Rebel (The Renegades Book 3)

Venezuela

There was nothing better than kissing Penelope. Except maybe making love to her.

It was our last afternoon in Venezuela, and I was still high off yesterday’s jump and the ultimate adventure of loving this woman.

She arched beneath me, her fingernails biting into the skin of my shoulders as I thrust inside her welcoming heat. Better. Hotter. All-consuming. Every time I took her, she took me somewhere I’d never been in a relationship—a place where the physical and the emotional met on some kind of ethereal plane that never ceased to amaze me.

God, she was perfection. There was nothing I would change about her. I thought about everything I wanted to share with her back in L.A. My favorite restaurants, her favorite coffeehouses. We had a whole life waiting for us as soon as we got off this boat in exactly ten days.

Until then, I’d keep her here as much as possible.

“Faster,” she begged, her teeth on my earlobe.

So much for distracting myself to make this last longer.

I kissed her as I increased the pace, bringing her knees up so I could slide deeper. Fuuuuuuck, she was going to be the death of me in every way possible.

She writhed under me, seeking something I wasn’t willing to give her yet.

“Tell me what you want,” I ordered, locking gazes so I could see the moment she surrendered.

“You,” she said, her neck arching, her head thrown back.

Her hair spilled out around her, and those pink lips were swollen from my kisses. She’d never looked so beautiful.

“You have me. What else do you want?” I asked, holding back just enough to keep her from hitting her edge.

“Deeper,” she ordered. “Harder.”

“Like this?” I asked, sliding in another fraction.

Her eyes snapped fire at me. “I love you, and I adore when you make love to me…”

“But?” I asked, watching her fight to say what she was really thinking. I halted my moves entirely, resting inside her. My dick throbbed, protesting, but my brain knew exactly what she needed and had no problem pushing her to it.

Penelope held back in zero places in her life. Our bed wasn’t going to be the start.

“But?” I repeated.

She grasped both sides of my face and rocked her hips back into me, taking me deeper, and I groaned softly, unable to keep completely quiet when the jolt of pleasure hit me. “But I need you to fuck me right now.”

God, yes. Yes to all.

I slid out of her, and she whimpered. “Not helping,” she said.

Then I flipped her over, and she landed on her knees in front of me, that gorgeous ass in the air. “Grab the headboard.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Do it, Penelope, so I can fulfill that little demand of yours.”

A tremor raced through her as I ran my fingers down her spine. She crawled up my bed and grasped the headboard with both hands.

I moved between her knees, lined up my cock to her entrance, and thrust home.

She whispered my name as I slid deeper than I’d ever been within her. Then I set a rhythm that had her keening, whimpering, begging. Her body tensed beneath mine, her back arching.

I kissed her shoulder, gently raking my teeth across her skin at the same time I reached around her body to put pressure on her clit, and she bucked back. I felt the ragged intake of her breath, the clench of her body around mine, and I covered her mouth with my hand when she cried out, her orgasm taking her.

I followed immediately, surrendering to the mind-blowing ecstasy that only Penelope could give me.

Collapsing, I pulled her to my side. “When we get home to L.A., I’m keeping you in my bed for a week. Then I’m going to make you scream so loud your voice will go hoarse,” I promised.

“Ten days,” she said, smiling dreamily up at me. “Then we can go public.”

“As public as skywriting.” God, I couldn’t wait to claim this woman as mine.

“I’m going to have to tell the guys, first. They deserve that much. I hate that I’ve kept it from them this long.”

My stomach tied itself in knots, but I brushed her hair back from her face and forced a smile. “I trust you. If you think you need to tell them, then I will support you.”

“Could you be any more perfect?” she asked.

“Sure, I could not be your professor.”

“Eeew, you made it all porny again,” she said, sitting up, her beautiful breasts swaying gently. “Mind if I use your shower? I have math in about an hour.”

“Can I join you?”

A wicked gleam danced across her eyes. “Absolutely.”

“Good.” I glanced at the file on my desk and took a deep breath. “Can you get away tonight for a bit? I want to tell you some stuff about Cuba before we get there.”

“Sure, I’d like that,” she said.

Maybe not when you realize what I haven’t told you.

She kissed me soundly and then headed for the shower, shutting the bathroom door behind her.

I cleaned up and headed to join her.

A knock at my door brought me up short.

“Who the fuck?” I muttered. “Just a second,” I called out, and tossed on a pair of gym shorts. No point in traumatizing my super unsocial roommate.

I opened the door and blinked. “Lindsay?”

“Hey!” She smiled, way too chipper. “I’m so sorry to barge in on you, but I remembered you saying something about me joining your Cuba excursion that first day and I wanted to ask you a question. Am I keeping you from something?” she asked, looking over my shoulder at the closed bathroom door.

“Yeah, I was just getting in the shower,” I said, trying to keep my voice even.

“Oh, of course. I’m sorry. I’ll come back—”

I heard the door open behind me, and before I could slam this one in Lindsay’s face, or get word to Penelope, I heard her voice. “Hey, I thought you were—”

Fuck me, Penelope was right behind me, wrapped—thank God—in a towel but nothing else.

I met her horrified eyes, her mouth slack, and turned slowly to see the same expression mirrored on Lindsay’s face.

“Oh my God,” Lindsay whispered.

“Lindsay, this—”

“Let me guess, this isn’t what it looks like?” she shouted, backing into the entry hall of the suite. “You’re not sleeping with a student?”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuuuuuck.

“She wasn’t a student when we first met,” I said, trying to explain, to say anything that would keep Lindsay from ruining everything when I was only days away from saving Elisa.

“And that makes it better? You…she…you can’t. Oh my God.”

“If you’ll give us a second,” I started.

“Oh, it looks like you’ve had more than a second,” she said, eyeing Penelope. “Miss Carstairs, I’ll see you in class. Cruz…Dr. Delgado, you’ll hear from the dean.”

She spun and left, slamming the door on the way out.

“What are we going to do?” Penna asked, her voice breaking.

I closed my door and turned, taking her into my arms and holding her against my chest. “This will be okay. It’s all going to be fine.”

“She’s going to get you fired.”

“Probably.” My mind raced, but I couldn’t think of any solution that would get us out of this. Holy shit, we’d been stupid. Complacent.

She jumped out of my arms and started throwing on her clothes. “Get dressed. Now.”

“What are you doing?”

“We need help. Get dressed.”

I grasped her shoulders after she tugged her shirt back over her breasts. “Penelope. We’re in the wrong. I’m in the wrong. I took advantage of a student. I crossed the ethical and contractual line. I’m at fault here. Lindsay is the right one, and I’m the wrong one. There’s no hiding from this.”

“I am not going to stand by and watch them fire you! Ruin your reputation! Now put on a goddamned shirt so I can do something!” Tears brimmed in her eyes, turning the ocean-blue color crystalline, and I sighed. “Okay. Just give me a second.”

I put on my shirt while she pulled herself together. She wiped her tears away, slipped on her sandals, and lifted her chin with a steadying breath.

She was the kind of woman you didn’t let go, that you fought for until your dying breath—and that was my intention. No matter what happened in the next few hours, Penelope was worth it.

But then I thought of Elisa, and my heart shattered.