LITMIR.BIZ

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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

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