My hand is trembling on the gun so badly that I’m suddenly worried I might accidentally shoot him. Despite the cool night air of the desert, my palms are slick with sweat, as is the back of my neck. “You told me I shouldn’t call you Jamie,” I say quietly.
Rebel leans in, filling my head with the smell of him. “Oh, sugar. If you were going to say those words to me, I’d definitely want you to call me Jamie. At least then, when you eventually do run away like any sane person would, I can replay the sound of your voice telling me that. And it will be for me. Not the guy who’s wrestling to keep his people together. Not for the guy who didn’t protect his uncle. Not for the guy who’s been searching for his best friend’s missing sister for what feels like forever. It’ll be for the guy who came back from Afghanistan never thinking he’d find a woman strong enough or brave enough to take him on.”
I lower the gun, letting it hang down by my side. “I’ve already told you. I’m not going to run.”
“Then it looks like you’re the crazy one, not me.”
“Looks like it.” I can’t believe what I’m about to do, but I know it’s happening. I’m ramping up to it, a part of me panicked and scared yet unable to talk me out of voicing the words he wants to hear me say. “Jamie, I want you to take me back to the cabin—”
Rebel moves like a whirlwind. He catches me up, wrapping his arms around me, pinning me to him so hard that it feels like our bodies are fused together. He’s kissing me, then. Kissing me so intensely that pinpricks of light start exploding like fireworks behind my closed eyelids. His hands are in my hair, roaming all over my body, palming my breasts, moving over my thighs. The moment is so unexpected and fierce that I begin to wonder if I’m imagining it. My imagination has never been this good to me, though. He slides his tongue into my mouth, exploring me, tasting me, and I follow his lead.
The gun I’m holding drops to the ground, and then my hands are in his hair, arms winding around his neck, and he’s lifting me up so I can wrap my legs around his waist. His hands cup my ass, holding me up. When he pulls back, he’s breathing heavily, his chest heaving, his eyes bright and shining in the near darkness. “We can still have amazing sex without you finishing that sentence, Soph. Don’t say something you don’t mean. Don’t say something you can’t take back.”
A frisson of fear sparks in the pit of my stomach, but that’s all it is—a small nagging sensation. When I look into his eyes and see what’s in store there for me, how giving myself over to him will be so, so much more, that fear fizzles out and vanished entirely. “I trust you,” I tell him. I lean closer, crushing my breasts up against his chest in order to whisper in his ear. “And I want it.”
His reaction has me gasping out loud; he grabs hold of my hair in his right hand and makes a fist, pulling my head back. “Then do it. Say it,” he growls.
“Jamie, I—I want you to take me back to the cabin, and I want you to show me what it means for you to be my—my master.”
A slow, wonderfully sinister smile spreads across Rebel’s face. “Sophia?” he says.
“Mmm?”
“You may not want to talk about it this second, but you are going to marry me. You know that, don’t you?”
I feel weak and helpless in his arms, but not in a bad way. I also feel safe. Protected. At peace. I know, no matter how many other men I could potentially meet in my lifetime, no matter how special they might be able to make me feel, I will never meet another man like this. I will never feel as special as the way he makes me feel. I bury my face in his neck, hiding from the truth in his eyes and the truth in my heart. I can’t face it yet. It’s too damn frightening.
Rebel laughs silently, his shoulders moving up and down. He presses his lips against my temple and then stoops to collect the gun I dropped on the ground. I’m still clinging to him, legs wrapped around his waist, arms around his neck, when he shoots out the remaining cans.
“Come on, sugar,” he whispers into my hair. “Let’s get you home. Time to show you what you’ve been missing.
THIRTEEN
REBEL