TROUBLE, A New Adult Romance Novel (The Rebel Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

know,” I say, flipping my tablet over so she’ll quit looking at it.
    “You should read the sexy stuff.   Erotic romance.   The hotsy totsy hoochie cootchie stuff.”
    I sniff a little.   “Pride and Prejudice is sexy.”
    She snorts.   “My ass.”
    “How would you know?   You’ve never read it.”
    “Like hell, I haven’t.   That Darcy guy was a total pushover and I have no idea why he was okay with sloppy seconds.   He deserved better.”
    I cannot believe her. “Sloppy seconds?   Are you serious?” Quin is so obtuse sometimes.
    “Yes. Dead serious.   Sloppy seconds all the way.”
    “There are no sloppy seconds in Pride and Prejudice.”   Now she’s just making me mad.
    “What do you call Mr. Wickham?   He was her first choice. He got the prime beef.   Darcy?   Sloppy seconds, like I said.”
      I put my nose in the air.   Quin has no idea what she’s talking about.   “Wickham was a scoundrel and a cheat and not fit to be her husband.”
    Quin starts laughing.   “You sound like Elizabeth Bennet herself.”
    I push myself up off the couch with effort, dropping my tablet to the table with a clatter.   “Oh, shut up, Quin.”
    I grab my purse that was hiding behind a plant and storm out of the apartment.   It’s only after getting out into the hallway that I realize what a bad idea that was.   Now I have nowhere to go, and I can’t very well walk back into the apartment after that kind of exit; I’ll look ten times more foolish than I already do.
    I walk to the end of the hallway and take the stairs down into the main garage.   I’ve always just cruised through this space without stopping, but since I’ve been warned about ten times not to touch anything in Teagan’s office, this is the only place left to me unless I want to wander around outside, which I don’t.   It’s way too hot outside for a pregnant person.
    I sigh as I wander over to a table covered in tools, putting my purse over my head and across my chest so I can be hands-free. There’s a car nearby with its hood open and a rag lying over the radiator part.   A piece of the engine is resting on the cloth.   The car is painted an ugly orange.
    Who’d paint a car orange? Not me.   I’d go with white or cream.   Something clean-looking and elegant.   I sigh as I picture it.   I had already picked out the perfect car for myself, freshman year, just like I’d picked out everything else I was eventually going to have in my life once I graduated.   I even made a vision board with cut-out magazine pictures of the car, the house, the husband, the children, the dog and cat.   Everything.   I had the perfect plan.
    I smile with extreme bitterness as the memories fade.   All of those dreams are now gone, like car exhaust in my rearview mirror.   I don’t even have my beater Toyota anymore. Ugh .
    I run my fingers over one of the tools.   It looks so blunt and masculine.   It’s cold and hard and … ew , covered in black grease.   Crud.   Now I’m dirty .   I try to wipe the goop off my fingers on a blue rag nearby, but there’s grease on that too.   I’m standing there staring at my black-smeared hand when I hear footsteps behind me.
    “You going to work on that water pump for me?”
    It’s Colin.   I brace myself as a shiver runs over my skin.
    “I don’t think so,” I say, embarrassed that he witnessed my big exit.   I feel bad now for telling Quin to shut up.   She was just being Quin and that normally doesn’t bother me so much.   Today is a weird day for my hormones, apparently.
    “Here, let me help you.”   Colin pulls a wet wipe out of a box and uses it on my fingers. His strong hands massage the grease right off my skin and leave me breathless as a side-effect.
    “I’m sorry about being so … stupid,” I say, wishing I could take the words back as soon as they leave my mouth.   Pregnancy has made me lose brain cells, I’m sure of it.   No wonder I can’t read Pride and