Hollywood Rebel by Misti Murphy

Chapter Thirteen

 

Rebel

Copper Rock, as it turns out, is a boutique distillery run by a couple of brothers. Theo and Bastien Rock decided to go into business after learning about a new method that makes fresh whisky taste aged.

After a tour through the distillery and the process they use to create their product, we end up in the tasting room. White oak barrels line the walls in racks that reach the ceiling. Several huge barrels, surrounded by stools, are set out on the concrete floor.

We stand around the one closest to the tasting barrels. Four glasses are placed in the middle of the barrel top along with several bottles of whisky and a stack of cardboard coasters with the Copper Rock logo embossed on them.

“I think you’ll appreciate the rye.” Bastien opens the bottle and pours equal measures among the four glasses. He hands one to me and one to Summer before picking up his own.

Theo follows suit. “This is our biggest seller.”

“For now,” Bastien says with a secretive gleam in his eye.

After a handful of successful years, they’re looking to grow their business with a celebrity endorsement and a new collaborative line. And the whisky, well… I take a sip of the liquor in the thick cut glass tumbler Bastien handed me… it’s actually a damn nice drop. “I’m normally an Ace of Spades drinker, but I’m ready to buy shares in this.”

Bastien grins and his chest puffs up. He’s the man behind the liquor, while Theo is the numbers guy. The way he talks about his whisky, it’s obvious he’s proud and passionate about the product. It comes across in the spirit too.

Summer takes a small sip of the honey-colored liquid. She presses her lips together, but it’s clear she’s not a whisky drinker by the yuck face she tries so hard to conceal.

“What do you think, Red?” I tamp down on a chuckle that threatens to spill from my throat. She probably wouldn’t appreciate me laughing at her at this point when she’s clearly worked hard to find an angle that doesn’t paint me like America’s fucking sweetheart.

“It’s great.” She places her glass on the top of the barrel we’re gathered around. “Really nice.”

“Not a whisky drinker.” Theo smiles indulgently.

“Not so much,” she admits.

“We have white wine in the restaurant,” he says, “if you’d prefer. How about we head over and have some lunch while we talk over the details?”

“That would be great.” Summer moves to follow him to the exit.

I catch her elbow. “Actually, gentleman. If you wouldn’t mind, I need a moment to talk with Summer before we join you. Is it okay if we stay here and finish our drinks?”

“Of course,” Theo says. “Once you leave, just head up the hill. You can’t miss the restaurant.”

“You should sample the corn whisky,” Bastien suggests as they head out.

I raise my glass to them. “I’ll do that.”

“Please tell me you’re not turning this down,” Summer says as soon as they’re out of earshot. She takes out her phone and starts wandering the room, snapping pictures of the distillery, of me. “I had to pull some major strings to get you this meeting.”

“I love that you’re enabling me.” I smirk before I take another sip.

“Enabling…” Her eyes widen and she hurries toward me. “Oh, I didn’t think…”

“I’m kidding, Red.” I put my glass down. “I actually don’t have a drinking problem. I have a boredom problem. What did you offer them to work with me?”

“Positive product placement. Your collaboration on a new whisky line.”

“No. What did it take for them to be willing to work with me? Because I wouldn’t have been their first choice. I’m the poster boy for why drinking is bad.”

She presses her hands together in front of her. “I convinced them that you’re working hard to rebuild your reputation in a more positive light and that collaborating with you would increase their business universally. Theo is a numbers guy. He understands you’re a risk, but I persuaded him that you were a risk worth taking.”

“Do you believe that?” I stare into the bottom of my glass. It’s empty except for a bare drop. I put it down on the barrel. I’ve had my fair share of nights where I’ve drank too much. Mostly before I went away. Recently I drink because I don’t know what else to do, but I don’t need it. It’s increasingly becoming a thing to pass the time in between giving Summer hell. “Am I a risk worth taking?”

“Why don’t you tell me,” she says.

“I don’t know.” And that is the truth of the matter. I’ve done stupid shit. I’ve drank too much. I’ve popped too many pills. I’ve hurt people. I’ve got a record. But yeah, I like to believe I could be. Even if I keep proving I’m not.

“Rebel.” She glances up at me with those innocent and genuine green eyes of hers. Takes a breath that makes her tits rise and fall. Yes, they catch my attention for a moment before I settle on her face. Upturned lips, that pink cupid’s bow. The way her tongue peeks out to wet them and leaves them with a glossy sheen. “Would I be here if I didn’t think we could do this?”

“Well, I don’t know, kitten.” I clear my throat. Try to throw in a joke to lighten the moment. “You’re damn stubborn.”

“Not as stubborn as you,” she volleys my hit. And punctuates it with a smack from the side of her hand on my shoulder.

That impact spreads through me at the speed of light. Her hand doesn’t get a chance to leave my shoulder before I’ve caught it up in my own. My other grasps her waist and lifts her off her feet. I turn and plant her ass on top of the barrel.

Her breath comes fast. Both hands rest on my chest. “Rebel?”

I want her to say I’m worth the trouble. I want her. I’m stuck in that moment we shared in the pool. My brain keeps going back to it. My cock tightens up every time I do. I’m blue balled so hard I can barely stand myself. But I can’t make it past the way she looks at me. I can’t make it past the fact that I scare the shit out of her.

“Rebel?”

“Summer.”

“What are we doing?” She grips the edge of the barrel.

I can’t work out what I’m supposed to do with my hands. Hell, I know what I want to do with them.

I want to put them between her knees.

Spread her thighs. Touch the pad of my thumb to her juicy clit.

I know I turn her on. She scents the air now as much as she did when we wrestled for control. Fucking weird ass foreplay. I’d had to jerk off in the shower this morning so I could face her without trying to get between her legs again. “I have no fucking clue.”

“We should join Bastien and Theo.”

“And make the deal,” I agree.

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?” She stares at me like she expected me to turn down working with Copper Rock.

But it’s a good plan. It’ll get me back in people’s heads. It’s a step in the right direction. There’s just one thing. “If...”

“If what?”

“You let me kiss you.”

“I can’t believe you think that will work. Even if…” She shakes her head and clears her throat. “I’m not going to do that. Why can’t you just make the deal?”

“I need to know you trust that I can do this.” I snag one of her hands from her lap and turn it palm up.

She worries her lip, her eyes levelled at my mouth. “I do.”

“It’s too easy to say things and not mean them, kitten. It’s not going to cut it.”

She stares at me for a heartbeat. Two. Three. So long I must be an idiot for thinking she wants me too. There’s no way she’ll trust me.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this for my career.” She lets out a frustrated breath as she closes her eyes and tips her head back. That sneaky tongue flicks across the lined, pillowy surfaces before she swallows. “You can kiss me.”

Yeah, I’d like to. I raise her palm and press my lips to the center of it.

She inhales sharply. Her thighs clench. Heavy eyelids open over shocked emerald irises. There’s a neediness to them that obliterates me.

I was only going to kiss her hand. I’m a wild card, a rule breaker, but there are some lines that aren’t meant to be crossed. Irreparable lines you can never build a bridge over, no matter how much you might want to. And that kind of damage should never touch someone like Summer. She’s feisty and happy and so alive.

But the way she looks at me. The physical pull of our locked gazes. Damn, it’s fire.

I press another kiss to her wrist, and she whimpers. Her thighs part and her hand darts out to wind around my belt buckle and tug me between them.

I’m about to lose my shit over that move. I have to shut my eyes and remember how to fucking breathe for a moment. I haven’t even tasted her mouth and all I want to do is get inside her when she does that. Don’t care how or where or who sees. I groan because my erection is trying to punch its way through my jeans. “Let go of my belt, kitten.”

She drops her hand, and I scoop it up. Place both her palms on my shoulders. Grip the back of her neck with my fingers and thumb. “I wasn’t going to take it any further when I kissed your hand, but now I need to know what you taste like. You want that, don’t you? You want me to kiss you so fucking much I can smell you’re already wet for me.”

“Rebel.” She moans as I wrap a hand around one of her thighs and squeeze.

“Tell me what I need to hear, kitten.”

She doesn’t hesitate. “I want you to kiss me. I’ve been dreaming about it. Can’t stop thinking about it.”

“Good girl.” I don’t need a second affirmation. My heart pounds hard as I drop my mouth to hers. She’s soft and yields like she was made to take my kiss. The spice from the whisky and her own sweet taste drives me on. I nip her bottom lip and delve my tongue between them when she whimpers.

I thought she’d be timid, with the way she always seems to frighten at the idea that I want her, but she’s not. Her tongue is enthusiastic. It wars with mine. Takes over and explores my mouth like she owns it. And damn, I’ve never been so turned on by a kiss.

Both hands on her legs, I yank her hard against me. Her skirt gathers at the top of her thighs. If she gets splinters in her ass from the barrel, I’ll help pull them out of her delicate skin once I’m done with her. I need her to feel what I’ve been living with since I caught her with her mouth on photo me’s dick, because I haven’t been able to stop imagining what it would be like if she does it for real.

She gasps and her fingernails dig into my sides as I press my cock against her panty covered slit. I fuck her mouth with my tongue and cup her breast through her lilac blouse. Pinch her nipple between a finger and thumb.

The next sound she makes is high pitched and squeaky. Her body greedily bows into mine, seeking more contact. “More.”

She’s so pliable. I could have her now, and she wouldn’t be able to help herself. Once upon a time I would have said to hell with the deal and buried myself so deep in her pussy right here. I drop my hand to the space between her legs. Pinch her thigh, make her jump.

“Ow.” She hisses, but it’s followed by a deep moan as my thumb rolls over her clit. “Oh.”

I circle my favorite new toy. Rub my thumb over it while I collect all her sounds with my lips and my teeth and my tongue. She’s wet through her panties. She’s perfect.

Her breathing grows erratic. Her eyes close. She can’t keep them open, so immersed in the orgasm my fingers are building. I’m lost in watching her. Obsessed with the change in her facial expression. The accumulation of tension before her muscles slacken as she comes for me.

I wring out every last drop of sexual satisfaction from her body before I step back. I’m uncomfortably aroused, but there’s no help for it. She gave me her kiss to prove that she trusted me to make good on this deal she brokered, and that is exactly what I’m going to do.

I lick the pad of my thumb and taste her sweetness. “Fuck, kitten. I hope you understand how much willpower I’m exerting to not eat you all up right now.”

“The deal,” she says breathlessly. Her hands fly over her outfit and her hair. “Oh God, I must look a mess.”

“You look great.” Flustered and pink. Her hair wild. It’s sexy as hell. Especially because I’m the cause of it. I made her come. I did that.

“I don’t believe you.” She scoots over the edge of the barrel.

When I try to help her, she swats my hands away. “We shouldn’t have… I shouldn’t have done that. I can’t believe I let you do that.”

“You wanted it,” I snap, and instantly regret the tone in my voice. I sound like a real asshole. The kind who thinks he can push himself on women because they’re weaker and easy to subdue. I blow out a breath and try to defuse the bomb ticking in my chest. “You did want it, didn’t you? I didn’t force you into anything?”

“I…” She blinks a couple of times. Her shoulders soften. “Shit, Rebel. Yes, okay, I wanted it. You. I… Look, Bernadette will fire me if she ever finds out about this.”

“If that’s what you’re worried about.” I take her hand and tug her gently into my arms. Straighten a few of her more unruly locks. “She won’t hear it from me.”

“Good. Because there is nothing to hear about.” She pulls free and runs her palms over her blouse and skirt. She can barely look at me. “It won’t happen again. You deserve a publicist who does her job properly.”

“Hang on. You got me this whisky deal.” I catch her elbow. Despite my best efforts to thwart her at every turn, she’s still managed to do her job. “You’re good at what you do.”

“Let’s get to the restaurant.” She ignores my compliment. “They’re waiting for us.”

“Yeah, fine.” I shove a hand in my pocket and run the other through my hair as I follow her out of the tasting room, where, aptly, I got my first addictive taste of Summer Heart.

She might want to believe it’s the only taste I’m going to get, and that what happened right here is well and truly over, but she’d be wrong. From the night she left lipstick marks on my portrait I’ve been jonesing to have her curvy body in my bed.

The more time we spend in each other’s company the more I want the tenacious beauty. She’s adorably cute and driven. Willing to go as far as it takes to fix my reputation. Obsessed with making me a better man. One with a cause.

Well, damn it, I’m more stubborn than she is. And I have one hell of a cause now. Summer Heart is going to find out just how far I’ll go to make her mine.