Wilder (The Renegades) (5 page)

His eyes narrowed slightly, and he sucked his lower lip into his mouth, skimming his teeth over it. My stomach clenched in a way it had no business doing, imagining what he would do to
my
lower lip.

“I don’t care about the class. What do
you
want to know?”

I blinked, tearing my eyes away from his before I couldn’t think. “I want to know what’s not on Google.”

One of his dimples made an appearance, and I had the most insane impulse to run my tongue along it.
Holy shit, get a grip.
“Ask anything you want.”

“What’s your major?”

“Physics. Come on, you can do better than that.”

“Why even go to college, or do this program, if you’re already a superstar?”

“I took last year off when we made it big. Graduating is part of the legal agreement to get my trust fund, among other things my father likes to bargain for.”

Trust-fund baby. Of course.
“So it’s all about money?”

He shook his head. “It’s about the movie, the stunts, the rush, doing something no one’s ever done before. The money just makes it possible.”

“I thought you were sponsored? You have that energy drink stuff all over your YouTube channel.”

“Checking up on me again, eh, Firecracker?”

I felt my cheeks heat. “If I’d forced you onto a zip-line and into a documentary, scared the living crap out of you, and then nearly drowned you, you’d be checking up on me, too.”

“No, I’d be saying thank you. Everything you said sounds pretty damn good. Well, except the cameras. They get old fast.” He tapped his pencil on the desktop, and his eyes flickered toward the door, where there was, in fact, a camera with its lens against the glass panel. “Especially when they show up places they said they wouldn’t.”

“Then why keep them?”

“Because if no one sees the epic moments, did they ever really happen?”

Our eyes locked, and my breath became pure energy in my lungs, sending butterflies into my stomach while rushing a strange chill through my limbs. “I think it depends on who you define as no one. Not everything epic is meant for a worldwide audience.”

The cocky camera grin replaced the one I was quickly becoming enamored with, transforming him from Paxton to Wilder right in front of my eyes. “Well, that depends on what your definition of epic is. I can definitely say there are some one-on-one moments that aren’t meant for camera. Unless they’re giving the documentary an X rating.”

Well, if that didn’t kill the butterflies.
Arrogant asshole
.

“We’re going to get started,” Dr. Mae said, and the people down the line from us began their intros.

“You don’t know anything about me,” I whispered at him.

“Not nearly enough, Firecracker, but I can get through this.”

Why did I have the feeling that was going to be his entire attitude to schoolwork this year? Fine, if he wanted to skate by, I could do it, too.

Shit, it was already our turn.

“Begin when you’re ready,” Dr. Mae said from her desk at the front of the room.

“I’m Leah Baxter, and this is Wilder, but I’m sure you all know that,” I said, taking in every awestruck look on the guys and every wistful look on the girls. I nearly smacked Paxton in the stomach when I saw him raise his eyebrows for a girl in the third row. “Wilder is a senior, majoring in physics, most likely because he likes to hurl his body at every obstacle he can.” The class laughed. “He’s stubborn, ambitious, and has two X Game medals.”

“Five. I have five,” he corrected me, looking like I’d killed his puppy.

“He’s also a know-it-all. He’s all about challenges, doesn’t take no for an answer—”

“Except from you,” he muttered.

“—and likes pushing people outside their comfort zones.”

“I also speak fluent Spanish, German, and Greek, but that seems pretty trivial,” Paxton added with a shrug.

Cocky, arrogant…ugh. I couldn’t even think of a less-offensive word to describe him.

Dr. Mae cleared her throat, poorly stifling a laugh. “Wilder?”

He gave me a crooked grin, and I reminded myself not to melt into a puddle in front of the class. Hell, if he gave that grin out any more there would be a pile of panties in front of him in no time. Thank God I was wearing pants. They were an extra layer of protection.

Even your pants would join the pile if he really wanted.
I was so screwed.

“Leah is a junior, majoring in international relations at Dartmouth. She wants to get her Masters in International Relations and is currently ranked second in her class, which means I think she’ll get into whatever grad school she wants. She’s an only child, raised in California, only a dozen miles away from my house, actually—”

“How?” I whispered.

He leaned to the side and whispered in my ear, “If someone actually agreed to strap into a zip-line when they were terrified, and they held your future in your hands, don’t you think you’d Google them?”

I should have been flattered that he’d taken the time to research me, but I couldn’t get past the giant knot in my throat, the crippling sensation of complete paralysis. He’d Googled. What else did he know? How deep had he dug? Did he see pictures? Would his cool, flirtatious condescension turn to pity?
God, I’d rather he ignore me completely than pity me.

“She’s had to work for everything she has, and that makes her proud, ambitious, which is a trait I recognize.” He looked over and locked eyes with me. “And she’s incredibly brave, which I respect above everything else.”

I swallowed, my emotions so conflicted that I wasn’t sure how to respond. Or breathe. Yeah. I was screwed.

Distance. That was it.
Remember the plan.
I needed to distance myself from Pax and the other Renegades when I wasn’t in class or tutoring him. Find a different circle of friends, or even a guy I might be interested in. Yup, that was the answer.

I made it through World Lit and headed back to the room during our two-hour break. Paxton walked me to the door and then promised to meet me before physics.

I walked in to find Hugo in my room, hanging up clean towels. “You don’t have to do that,” I assured him.

“You don’t have to tutor Wilder, either, but we both have jobs to do if we’re going to stay on our little trip,” he responded with a wide grin. “Besides, as people go, I lucked out when I got you. My friend Luke got Zoe.”

“Oh God.”

“See? I’ll fetch your towels all day long.”

I laughed. “Fine, but only if you show me how to work the freaking espresso machine.”

“I could make it for you,” he offered.

“Oh, no thank you. It’s honestly part of my routine.” The part that told me the day was coming for me whether or not I wanted it to, so I may as well hit the ground caffeinated.

He snapped his fingers and ran over to the machine, showing me with quick hands how to get my early morning caffeine fix.

“Perfect, now I’ll feel right at home. Thank you.”

“Speaking of at home, why haven’t you unpacked?”

I sipped my coffee, reveling in the dark taste. “Because I wasn’t certain I was going to keep the suite, honestly.”

“And now?” he asked.

“Given the rather odd circumstances of my scholarship, I don’t think I have a choice.”

His shoulders sagged with obvious relief. “Phew. Okay. I was scared you’d quit and they’d move Zoe in here.”

“You’re safe,” I promised him with a smile.

“In that case, I’ll go work on getting you unpacked.”

“No, I can—”

The doorbell rang.

“There’s a doorbell? Seriously?” It must have been Paxton, but we weren’t expected in class yet.

“Ah, how the other half lives.” He grinned.

“I’ll get it,” I said, walking over to the door and opening it to find Penna standing on the other side, two giant bags in her hand.

“Thank you, God,” she muttered, sliding in past me. “Which bedroom is empty?”

“The first one on the right,” Hugo answered.

“What…” I followed her into Rachel’s room, and she dumped her bags onto the bed.

“Oh, nice, it has a private balcony, too. Does yours?”

“Yes,” I answered. Benefits of a corner suite, I guessed. Not that I’d explored it. The huge one that ran between my room and Paxton’s was quite enough, thank you.

“I couldn’t stay in that room one more night, with the music, and the girls, and the fucking cameras. Pax said the cameras aren’t allowed in here, right?”

“Right…”

“Well, then I’m your roommate until your other one arrives. God knows if I have to listen to one more girl cry out Landon’s name I’m going to vomit. It’s like hearing your brother’s porn. Gross.”

My power of speech failed me.

“Besides, as much as we’re all adventurers, my parents had freaked about Brooke sharing with another girl, leaving me with the guys.” She wandered into the hallway, looking at the rooms. “What about your parents?”

“Um. They told me to have a good time?”

She walked into my room, where Hugo had my suitcase open on the bed and was unpacking my stuff. Then she picked up a large box of condoms out of my bag.
Oh. My. Fucking. Lord. No.

“Those aren’t mine,” I whispered, knowing how much of an idiot I sounded.

Her laugh was bright when she turned over the box, then showed me the sticky note in my mom’s handwriting. “Be safe. Have fun. Loosen up for crying out loud. There’s a whole wide world waiting for you, Leah-bug. Love, Mom.”

“That’s what I get for being born to hippies.”

Penna wrapped her arm around my shoulder and tossed the condoms at Hugo, who was redder than the pair of cherry pumps he’d unpacked.

“I think we’ll get along just fine.”

After I kicked Hugo out and unpacked with Penna telling me hilarious stories while sitting on my bed, I realized that I hadn’t distanced myself from the Renegades at all…

I’d moved in with one.

Chapter Four

Paxton

Bermuda

I stretched my legs out, trying to avoid the Flyboard parts scattered on the floor next to me. I’d watched every minute of film Bobby’s crew had taken from the zip-line yesterday but still couldn’t figure out what had gone wrong or where the rigs had disappeared to. I wanted to write it off as a fluke accident, but the nagging feeling that it had been something more wouldn’t go away.

Penna and Landon had agreed that it was strange, but neither seemed too worried. After all, we’d done far more dangerous stunts and had way worse things go wrong. But just in case, no one else was touching these Flyboards.

“Seriously? Could you hurry up already? We have places to be,” Leah exclaimed from the doorway of my bedroom.

I nearly dropped the buckle assembly I was examining. “Well, I think that might be the first time a woman has said that to me in here.”

Her mouth dropped into a little
O
before she snapped it shut. “Well, you’ve only been sleeping in here a few days. Give it another week.”

“You’re assuming I’ve ever had a complaint. Usually the only requests I get in here are along the lines of
faster, harder, deeper
.”

She sputtered, and I couldn’t stop the grin that transformed my features and my mood. After the last few days with Leah, I was realizing that she did that to me. Even when she told me to go to hell, I kinda wanted to go because it riled her up.

“Where is it you think we’re supposed to be?” I asked, picking up the hose coupling and inspecting the seal.

“We’re in Bermuda.”

“And?”

“We have a mandatory field-study today. All day. And it starts in half an hour.”

Was that a gap? I pulled it closer and ran my finger along the seam. Nope. Good to go.

“We have to leave, so get your butt off the floor.”

I looked up. Damn, she looked good today. Her pants were skintight—leggings, that’s what Penna called them—and her blue top was oversized to fall off one shoulder, revealing a black bra strap.

Maybe her panties matched, too.

Was she a thong kind of girl? In those pants she had to be.

“Paxton, it’s time to go!” She crossed her arms and tapped her little sandaled foot at me.

“You go. I’m getting ready for tomorrow. Hell, add in a massage on me. Have them charge it to your room.” I reached for another part, but she beat me to it, snatching the board.

“This isn’t for fun, Paxton. It’s for World Religion.”

Fuck.
I’d gotten through three of the flyboards, but there were seven left to examine. “Is it required?”

Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “Yes. That’s what I just said, which you would know if you’d put this down and pay attention.”

“I have things I need to do,” I argued, tugging on the hose.

“Yeah, like pass World Religion. Now stop whining and let’s go.” She pulled harder.

We locked eyes, and I read the determination in hers. “What will you give me if I go?” I asked. I could check the remaining gear tonight.

Her eyes rolled. “A pat on the back for being a good student. I’m your tutor, not your nanny. Now be a big boy and do the mature thing.”

“Not good enough,” I said, a smile tugging at my lips. She was so much fun to piss off. That’s when her shell peeled back to reveal a fire I desperately wanted to feel, to witness her burning.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“I want your tomorrow.”

“You have my next nine months. That should be sufficient.” She turned her wrist to check her watch. “We’re going to be late!”

“The world might end.” Hell, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been on time for something.

Her lips pursed, but it wasn’t the anger that got me moving, it was the spark of fear in her eyes. She was seriously worried about missing whatever fucking field trip we were supposed to be on. “I want your tomorrow. If I go where you say today, you go where I say tomorrow.” Maybe if she saw the fun side of what we did, she’d start to understand.

She closed her eyes and sighed as if she was kissing her plans for tomorrow good-bye. “Fine.”

“Okay, then let’s go.”
Victory!
I rose to my feet and moved toward where she stood tugging on that long braid she had running along the side of her face. Her eyes drifted down the line of my chest, following my tattoos to my abs, and then she squeezed her eyes shut. I could have crowed with satisfaction that she’d been looking and, by her reaction, liked what she saw. “Problem?”

“Nope. Just do the world a favor and put on a shirt.” She spun, leaving me alone in my room.

“Chicken,” I muttered under my breath, but I knew the truth. She was simply stronger than I was. There was zero chance I’d be able to back away if she was half dressed.

Twenty minutes later, after showing Leah the VIP disembarkation point on the ship, we barely made it to our excursion. There looked to be about sixty of us corralled together like cattle in front of two passenger buses.

“You owe me,” I whispered to the top of her head.

Her smile was gorgeous. “You’ll thank me later.”

As we were ready to load the cattle cars—uh, buses—I heard my name called and turned to see Bobby and a cameraman sprinting toward us.

Shit. We’d almost made it without Big Brother tagging along. The see-everything cameras were getting old, and it was only our first port.

Two extras and a cranky professor later, we were off. “Aren’t you going to be hot?” I asked Leah as she adjusted, looking for a seat belt.

She looked at her leggings and tilted her head. “Probably.”

I waited for her to say something else, but she didn’t, and I didn’t push. I glanced around at the other girls on the bus, none of whom were in anything longer than their knees.
Huh.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen Leah in anything but pants.

About thirty minutes later, we parked and all filed out of the bus. “Where are we?”

“St. Peter’s Church,” Leah answered, leading me up the stone steps to the bright chapel with green shutters. “It’s the oldest Christian church in the western hemisphere.”

We listened as the professor gave us the history of the church—from the front, which had been brought with the settlers, to the graveyards that had been segregated between the white Christians and African slaves. Then he turned us loose to explore.

“Isn’t it magnificent?” Leah asked, running her fingers across the dark wood of the boxed church pews. “Think of everything that’s happened here. All the people who have been through these doors.”

“Think of all the sins confessed,” I whispered.

She smacked my stomach with her notebook. “No appreciation of history.”

I shrugged. “I like history. I’d just rather be making it than observing it.”

“There’s something exquisite about this, though,” she said, taking in every detail of the church. “Hurricanes came and went, and they simply rebuilt. They didn’t tear it down and start new. They fixed what was broken because it meant something to them. It’s beautiful.”

Doesn’t our marriage mean anything to you?

You can’t fix what’s irreparable.

I blinked. Where the hell had that come from? I hadn’t thought about that fight—the one where I finally realized my parents were going to divorce—in the last ten years.

“Are you ready to go?” she asked, looking up at me with bright, honest eyes. How long had it been since I’d been around a girl who didn’t have an agenda? Who wasn’t looking for five minutes in the spotlight, or to say she’d fucked me?

But Leah, she was none of that. Hell, she barely wanted to be around me as it was. Instead, the tables had been flipped, and I was the one constantly angling for a minute of her time.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

She pointed to a white van in the parking lot. “That’s our ride this time.”

“We’re not going back to the ship?” I asked, trying to keep the disappointment out of my voice. I needed to inspect those rigs, make sure that nothing went wrong tomorrow.

“Not yet. Don’t worry, Cinderella, I’ll get you home by midnight.” She led me over to the van and gave our names to the driver.

“Where are we going?”

She laughed, scooting over so I could sit next to her as another half-dozen students filed in behind us. “Didn’t you bother to look at your itinerary?”

“Nope. I saw your excursion list and had the registrar match it.”

“You’re entirely too trusting.”

If you only knew the truth.
“I didn’t do it until after I’d met you. I decided you weren’t half bad to be around and, given that you’d agreed to stay on as my tutor, you had good taste.”

“Unbelievable.”

The van started to roll, and when I looked in the rearview mirror, I started to laugh.

“What?”

I pointed behind us. “Bobby didn’t make it.”

She turned to see and then she giggled. Fucking giggled. It was the most entrancing sound I’d ever heard, light, playful, and sexy as hell.

“Oh my God, now he’s running.” She laughed full-out, and I joined her, watching him try his best to catch the van. “Want to stop for him?” She arched an eyebrow, and I recognized the challenge when I saw it.

“Nope. It’s just you, me, and these other fine seagoers.”

Her smile was well worth what I knew would be a shitstorm later. Wherever we were going, it had to be somewhere worthwhile, and I’d cut out the documentary team. Too damn bad.

The water was a spectacular sight as we wound our way down the island. It was hard to believe that we had nine whole months of this ahead of us—that as amazing as it was here, there was so much more amazing waiting to happen.

When we hit a pothole, Leah bumped against my shoulder, and then inched toward the window, as if touching me wasn’t acceptable. I swallowed, knowing that my stupid physical craving to get my hands on her would only screw over my trip, my GPA, and her life. Hell, my life, too. She was too important to even think about that way.

Besides, I’d always wanted what I couldn’t have, and that had to be it. She was in the center of my radar because I already knew she was untouchable.

Ten minutes later we stood outside next to a large sign that read
pedestrian path to the crystal caves of bermuda.

“Spelunking?” I asked hopefully.

“Sightseeing. Come on.” She smiled over her shoulder, and I followed after her, enjoying the slight sway of her curved hips ahead of me.

We passed rows of palm trees, a botanical garden, and finally made it to a curved archway that started a ramped descent. The stone walls rose around us, becoming a tunnel and, though the walkway wasn’t steep, I didn’t miss the way Leah’s fingers tightened on the banister.

“Why don’t you let me go first?” I asked, sliding to the side. She shot me a curious look, and I shrugged. “That way if you stumble, I’ll catch you.”

“Catch me?”

“Well, it would be more like you catching yourself on my back, but you can use me.”

Her eyebrows shot sky-high.

“My back. You can use my back.”
And any other part of me you want.
“You know what? I’m going first just to make this conversation stop.”

I took the lead behind the tour guide, shaking my head as he rambled on about the history of the cave. Where the hell was my game? Not that I was trying to hook up with Leah, but it would have been nice to put two words together correctly.

We made it out of the tunnel, and I sucked in a breath. “Whoa.” Stalactites hung from every square foot of the ceiling, all pointing to the clearest, bluest water I’d ever seen.

Leah’s cheek brushed my shoulder as she leaned around to see. “Told you it would be worth it.”

I turned to her, my lips brushing across the crown of her head. Her hair smelled like oranges, and damn if I didn’t like it. “It’s beautiful.”

She pulled back enough to look into my eyes. “And you’re thinking of how fast you could skateboard down the ramp, aren’t you?”

Actually, it hadn’t even occurred to me. I’d been too focused on her.
You’re slipping.
I glanced back up the ramp, past the remainder of our tour. “I could probably get a ton of speed, but I’d need something to bank me through this turn.”

The two girls behind us giggled, and the hot blond one gave me the smile I’d become accustomed to in the last three years I’d made a name for myself. The one that usually ended with a phone number I didn’t use because I’d already moved on.

“Do you ever stop to think that you’re moving too fast to savor anything around you before it’s gone?” Leah asked.

I jolted, my entire body snapping to face hers. Had she been in my head? No. She was leaned over the railing of the outcropping, absorbing everything around us, experiencing it in a way I didn’t, because she was right—I was always moving too fast.

I leaned next to her, her bare shoulder rubbing against mine, and simply watched, not only the incredible scene around us but the play of emotion on her face, as she did the same. “This was worth slowing down for,” I admitted.

She turned those eyes on me, and I realized that I meant that in more than one way. It would be so easy to run my fingers into her hair, tip her face to mine, and kiss her, to see if she tasted as sweet as she looked. Maybe then I could be satisfied, the challenge over, the curiosity appeased.

You know better.

“Hey…um…aren’t you Wilder?” a guy asked from behind me, and I could have hit him for cock-blocking me and thanked him at the same time.

I turned around, but Leah didn’t. “Yeah,” I answered.

“Whoa!” The guy high fived his Abercrombie-styled buddy, the hot blonde tucked under his arm. “I knew you were on board but didn’t expect to get to meet you!”

“Well, hi.” I gave them a nod.

“Hi,” his girl said with a smile and a once-over that let me know she’d be all too happy to take a private tour of my room later.

Oddly enough, that didn’t sound too appealing.

“Dude, we saw you at the Summer X Games year before last. The Big Air finals were crazy! You nailed it!”

A sliver of apprehension cracked the peaceful veneer I’d had since we left the ship. “Thanks. It was…a night.”
What would you give to have changed it?