Rebel on the Run by Jayne Rylon Read Free Book Online Page B

time.
    The horror, and acceptance, on his face when his friend had rejected him had riled every instinct she possessed. Comforting had been second nature.
    It’d always been like that between them.
    When she’d disappointed her father by tripping on her ridiculous gown and falling down the stairs in front of guests at a campaign kickoff, he’d held her as she cried. Then he’d transformed her tears into laughter despite her sprained ankle.
    When he’d pissed his father off by hanging out with their maid’s son, she was the only person he’d told the real reason that Marietta had been fired. Together they’d arranged for Kaelyn to slip her cash to help out afterward.
    They’d made an awesome team.
    Why couldn’t things have turned out like she’d imagined back then? Probably because there was too much she hadn’t understood. Still didn’t. Maybe she’d never known him at all.
    Kaelyn held the starry bath bar in front of her, admiring the shine as she considered making a wish. It must have held more moisturizing oils than she realized because it slipped through her fingers, like a lot of other things in her life. With a distinct plop, it crashed into the bath and fizzed more vehemently than she anticipated.
    In fact, the froth that started out white turned blue as it bubbled near the lip of the tub. The water morphed, changing colors that might have been pretty if she hadn’t been worried about staining her hosts’ bathmat, or the entire tile floor, if the thing went bananas.
    When she lifted her arm from the mushrooming foam, she realized that oodles of the glitter that had coated the bath bomb now stuck to her skin like the flambéed bananas foster gone wrong she’d witnessed in an exclusive restaurant once.
    “Oh. Oh, no.” She stood up and realized the sparkles had turned her into some cross between the Tin Man and that horrible rhinestone-encrusted dress Mrs. Black had worn to her father’s last charity ball. “Holy crap.”
    Soft knocking came at the door, except she was too embroiled in the battle against the bling to respond quickly, or at all.
    Another knock.
    Kaelyn began to thrash in the tub, trying to knock some of the glitter off and disperse the foam that rose like a skyscraper on top of the water’s surface. It would topple any second. She dove for the drain, knocking it out but grunting and shouting—something she almost never did, it wasn’t ladylike—in the process. 
    Just as she lost the war, two things happened simultaneously. A wave of gleaming foam splashed onto the floor and deposited some of the sticky shimmer while the door burst open and banged against the poor black-painted vanity, which certainly didn’t deserve such abuse.
    “What the hell—?” Bryce shot into the room, skidding on the blob near the tub before he could stop.
    Kaelyn shrieked and covered herself, or as many of the important bits as she could manage with two handfuls of twinkling bubbles. Great.
    Hot on Bryce’s heels, the rest of his roommates swarmed the bathroom as if prepared to fight off ninjas that had rappelled through the window. Shocked and embarrassed to have sullied their bathroom, Kaelyn could only stand and stare at her audience as Bryce struggled to regain his footing.
    Nola rushed to her aid. “Guys, this isn’t some kind of peep show. Jeez. Leave her alone. Nobody’s dying in here. Stand down.”
    Just as Nola reached toward the towel rack, Buster McHightops flew in from the hallway, barking his fool puppy head off at the sight of the mountain of gleaming froth. He nipped at a wayward pile of suds, oblivious that he’d cut Nola off.
    She shooed him toward the hall, stopping short and skidding on a slick patch of tile in the process. Her eyes grew wide and she braced herself for the inevitable crash.
    Before she could fall, Kaige rushed in and swooped her up.
    “Careful, babe.” He seemed more upset than was warranted as he dropped to his knees and hugged her tight. “It’s not just