Page 4 of Rebel

“Reed?” Tanner shook his head, smiling. “You’re loyal, Hutch, and to a fault. But Reed, a thinker? No.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s a good man—he’s the best of men!—but a thinker he’s not. No don’t protest; you know I’m right. At best, Reed is a walking aphorism. If I hear ‘A lie has one leg, the truth has two’ one more time I won’t be held responsible for my actions!”

Sam grinned, scandalized and delighted in equal measure. Tanner wasn’t wrong. He was never wrong—brilliant, quick, clever. Dazzling. Sam had come to admire him so much over the past few months. He wished he had some of Tanner’s brilliance himself, but he wasn’t envious; he enjoyed basking in Tanner’s radiance too much for resentment. Yet it made him restless, eager for something he couldn’t quite name.

“It can’t be left unchallenged,” Nate said another night, in different humor, clutching a new pamphlet from Boston. “We have a voice, and we must be heard. We have the same rights as any Englishman, and they can’t take them away.”

“I’m not arguing with you,” Sam assured him. “Weshouldhave representatives in parliament. Maybe even elect our own governors, too. American men, not crown placemen. Men who understand the colonies.”

“Or better—elect our own parliament.”

Sam laughed. “Thatisa radical thought, Tanner. A colonial parliament?”

“Well, why not? Are we less able to run our own affairs than the king’s other subjects?”

“Perhaps it could work here, or in Massachusetts, but surely not everywhere? What about Carolina? It’s wild country down there, Tanner.”

“Wild country?” Tanner flung himself back in his seat, his anger dissipating as he smiled at Sam. It was such a beautiful smile, warm and…fond? “My dear Hutch, you’re a Rosemont man to your roots.”

My dear Hutch.Sam flushed, laughed, and shook his head.

When he looked up again, Tanner wasn’t smiling. He was regarding Sam with that appraising look, the one Sam usually couldn’t decipher. But this time he felt blood rushing under his skin, felt his breathing catch and burn—this time he felt his admiration unfurl to reveal its true colors. His body flooded with a thick, syrupy desire it was impossible to misunderstand. And in that moment, he knew it wasn’t admiration making his heart race, but something different. Something far more dangerous.

He didn’t want to belikeNate—he simply wanted him. He wanted him in the most forbidden of ways. He was drenched in desire for him.

God only knew what showed on his face, because Tanner abruptly looked away, biting his lower lip so hard it turned white.

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