Читать книгу The Marked Men Series Books 1–6: Rule, Jet, Rome, Nash, Rowdy, Asa - Jay Crownover - Страница 19

I was doing my best to get away from my mother’s house but even though the plan had been to escape as soon as we were done eating, Alex had shown back up at the table and hijacked Rule. He claimed one of his coworkers was interested in some custom artwork for his man cave and he thought Rule might be the perfect person to produce it for him, so there I was again, the odd man out at one of my mother’s awful events while my tattooed, pierced boyfriend was making the rounds like some kind of celebrity. It was kind of funny and I was secretly thrilled that it had to be getting under my mother’s skin, but I wanted to go. I wanted to get him alone and make up for lost time. It felt like things had shifted dramatically between us and I needed time to put it in perspective, needed time to figure out what it meant to him exactly, because to me he had defined the relationship by showing up here to apologize and I needed to know he felt the same.

My mother was working the room, and Jack was tied up with the kids. Gabe was hanging out with the other future business leaders of America shooting killer looks at Rule, and my guy was in the middle of elegantly dressed men describing something with his hands that had them all nodding eagerly and chattering away at him. I saw my opportunity to escape for a minute so I slid through the kitchen and made my way up to my room. I shoved all my stuff into the bag I had brought and tossed my broken phone on top. I think I would hold Rule to buying me a new one, since he was the reason I had tossed it against the wall in the first place. I was looking around the bedroom for anything I might have forgotten when warm hands slid around my waist.

I knew Rule’s touch and this wasn’t it, so I jerked upright and shoved hard against Gabe’s chest.

“What do you think you’re doing?” He grabbed my arm, hard, and tried to pull me toward him. “Get out of my room, Gabe.”

“I figured it all out, Shaw.” He kept pulling on my arm hard enough that I knew there was going to be a bruise. I was trying to push him away from me but he was exerting a lot more force and he was stronger than me. “You dumped me so you could have sex with Archer. Well, by now you should have screwed him out of your system. You never gave me a shot to show you what I can do. I think you need a fair comparison before you totally shut me out.”

I felt my eyes spring wide as I renewed my efforts to get free. “You’ve got to be kidding me! I didn’t sleep with you because I’m not attracted to you. I didn’t want to have sex with you then and I don’t want to have sex with you now. You need to go or Rule is going to murder you.”

He pulled my wrist tight behind my back so hard I yelped. He lowered his face until it was right in mine and grabbed my jaw with his other hand. I was starting to actually panic; my room was upstairs and on the other side of the big house. I was sure someone would hear me scream if I yelled, but I wasn’t sure what the fallout from that kind of scene would be. I struggled to be released and he just laughed.

“I’m not scared of the street thug nor am I impressed by his artistic genius or whatever Carsten was going on about. He’s trash and not going to get in the way of what I want, and Shaw, you belong to me, you should know that now.” He gave me a hard shove back so that I fell onto the bed. I immediately scrambled across the other side so that the entire mass was between us. “You better get on board with this, Shaw, before it gets ugly.”

I was breathing hard and had a hand to my throat. It was shaking and so was I. He threw my keys on the bed. “I’ll get my own ride back to Denver. Wouldn’t want you to spend any more time alone with Tattoo Boy than necessary, would I?”

He strolled out of the room like he hadn’t just assaulted or threatened me. I shook myself out of the shock and gathered my stuff and bolted down the stairs. I found Rule wandering around the kitchen looking lost and clearly searching for me. I handed him my bags and hustled him out of the house without bothering to say good-bye to anyone, even my mom. It wasn’t until we were on the highway headed home that I broke down. Out of the blue, broken sobs racked my whole body and I couldn’t stop crying. I was shaking so hard and making such a hysterical fuss that Rule freaked out and pulled over to the side of the road. He kept asking me if it was my head but I couldn’t answer so I just crawled into his lap and cried and cried.

It took a solid twenty minutes for the deluge to stop and by then Rule was frantic and threatening to take me to the nearest emergency room.

“No. It’s fine, just give me a minute.” He was rubbing my back and his blue eyes were crystal like frost. I pressed my forehead against his and pushed up the sleeves of my coat. Angry red welts and ugly purple bruises were encircling my entire wrist. “Gabe ambushed me in my room when I was grabbing my stuff. He shoved me around and threatened me. He said I needed to get on board with this, whatever that means, before it gets ugly. He really hurt me, Rule, and he scared me. I don’t know what’s wrong with him, but it’s getting really bad.”

He went still as a statue underneath me and he lifted one of his hands to grab my injured wrist. He turned his head to press a soft kiss against my pulse and breathed out in a tone that sent chills up my spine, “I’m going to kill him.”

“I know.” I let him soothe me for a minute before climbing off him and settling back in the passenger seat. “I have to go back to Brookside and get my car tomorrow.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take Rome and we’ll go get it.”

“Don’t you have to work?”

“Not until one. I think I want to call Mark and ask him about getting you a restraining order.”

“I can’t believe this is happening.”

“I can’t believe you let us leave without confronting him. You should have raked his ass over the fire in front of his parents and all those people he was trying so hard to impress.”

“I was freaking out and I just wanted to escape. I just wanted you.” My voice trailed off in a whisper and he reached over to haul me up next to his side. Having bench seats in a big truck was nice.

“You have me, Shaw, any way you need me, any way you want me, you have me.”

I pressed my face into the curve of his neck and exhaled. I think that was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to me. “How about you being the belle of the ball today? I bet that made my mother furious. She looked like she was going to have a coronary.”

“I have a lot of clients who are out there in the business world. More and more of the general population is sporting some serious ink. She shouldn’t be so judgmental.”

“No, she shouldn’t. I don’t want you to get into trouble over Gabe. I just want him to leave me alone.”

He gave me a one-armed hug. “Don’t worry about me, Casper. I promise not to do anything overtly stupid. I just want him to leave you alone as well and I will make sure that happens. In the meantime, I don’t think you should leave work alone so have Lou walk you out, and if we can figure something out with our crazy schedules I want you to stay with me or I’ll be with you.”

“You don’t have to do that. I don’t want you to rearrange your whole life because some guy is being an asshole to me.”

“Yes I do, and not because I have to but because I want to. He isn’t getting his hands on you again, Shaw. Not ever again.”

It was a nice thought, so I didn’t want to argue. Instead I let him snuggle me into his side and absently ran my hand up and down his leg while he drove. I didn’t ask if he was taking me home or to his place and I honestly didn’t care until I remembered Rome was crashing on his couch.

“Hey, are we going downtown or to my place?”

“I figured mine since I need to get Rome to help me with your Beamer in the morning. Is that okay?”

“Uh … is it going to be weird walking in together with him there? I’ve had about enough drama for one day.”

I felt him shake his head. “Naw, we talked about it yesterday. He knows we got something going on and it’s cool. He did say that he would break both of my legs if I kept acting like a jackass though, so there is that.”

“Hmm … Why did you do it?” I knew he would know what I was asking about without explaining.

“Because it’s what I do.” He swore under his breath. “Girls have always been easy and they usually smell good and taste good, so for just a second, things are simple and nice and all the crap doing battle inside my head goes quiet. I knew I didn’t want someone who wasn’t you, but I was pissed off and confused so I just did what I always do, and thought maybe it would make me feel better. It didn’t, it made me feel like absolute shit and made me see pretty clearly there is no substitute for you. I made a mistake but it could have been so much worse and I hope you can sincerely forgive me.”

It made my heart hurt, but I understood it because I understood him. “I don’t like it, but I get it. It just can’t be your excuse for stepping out on me every time we fight. I don’t have it in me to just look the other way every time you use another girl to work out your hurt feelings.”

“I told you no more. I’ll figure this out, Shaw, I swear.”

“I hope so, because we’re going to disagree, Rule. We argued before we started sleeping together so you know we’re going to probably argue more now.”

His hand stroked up and down my arm. “That’s cool because I bet make-up sex with you is going to be out of this world.”

I didn’t deny it so I just stayed quiet and let him soothe me while he drove; he even picked Straylight Run to listen to instead of his normal blaring punk rock or heavy metal. By the time we parked in front of the Victorian I was back in control. He took my bag from me and led me into the apartment. Rome and Nash were on the couch yelling at the TV, and I assumed the Broncos were losing. They both looked up at me with twin faces full of relief.

“Thank God. Now maybe he’ll stop acting like a cranky toddler who skipped nap time.” Rule smacked Nash on the back of the head as Rome got up and wrapped me in a bear hug.

“Glad you gave him another chance, little girl.”

When I was back on my feet I grinned sheepishly at both of them and turned back to Rule. “I need to call Ayden and my phone is trashed, can I use yours?” I expected him to spend a minute erasing texts or clearing his search history but he just handed it over. I tried to hide how happy that made me, so I bit my lip and motioned down the hall. “I’ll just go in your room so I can hear her over the game.”

“Go ahead. I want to talk to the guys for a second anyway.” The grimness of his tone let me know he wanted to fill them in on my situation with Gabe. “I’ll be there in just a minute.”

I resisted the temptation to scroll through his contacts and look at his text conversations and dialed Ayden. I didn’t know if she would answer since she wouldn’t recognize Rule’s number, but she ended up picking up on the third ring.

“Hello?”

“Hey, it’s me.”

“What number is this?”

“I’m using Rule’s phone because I’m a genius and threw mine against the wall.”

She snickered at me. “It was because I told you about the girl at the club, wasn’t it?”

“Yep.”

“But now you have his phone so you must have worked things out somewhere along the way.”

“He came to Brookside to apologize and then he crashed my mother’s brunch and ended up being the star attraction. It was impossible not to forgive him.”

“Good for you. Something tells me that one comes with a whole truckload of drama, so you might as well get used to it.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not short on drama of my own.” I went into the bathroom and leaned against the sink. The image looking back at me in the mirror was startling. I looked agitated and even paler than usual. “Gabe grabbed me and shoved me around. He cornered me in my room and threatened all kinds of crazy stuff. I just don’t know what I’m going to do about it. Rule’s all set to get together an old-fashioned lynching squad and I don’t want him to get in trouble because of me. It’s a mess.”

“That asshole put his hands on you?”

I sighed. “Yeah, I have bruises.”

“Then I say let Rule have at him. You better be looking into a restraining order.”

“I am. Rule has a client who used to be a police officer and he’s going to call him. He also said he wants to stay with me or have me stay here until the whole thing is resolved.”

“Sounds like your boy is getting serious.”

“He’s trying.”

“Well, I guess that’s better than nothing for now. When are you going to get a new phone?”

“Probably tomorrow. Rule said he would buy me a new one.”

“Man, I like a fella who knows how to apologize right. I’ll see you tomorrow?” The last was asked as a question.

“I think so, I’ll let you know for sure.”

“Love ya, girl. Be safe, let Rule take care of you for a minute, you’ve earned it. You took pretty great care of him all this time, now it can be his turn.”

“Isn’t a relationship supposed to be about taking care of each other equally?”

She laughed but it sounded bitter. “You’re asking the wrong person that, honey. My track record isn’t anything to brag about.”

“Ayden, do you want to talk about something? You seem, I dunno, sharper than usual.”

“No, I’m good. Just worry about you right now, honey. I missed you this weekend.”

“Missed you, too.”

I hung up the phone and set it on the edge of the sink. I pushed the sleeves of my sweater up and splashed cold water on my face. I took the tie out of my hair and unwound the tight braid so that my hair fell down around my shoulders. I took off the pearls and kicked off my heels and started to feel a little bit more like myself. I heard the bedroom door open and close and Rule softly called my name.

“I’m in here.”

I heard some shuffling and some swearing as he maneuvered through the stuff scattered on his floor. The bathroom door swung open and his eyes met mine in the mirror. The chilly depths of his were shadowed with concern as he crowded in behind me. “You okay?”

“Freaked out, but other than that, okay.”

“Are you worried about your mom ratting you out to your dad?” He put a hand on either side of me, trapping me between him and the basin.

“I can’t stop her, so if she does I’ll deal with it then.”

“What about school? She said he would stop paying if you didn’t do what she wanted.”

I leaned back so that I was pressed against his chest. “They both like to use that threat against me; it’s their favorite extortion tool. I figure they’re both actually more worried about trying to explain to people why their daughter is working at Subway instead of in medical school to actually stop paying tuition. And if they do”—I raised a shoulder and let it drop—“then I figure out a Plan B.”

“Just like that?”

“Pretty much.”

“I never knew you were so adaptable.” I made a face that made him laugh and he moved his hands around so that they rested on my stomach. “The guys are going to order pizza and watch the rest of the game. I told them I would check and see what you were thinking for the rest of the night.”

I pushed my hair back and let my head fall onto his shoulder. “I want to take a hot shower and then I think I want to take a nap. This week has sucked. I’ve been stressed out and burned out from school. I can’t remember the last time I got to just relax.”

His dark eyebrows went up. “You won’t mind if I kick it with them for a bit?”

I shook my head no. “Seriously, go bro-out. I’m good.”

He watched me for a solid minute, waiting to see if I was just messing with him. To prove that I was fine with him spending time with his boys I pressed a kiss to his jaw. He pressed a kiss to my hair and backed out of the bathroom. “I’ll grab your bag for you.”

He set it on the toilet and gave me a hard kiss before searching my face for signs of something. I laughed and physically shoved him out the door before closing it firmly in his face. “Go be a guy. I’ll be here when it’s over.” I waited until I heard the outside door shut and then stripped down and climbed in his shower. If I never had to suffer through one of my mother’s functions again it would be too soon. I scrubbed every inch of my body until it was pink and shiny, laughing hysterically because I had to use Rule’s dude soap and ended up smelling like a seventeen-year-old boy who’d just discovered AXE body spray. I had left my mom’s so quickly I had forgotten to get my things from the shower. Even his shampoo and conditioner were designed for males only, so instead of my normal coconut and lime I ended up with hair that smelled like sandalwood and spice. I finger-combed my wet hair and put on a pair of yoga pants and a T-shirt and fell into his rumpled bed. For the first time in a week I felt like I could take a real breath. I burrowed into his side of the bed and fell asleep within seconds, even with the hooting and hollering coming from the living room.

Hot hands were traveling under my clothes in a lazy caress. I woke up already turned on and squirming under Rule’s seductive touch as he tugged on the stretchy sleep clothes I went to bed in. I blinked to get my eyes used to the darkness but squeezed them shut again when his mouth landed high on my inner thigh after the thin cotton was out of his way. It was like the best dream ever, only now I was awake and wiggling in anticipation as his breath blew across the most sensitive parts of me. I reached for his head and giggled a little as my fingers skimmed over the buzzed surface. The stubble tickled across my sensitive fingertips.

“I really do miss the Mohawk.”

“It’ll grow back.” I felt the slide of his lip ring over damp skin and sucked in a gasp so hard that it made my lungs hurt. He laughed against my skin and his hands moved to hold me where he wanted me. “I missed this. Nobody has ever been as sweet as you, Shaw.”

I felt the press of the barbell in his tongue as he moved in and around the part of me that had woken up ready to take what he had to give. “I think the fact you’re comparing me to the legions of girls who came before me should probably make me furious, but I think I’ll choose to take it as a compliment.” The last faded away on a tight moan as he pulled my hips up and settled his mouth at the burning point of my desire. I had heard tales from my coworkers and even from Ayden about how having a guy do this for you was often the best part of sexy, naked time, but I had always had my doubts because it seemed invasive and too intimate, but I was wrong. As he kissed and licked and maneuvered around all my damp folds and aching flesh I went a little crazy. There was nowhere to hide how he was affecting me while he was doing that and man, did he know what he was doing. At one point I wanted to scream his name but at the last second remembered his brother was just across the wall and shoved my fist in my mouth to stifle my reaction as the world kaleidoscoped into brilliant color in every direction. I didn’t know how it was with other guys, but as with everything else I experienced with Rule, he just made it all so good.

I lay in a pile of worthless goo as he rose up off the bed and began to haphazardly pull his clothes off. The show was a delight in itself, so by the time he crawled in the bed beside me I was ready to purr and curl up around him like the satisfied sex kitten he was turning me into.

“That was certainly a nice way to wake up.” I curled my hands up around his shoulders as he rolled over me and put his knee between my legs.

“You were out for most of the afternoon. I kept waiting for you to peek your head out and join us but it never happened.” He dropped his head so that his nose rubbed against the side of my face. “I checked in on you and you just looked so perfect all sleepy and pretty in my bed I couldn’t help myself.” He laid a soft trail of kisses from behind my ear to the sensitive hollow of my throat. His fingers skimmed down my arm and lightly encircled my bruised wrist. Gabe had left a ring of black-and-blue marks that stood out in stark relief against my pale skin, and I couldn’t help the emotion that clogged my throat when Rule lightly stroked the damaged flesh and lifted it up to press butterfly kisses around the circumference.

“This should have never happened. I’m so sorry.”

I trailed a hand down over his flank and let my fingers spread out across the colorful surface of his ribs. “I shouldn’t have gone in the first place. I need to learn to set boundaries with my parents and stick with them. It’s not worth sacrificing things that matter to me in order to try to make them happy.”

He took the hand he was holding and pinned it to the bed above my head, his pale eyes blazing into mine with a mixture of want and compassion. “Shaw, I’m the one who feels the need to burn the house down when the faucet springs a leak. I know I tend to go to the extreme and I need to back off. However, if you think I’m ever going to stand by and watch you purposely put yourself in danger with that asshole again, be prepared for us to do battle.”

I didn’t get a chance to reply because he kissed me, really kissed me, kissed me with an edge so that there was no mistaking he was serious and that I needed to pay attention to what was happening between us. There was a bite of teeth and the press of metal and all the goodness that was just Rule as our tongues slid together and hands began to roam. He caught my free hand and pinned it above my head with the other one so that I was stretched out beneath him. His eyes glittered with pure wicked intent as he leered down at me.

“I think I like you like this.” His free hand twisted and wandered over sensitive skin and moist creases. I whimpered a little because it felt so good and because I wanted to move but he held me still with the press of his much bigger body into mine. “I like having you at my mercy. I can do whatever I want to you.” He proved his point by taking the top of one breast in his mouth and sucking until it almost hurt. He’d left a hickey the first time we did this, too, but this one seemed different, more like a territorial marking, a claiming of sorts.

“Good thing for you I like all the things you want to do to me.” He pulled my leg up and hooked it around his lean hips. I felt the hot press of him ready at my entrance and tried to shift so that he came inside. He pulled back and grinned down at me.

“Always so impatient.”

I tugged at my trapped hands. “You have no idea.”

He chuckled again as he kissed me. “So tell me.”

I tried to pull him inside by sheer will alone but he kept moving just out of range with a taunting smirk. “Seriously, Shaw, tell me.”

I squeezed my eyes shut because there was only so much truth I was ready to hand over to him in one day. He moved my other leg and pressed in just a millimeter or two, making me start to quiver. “Tell me why we all thought you and Remy had a serious thing going on but I’m the one who was your first. Tell me why Rome seems to think you’ve had a thing for me for a while now. Tell me why, when we do this, it’s so much different than whenever I’ve done it before.”

I wanted him to move, wanted him to let me move, but when I pried my eyes open he was watching me closely, clearly in control enough to wait me out. I met his pointed stare for a heartbeat before whispering, “Because it’s always been you even when I didn’t want it to be, even when it broke my heart over and over again. It’s just always been you.”

My words changed something in him; his eyes flashed with a sudden, bright spark and suddenly he was in and moving and the rest of the world just stopped and faded away. All that mattered was what was happening between us in that moment and that it mattered to him just as much as it mattered to me. His tempo changed with each thrust. He was always a little wild, a little uninhibited in bed, but it was like my words had broken something loose inside him and this was the real Rule, the guy who used crazy hair and a body full of ink to deflect anyone getting too close. I gasped and moaned, finally calling his name out in a shaky voice as we raced toward the end together. It felt different, like he said, more powerful, more intense, and when he finally dropped his forehead down to touch mine it felt complete.

I sighed in contentment and wrapped my arms around him. He pulled me over him and rolled so that I wasn’t getting crushed. I closed my eyes and was about to go back into a very satisfied sleep when the entire length of his long body went board straight underneath me. My eyes popped open as I felt his hands tense in the ends of my hair and I forced my head up to look down at him.

“What’s wrong?”

“The bed’s wet.”

I just stared at him blankly. “So?”

“So that means we didn’t use protection. I haven’t had sex without a condom since I was a teenager and an idiot. Geez, no wonder it felt so good.”

“I’m on the pill.”

“Why?”

I made a face and rolled off him. “Because my mother made me. She thought I was hooking up with one or both of you Archer twins long before it ever happened. I’ve just stayed on it because it makes my period less crazy, so we should be fine.”

He pulled me back to his chest and brushed my hair away from my face. “With my history, you really wanna chance it?”

I exhaled. “You really know how to ruin a moment, Rule.”

“Hey, I told you it’s my job to protect you even if that means protecting you from me. We have to have clean health screens to work in the shop, since we work around bodily fluids, needles, and open skin, and my last one was crystal clear. And like I said, I never ever have unsafe sex unless it’s with a high-maintenance blonde with killer green eyes that make me so crazy I forget.”

I cuddled into the curve of his body and let him wrap his arms around me. The hand that had his name inked across the knuckles ended up resting across my chest and I used my index finger to trace over the bold letters. “I trust you and I think we’re good, so I’m not going to make an issue out of it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, because like I said it’s always been you, Rule, even when I really wished it wasn’t.”

“I’m starting to wish I had paid closer attention.”

I laced our fingers together. I liked the way they looked all tangled together. His were long and covered in brilliant designs, mine were small and tipped in boring pink polish, but next to each other they were more interesting, more vital. I fell back asleep listening to the steady inhale and exhale of his breath in my ear and thinking that even if I hadn’t been on the pill, having a moment of wild, uninhibited, and totally unprotected sex with him was most definitely worth any of the risks that were involved with that. I could think of worse fates than bringing the next troublesome Archer into the world.