Nova (The Renegades Book 2)

Jakarta

“Stop scratching at it,” Penna snapped as we stared out over the calm waters of the crane park. The water was glassy within the sectioned-off area of the bay, no waves lapping against the various ramps, air cushions, or docks that held the huge cranes that would soon catapult us across the water.

“I’m serious,” Penna warned.

I lowered my hand from its exploration of the waterproof plastic covering my stitches. Sure, I needed the protection, but damn if I didn’t feel like a set of leftovers in cling wrap ready for the microwave.

“You’re one to talk,” I told her as she shifted next to me. “Or was that not a coat hanger I saw you shoving down your cast this morning?”

She pointed her finger at me. “You have no clue what it’s like to be in a full freaking cast in this heat and humidity. None.”

“Touché,” I agreed, tipping my baseball hat in her direction.

She rolled her eyes, and I grinned. Damn, I was just glad she was out here with us. It had taken every weapon in our arsenal to get her to the stunt site, and even though she insisted on sitting in the shade with a book, I’d take it.

It felt like the first step to bringing her back.

“So what’s up with you and Rachel?” she asked, picking her nail polish off and flicking it onto the wooden deck, just to watch it fall between the cracks to the water.

“That, my friend, is the million-dollar question,” I said. I turned my hat around backward, then leaned over the railing to see Paxton fifteen feet below on the lower deck, making the final arrangements for the stunt.

I should have been with him, but I needed Leah to get here and sit with Penna so she wouldn’t try to run away.

“I’m just glad you two aren’t pulling each other’s hair anymore,” Penna said as she leaned against the railing with me. “You’d better not fuck this up.”

“Doing my best not to. She doesn’t trust me.”

“Can you blame her? You left that girl high and dry and then went on to become a superstar. Add that to your propensity for fucking anything in a skirt—”

“I’m done with that,” I cut her off.

“Just like that?” She tilted her head. “You, who I’m not sure has even gone a day without sex in the last two years, are going to give up your little addiction cold turkey?”

“Already have,” I told her as I spotted Rachel walking toward us with Leah. She had on board shorts and a tank top, and her hair was pulled partway up, leaving the line of her chin bare.

“Seriously?”

“I haven’t breathed in the direction of another girl since I saw Rachel in Dubai. That’s over three weeks.”

“Wow. That’s almost thirty days sober. I applaud you.” She saw Rachel and Leah coming and whispered, “Does that include your lucky charm over there?”

I grinned. Rachel really was my lucky charm, even if she was convinced that she was cursed. “Especially her,” I told her in low tones. “I have to convince her that I’m after more than her body.”

She snorted, threading her long blond hair through a ponytail holder, but before she could say anything, the girls had reached us.

“Pax says he’s ready for you,” Leah told me from under her giant, floppy sun hat.

“You going to join us?” I asked.

She glanced at Penna. “Nope. I think I’m just fine shore bound today. You guys have fun. Rach, did you want to leave your stuff in my bag?”

Rachel looked over the railing at the setup and then nodded. “Yeah, that might be easiest. You don’t mind?”

“No problem.” Leah opened her massive beach bag and took out a few of her schoolbooks. “Slip it in.”

“Awesome,” Rachel said. Then she crossed her arms in front of her, grasped the bottom of her bright green tank top and pulled it up…and off.

Fuuuuuck. A buzzing sound hit my brain, and every thought went out the window as she tossed her shirt in the bag. The top of her bikini was modest. Hell, there were only a few inches of that very toned, very soft stomach showing, but it was enough to make my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth.

Add that to her breasts pushed up against the stretched material, and I was in trouble.

“You okay?” Penna asked in an overly concerned tone.

“Yep,” I said with a cough.

Then Rachel dropped the board shorts, leaving her in a pair of boy-cut bikini bottoms that hugged every curve of her ass.

I was still trying to form a thought when she threw the shorts in Leah’s bag and smiled up at me. “Ready?”

Hell yes, I was. Right here. There was a little office building about thirty feet away that had to have a lock on the door.

“Landon?” Rachel asked, her forehead puckered.

“Yeah, let’s go. Leah?” I asked, motioning to the bag.

“Yep.” She nodded, holding it open for me.

I peeled off my shirt, happy to be rid of it in the nearly ninety degrees and humidity. It landed in the bag with my hat. I was ready to roll.

Rachel’s eyes went wide and raced over my chest and abs, no doubt cataloging the tattoos I’d added. Then she swallowed and ran her tongue over her lower lip before shaking her head. “Yeah, let’s go. Now.”

I could have crowed knowing that I still had an effect on her, but then she walked away and I was too busy staring at the sway of her hips to care what she’d thought about me.

“Yeah, good luck on that no-sex thing.” Penna laughed. “I give it a week.”

I didn’t bother correcting her.

We met up with the Renegades on the lower deck and prepared for the stunt. Everyone clasped their life jackets. I pulled the side straps tight and made sure I was secure, then headed over to where Rachel stood on the deck.

“You got it?” I asked.

She looked up at me under impossibly long lashes. “Not sure. Want to pull me tight?” she asked with a little bite to her lower lip.

Danger, Will Robinson. She was up to something, but hell if I cared at the moment. I cupped one side of her rib cage with one hand and pulled the side straps snug on the other side, then flipped and did the same on the other.

“Better?” I asked, my voice low. I needed to back the hell away from her before my body had a bigger reaction than my swim trunks could disguise.

“Much. Need any help?” Her fingers traced the small strip of skin that my life vest didn’t cover.

Damn, I’d almost forgotten what it was like to have her full attention—the power she held in those deep brown eyes. I tried to chill the want that lit up my nerve endings like the Fourth of July, all hungry for her touch, but it was pointless.

Pissed-off Rachel was a sight to behold.

Worried Rachel made me want to solve her every problem.

Open, honest, defenseless Rachel stole my every heartbeat.

But flirtatious Rachel? Fuck, I was screwed.

“I’m okay,” I told her.

She rose up on tiptoes and ran her lips along the line of my chin, barely able to reach. “You could be better than okay.”

My hands clenched to keep from reaching for her. I’d been so accustomed to the gluttony of taking what I wanted these last couple of years that restraint was something I was going to have to work for.

But she was worth it.

And with that tiny little smile and devilish bite of her lower lip, I knew she was testing me. She assumed I’d fail and give in to my nearly painful need for her before she was ready for everything I wanted on the emotional level.

Not that I could blame her—I hadn’t shown her much else yet.

But she had no idea how determined I was.

“Better than okay?” I asked her with a little smirk. Playing with fire, my subconscious warned me.

“Much better,” she promised.

“You guys ready?” Pax called.

“Not sure. Are you ready?” Rachel asked me in open challenge.

“I can handle everything you’ve got, Rachel.”

She shrugged. “We’ll see about that.”

We quieted as Pax ran through the plan. First runs would consist of those of us on wakeboards. We’d be pulled by the cranes, the centrifugal force propelling us at dizzying speeds toward the ramps.

Snowboards, skateboards, wakeboards—whatever. I was at home.

Like someone had flipped a switch in my brain, my concentration shifted to the stunt. I examined every angle of those ramps, the speed I could attain, which tricks I could pull off.

One by one, the Renegades strapped up and hooked on. Pax went first, and I shamelessly used him as my guinea pig, watching where he hit the fastest, which angles he got wrong.

Then I turned my attention to where they’d set up the human bowling lane.

I made sure the giant foam barrels were placed correctly in the water, stacked in a pyramid in the direct middle of the crane park, just waiting for the first Renegade to come sailing along and knock them over. The barrels were as tall as Rachel, three times as wide, and stacked on each other in a pyramid in the middle of the park.

“So what’s the objective here?” Bobby asked as a camera appeared.

I put on my game face. “Knock down as many of those barrels as possible.”

“With what?”

“Your body.” I grinned, pointing to the nearest crane. “You have to swing out on the wakeboard, hit the ramp, and aim for the stack.”

“Are you feeling focused after what happened last week?” Bobby asked.

I kept the smile plastered to my face. Hell yes, I was focused. “Absolutely. You can’t afford to do what we do and not be focused. That’s how…”

“People get hurt,” Bobby supplied.

“Right.”

As Pax walked up the dock, the cameras took mercy on me and headed toward him.

But although I was fully focused on the stunt at hand, Rachel was never far from my mind. How could she be when she was never more than twenty feet away? Her smile was electric as she watched the others ride, and I wasn’t the only one who noticed.

The newer Renegades—the ones who didn’t know our history—were lining up to get a couple of minutes with her. Of course they were attracted to her. She was gorgeous, smart, and capable of keeping up with our insane lifestyle. She thrived on this just like I thrived on her. A wave of possessiveness washed over me, but I didn’t need to act on it. She had their attentions firmly under control.

I strapped on my wakeboard, checked my GoPro, and took my position on the dock, ready to jump-start my run before the bowling started. Two deep breaths later, I’d blocked out the avalanche and every voice in my head that screamed this wasn’t a good idea.

Of course it wasn’t a good idea. That was why we were doing it.

I signaled the crane operator and gripped the rope handle, ready for the yank I knew was coming. It didn’t disappoint. The speed with which the crane instantly pulled me gave the needed velocity to start from dry land instead of the water, and I hit the smooth surface with a measured impact, heading for the first jump. I adjusted my grip, bent my knees, and took the ramp, pulling an immediate airborne 360.

It felt glorious.

Next ramp I hit a flip, my body falling back into effortless rhythm. The angle of the rope from the crane gave me better lift, higher jumps, and the speed didn’t hurt on the air time for inverts and grabs. Somewhere in my head I recognized that the speed was dangerous, that if I hit the dock I’d end up with more than a few stitches in my arm. But I was in complete control, and it was exactly what I needed.

I’d had one disastrous, shitty stunt, but I was still a Renegade, still capable of pushing my body to the very limit in the name of epic stunts. Just for fun, I hit the next ramp—the highest one in the park—at the fastest speed I could pull and then flipped my body once, and then again, my board smacking against the water just after I brought myself back vertical. Even Pax couldn’t pull that one off.

I went through the gamut on my run, savoring the movement, the speed, the adrenaline rush. As I cruised to a stop, I mock bowed to the applause. Once I hauled myself up onto the dock and unstrapped my board, I looked up to see Rachel grinning down at me.

“Super?” I asked after the cameraman scored his shot and went to his next location.

Her grin faltered momentarily before she shrugged. “Almost.”

“What’s it going to take?”

“Not sure this time. I’ll let you know when I see it.”

“Yeah, yeah. Get your butt down here. You’re up first for bowling.”

I finished inspecting the tow rope attached to the crane and then double-checked the boot sizing on Rachel’s wakeboard. Once that was done, I tested out the latches and nodded to myself. It was safe for her to ride.

I gave her the nod, and she disengaged from the four guys who had flanked her, none of them realizing they didn’t have a chance in hell with her. I almost felt bad for them. Almost.

“All safe?” she asked.

I gave the cable another tug. “You’ll be okay.”

“So the idea is that I knock over those foam barrels,” she clarified.

“You got it. The more you take out, the more points you get.”

She looped her arms around my neck. “What do I get if I win?”

I glanced over her shoulder, where Bobby was smacking the cameraman on the shoulder. “Anything you want,” I promised her.

“Oh yeah?” She came up on her tiptoes, and I backed off.

“Cameras,” I explained. “Look, I’ll go public with you any second you want, but I’m not going to push you there.”

Her arms slid from around my neck. “Yeah. Cameras. Of course. What was I thinking?”

“That this was easier the first time we tried it?”

She laughed. “Ha. Then we were just sneaking around from Wilder. Now we’re hiding it from an entire documentary.”

“Hiding what?” I prompted her.

She rolled her eyes. “See you on the flip side.”

I retreated as she strapped on her wakeboard. Once she gave the signal, she was off without another glance back. It was one of the things I’d always loved about her—she had the same drive, the identical need for the adrenaline rush that I did. I never had to explain myself or the stupid shit I pulled, because she was right there with me.

I held my breath when she hit the ramp. Knowing she was more than capable didn’t mean my stomach didn’t clench when she went airborne, or when she let go of the rope from the crane and spun in midair, flinging out her arms to topple as many barrels as possible. She brought them all tumbling down and then came back to the surface laughing.

Once the scores were tallied between the newer Renegades, I wasn’t surprised in the least to see who topped the leaderboard.

One by one the guys fell away, and even Zoe shook her head.

Rachel just looked at the list with a shit-eating grin and then blew me a kiss.

Damn, that woman was irresistible.

And mine.

I rolled my neck, stretching the sore muscles as I leaned on my deck railing. This was one of my favorite parts of the ship, and the only place that was only mine. Not that I was against sharing, but in the last four months that we’d been on board, private space was the only luxury the ship didn’t really provide.

There was a knock on my door, and I sighed. No alone time for you.

“Come in,” I said from the deck, turning to lean against the sturdy metal rail.

“Hey,” Bobby said, putting his head inside the door. “I just wanted to tell you that we got some great footage of you today. You were really back on your game.”

Tension filled my muscles. “You were worried?”

“After Nepal? You bet your ass. A lot of guys can’t come back from something like that, and you just bounced right back. Says a lot about your professionalism. How is Gabe?”

“Good,” I answered. “His parents flew him home today, so I’ll check on him in a few weeks when I get home for Christmas.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” His forehead puckered. “Look, we got some other footage today…”

“Don’t use it. What’s going on with Rachel and me isn’t for public consumption.”

“It’s a hell of a story between you guys, from what I hear. You two…well, the history between you three has been the talk since she showed up.” He had that speculative look in his eyes, but I didn’t give a fuck. Rachel wasn’t some trick for ratings.

“No. If she wants to go public, that’s one thing, but you’re not pressuring her into anything for this goddamned movie. That’s where I draw the line, Bobby.” I would do anything for Nick, who was the primary reason we were making the documentary in the first place, and I knew he’d back me on this choice.

Rachel came first.

“Fine, fine,” Bobby said, putting up his hand. “I’ll kill the footage. Just let me know if that changes.”

“I have a feeling Rachel will make her feelings pretty well-known.”

“Fair enough. She looks like she’s always belonged with you guys.”

“She has. She’s always belonged with me.”

“Man, what I wouldn’t give to have footage of some of that drama going down back then. You’re sure you don’t want to include any of that history…”

“No, Bobby.”

He sighed. “Okay. Anyway. Good stunt today.”

“Yeah, the crew really pulled it off.”

“You all did. Later.”

I gave him a nod as way of good-bye, and he shut the door behind him. Could I trust that he wouldn’t put the footage in the documentary? Not entirely. Bobby would do whatever he thought was in the best interest of the film, but I’d be damned if I’d let him ruin my only chance with Rachel.

After the shit run of luck we’d had, it had been a huge relief to have everything go off without a hitch. It was a great stunt, something fun to balance the seriousness, but it didn’t make up for Nepal. Luckily I’d already talked to Nick today—the time difference was a bitch—and he was on it.

A quick glance at the clock told me that I had another half hour before I was supposed to meet up with the crew for dinner. That meant I had an entire thirty minutes alone to—

Knock. Knock.

I sighed in frustration and walked over to the door, yanking it harder than I needed to. “What?” I snapped, then immediately regretted it as Rachel quirked an eyebrow at me. “Hey. Sorry.”

“Would you like me to come back at another time?” she asked.

“No. My room is open to you at any hour of the day. Use it any time you feel like it.” Or use me. I opened the door fully, and she walked in.

She’d showered since the stunt, smelling like that unique combination of peppermint and lavender, her hair hanging in silky locks just past her chin. I swear, my body remembered that scent and was immediately revved from zero to redline. She’d changed clothes, too, and was now choosing to torture me in a pair of blue shorts that landed a few inches beneath her sweet ass and a white halter top.

Her eyes darted around my cabin, no doubt taking in every detail. The thing about Rachel was that she noticed way more than most people realized. She picked up the two-year-old picture of the X Games on my desk and smiled faintly. “How is Nick?” she asked as her thumb stroked over his face.

“He’s good. Keeps mostly behind the scenes now, but we’re trying to change that. He’s actually working on mapping out a time I can get back to Nepal to finish up that ridgeline.”

She shook her head with a sad smile. “I should have known you’d never walk away from that ridge.”

“You’re not going to yell?” I came up behind her, gently taking the picture from her hands and putting it back on the desk. I wanted her hands empty because I needed them on me, even if just for a few moments.

“No point in yelling. You’re always going to push whatever line you can, and I learned a long time ago that trying to change you was futile.”

Ouch.

Her eyes shot up to mine. “That wasn’t a dig or anything, just something I’ve always known about you. I called you Supernova for a reason. Sometimes all I could do was sit back and watch you go.”

A smile played at the corners of my mouth. “You kept up with me move for move.”

She shrugged and turned, walking out onto my private balcony. “I’m a little out of practice, but sometimes it feels like I never left.”

I followed her out, glad that the partitions gave us complete privacy. The humid breeze licked at me as the sun set behind her, illuminating her skin in a warm glow. “I get that,” I said, standing next to her. “There are moments when it feels like nothing’s changed, like we’re on some altered timeline.”

She turned toward me, bracing her back and hands on the railing before hoisting herself to sit on the thick metal barrier. My heart caught even as she wrapped her ankles in the framework to steady herself. It was a long way straight down. “And the others?” she asked.

I stepped between her spaced thighs and put my hands on her hips. Just the simple pleasure of having her under my fingertips sent my heart into irregular beats. God, I’d missed the feel of this woman. “The other moments it feels like I’ve been drowning for years, and I can just now breathe again.”

“Landon,” she whispered, her hands tightening on the rails even though I was right here to hold on to.

“I’m not going anywhere. If I have to tell you that a million times before you’ll believe me, then I’ll do just that. You and me—we’re our own little infinity. Our forever is wrapped up in everything that’s between us.”

She let go of the railing and ran her hands up over her hair in frustration. My fingers dug into her hips to keep her safe.

Her head tilted, and her eyes danced in playfulness. “Why, Landon…does it scare you that I’m up on this big railing?” she asked, looking over her shoulder at the water ten stories below.

Of course it bothered me. One move and she’d break her damn neck. But that was never going to happen while I had her.

“Not when I’ve got you. You can let go any time you like; I’ll never let you fall.”

A quick flash in her eyes told me more than her lips ever could have—you did once—but she quickly forced it back. She was struggling, and I couldn’t blame her, couldn’t get angry, couldn’t expect her to open her arms wide and trust me. I had to repair every crack I’d put into her and pray her faith in me would return.

“You’ve got me?” she whispered, leaning slightly backward.

I swallowed the urge to yell at her not to do that, and instead moved my hands slightly to slip my thumbs through her belt loops and gain a more secure grip on her ass. “You always have to push that line, don’t you?” I asked, throwing her earlier words back at her.

“I learned from the best,” she said with a smirk.

Damn it, I wanted her. There was a sharp edge to Rachel that I’d searched the world over for, just to realize it only existed in her. That edge turned me on, pushed me further, held me tighter, drove me insane with the need to tame the one woman I’d never been able to fully claim.

If she needed to dangle over the edge of danger, I was more than happy to hold her there. She stretched her arms above her head and smiled, but kept her ankles locked around the railing. I’d take semitrust any day.

She slowly lowered her arms until her hands ran through my hair, her nails gently scraping my scalp in the way she knew I loved. Then her gaze dropped to my lips and hers parted.

Make the move, Rachel. It’s your turn.

She stared at me so long, so hot, that I was ready to combust, but I wasn’t going to cross the line—not when she thought sex was all I wanted.

Then she pounced.

Thank God.

Her mouth slanted over mine, and I was done for. The rest of the world could have been on fire and I wouldn’t have noticed, not when I had Rachel in my arms.

I let her control it, gave her the power I knew she wanted as she gently sucked my lower lip between hers. Her hair fell around us, hiding us from the world and enveloping us in the scent I knew would always trigger me for sex.

She slipped her tongue into my mouth, rubbing against mine, and that was the end of her control. A sound like a growl erupted from me, and I pulled her down off the railing just so I could press her against it. One of my hands tunneled in her hair while the other flexed on her hip. She was so damn tiny, but my body curled around hers as if it remembered exactly what to do—exactly how she needed to be kissed.

She opened fully under me, and I sank into her, stroking the roof of her mouth, savoring every tiny sound she made and returning to whatever would have her make it again.

She kissed me back as if she’d been just as starved for it as I was, arching against me, pressing her soft breasts against my chest, and I was instantly as hard as the railing behind her. I kissed her like she was the oxygen I’d been missing, breathing in everything about her until my heartbeat finally steadied, then slammed.

The world didn’t tilt off its axis—it finally came back to normal, as if everything had been out of whack until this very moment.

I didn’t hold myself back like I did with those small kisses in Nepal. I let her know exactly how badly I wanted her. She gasped when my hand slid north, skimming the soft skin under her halter top. Her stomach quivered with her shaky inhale of breath, but she never stopped, only tightened her grip in my hair.

Fuck, I could kiss this woman every minute for the rest of my life. Kissing her didn’t only involve my mouth; she awakened every nerve in my body, not just the ones she touched.

My thumb stroked higher, coming just under her bra, and she pushed forward. I rode the line between absolute pleasure and supreme need, my body remembering all too well how perfect it felt to be inside her, the way she came apart under my hands and dragged me with her.

“Landon,” she whispered, straining against me to stand taller.

I grasped her ass with both my hands and lifted her until her legs wrapped around my waist, and then I moved us to lean her against the partition so the railing didn’t dig into her back.

She rocked against me, and I groaned, realizing how close she was and how very little fabric separated us. Our kiss deepened, and it took every ounce of concentration I had not to take her farther, to move my hands the few inches it would take to slip my finger under her shorts.

So instead, I kissed her like there was nothing beyond that, relearned every curve of her mouth, and breathed every gasp, tasted every sigh.

“Rach? You in here?” Leah’s voice hit me like a bucket of ice water, and I broke our kiss.

“Yeah?” Rachel asked, resting her forehead against mine as her heartbeat hammered, echoing mine.

“Oh. Oh!” Leah said as she walked onto the deck. “Okay. Well, your mom is on Skype.” The last sentence sounded farther away. She must have gone back inside after catching us.

“Shit,” Rachel swore.

At her first wiggle, I let her down, every inch of her body scalding its imprint into my hands before she hit the ground. I couldn’t speak—too tied into knots that I knew only she could undo.

“We’ll talk later?” Rachel asked, and a surge of pride went through me that she was a little wobbly on her feet.

“Yeah,” I said, my voice gravelly and almost unrecognizable.

She nodded and ran out to the take her mother’s call.

I turned and grasped the railing, looking out over the skyline of Jakarta. One fucking kiss and I was damn near destroyed. It had taught me two things: the first was that our chemistry was still powerful enough to destroy all reason.

The second: one crook of her finger and I would still go running. She owned me.