The Rebel - Raleigh Ruebins Page 0,38

out my phone, trying to hold it steady so Red didn’t see the shake in my hands.

I navigated to Colin’s Twitter account, scrolling to the set of photos he’d posted of me. I handed my phone to Red.

His gaze danced over the screen. He looked at the picture of my dick with the precum dripping down it, then the picture of me in a pink jock strap, then the one where I was giving the camera big, needy eyes while I gripped my shaft in my fist. I swore I saw his cheeks turning a little red, and I wondered if it had been a good idea to show him these.

He cleared his throat, then licked his lips. “Um. Those are… those are nice photos of you,” he said. “Very nice.”

I couldn’t help but puff out a small laugh, despite everything. “Thank you, Red.”

“I like the first one,” he said.

“Precum is always a nice touch,” I said.

“Right. The, uh, way it makes your cock kind of... shine….”

Red wasn’t usually easily shocked, but he seemed a little surprised to see my photos. I had forgotten that not everyone was used to seeing a constant stream of naked pics like people in the porn industry were.

“They are nice photos, I agree,” I said. “But… these weren’t from a photoshoot. These were private photos he took of me.”

Red’s expression slowly morphed from reverie into confusion. “What? These aren’t porn photos?”

“No. Colin just posted them online this morning, most likely in an attempt to get my attention, because I’ve been ignoring his calls. But those were never meant to be online. One of them I didn’t even know he took.”

“You’re fucking kidding me,” Red said, frowning and handing the phone back to me like it was disgusting.

“I am not kidding,” I said. “That is how Colin is.”

“You realize that’s probably illegal, regardless of it being violating,” Red said.

I shrugged. “The world already knows what every ridge of my dick looks like. Sure, maybe this is illegal, but it isn’t that bad, in the grand scheme of my life.”

“Fuck that. It is bad, Liam. Really bad.”

I knew Red was concerned, but his eyes were fixed on me and it was making me feel both calmer and warm. He was standing so close to me now that his scent surrounded me. The man must have kept a damn block of cedar in his closet, he always smelled so fucking masculine and woodsy.

I took a deep breath. Finally, my heart rate had gone down a little and my hands weren’t shaking.

“I just want to forget about Colin and LA right now, okay?” I asked. “I don’t want to think about it. At all. But you deserved an explanation of why I am hiding out here. I’m hiding from all of this. Even though sometimes it feels like it chases me regardless.”

Red’s face was still stony. He’d gotten much angrier about the pictures than I had expected.

Red gave a shit. Plain and simple. He really cared about me, even more than I cared about myself sometimes. I knew the pictures didn’t really matter, but Red was furious that my personal privacy had been violated.

“Fine,” he said. “But there are better ways to get your mind off of absolute dickheads. You don’t need to drown yourself in vodka. Now or ever.”

“I just wish I knew what those better ways were,” I said. “Other than gardening every waking hour of my life.”

Red fixed his gaze on me, lifting one eyebrow. “Well…”

“Well,” I said.

Red grabbed his cowboy hat from the front table, put it on his head, and tipped it at me. He winked at me, and already I felt myself getting a little hard again seeing him in that damn hat.

“Then... let’s film a porn video,” he said, in a sultry, deep drawl.

7

Red

Things feel a little bit heightened when you’re about to film a goddamn porn video.

I had never been a very modest person. It didn’t bother me to undress in locker rooms back in school, I didn’t mind talking about sex with anybody who came through my bar, and I wasn’t shy about asking for what I wanted.

But being around Liam now, after our kiss last week and the hottest phone call of my life, was making me bashful as all hell. It was weird. It was time to strip naked in front of a camera for him. I was going to either come or lose my damn mind, but I was ready.

And I was willing to do absolutely