip and the beginnings of a frown form on my lips as I note that Kace still has not put in an appearance and is probably not going to do so.

  The motorcycle is here, though. So, where is he?

  Janey...this is Kace we’re talking about, I remind myself. He is not exactly a paragon of punctuality. Relax.

  Relaxing turns out to be easier said than done as we’re only half an hour into the Mechanics of Air Pressure and my focus is already terribly divided.

  Where are you, Kace?

  I raise my hand and ask to be excused and Mr. Saunders is kind enough to grant my request.

  Janey, you’re doing it again, I warn myself, but I can’t seem to heed my own warning or Kace’s and just sit still. I might just be an idiot after all.

  I check the library and cafeteria, but there is no sign of Kace. As my search intensifies and I contemplate popping into the boy’s bathroom, I decide that I should probably talk to somebody about this ridiculous obsession I’m developing before it actually gets me into the kind of trouble Kace was trying to warn me about. After half-listening to Erika go on at painful length about Charley this morning, I’ve decided that it’s definitely not going to be her. She needs as much help as I do.

  That leaves Cori, which is perfect since I’m overdue to call her anyway.

  After ten minutes of playing Nancy Drew all over the school grounds, I decide to let logic prevail, to give it up, and go back to the land of the sane. Still, as I’m passing the indoor multipurpose court, I push the door open and peek inside. It’s probably the only room I haven’t checked yet and after all the hunting I’ve done so far, what’s one more room?

  I quickly scan the stands and I’m about to leave when my eyes land on an outline sprawled out on a bench. Closing the door behind me, I venture into the room and hear light snoring as I get closer to the person. Even without seeing him, I know it’s Kace.

  Really dude? You’re sleeping here?

  When I’m close enough to touch him, I realize that he’s wearing the same clothes from yesterday.

  I sit beside him, barely breathing, trying my hardest not to wake him. I can feel a smile tugging on my lips as I watch his eyelashes flutter. The rise and fall of his firm chest is tempting me to lay my head there, inhale his scent that I still remember so well and drift carelessly off to sleep.

  Gosh, he’s mesmerizing to look at. He looks so peaceful, it’s hard to tell that this is the same person who has been calling me all sorts of names all year. It’s refreshing to see him like this, though I know the second he wakes up, all things peaceful will disappear and his brutish facade will return.

  My eyes drift down to his lips and I’m drawn to them. They look soft and inviting and I can feel myself leaning forward, inching closer to them.

  “What are you doing?” His voice is gruff from the remnants of sleep, and I feel like a child caught with both hands inside the cookie jar.

  Kace sits up and rubs his eyes before running his fingers through his hair.

  He’s so beautiful.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” he asks with his eyebrows furrowed, and I blush.

  “You look peaceful when you sleep.”

  “What do you want, Janey?”

  “Why does your voice always sound like I’m bothering you?” I ask and he chuckles slightly.

  “You’re a smart girl. What do you think?”

  “I think a lot of things.”

  “About me?”

  “Yes.”

  He sits up and straightens his shirt. “And why the hell are you wasting your time thinking about me, Janey Bradshaw?”

 
“Why do you like calling me by my full name?”

  “It’s your name isn’t it?”

  “Yes but-”

  “Janey Bradshaw, what exactly is your problem?” He pins me to the chair with his stare and I feel ponies racing around in my stomach.

  “I don’t know,” I whisper, looking away from him.

  It’s the truth.

  “You need to stay away from me.”

  “Why are you pretending to be somebody that you’re not?” I ask softly, and I see, rather than hear his gasp.

  His face suddenly goes cold, his eyes become as hard as glass and all traces of peace vanish from them just as I had feared. “You think I’m pretending huh?”

  “Yes,” I confirm.

  “You don’t know me. You don’t know anything about me and if you keep following me around, I won’t be held responsible for what happens to you.”

  I stare back at him and I can tell that my openness is unsettling to him. “Yeah...we went over that last night.”

  “So why are you here?”

  “That place last night. What is it?”

  He laughs a genuine guttural laugh and I suddenly feel like an idiot. As though I shouldn’t be asking a question as stupid as that. As though everyone in the world had gotten first class tickets to the amusement park of hell and had made several trips there and back. Well, everyone except me, that is.

  “You mean Kensington?”

  “Oh. Kensington,” I make a mental note of the name. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so vile. It smelled as horrible as it looked and those people-”

  “Shut up,” he snaps at me and I’m humiliated yet again.

  “That was uncalled for,” I whisper, looking him in the eyes.

  “You must be so accustomed to people balancing themselves on their tiptoes around your feelings.” He stands up and holds both of his hands up at an angle with his wrists limp, pretending to be a damsel in distress. “Oh, look at me, I’m Janey Bradshaw and my feelings matter.”