Hollywood Rebel by Misti Murphy
Chapter Eighteen
Rebel
“If that thing pisses in Emmy…” I glare at the mutt on the backseat of my car. He raises his doggy eyebrows like he knows damn well I’m talking about him.
“That would be karma.” Summer leans over the seat to take photos of him like he’s going to by the next Tyra Banks. “Don’t worry about the cranky Hollywood reject. He’ll come around.”
“Did you call me a reject?” He has about as much chance of winning Doggy Top Model as I do of going back to Friday night and doing it right. However that might have looked. One thing is for damn sure, it wouldn’t have ended up with me chasing after a cab like a damn idiot.
“It’s only temporary.” She slips down into her seat properly and her skirt rides up to expose firm yet curvaceous thighs. Satiny bronze flesh that I am never going to get to feel under my palm again.
Damn it, I get the itch to touch her anyway. Spear my fingers through my hair instead. “You still think you can fix me?”
“With your help we’ll turn his career around,” she says to the dog.
“Great, she’s still talking to the dog,” I say to the air and spin the volume control dial on the radio.
She leans forward and turns the volume down. “Have you given any thought to what you’re going to name him?”
“Dog,” I mutter.
“That’s original,” she says.
“Fine. Storm.”
“Oh no,” she says.
“Why not?” I pull into the driveway outside the house. The sooner this furball is out of my car and somewhere he can die in peace the better.
“My brother’s name is Storm.” She climbs out and holds the door open for the mutt. “Also Owen, Burke, Jett, Kale, and Henry are off the table.”
“You name him then.” I shut Emmy’s door and grimace at how hard the thud is. “Since apparently your family has cornered the market on names.”
“Should it start with an R?” She reaches into the backseat to retrieve all the bits and pieces that I had to purchase to bring this bargaining chip home. A squeaky ball jumps out of her arms and rolls away.
The dog stares at it with complete and utter boredom. “Okay, I wanted you to talk to me again. I bought the damn dog. Can we not make a big production out of it?”
Rogue wanders out onto the portico in nothing but a pair of gold boxers with my face on them. Fucker thinks they’re the funniest thing ever, but he looks like a douche who bought boxers with his own face on them. And that’s a roundabout twist that makes them funny to me.
“Good to see you kids together again.” He stretches his arms above his head as he grins at me and Summer. His gaze lands on the dog and his smile grows wider. He races down the steps. “Holy shit. Is it Christmas?”
“Don’t,” I warn him.
“Riot,” he bellows at the top of his lungs. “Check the calendar. It’s December twenty-fifth. We must have passed out because it is definitely Christmas.”
“What is going on?” Riot steps out onto the portico in a pair of black board shorts and no shirt. Spiking his fingers through his hair, he frowns at Rogue before he notices the dog. He draws miffed eyes to mine. “You said we were never getting a dog.”
“The actual words were ‘over my dead body’,” Rogue says.
“I’m allowed to change my mind,” I say as he hurries down the stairs to crouch down next to Rogue. Both my brothers pet the animal like it’s the cutest little puppy.
“You got us a puppy, Summer Heart?” Rogue asks with adoration in his voice. “This is your doing, isn’t it?”
“We needed an angle since your brother is so unlikable,” she says, heading toward the steps.
Rogue lifts his head, concern etched in the lines around his eyes. “Didn’t go so well?”
I scuff my boot on the pea gravel. “What do you think?”
“Maybe you two could come up with a name for him,” Summer adds before she disappears into the house.
“You promised Ro,” Riot reminds me.
“Don’t I fucking know it?” I’m on edge as I crouch down with them. I feel like Summer and I could have something real, but I don’t know how to convince her of that. I sink my hand into the dog’s fur and give him a scratch. Some of the tension seems to melt away as I stroke his stumpy ear. “You two need to name him, okay? And try to avoid one of the million names Summer’s family have already used.”
“Alright, that would be…” Rogue rattles off all six of her brothers’ names.
“Don’t tell me how you know that.” I get to my feet. I don’t know how to get close to her, but my brother does. Even though she said she wasn’t into him I’m fucking jealous.
“Maybe you should open up,” Rogue says, then adds “not about Ro” before I can remind him that isn’t going to happen. “Just, I don’t know. You’re a good guy. We know that. But you don’t come across that way.”
“Name the dog,” I tell him as I tromp toward the house. “I need to wash this doggy stench off.”
“I’ve just gotten email confirmation about an interview with Harley Roberts,” Summer informs me as soon as I step inside. “She’s agreed to stick to a list of questions that I’ll send her, which means we’ll be able to avoid the one where you tell everyone you’re a young, hot Charles Manson.”
“Is that your tactful way of telling me you think I’m a psychopath?” I cross my arms over my chest.
“Of course not.” She’s busy snipping the tags off all the items I bought for the fleabag. “But there aren’t many people who would admit they don’t regret putting someone in the hospital.”
“It’s complicated.”
“Let’s just work on turning your image around,” she says, shutting me down. “I’m in conversation with E! Online and James Corden’s team. I haven’t had any luck with Ellen yet.”
“You’ve reached all these people this morning?”
“No.” She places the scissors on the counter. “I’ve been in talks with them since I pitched tent on your front lawn. People want to know what happened that night. And what that’s changed for you.”
“Everything,” I say.
“Pardon?”
“It changed everything, Red. I did time. I lost one of my best friends. I can’t get a script. The girl I actually like enough to want to try and get close to thinks I’m a violent asshole.”
She opens her mouth to say something and then closes it again. It’s not often she’s speechless, but apparently admitting I actually fucking like her will do it. [TL1]I sigh. “Well, now I know how to shut you up.”
“I’m sorry. It’s just… you made it sound like you enjoy sticking your tongue down every girl’s throat. And now you like me?”
“You know what, forget it.” I still need to shower and change. I smell like fur and kibble and…I sniff…possibly urine? “I’m going to shower. And then we’ll talk over the list of questions I’m willing to answer for this interview that I definitely regret agreeing to.”
Five minutes later, I’m standing like a zombie in the hallway outside my bedroom. Where I first met Summer. In front of the portrait that still has her smudged lipstick on my ball sack from months ago. A sexy mother pucker reminder that I wanted her the moment I saw her right here in my hallway. I wanted to explore her curves and taste her pussy. I wanted to pull her hair while I pounded into her.
The more I’ve gotten to know her, the more I want her. Even though we argue half the time. Heck, I like that about her too. She gives me hell. And as much as I should let this go, I don’t want to.
I have to open up. I have to find a way to put myself out there. I pushed and pushed and pushed her. Now I have to push myself.
I bound back down the stairs. “Summer, we need to talk.”
I catch sight of Rogue first. He has his head bowed to hers while they talk. It must be serious because they don’t notice me straight away. She touches his arm and my brain catches fire.
He’s my brother so I don’t lose my shit. He’s sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong, but he’s not hitting on Summer. I stumble to a halt at the bottom of the staircase.
Rogue sees me first. He lifts his hand in a static wave. “Everything okay?”
“What did you say to her?” I level my glare at Rogue.
He shrugs.
“Can you join me upstairs, Red?”
“Up there?” She studies me with curiosity. She’s probably remembering last time she stumbled into my—for want of a better word—lair.
I hadn’t exactly been welcoming. She’d hit a fresh and open wound, and I’d reacted instinctually. “I promise I’m not going to yell at you to get out of my house this time.”
“Alright.” She smoothes her hands over the ass of her skirt as she walks toward me.
“I just…” I clear my throat. “I want to talk. Maybe you can ask me more questions, and I’ll try to answer them. I’m not saying I can answer everything you ask—”
“I think I understand.” She puts her foot on the first step.
I reach for her hand. Rub my thumb over the back of her knuckles. I really hope she doesn’t and that she never will. “Ask me whatever you want.”
Rogue gives me two thumbs up and a grin that says I’m not a complete lost cause, before he splits. A moment later the front door closes behind him and leaves us in silence.
“What is your middle name Rebel Maddox? Do you have one?” she asks, stepping determinedly around me and marching up the stairs.
I watch her hips sway and the way the supple globes of her ass bounce before I start after her. “I can’t believe that’s the first question you’re asking.”
She turns at the top of the staircase and lays her palm on my chest. “Is it James?”
“No.” I purse my lips.
“Dean?”
I shake my head. “It’s Vivian.”
“Vivian?” her brow creases and her eyes light up with curiosity. “Really? Rebel Vivian Maddox?”
“You should ask Rogue what his is,” I hint. It’s a real doozey. Our mother had a thing for the classics. She wouldn’t get out of bed for days, just immerse herself in her mental health issues and Gone With The Wind. Now she watches her favorites from the safety of one of California’s finest facilities with no one but the nurses to bother her when it’s time for her medication. “Our mom likes old movies.”
“Mine liked romantic comedies,” Summer says.
“You used past tense.” I take a seat on the top step.
“She passed when I was in high school.” She sits beside me. “Cancer. We watched a lot of movies when she was going through chemo.”
“I’m so sorry.” I squeeze her hand.
“We’re supposed to be talking about you. Not me.” She glances around like she’s never seen the stairs before.
“I want to know you too, Red. All about you. Everything about you.” I grasp her chin, bring her gaze back to me, where it belongs. “Now ask your questions.”
“So the naked portrait. Why? Is it because your ego is huge?”
“That portrait was taken by Eli Forrest. He’s an award-winning photographer. It’s art.”
“So it was your ego,” she teases.
“You didn’t seem to mind my ego the night we met.” I lean my shoulder against hers. “You said some pretty flattering things if I recall.”
She blushes so prettily. I want to trace the path of the color with my thumb. “It was a dare. Ethan and Rogue ganged up on me. Didn’t think I would follow through.”
“But you did.”
“I always follow through.” I love the way her lips part around a sharp intake of breath.
“Next question.” She chews her lip thoughtfully. “Tell me about Ro.”
My muscles tense immediately. “What did Rogue say to you?”
“He said you were a good guy.” She pulls her shoulders up to her ears as she leans closer. “And that I should give you a chance to open up.”
And I told her I would try to give her a reason to trust me, so that’s what I’m going to do. “Ro came onto the scene around the same time Riot did. They worked on a couple of movies together. She started hanging out with us. We moved in the same circles and went to the same parties. We got pretty close.”
“You liked her?” Summer asks.
“We were friends.” I shrug and break eye contact when she stares at me like she’s trying to pierce through the veil of my secrets. If I hadn’t been so fucked up from my last relationship I might have been more inclined to see Ro as more than a friend. It would have ended as badly though. “She’s family, in a way. To all of us.”
“That’s why your brothers don’t have your back when she’s around?”
“Actually, they do.” Because having my back means making sure Ro is okay. Even when I was angry with her I knew that none of this was her fault.
“It didn’t seem like it.” There’s a bitterness in her tone that shouldn’t be there.
It makes my chest swell anyway. “Do you know how protective you sound? And a little bit jealous.”
“I’m not.” She glares at me.
“I don’t think a girl has ever been such a green-eyed monster for me. It’s flattering.”
She rolls her gaze at me. “Can we continue?”
“You don’t need to worry about Ro,” I say. “She and I are done. Before the other night we hadn’t talked in ages. Since before I did time.”
“Was that your decision?”
“It’s complicated.”
“So no.” Her shoulders stiffen.
I use my finger to pull her gaze back to me. I want a chance with Summer and that means I have to give her what I can. “Ro thought she was in love with me. I knocked her back. I wasn’t good for anyone at that point. I was drinking too much and partying too hard, and I knew it would end in disaster. I told her we should stay friends. She didn’t handle the rejection well. It got complicated.”
“And now?” Summer asks.
“And now I want to move on.” I angle my body closer to hers. “I want a chance to be happy. I’ve met this ballsy, hot as hell chick that I want to get to know much better.”