Authors: Jay Crownover
I was laughing hysterically at
Ayden doing some impression of a guy failing around on the dance floor, we had
drawn our fair amount of attention everywhere we went tonight and had had to
pay for very few drinks. At the moment a guy from CU Boulder was trying to
tell me all about his illustrious football career or rather he was telling my
boobs about it since I don’t think he had looked up from the girls once. Ayden
was rolling her eyes and trying to avoid some guy in a banker suit that was
offering to do her taxes for free if she gave him her number. It was silly and
fun, I didn’t have to work hard at the flirting or being charming. I was well
past my way to being wasted so conversation was out. All I had to do was smile
and sit prettily on the bar stool, two things I was apparently really getting
good at. Another Cosmo that I definitely didn’t need appeared before me and
Mr. Football was leaning even closer to me when some sixth sense, maybe it was
my fight or flight response suddenly kicked into over drive.
I lifted my head up and swiveled
around on the stool practically kneecapping the leering football player. I
looked around, craning my neck to see what had my skin suddenly feeling too
tight but all I saw was the regular bar crowd mixing and mingling. Football
player was trying to get my attention back by running a finger up and down my
bare arm, I guess it was supposed to be sexy, but now I was drunk and unnerved
so I wanted to go. I wanted to tell him to get lost so I could find Ayden and
get someone to call us a cab but before I could any of those things a warm hand
slid under the heavy fall of my hair to settle on my neck and a deep voice
growled in my ear, “How in the fuck did you get in here, Casper?”
Football player’s eyes went huge
because well, Rule was Rule. Gone was the dark hair spiked up in a crazy mess,
now he had it all shaved on the sides and bleached out into a startling white mohawk
that was several inches tall. He had on a tight black shirt with a flaming
skull in a Viking helmet on it and a pair of black jeans that had a hole in the
knee. Both his full sleeves of tattoos were on optimum display, so was the
chain he wore from his wallet to his belt as were his heavy black motorcycle
boots. He should look sloppy and unkempt next to the V-neck sweater wearing
footballer, but he didn’t. He looked hot and rumpled and clearly not to be
messed with because footballer pushed away from the table in a hurry and
vanished into the crowd.
“And what did you do to your hair?”
I was drunk, admittedly probably
not the best state to try and go toe to toe with Rule in after getting a two
week break from him, but I liked my hair and he wasn’t going to rain on all my
birthday vibes, especially since he clearly didn’t even know what the day was.
I shook his grip loose and sucked back the tart drink in one swallow.
“What are you doing here?”
He lifted an eyebrow at me and took
up the same spot football player had vacated, looking down my low cut top and
all. “This bar is right around the corner from the shop. Nash and I stop by
all the time after work. I just finished a client. I know they Id at the
door, how did you get in?”
I flipped my hair over my shoulder
like I had seen endless annoying girls do only I practically fell off my stool
because suddenly that last drink was letting me know just how bad an idea it
had been to chug it. I grabbed the edge of the table and Rule reached out a
hand to steady me. I felt like it burned where he gripped my upper arm.
Definitely should have listened to my flight response a minute ago. I put a
hand on my forehead it was warm and suddenly clammy. “I need to go.”
I tried to climb to my feet but the
room started to spin around all crazy. I was so glad I opted for my boots
instead of heels because as I involuntarily grabbed onto Rule’s biceps to stay
upright I knew I would have ended up on my face otherwise. It was too hot, too
loud and if I didn’t get out into some fresh air like yesterday I was pretty
sure I was going to puke everywhere.
“Who drove?” Rule’s voice was
coming from far away and he smelled really good. With a sigh I leaned into him
and buried my nose in his throat. He was so tall I had to use my leverage on
his arms to reach. “Seriously Shaw, how did you get here?”
“Ayden and I, we took a cab.”
“Where is she?”
“With a banker. I need to go
home.” I feel my boozy legs start to wobble and his locked a heavy arm around
my waist to keep me anchored to his chest. It was nice. Not bothering to
think about it I wrapped both my arms up around his neck. He felt as good as I
always knew he would.
“Her roommate is running around
somewhere; wanna see if you can grab her. I’m gonna walk her to our place.” I
wasn’t sure who he was talking to but a familiar voice rumbled an affirmative
and the next thing I knew I was being half marched, half carried out the front
door of the bar. The cold January air made me snap my head back as Rule moved
me from his front to his side and secured me with an arm around my shoulders.
I hooked an arm around his lean waist and cuddled into his side. I knew
logically it was the vodka making me act crazy, but I couldn’t stop it.
“We’re only three blocks from my
place. I’ll pour a gallon of coffee down your throat and shove some chips or a
frozen burrito in your face and get you a cab. You’re even paler than normal
and if you try and get in a car right now you’re gonna puke everywhere. Why
are you drunk and dressed all sexified tonight anyway?”
I shivered a little as the wind
breezed across my bare legs. I turned my cold nose into his ribs and inhaled.
He smelled like the antiseptic from the shop, like cigarettes from Nash, like the
hair product in his mohawk and underneath it all the warm, earthy smell that
was all just Rule. In eight years I had never been this close to him for this
long. It was enough to send my deprived and alcohol soaked system into
overdrive.
“You think I look sexy?” That
seemed like the important part of the conversation. We stopped at a stop sign
and he looked down at me with exasperation clear in those pale eyes.
“Shaw, every guy in the bar was
circling you like you were bait in the water during shark week. You know you
look good, what I think shouldn’t matter. What should matter is why your
suddenly dressing, looking and acting like a different person? What’s going on
with you?”
I wanted to scowl up at him but
that seemed too hard especially when his t-shirt rode up in the back and my arm
was brushing against nice, warm skin. I stumbled off the curb as we made our
way down another block and a familiar Victorian came into sight. He pulled me
in tighter to his side and I didn’t even try and hide the soft sigh that fell
out of me. “Everyone thinks I need to act a certain way, you, my parents, your
parents, the girls from work, Gabe. Everybody always wants me to be this, do
that, walk this line, toe that line and I’m sick of it. Maybe for just once I
just want to act how I want, feel how I want to feel without someone judging me
and expecting something from me.”
He was quiet as we walked up the
front steps to the apartment. Maybe he was trying to translate my drunken
speech because even I could hear that I was slurring between my chattering
teeth. He pushed the door open and twisted the lock. It was warm inside so I
shook off my jacket and pushed my shaking hand through my hair. I turned
blurry eyes on him and almost swallowed my tongue. He was leaning back against
the door watching me with hooded eyes. He wasn’t throwing sarcastic barbs at
me, or ignoring me he was just watching me. I blew out a breath and tasted the
tartness of the cranberry juice across my tongue still.
I took a few unsteady steps towards
him. He was tall and I was not so I had to stand on the very tip of my toes to
reach his ear as I put a hand on his shoulder and one on the door beside his
head. I expected him to move away, to gently shove me to the side but he
uncrossed his arms and placed his hands on my either side of my waist.
“It’s my birthday Rule.”
Those pale eyes flared for a second
and his mouth twisted down. The hoop on the side on his lip glinted at me in
his frown. “Shit, I’m sorry Shaw. I had no idea.”
I shrugged it off and moved a step
closer to him. “It okay, my own family doesn’t even remember it.” I pressed
so close to him that my chest was flat against his and I could feel that the
close proximity was having an effect on him. If I hadn’t had to concentrate on
my balance since I was on my toes I might have grinned at that. All I had ever
wanted in life was to affect him, to get him to feel something, anything other
than simple tolerance for me. “I know what I you can do for me to make this
officially the best birthday ever.” I wanted to sound sure, to sound sexy and
sultry but I’m pretty sure I just sounded horny and drunk. I didn’t care. I
was here, the real me, the one that wanted him so desperately and always had
and now there was no chance at putting her back in the cage.
I didn’t think, didn’t reason just
used the grip I had on him to pull myself up even taller and plant my mouth
solidly over his. The ring in his lip was shockingly cold against my own; the
rest of him was undeniably hot and hard. It was everything I had ever wanted
and even though he didn’t kiss me back I still ranked it up there as the best
birthday gift ever. I went to settle back down on my booted feet when
something shifted, something changed and Rule went from the pliant recipient to
something else entirely.
Rule
Shaw was drunk, really, really drunk.
She was also dressed like something out of a retro fantasy and had on those
boots that made me want to drool. I had been grumpy and moody all week, my
friends had noticed, my clients had noticed, the chick I walked out on Saturday
night noticed. I couldn’t put my finger on it. At first I thought it was
Rome, I was pissed he wouldn’t just tell mom to grow the fuck up and get over
her shit. I wanted him to spend time with me, to have some good times before
shipping back out to the desert but he wasn’t ready to give up hope that he
could fix our fractured family and I didn’t want to fight with my brother the
freaking war hero. I thought maybe I just needed to get laid, but the hot
blond I went home with on Saturday had started to annoy me in the car there and
by the time we got to her room the last thing I wanted to do was see her naked
so I bolted. Sunday came and went and the darker and darker my mood got. They
guys suggested going to the Goal Line, thinking maybe I needed a dose of verbal
ass kicking from an ice cold blond to get me out of my head, but I refused and
instead spent the day brooding and playing Call of Duty. I had no idea what my
problem was but with Shaw all but plastered to the front of me I was starting
to get an idea.
I hadn’t been able to get the sight
of her and her ruffle covered ass out of my head for days. Call me shallow,
call me a chauvinistic pig, but there was just something about seeing her all
sexed up and barely dressed that made me look at her in an entirely new light.
It was like being introduced to her all over again and the prim and proper
little lady that Remy had worshiped was overtaken by a sexy co-ed that had me
up and night thinking X-rated things. Now with her looking at me all big eyed
and swaying unsteadily I knew the right thing to do was fix her up and send her
on her way, but then she kissed me and I was pretty sure I forgot my own name.
I was too stunned to react at first, I mean I had kissed hundreds of girls and
there was always something nice about it, but Shaw kicked nice to the curb and
went right into coma inducing.
After I got enough blood back from
below my belt I realized that she was pulling away, or rather falling away and
yes I was a certified asshole because I knew she was sauced and I knew she was
for all purposes still my twin brother’s girl but none of that stopped me
because she also tasted sweet and tangy, felt better than anything I could
remember in my entire life and had on some kind of slinky top that was rubbing
erotically across my chest, plus her hand where wrapped around my neck was
playing with the last pointy spike of my new haircut and it was all going right
to my dick which was screaming at me to do something. So like a bastard I did.
I picked her up because she was
short and I was tired of bending over. Her skirt was tight so I had no problem
moving it up her shapely calves so that she could get those legs wrapped around
me. She made a gasping noise and I maybe, possibly would have stopped what I
was doing to her mouth if she hadn’t used her new position to grind against my
hard on and to get her hands up under my t-shirt shirt. Of all the things I
had ever thought about Shaw, the fact that she would go off like a bottle
rocket when touched just right would have never been one of them. She always
looked so cool, so collected but now she was tugging my shirt off over my head
and doing something with her tongue on my lip ring that was making my eyes
cross. I knew logically Nash was probably only a few minutes from walking in
the door with her roommate and this had to stop. There was no way I would be
able to live with myself if I let this get out of hand while she was drunk, so
I let go when she pushed away from me so that she was on unsteady feet on the
floor in front of me and I thought maybe, just maybe even wasted she would be
the voice of reason.
She just looked at me through
hooded eyes the color of jade and licked a mouth that was very thoroughly
worked over curiosity of yours truly. Nothing on this planet had ever been
hotter. She started pulling at the ties on the top of her silky top and moved
past me down the hall. I forgot that she knew where my bedroom was, that she
knew her way around my place, that she had a damn key. It was on the tip of my
tongue to tell her to stop, to tell her I would just put her to bed and she
could just sleep whatever this was off, but as I followed behind her the blue
top hit the floor followed by the black tank top and the skirt that did amazing
things to her ass. I picked up the discarded clothing and tried to talk myself
off the ledge. I couldn’t do this, wouldn’t do this, it was bad enough I had
kissed her like a sex crazed lunatic. I needed to get control back like
yesterday. This was Shaw, not some bar bimbo. Not someone I could mercilessly
kick out in the morning and never speak to again.