The music thrummed through my body, the base line moving the ginger ale in my glass. Usually I had something a little stronger, but the waves in the Indian Ocean were hellacious tonight, and I wasn’t risking my much-needed faculties for dealing with Rachel. She was still irritated, if her icy demeanor at dinner was any indication.
“Could you at least pretend to have a good time?” Bobby asked after pointing out where the cameras were around the room. “With Wilder going monogamous and shit, you’re all I’ve got on the other aspect of this show.”
“The man-whore aspect?” I asked.
He scoffed. “Since when do you object to being a ladies’ man?”
Since I realized there’s only one woman I want.
“Look, Bobby. We’re going to have to sit down later and talk this out, because I’m not comfortable with this. Not with…” Rachel.
He ripped his hand over his thinning hair. “Seriously? You, too? Your contract says—”
“That I’ll let you film just about every facet of my life for these nine months except when I take a piss. It says nothing about scoring chicks in a bar. I know you want the party part of this trip to play a role in the documentary, and I get it, but I’m drawing the line.”
“Un-fucking-believable. Half the reason you’re gods to your followers is the extreme way you take on every part of your life, and you’re just going to turn it off? Penna’s sitting on the sidelines, and Wilder’s…well, what does that leave me with?”
“Every other Renegade,” I said as Alex made his way across the club to join me. “I’ll do your shots, come to your parties, but don’t expect any action. I’m not leaving with anyone.” Nick, of all people, would understand the line I was drawing. What Bobby was about to miss out on with my social life, I’d make up in stunts.
“Just give me a few good frames, and I don’t care what the fuck you do with your night,” he said by way of farewell.
“What’s up his ass?” Alex asked as he leaned against the bar.
“We fucked up in Nepal, and now he’s feeling short of shots. He’s got the dramatic failure, but no comeback and triumph to follow it up.”
“We didn’t fuck up; Mother Nature took our asses out.”
“Yeah, well, either way, that was supposed to be the money shot for this term. We didn’t get it, and we lost Gabe.”
“What do you expect?” he asked. “We’re on a hellacious schedule. The shit you guys have us doing would need an entire year of planning, and we’re pulling this stuff off at least once a week. Not everything is going to go perfectly. We needed more time up there.”
Time was the one thing we didn’t have on this trip. Already we’d turned our attention to the Jakarta stunt, always looking forward. I was the only one even thinking about going back.
As Alex turned around to order a drink, Sabrina walked up with another girl. Thank God I hadn’t slept with this one yet. With Rachel on board, I was beginning to feel more than a little dirty over what I’d been doing while we were apart.
“Hey, Nova,” Sabrina said, leaning against the bar so that her breasts pushed up out of her low-cut top.
Funny, it didn’t bother me when she called me Nova, when any other girl reminded me of how I got to be called Casanova, really, but Rachel saying it always felt like a kick to the balls.
“Hey, ladies,” I said with a practiced smile. “How are you tonight?”
“Better now that you’re here,” she answered with a sly grin. “I was beginning to think I’d never get you alone again.”
Shit. She wanted a repeat performance.
“It’s been a busy term,” I said, then slammed my hand on Alex’s back as he choked on his drink. “How was your excursion week?”
“Oh, I took the Mumbai trip, and then we headed down to the Taj Mahal.” She batted her eyes up at me. “You know, it’s a huge monument to love.”
“Yeah, we made a stop there before flying to Nepal.” Even after her death, he protected her. That is love, or at least the kind of love I want. Rachel’s words came back to me, and everything finally clicked. She might have wanted the space she asked for, but she needed me to fight for her. Not just to sit back and wait for her to make a choice, but to show her that I’d protect her heart the way I should have the last time I held it.
I had to get out of this damn bar and find her.
“It really has been a busy term. You need some stress relief?” she asked, her eyes making clear what her offer really was.
This was the shit that was going to lose me any chance of being with Rachel.
“I need some stress relief,” Alex muttered.
“I actually need to g—” My words failed as I caught sight of Rachel across the bar. She had on some kind of getup that must have qualified as a dress, and it gave her super-petite frame million-mile legs.
Fuck me.
Her hair was down, sleekly brushing just under her chin, the purple highlights caught in the club’s lights. She looked like every man’s untouchable dream, the girl you knew would either give you the best sex of your life or the fastest ass kicking you’d ever receive.
To me, she’d always been an intoxicating combination of both.
She smiled at some overgrown meathead who leaned on the table next to her, openly ogling her breasts between comments that made her laugh.
My Rachel, laughing. Smiling. Did she just touch his arm? Look up at him through her lashes? Holy shit, was she flirting with him?
He brushed her hair back behind her ear.
Oh, hell no.
I was halfway across the club before I realized I’d taken a single step. Rachel did a double take when she saw me, her eyes raking up and down my body. Even though she arched that damn eyebrow at me, her lips parted.
That’s what my Rachel looked like when she was interested.
Not this smiley, flirty version this guy thought he was getting.
I didn’t stop until I was within kissing distance of her. She tilted her head at me, her lips curving at the edges.
“Can I help you?” Meathead asked, puffing out his chest like I gave a fuck who he was.
“Nope,” I answered without looking away from Rachel.
She shifted her weight and held my gaze. So damn beautiful.
“Is this guy bothering you?” Meathead asked Rachel.
“Every day of my life,” she answered.
“Look, I don’t know who the hell you think you are,” Meathead started.
“Hers. I’m hers,” I finished. There. Line drawn in the fucking sand. I was here to fight.
Her eyes widened, and all trace of playing left her face. “Landon…”
“Rachel.”
She looked over to Meathead. “Can you give us a second, Thomas?”
He looked between us and then swore under his breath. “Yeah. Sure.” He grabbed his beer bottle and left.
“Seriously?” I asked her.
“What? He’s in my geography class, and he asked me out this afternoon.”
“And you said yes?”
“Apparently,” she answered. “Just like you said yes and ran off with physics girl this afternoon.”
“She’s my lab partner.”
“Sure, that’s all,” she said sarcastically and took a sip of her cider before putting it on the table next to us.
Why the fuck didn’t she believe me? Because you haven’t given her a reason to.
“It is all. And what is this? Payback?”