Breaking the Rules (Pushing the Limits #1.5)(33)

I need us to be indestructible. I can’t return to cold and alone. Things are complicated. No doubt. But we’ll battle through this. We have to. Giving up is not an option.

“Me and you,” I whisper, hoping my words will sink into her subconscious, beyond where she overthinks. “It’s how it’s supposed to be.”

Echo’s hand glides over mine, and she links our fingers together. “You like disturbing my sleep, don’t you?”

I kiss her shoulder, permitting my lips to linger on her soft skin. Guess I did wake her. “Just keeping things straight between us.”

“In my sleep?” Damn, I love that groggy voice.

“You argue less that way.”

Her body shakes with silent giggles. “I don’t argue.”

“That sounded like an argument.”

“You’re impossible.” Echo eases to her back. Her smile fades, and I hate that last night still weighs on her. “It all seems overwhelming. Like everything is stacked against us.”

“It’s not so bad other than your dad would prefer for you to get over your juvenile delinquent phase and our friends hate each other.”

The smile doesn’t reappear like I’d hoped. Guess telling the truth as a joke didn’t work.

“Being together, Noah, it’s hard and you know it. We keep each other honest. It would be so much easier to slink back into our old lives.”

Very easy. Return to living day to day, not giving a shit one way or another about anything or anyone. Not killing myself over a future in college and a damn degree. But if I chose simple, I wouldn’t have Echo.

She forces me to question myself—why I do whatever I do. Before her, I couldn’t have cared less about college or a job that went somewhere or a future. But Echo deserves a man she’d be proud of, and the Malt and Burger isn’t good enough.

That same pride she has in her eyes when she walks down the street with me now, I want her to have walking down the street with me in ten years. If I stay as I am, she won’t remain proud.

I brush a finger slowly along Echo’s arm, tracing the smooth skin between her scars. She covered her arms in public again, and my shoulders stiffen. Am I busting my ass to move forward while Echo is falling back into her old life? Before I can ask, Echo opens her mouth. “Will we be okay when we go home?”

“We’ve been through too much for something like this to get us down.”

The knots coiled in my gut relax when that siren smile appears on her face. “So we have to stay together because we’ve walked hand in hand through hell?”

“Don’t overanalyze the rules, baby. Just follow them.”

Echo laughs out loud. “Since when have you followed any rules?”

“Since always. They happen to be mine.”

“The ones you make up don’t count.”

“They do.” I slip my hand along her side. “Like the one that says that I have to kiss you if we’re in bed together.”

Echo raises a brow. “That’s a rule?”

“Fuck it, Echo. I’d kiss you if you were sunbathing on nails. A bed’s a hell of a lot more comfortable.”

She stares up at me from beneath dark eyelashes. “You are so bad.”

“Damn straight.” Right as I go to kiss Echo, someone knocks on the door. Damn it all to hell. “Go away!”

“Be nice! It’s probably housekeeping.” Echo shoves at my chest and while she doesn’t have enough strength to push me away, I drop back like a domino, and she hops out of bed.

“Be right there,” she calls out, then she lowers her voice to address me. “We’re lucky we didn’t get kicked out last night over the clothes.”

“We?” I repeat. “I’m not the one clogging hotel filters with boxer shorts.”

She pins me with a glare. I turn onto my side and prop my head up on my hand, deciding to enjoy the show of Echo hot as hell and strutting across the room. Spaghetti-strapped tank top and boy shorts that show a hint of her ass. On second thought... “You may want a robe if you’re going to open that door.”

Hell, a shirt would help.

“I’m going to crack it open to tell them that we’re still sleeping.”

“We’re eighteen and in a hotel. Did you want them to laugh?”

Her face turns red, and she shushes me.

Damn, she’s going to answer the door like that. I roll off the bed and grab a pair of jeans. “Let me. My luck it’ll be the maintenance guy, then he’ll be stalking you for the rest of the trip.”

Echo sticks her tongue out at me, but steps back to let me by. “Be nice.”

My lips tilt up as I rub my thumb against her cheek. “I’m always nice.”

“At least button your pants.”

With a chuckle, I open the door wide enough to see who it is, but not enough that wandering eyes can drink in Echo’s gorgeous legs and ass. My muscles grow rigid when I spot a guy my height, a smaller build and a few years older slouching in front of my room.

“What do you want?” I growl.

His eyes morph into two ovals. “Sorry, I thought this room belonged to a red-headed girl. Is this her room?”

He checks out the room number beside the door, and I broaden my stance. “What makes you think she’s here?”