Rebel With A Cause (8 page)

They drove in silence for a while, before Carter suddenly let out a small chuckle.

“What?” Kaitlyn asked curiously.

“Oh, nothing,” he replied. “I just realised something.”

“What did you realise?”

Carter looked at her and grinned. “It’s
all my
fault.”

Kaitlyn was confused. Her eyebrows knotted together. “I don’t get it.”

Carter laughed again. “Remember that night of the race? My driving hadn’t been up to my usual standards, and yet I chose to race. I was just planning on betting money, but then that Deangelo guy called me a coward, and I bet you. And because I lost, you ended up with Marcus. Don’t you see? It’s my fault.
 
I’m
 
the reason Marcus is so obsessed with you.”

Kaitlyn frowned. “That’s not true. You’re the reason I ended up with Marcus. But I’m the reason he’s obsessed. When you won those girls, I went to his place.”

Carter pulled his hand off her thigh as if he’d been scalded. He wouldn’t talk to her until later that night, as they were just
about to leave for the races. Every time Kaitlyn tried apologizing, he shook his head and walked off.

Finally, he did speak to her.

“I can see why,” he said, drinking a bottle of non-alcoholic beer. It was what he drank before he raced. It was a kind of ritual.

“You what?”
Kaitlyn asked, tentatively sitting next to him on the sofa.

“I can see why you’d go to Marcus,” he repeated dispiritedly.

Kaitlyn was surprised. “You can?”

He shrugged. “I haven’t exactly been the best boyfriend, have I?”

She walked over to where he was sitting on the sofa and sat down next to him. Hesitantly, she wrapped her arms loosely around him, and when one of his arms held her tighter to his side, she squeezed his waist.

He kissed the top of her head and murmured, “I love you, Katie.”

She sighed. “I love racing, but sometimes I wish we could stay in and watch a movie and eat popcorn, and then have a full night’s sleep. My body clock is all out of whack.”

Carter laughed. “I promise you Katie, we’ll do that tomorrow. But I need to go to the race tonight.”

“Why?” she whined playfully, but seriously at the same time.

“Because,” he smirked. “Someone needs to kick Marcus’ ass for what he said today.”

Even she had to laugh at that.

“I told you that you could stay home,” Carter laughed, hugging Kaitlyn. She had dressed in her normal short shorts and singlet, with a faux baseball jacket over top and her high tops, but she hadn’t expected the cold wind. Which, retrospectively, she should have done, because it was autumn, and winter wasn’t far away.

She rolled her eyes. “And not support my man? God, what kind of girlfriend would that make me?”

Carter leaned down and whispered in her ear, “That would make you
 
my
 
girl.” He then kissed behind her ear and down her neck. She gave a quiet moan of pleasure.

“I like that,” he whispered hoarsely. She giggled.

“I can tell,” she replied quietly. “Maybe when we get home we can continue this.”

He growled and pressed his lips to hers, kissing her deeply and passionately.

Right then, someone cleared their throat pointedly. Carter looked up.

“What?” he snapped.

“Race is beginning soon, Hawke. Maybe you want to sit this one out?”

Kaitlyn turned around to see Marcus standing there, a stupid smirk on his face that she desperately wanted to slap off.

“No way, dipshit,” Carter snapped. “You need an ass kicking.”

Marcus laughed, and T-Man wandered over, just in case some shit was about to go down.

“What’s going on here?” he asked, making it clear he was in charge.

Marcus smiled at T-Man. “Carter here was just telling me he wanted to sit this one out.”

Carter growled. “There’s no way in hell I’m sitting this one out.”

T-Man nodded. “That’s cool. But just so you know,
it’s
three grand each.”

“Three grand?”
Carter scoffed. “What are we?
Babies?”

Marcus pursed his lips and looked angrily at Carter. “Some people don’t have more than that, Carter. Think of the newbies.”

“Oh, you mean newbies like yourself?”

Kaitlyn was getting fed up, and looked desperately at T-Man for help. He saw, and stepped in between the guys.

“Guys, if you’re going to try to one up each other, do it in a race.” He turned to Carter. “How much did you have in mind?”

Carter looked at Kaitlyn for a moment, and then smirked at T-Man. “Twenty.”

Marcus frowned. “That’s a bit risky, isn’t it?”

T-Man rolled his eyes. “Carter’s bet fifty before. Twenty is nothing.
So, Marcus, you in?”

There was a brief pause as Marcus frowned disapprovingly at Carter, before slapping another
seventeen
k in T-Man’s hand. When T-Man smirked at him, he walked off angrily.

“Coward,” Carter murmured in Kaitlyn’s ear. “I’m going to thrash him tonight.”

Kaitlyn turned to face him. “Babe, why’d you bet twenty grand?”

Carter laughed. “Katie, there are five racers tonight. Five times twenty equals a hundred. When I win tonight, we’re going to be that much closer to buying a house, instead of renting a shit hole like I am now.”

Kaitlyn smiled. “Good. Your place stinks.”

He laughed and got in his car. “Go find T-Man,” he told her. “Start the race. It’s so hot when you do that. I’m sure it’s going to distract the newbies.”

She laughed. “Ok.” She leaned in for a kiss and then ran towards the start.

“Hey T-Man,” she chirped happily. “Do you want me to start the race?”

He
sneered
and stepped back. “Go ahead,” he said, gesturing for her to do so.

She grinned and kissed his tanned cheek. “Thanks, T-Man.” She walked over and stood in front of the racers. As always, she shook out her dark curls and winked at one of the newbies.

She raised her arms above her head, which had quite an effect on her chest. She saw the other newbie’s eyes pop when he noticed.

She grinned at Carter and blew him a kiss, then turned her attention to the job at hand.

“Ready!” she yelled.
The boys revved their engines. She smirked and paused, waiting for them to stop.

“GO!”

Ecstatically, Carter drove himself and Kaitlyn home.

 
“God, I can’t believe it,” Kaitlyn whispered, awed.

“Believe what?” Carter smirked.

“That you won a hundred thousand dollars,” she replied simply. “It’s just too much.”

Carter grinned and squeezed her leg. “We can buy a house now, Katie,” he whispered. “We can move out of my stupid little flat and into a real house.”

Kaitlyn smiled. “Or you could bet even more, and then win even more, and we could get a
 
better
 
real house.”

Carter tipped his head to the side. “I thought you hated my flat?”

She nodded. “I do. But I don’t want to go from a crappy flat to a crappy house.”

Carter stroked her leg and smiled smugly at her.

“What?” she asked interestedly.

“What about a compromise? We buy a crappy house and then we fix it up?” he asked, knowing that she would agree.

She smiled. “Ok, Carter, you win.”

He laughed. “I knew I would.”

When they got home, Carter parked his car on the lawn and raced Kaitlyn inside. He let her win before tackling her onto the sofa.

“I win,” he whispered, before kissing her tenderly on the cheek.

She giggled. “Actually, I think
 
I
 
won,” she said, flicking him on the nose. She looked into his eyes and saw him staring at her with such love and admiration and her breath caught in her throat. She couldn’t help but smile, and she leaned in to kiss his lips. He replied in such a tender way, and when they pulled away, she couldn’t help but sighing.

“I love you,” she told him, snuggling deeper into his embrace.

“I love you too Katie,” he said quietly. “Will you marry me?”

For a moment, she was stunned. She never in a million years thought he would propose. Carter was so not the type to settle down. He was more of a player, the type who would screw a girl and then leave her in the middle of the night. She was surprised that she’d even kept him for as long as she had.

“Are you sure?” she breathed nervously.

He kissed her on the lips. “Katie, I’ve never been
surer
of anything in my life.”

She thought it over. This was the ultimate commitment. Carter was
 
proposing
. He was dead serious about spending the rest of his life with her.

She nodded. “Yes,” she whispered. “I’ll marry you.”

Carter grinned and pulled her in for a
 
very
 
passionate kiss. “We’ll go ring shopping tomorrow,” he promised.

“Hey Kaitlyn!”
She was rudely awoken by Carter, who seemed to be able to stay up all night and not be tired. After they’d made love not once, but
 
twice
, she’d fallen asleep before they could go for a third time.

Carter found it amusing when that happened.

“What?” she scowled, walking into the lounge with the duvet wrapped around her.

He looked up and grinned when he saw her appearance.

“You don’t have to hide from me you know,” he said cheekily. “I’ve seen it all before many,
 
many
 
times.”

She just huffed and sat down next to him on their battered old sofa.

“What?” she snapped.

Carter pointed to his laptop. “Look.”

She looked. On the screen was a real estate website, and on that website was a house. It was an extremely quaint house from the seventies with white weatherboards and a grey, corrugated iron roof.

“It’s pretty,” she said, noticing the yellow flowers in the garden.

Carter smiled and wrapped his arm around her. “Just like you,” he whispered.

She looked up at him and rolled her eyes. “Whatever. So, you like this place?”

He shrugged. “It’s ok. I like the exterior. The
 
interior
 
could use a lot of work, but I thought you’d want to do that. You seemed to like doing it to this place.”

Simultaneously they looked around the room, where Kaitlyn had attempted to turn the flat into a home. She’d added paintings, floor lamps, rugs and end tables to make it feel homier. She’d also replaced the thin drapes with thick thermal ones.

“Sure,” she said. “I can re-do the interior. Just show me how bad it is first.”

Carter opened up the pictures of the interior and she grimaced. She grabbed his smartphone and began making a to-do list for the house.

“So we’re buying it?” he asked, amused.

She nodded. “I can’t wait to fix it up,” she said eagerly. “Make an offer. Buy it.”

He laughed but dropped his laptop on her lap, and got up from the sofa. He grabbed the cordless home phone and rang the estate agents. He walked into a different room, leaving Kaitlyn feverishly flipping through the photos, and noting what needed doing.

A short while later, Carter walked back into the room with a grin on his face.

“Well?” she demanded.

He sat next to her and pulled her face towards his, passionately kissing her, hard.

“We got it?” she asked when the kiss was over.

He grinned.
“Yeah, for ninety grand.
That leaves us seventy to buy you a car, do up the house, and extra to race with.”

“Wow,” she said. “How’d you get it so low?”

He grinned. “Someone inherited it, and they don’t want or need the money so I got it dirt cheap.”

She sighed and handed him his phone. “I guess I better get dressed,” she said. Carter grabbed her as she tried to move and wrapped his arms around her waist.

“Carter!” she whined playfully, trying to slap his hands away.

“That’s no way to talk to your fiancé, is it?” he breathed in her ear. He was delighted to see her blush when he mentioned the word
 
fiancé
.

“No,” she whispered, slightly embarrassed.