Rule
Authors: Jay Crownover
Rule
By: Jay Crownover
Copyright
Rule Copyright © J. Crownover Books Published
2013
Cover photo Stock Photo Pixmac 3D
human photos.com
All Rights Reserved
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1
Rule
At first I thought the pounding in
my head was my brain trying to fight its way out of my skull after the ten or
so shots of Crown Royal I had downed last night, but then I remembered that it
was Sunday and no matter how many times I told her, or how rude, or whatever
kind of debauched and unsavory condition she found me in she showed up on
Sunday morning to drag me home for brunch. A soft moan from the other side of
the bed reminded me that I hadn’t come home from the bar last night alone, not
that I remembered the girl’s name or what she looked like or if had even been
worth her time to stumble into my apartment with me. I ran a hand over my face
and swung my legs over the edge of the bed just as the bedroom door swung
open. I never should have given the little brat a key. I didn’t bother to
cover up; she was used to walking in and finding me hung over and naked so I
didn’t see why today needed to be any different. The girl on the other side of
the bed rolled over and narrowed her eyes at the new addition to our awkward little
party.
“I thought you said you were
single?” There was accusation in her tone that lifted the hair on the back of
my neck. Any chick that was willing to come how with a stranger for a night of
unattached sex didn’t get the right to cast judgment around, especially while
they were still naked and rumpled in my bed.
“Give me twenty.” I ran a hand
through my messy hair and the blond in the doorway lifted an eyebrow.
“You have ten.” I would have
lifted an eyebrow back at her tone and attitude but my head was killing me and
the gesture would be wasted on her anyway, she was way past immune to my shit.
“I’ll make coffee, I already invited Nash but he said he has to go to the shop
for an appointment. I’ll be in the car.” She spun on her heel and just like
that the doorway was empty and I was struggling to my feet and searching the
floor any pair of pants I might have tossed down there last night.
“What’s going on?” I had
temporarily forgotten about the girl in my bed so I swore softly under my
breath and tugged a black t-shirt that looked reasonably clean over my head.
“I have to go.”
“What?”
I frowned at her as she lifted
herself up in the bed and clutched the sheet to her chest. She was pretty, had
a nice body from what I could see and I wondered what kind of game I had thrown
at her in order to get her to come home with me. She was one I wouldn’t have
minded waking up to this morning.
“I have somewhere I need to be so
that means you need to get up and get going. Normally my roommate would be
around so you could hangout for a minute but he had to go to work so that means
you need to get that fine ass in gear and get out.”
She sputtered a little at me. “Are
you kidding me?”
I looked over my shoulder as I dug
my boots out from under a pile of laundry and shoved my feet into them. “No.”
“What kind of asshole does that?
Not even a thanks for last night, you were great how about lunch, just get the
fuck out!” She threw the sheet aside and I noticed she had a nice tattoo
scrawling along her ribs. That was probably what attracted me to her in my
drunken stupor in the first place. “You’re a real piece of work, you know
that?”
I was a whole lot more than just a
piece of work, but this chick that was just one of oh so many didn’t need to
know that. I silently cursed at Nash. My roommate was the shit, we had been best
friends since elementary school and I could normally rely on him to run interference
for me on Sunday mornings when I had to bail but I forgot about the piece he
was supposed to be finishing up today so I needed to hustle last night’s tail
out the door and get moving before the brat left without me, which was a bigger
headache than I needed in my current state.
“Hey what’s your name anyway?” If
she wasn’t pissed before she was downright infuriated now as she climbed back
into a super short black skirt and barely there tank top. She fluffed up
mounds of clearly dyed blond hair and glared at me out of eyes now smudged with
worn mascara.
“Lucy, you don’t remember?” I
slimed some crap in my hair to make it stand up in a bunch of directions on
sprayed on cologne to help mask the scent of sex and booze that I was sure
still clung to every visible patch of skin. I shrugged a shoulder at her and
waited while she walked in front of me, hopping on one foot to put on a pair of
heels that just screamed dirty sex.
“I’m Rule.” I would have offered
to shake her hand but that seemed silly so I just pointed to the front door of
the apartment and stepped in the bathroom to brush the stale taste of whiskey
out of my mouth. “There’s coffee in the kitchen, maybe you should write your
number down and I can give you a call another time. Sunday’s aren’t a good day
for me.” She would never know how true that statement was.
She glared at me and tapped the toe
of one of those awesome shoes. “You really have no idea who I am do you?”
This time even against my throbbing
brains wishes my eyebrow went up and I looked at her with a mouth full of
toothpaste foam. I just stared at her until she screeched at me and pointed at
her side, “You have to at least remember this!”
No wonder I liked her ink so much
it was one of mine. I spit the toothpaste in the sink and gave myself a once
over in the mirror. I looked like hell. My eyes were watery and rimmed in
red, my skin looked gray and there was a hickey the size of Rhode Island on the
side of my neck. Mom was just going to love that, just like she was going to
fall all over herself about the current state of my hair. Normally thick and
dark, I had shaved the sides of it off and dyed the front a nice, bright purple
so that it stuck up straight and looked kind of like a weed-whacker had been
used to cut it. Both my folks already had an issue with the scrolling ink that
wound around both my arms and up the sides of my neck, so the hair was just
going to be icing on the cake. There was nothing I could do to fix the current
shit show looking back at me in the mirror so I prowled out of the bathroom and
unceremoniously grabbed the girl by the elbow and towed her to the front door.
I needed to learn to go home with them instead of letting them come home with
me; it was so much easier that way.
“Look I have somewhere I have to be
and I don’t particularly love that I have to go, but you freaking out and
making a scene is not going to do anything other than piss me off. I hope you
had a good time last night and you can leave your number but we both the
chances of me calling you are slim to none. If you don’t want to be treated
like crap maybe you should stop going home with drunken dudes you don’t know.
Trust me we’re really only after one thing and the next morning all we really
want is for you to go quietly away. I have a headache and I feel like I’m
going to hurl, plus I have to spend the next hour in a car with someone that
will be silently loathing me and joyously plotting my death so really can we
just save the histrionics and get a move on it?”
By now I had maneuvered her to the
entryway of the building and I saw her in the BMW idling in the spot next to my
truck. She was impatient and would take off if I wasted anymore time. I gave
Lucy a half grin and shrugged a shoulder, after all it wasn’t her fault I was
an asshole and even I knew she deserved better than such a callous brush off.
“Look don’t feel bad, I can be a charming bastard when I put my mind to it.
You are far from the first and won’t the last that has to see this little
show. I’m glad your tat turned out badass, I’d prefer you remember me for that
rather than last night.”
I jogged down the front steps
without looking back and yanked open the door to the fancy black BMW. I hated
this car and hated that it suited the driver as well as it did. Classy, sleek
and expensive were definitely words that could be used describe my traveling
companion and even as Lucy yelled at me and flipped me off as we pulled out of
the lot to my apartment building all she did was roll her eyes and mutter,
“Classy” under her breath. She was used to the little scenes chicks liked to
throw when I bailed on them the morning after; I had even had to replace her
windshield once when one of them had chucked a rock at me and missed while I
was walking away.
I adjusted the seat to accommodate
my long legs and settled in to rest my head against the window. It was always
a long and achingly silent drive, sometimes like today I was grateful for it,
other times it grated on my very last nerve. We had been a fixture in each
other’s lives since middle school, she knew every strength and fault I had, my
parents loved her like their own and made no bones about the fact they more
often than not preferred her company over mine. One would think with all the
history, both good and bad between us that we could make simple small talk for
a few hours without it being difficult.
“You’re going to get that junk
that’s all in your hair all over my window.” She had a voice that didn’t match
the rest of her. It was all cigarettes and whiskey, while she was all
champagne and silk. I had always liked her voice, when we got along I could
listen to her talk for hours.
“I’ll get it detailed.” She
snorted. I closed my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest. I was all set
for a silent ride but apparently she had things to say today because as soon as
she pulled the car onto the highway she turned the radio down and said my name,
“Rule,” I turned my head slightly to the side and cracked open an eye.
“Shaw.” Her name was just as fancy
as the rest of her. She was pale, had snowy white blond hair and big ole green
eyes that looked like a Granny Smith apple. She was tiny, an easy foot shorter
than my own six three, but had curves for days. She was the kind of girl that
guys looked at just because they couldn’t help themselves, but as soon as she
turned those frosty green eyes in their direction they knew they wouldn’t stand
a chance. She exuded unattainability like some other girls oozed come and get
me.
She blew a breath out and I watched
as a strand of hair twirled around her forehead. She looked at me out of the
corner of her eye and I stiffened up when I saw how tight her hands were on the
steering wheel.
“What is it Shaw?”
She bit her bottom lip, a sure sign
she was nervous. “I don’t suppose you answered any of your mom’s calls this
week?”
I wasn’t exactly tight with my
folks, in fact our relationship hovered somewhere around the mutually tolerable
area which is why my mom sent Shaw to drag me home each weekend. We were both
from a small town called Brookside in an affluent part of Colorado. I moved to
Denver as soon as I had my diploma in hand and Shaw was a few years behind
because she was younger than me and also because she had wanted nothing more
than to get into D-U. Not only did the girl look like a fairytale princess but
she was also on track to be a freaking doctor. My mom knew there was no way I
would make the two hour drive there and back to see them on the weekends, but
if Shaw drove and came and got me, not only would I feel guilty for making her
take time out of her schedule to get me, but that I had no excuse to not go.
Shaw paid for the gas, waited for me to stumble out of bed and dragged my sorry
ass home every single Sunday and not once in going on two years had she
complained about it.
“No, I was busy all week.” I was
busy, but I also just didn’t like talking to my mom so I had ignored her all
three times she had called me this week.
Shaw sighed and her hands twisted
even tighter on the steering wheel. “She was calling to tell you that Rome got
hurt and the Army is sending him home for six weeks of R&R. Your dad went
to the military base in the Springs yesterday to pick him up.”