Wilder (The Renegades) Read Online Free Page A

called out, already latched on to his wire.
    “So my options are I slide down the death-wire with you, or I go home?”
    “You could always meet us at the next port. I think it’s four days away, right?”
    “I’d miss a whole week of class!”
    “Well, there is that.” He shrugged.
    “I. Do. Not. Like. You.” I spat out every word at Paxton as Little John came over with two helmets. Hold on to the anger, it’s safer than fear.
    “Well, I actually kinda like you, so that’s enough for me. Then again, I’ve always liked firecrackers.”
    Unbelievable.
    “Let’s go, kids,” Little John called.
    “Come on, live a little.”
    “That seems more like a quick route to death. Unless you have some foolproof method of keeping me safe.”
    He took the helmet from Little John, slipped my hair tie free, and ran his fingers over my hair. “You have gorgeous hair, Leah.”
    “You have a huge ego, Paxton,” I fired back.
    He slid the helmet onto my head, adjusted the chin strap, and snapped it before doing the same to his own. “If there was one thing you wanted from this trip, what would it be?”
    “Not to zip-line right now.”
    “Not an option. Tell me. What’s the one thing you’ve been looking forward to?”
    I swallowed and focused on what I’d been dreaming of for the last six months. “Mykonos. We have an optional shore excursion that week, and I want to go to Mykonos.”
    His eyes flashed with surprise, but he quickly masked it. “Really?”
    “Really. My dad proposed to my mom on Kalafatis Beach.” She’d always been scared of marriage, commitment in general, but told me once that there was something about being there with Dad that made her abandon her fears and embrace her destiny. I knew it was stupid, but I couldn’t let go of the hope that maybe if I stood there, I could do the same. But as of right now, that fear was holding my feet firmly on the ground and off that zip-line.
    “Done. I will take you to Mykonos.”
    My breath caught, knowing how much that shore excursion cost, and that it wasn’t included in my scholarship packet. “Why?”
    “Because I need to get my tutor on that ship.” He looked past me, and the cocky grin was back in place seconds before a lens came over my left shoulder. Our privacy was at an end. “It’s up to you, Firecracker, but you’ve got about a minute to decide.”
    Wasn’t that the theme of my day?
    He walked me back through the crowd to where Landon stood on a platform, looking more than a little irritated.
    My mind raced a million miles an hour, but it slowed the minute Paxton put his hands on my shoulders and demanded my attention. “If you do this, I’ll take you to Mykonos. I will personally make sure that this is the trip of your life. But you have to accept the agreement. The tutoring, the suite, the cameras, all of it.”
    “And if I don’t?”
    His tongue swiped across his lower lip and, as sexy as it was, it seemed more like a nervous, subconscious motion. “Then I’ll fly you home, first class, on me. You can think of this as that one day you almost did something insanely stupid.”
    “And what happens to you? Nothing, right? You pull the next name out of the tutor hat?”
    He shook his head. “Every other tutor is assigned. And besides, you were hand-picked for me for your academic strengths. If I lose you, I probably fail. All these people”—he gestured to the crew around us and leaned in to whisper—“they all lose their jobs.”
    A heavy weight settled on my shoulders, and I wondered in that instant if that was what he’d been thinking of back on the ship, if that was what made him so pensive. “How long does it take?”
    “Five seconds, max.”
    My heart started to pound, as if it already knew the decision I was coming to.
    If I kept my eyes closed, it would be over before I knew it, right?
    He gently tucked my hair behind my ears, clearing it of the helmet’s ear straps. How could I tell him what he was putting me