“No. This would be the long way to the master bedroom. She probably took the elevator up.”
Kaia choked. Rebel didn’t notice because she moved on.
Urging him back, she curled against him. “Momma told me about college.”
The moment of truth. “What do you think, babe? I’ll do whatever you want me to do.”
“I want you to stay,” she said, the words both disappointing him and relieving him. She sighed then sat up again and scooted slightly away. “But I know you have to go.”
“I don’t have to—”
“You do, Kaia. As much as I want to beg you to stay, if you’re accepted to wherever, you have to take the opportunity.” Tears pooled in her eyes and she bowed her head. “I want…” She sniffled. “I wish it was different.”
“Me, too.”
Her mascara didn’t run. She swiped her cheeks. “What did you do?”
“Uh, what…? I don’t know—”
“You did something. Momma wouldn’t send you away when she knows how much you mean to me. If you wanted to go to college, she’d find you a good program nearby. What did you do?”
Kaia’s blood ran cold. If Rebel ever found out he slept with Fia again… For now, he’d pretend ignorance. “I don’t know.”
“Did you ruin more of her clothes? I offered to pay out of my allowance. I’d be without one for three or four months, but I wouldn’t care. I’d have my Chi.”
“Reb—”
“I had every intention of coming home to beg you to undo the damage, whatever it is, but on the way back, I realized how selfish that was. Momma says if we’re meant to be together, we will be.”
“She’s right.”
“Would you be willing to have a long-distance relationship?”
He’d be thousands of miles away. If he cultivated a friendship with a chick mainly for sex, Rebel would never know.
“Your silence means ‘no’.”
She was so impatient. “No, babe, it doesn’t.”
Rebel met his gaze. “You don’t really want that, Kaia.”
He didn’t want to be locked down and feel guilty every time he had sex. He didn’t want his insecurities to catch up to him and make him question what she might be doing. It would be nothing that Outlaw, Diesel, and CJ didn’t approve of. They kept her on a short leash.
Her shoulders slumped and her light dimmed. “We can break up now,” she said quietly.
“I don’t want to break up with you.” That was the truth. “The more time I spend with you, the more I feel for you.”
“Me, too, with you.Butit wouldn’t be fair. I…” She tried to blink her tears away. “I couldn’t handle you cheating, so I don’t want to put you in that position.”
He flushed.
“I’d prefer us to be friends. When I’m eighteen, if you’re still there and you haven’t met another girl, we can get back together.”
“I’ll still be there and you’ll be here.”
“Yeah, but I’ll be able to fly out to see you every other month.”
Fuck, she’d do that to be with him? Relief and happiness settled into Kaia. “Deal.”
