"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

"Ek!" The loud banging that suddenly resonated throughout the entire house had me jumping straight out of the tangled mess of blankets on my bed and toppling straight to the floor.

"Owww." I groaned and rubbed at the sharp jabbing pain in my knee. Whose idea was it to put hardwood floors in my room? Luce and dad both knew how much of a klutz I was!

The banging started again which had me trying to stumble to my feet in a hurry, trip on the blankets I had taken to the floor and hit my knee all over again. "Oh, just great." I grumbled and tried to ignore the bruising area as I staggered to my bedroom door.

"I'm coming! Sorry!" I called to the loud knocking as I made sure to carefully maneuver down the wooden staircase.

Friday had blown by like a breeze and it was bright an early Saturday morning. And by early, I mean, like, ten-but I was the only one home. Luce and Tate were supposed to be gone all day at Six Flags and dad had went to one of his many company buildings in Boston.

Did I mention that my father had money? Like a lot of it?

He never used it though, and never let Luce and I use it either. He wanted us to be raised humbly, as he puts it. Dad paid for the house, its bills, and our food, but Luce had a job outside of college to buy us anything else we might need. It's been like that for as long as I could remember.

We lived off just enough to keep us safe and relatively happy. I knew it took a family to be completely happy, not money, and we seriously lacked on the family aspect of that-no matter how many times they tried to promise that we didn't.

Anyways, when he did take the time to care, my father had these 'home alone rules' I was supposed to follow, no matter how old I was. I never objected though, not with every that's happened before. I actually welcomed the safety the rules made me feel.

The deadbolt was to stay bolted always, the door-knob locked at all times, and the chain was never supposed to come off either door, front or back. I was supposed to glance out the side window to see who was there and if I didn't know the person I had to call dad or Luce immediately.

Obviously, all remembrance of those rules flew out my head the second I saw who was pounding at my front door. "I've been banging on your door for the past five fucking minutes." Rex grumbled as I flung the door open, my eyes wide in disbelief.

A blush immediately stained my cheeks and I ran a sheepish hand over the back of my neck. "I-I'm sorry, I was still sleeping." If my cotton shorts and my dad's overly large t-shirt were anything to go by. Oh yeah, and the bird's nest that was my hair.

My heart did an abnormal little flutter when his lips pulled up at the corner in a small smirk. His chestnut eyes were hidden behind a pair of dark sunglasses, and the jeans hanging low on his hips would have only looked better if he wasn't wearing a shirt.

"I can tell."

If I didn't know better, I could have sworn there was a soft chuckle in his voice. Then that smirk slowly fell and his heavy hand ran through his dark hair. "Do you want to go do something fun today?" He practically blurted as we stood on either side of my front door, my hands tugging nervously on the edge of my t-shirt.

Fun?

I had a sinking feel in my stomach over what his version of 'fun' was, but the offer to hang out with him completely overrode any hesitation I felt. Especially since last night had been real-very, very, amazingly real. He held my hand.

I nodded almost viciously before trying to choke down the blush that action caused. That smirk was back, and slowly growing. "Then go get changed."

I don't think I ever changed faster in my entire life. He barely moved an inch when I came racing back down the stairs-I had been that fast. That slow, dark chuckle of his sent electricity surging throughout my every limb.

"Are the others coming?" I asked excitedly as I locked the front door behind me and trotted hurriedly down the porches steps. He paused, his strong jaw ticking shut.

"Do they need to come?" His voice had grown hard, his gaze pointed at anything but mine. The sudden tension stiffening his shoulders surprised me and I was quickly shaking my head before I realized it.

"N-No! I just never really seen you without them..."

He ran that heavy hand through his hair and let out a sigh that seemed to ease the tension in his muscles. "Yeah, well, Trey's babysitting his nephew today and the Dimajios have a football game."

"That's okay." I gave him a small smile, one he didn't return before I hurried quickly into the car. We've barely spent five minutes together and I was already angering him. Way to go Rose, way to go.

Twenty minutes later we were pulling off the Mass Pike and onto a nearly deserted blacktop road. I was way too excited to be with him to care where we went, though my face did fall into a confuse frown when he pulled his sleek convertible into the almost-empty lot of a large warehouse in the middle of nowhere.

I turned to raise an eyebrow at Rex, but all he did was shoot me a small smile that had my chest flopping to my stomach like a bouncy ball. There was that dimple again. I practically stumbled out of the car as he stepped out, heat flaming my cheeks. He just did the littlest things that had a blush scoring every part of my body. I both hated it, and never wanted it to stop.

"Where are we, Rex?" I was finally able to force past my lips as he waited near the front of his car for me, those sunglasses covering his beautiful dark eyes.

"A friend's." He didn't say anything else as he turned for the warehouse entrance. I hurried after his large steps, and literally had to force my hands not to wrap around his strong bicep. He probably wouldn't appreciate that.

Despite last night, he barely touched me the entire ride to wherever we were, and I wasn't stupid enough to try and hold his hand again. He was just being nice since I had been crying, that was all. I knew better than to think that would be a normal action from him for now on.

I stood quietly behind Rex as he knocked on the glass door with the words Tanner's Nation printed neatly across the front, a few phone numbers written below the letters. Well, that didn't seem too bad.

"Rex!" A rather young-looking man exclaimed loudly as he practically slammed open the door with a ginormous smile on his face. He couldn't have been older than twenty-three, and the laugh crinkles at his eyes made him look just as fun loving as Rex wasn't.

"Hey Lane." I was shocked at the, what appeared to be, genuine smile that crossed Rex's lips as the two did that weird handshake-hug-back clap thing only guys ever did.

"Been a while, kid!" The guy, Lane, laughed as he pulled away from Rex and stepped back into the building. "What have you been up to?"

"Oh, you know. Same old, same old." The easy, nonchalant shrug to Rex's shoulders had me narrowing my eyes. That was a little too quick an answer to be true, and I would know. I give a lot of those generic replies.

Lane didn't seem to notice though, or care, as he held open the glass door and gestured towards the tiled hall waiting patiently to be walked on. "That's good- Oh, hello!" His eyes suddenly landed on mine as I still stood behind Rex, and the dark brown in them flashed warm and inviting.

"You didn't tell me you were bringing a friend, Rex." The man spoke in a playful, scolding tone as Rex walked past him before he stuck his hand out to me. "Welcome to my place! I'm Lane."

I smiled and shook his large, rather warm, hand before allowing him to pull me gently through the door. "I'm Rosalyn, but everyone just calls me Rose."

"Awe, Rose." He mused, those laugh lines barely fading as his lips pulled into a smile. He was actually pretty handsome, in an older-but not too much older-kind of way. His blonde hair was buzzed on the sides with a little length on top that he had gelled back in a stylish way, and those brown eyes seemed to reflect the lights streaming from the ceiling. "Beautiful name for a gorgeous girl-"

"Yeah, yeah, that's enough." Then my hand was suddenly being torn from Lane's and Rex was pulling me back to his side with a tight grip on my wrist. Those glasses were now pushed to the top of his head and I could see those chestnut eyes narrow in a glare as his jaw ticked shut.

Such a grumpy pants.

Those laugh lines came back in full force by Lane's eyes as he chuckled. "You're right. I know it's not me you came to see anyways." Rex didn't give him a response as Lane turned towards a pair of double doors etched into the side of the hall.

Rex's hand left my wrist, much to my dismay, but that large arm of his circled around my back and he urged me through the double doors after Lane. My breath clogged in my throat.

"Oh my God..."

There were expensive cars as far as the eyes could see. Rows on rows of Lamborghini's, Bugatti's, Ferrari's-you name it and the large garage-like space in front of us had it. There were even some I had never heard before! There were dozens and dozens of them! I was never a car buff, but I knew what expensive vehicles looked like and this place was full of them.

"Welcome to my nation!" Lane sang as he walked backwards down the rows and rows of cars, his hands raised to the sky as that smile lit up the entire warehouse.

There was a dark chuckle in my ear, and calloused fingers gently pushed up under my chin to close my gaping mouth. "Beautiful, aren't they?" Rex whispered in my ear, which only sent a shiver down my spine. I turned my wide eyes on him as he stepped out from behind me and shot my dazzled expression a wink. My heart stopped beating.

"How did... What is..." I couldn't find coherent words as I stumbled after him, his large hands gently brushing over the hoods of beautiful Lamborghini's.

"Lane and I met in the system before he turned eighteen."

I wished I could take away the sudden dark grimace in his eyes as he thought back on a time that couldn't have been pleasant. There were good foster homes, sure, but those didn't always outweigh the bad ones.

"Turns out his biological parents had been some big-wig billionaires in Romania and had a change of heart about giving up their only son. They died in a plane crash a few years ago, and left every cent, asset, and fund they owned to Lane."

"And he spent it all on cars?"

Rex raised an eyebrow at the tease in my tone, one that only caused that traitorous blush to return. "Not all of it." Then he graced me with one of those never-there, genuine laughs of his that did funny things to my insides. He turned then, a small, lazy smile gracing his beautiful lips as he leaned casually against one of the cars, his hands in his hoodies pockets.

"Pick one."

"What?"

"Pick one, you're favorite one. Lane lets me drive them whenever I want."

The excitement that shot through me nearly put my heart in cardiac arrest. "I don't... I don't even know." I ran my hand through my long hair, much like how Rex usually did, and turned my wide eyes onto the multitude of cars. "That one. No! no, that one! No that one!" I kept pointing at different ones each time, my excitement too much for my mind to handle.

I turned to Rex just in time to see him roll his eyes and lean off the car. "Maybe I should just pick one." He grumbled before walking over to me. I nodded hurriedly up at him.

"Yes please. They're all so pretty I can't choose."

That dark eyebrow raised again. "Pretty? No, nuh uh. Cars are sexy, Rose. Not pretty."

I had to glance away at his words. How stupid was it that heat trailed through my body just because he said the word sexy. I kept my mouth sealed as I followed behind him like an obedient puppy. Awe, heck. When it came to Rex Turner, I was an obedient puppy.

"This," He drawled softly a minute later as he paused in front of one of the sleekest looking vehicles I had ever seen. "Is an Aventador Lamborghini." His fingers trailed lightly over its hood, the rich red of its color reflected the dim lights of the warehouse perfectly.

"It's one of the fastest Lamborghini's ever made." There was a certain awe in his voice that matched the excitement in my chest, and I knew if he had let me look at his face just then he would have been smiling.

"We get to ride in it?" I asked hopefully as he shouted over at Lane who was all the way on the other side of the large space.

"Oh, we get to do more than that. We get to drive it."

My smile fell at that, my heart sinking to my stomach. "Rex I... I can't drive." He knew that too. He saw my class schedule and knew I was taking driver's ed. He even drove me to and from school. He flashed a smirk over his shoulder as Lane came trotting up to us with a pair of keys dangling from his hand.

"So?"

"That's it, you're okay. Let it all out." Rex's voice was soothing as he rubbed that large hand reassuringly down my back and held my hair out of the way.

I was disgusted, both at myself and the contents of my stomach spewing on the ground. I never wanted Rex to see me like this, disgusting and vomiting. Especially since I was only sick because I hit the gas too hard, got scared, let go of the steering wheel and covered my eyes.

Oh, he had been pissed at that. He reached over and grabbed the wheel enough to keep the car straight until I was able to stomp on the brake and bring the beyond expensive car screeching to a halt. He had started shouting, yelling even as I lowered my shaking hands to the seat-belt and then the door handle.

His anger completely disappeared though as I fell to the hard blacktop of the abandoned road and began vomiting my brains out. Then he had been so sweet by hurrying to my side and holding my hair, telling me it was going to be okay and he was sorry for yelling.

"I-I told you I couldn't drive!" I gasped when my stomach was officially empty and the shaking spasms raging throughout my body simmered down to quiet tremors. He let go of my hair as I leaned back against the hard shell of the car before sinking down slowly beside me.

"I know, but you're in classes so I figured you knew enough not to ever let go of the wheel." He grumbled before running a gruff hand over his handsome face.

We sat silently like that for a while. No other car came roaring down the long stretch of road, and despite the disgusting taste in my mouth, it was nice. Just sitting there with him, our shoulders touching.

The only problem was the cool October air being a little too chilly as it bit at my skin. I had forgotten to grab a jacket in my hurry that morning, even the one he gave me which I never forgot. I couldn't help the shiver that racked my body and I reached up to run a hand over the goosebumps on my arm.

Rex sighed before leaning away enough to pull that dark hoodie over his head. "Arms up, come on." I blinked confusedly up at him, which he only rolled his eyes at. "You forgot your jacket like an idiot now you're cold. And I'm sure puking your brains out didn't help either. Arms up."

"I'm not an idiot."

I didn't bother hiding my pout as I lifted my arms and let him pull the hoodie over me. Even though that familiar scent of his engulfed my senses and only made me want to sigh in happiness. It was hard keeping the goofy smile from my lips as the way-too-large hoodie dwarfed my body and chased away the horror driving had caused.

"I know you're not an idiot." He said softly a moment later, his dark eyes no longer hidden behind his sunglasses even though they wouldn't look at me.

I didn't say anything to that, only because I didn't really know what to. I knew he didn't always mean the stuff he said. I was realizing that a little more and more each day. Besides, it's not like I hadn't heard worse before.

"Thank you for this, and I'm sorry I let go of the wheel, a-and got sick." I murmured softly a moment later as the wind quieted down around us.

He let out a long sigh before hitting his head back against the car. "I told you how I feel about apologizing and thanking me." He grumbled, but his tone didn't get any harsher than that as he climbed onto his feet. "I hope... you had a little fun at least."

"I did!" I exclaimed quickly as his large hand helped me up. "When you were driving it was awesome!"

He gave one of those rare smiles that tugged at my heart before walking around to the passenger side of the car. I followed. "Good, I'm glad." He held the door open for me, which I hid my ginormous smile at before hurrying quickly into the seat.

He gave me his water bottle to swish out the rest of the nasty taste from my mouth before handing over a couple pieces of mint gum to chew viciously on. I still felt a little woozy the whole ride back and had to keep my eyes closed as we rushed past the zooming trees.

"I really did have fun, Rex." I spoke softly after we returned the car and said goodbye to an over enthusiastic Lane. "Despite the whole getting sick thing."

He gave me a small smile but didn't say anything as we walked back to his own super-awesome car. I tried not to let that bother me. At least he smiled at me. If he was mad about something he wouldn't bother doing that.

The drive back to Briar Oaks was nearly silent, the only sound came from the radio playing softly in the background. I'm not sure what happened, but something changed after we returned the Lamborghini, and he was being oddly distant. Not that he was usually super open or anything, but it felt different somehow.

I bit my bottom lip and played with my fingers nervously the entire way back, unsure of whether to risk breaking the awkward silence or just accept it. I choose sitting there quietly, that was always the best option when it came to Rex.

I didn't know how to feel when my house came into view. I was anxious to get away from the awkwardness, but a part of me never wanted to end this time with him. Even if he obviously didn't want to be around me anymore.

"Thank you, again." I murmured, without remembering his 'don't thank me' policy as the car pulled to a stop in front of my house.

"No problem." His voice came out as a lazy drawl, one that sounded a little too forced. I tried not to let him see my frown as I pushed open the door and stepped onto my driveway. He gave me this entire day, I shouldn't be greedy by expecting anything else.