Beautiful Broken Rules (Broken, Series #1)(104)

When I heard her gasp and she sat up, looking down at me, “You’ve never said that back to me before.”

I pulled her back down. “I know, and I’m sorry. That wasn’t right of me, but I always have.”

She snuggled in next to me and not long after, I heard Cole come back and get in bed behind Quinn. He kissed her and told us both goodnight.

The next morning, before I even opened my eyes, all I could smell was Jaxon. I didn’t want to open my eyes because I was too afraid it would disappear. I could stay in this dream forever. I rubbed my face across my pillow and could unquestionably smell him and his cologne. This was like the best dream and worst nightmare, all wrapped up into one. I reached over and knew that I wasn’t in bed with him since the space next to me was empty, but I also realized that I was no longer in bed with Quinn or Cole. With my eyes still sealed, I skimmed my hand across the comforter and felt the pleats that I remembered were on his grey and white bed. For my final test, I searched for the left corner of the sheet and felt the tell-tale rip that my earring had caused once.

My eyes finally shot open and my sightless exploration was confirmed. I was in Jaxon’s bed, but he wasn’t here with me. How did I get here? Did I get up and get into his bed in the middle of the night? If so, I needed to get out of here before he came home. Nothing would be more embarrassing than being the ex-girlfriend that not only couldn’t let you go, but also crawled in your bed in the middle of the night.

I stretched my arms out in front of me and noticed familiar handwriting on my palm. I brought it closer to my face to read, since my eyes hadn’t yet adjusted to the morning light.

My rule still stands. My bed. Not Cole’s or Jace’s.

Was this seriously happening? Did he go in Cole’s room last night and take me out of his bed just so he could come lay me in his bed all alone. Why the hell does he care where I sleep anymore? “My rule still stands.” Who did he think he was? He doesn’t have any right to make rules for me. He had better not still be in this apartment because if he was, I might rip his head off. What right does he have to take me away from my friends? I might just take a nap in Jace’s bed later today, just to piss him off.

To my chagrin, I was only in Cole’s shirt and my panties, which meant that he carried me with barely any clothes on. I know it shouldn’t bother me because he’d known every single inch of my body at one time, but I think that I deserved to be awake if he was going to touch me again. I looked around the room and didn’t see my clothes anywhere, so they must have still been in Cole’s room. He could have at least brought my clothes with me when he kidnapped me.

While I had been looking around his room for my clothes, I did notice more framed pictures than I remembered the last time I was in here. There were pictures on his desk, on his nightstand, and lined up on his wall. I moved in closer to look at each of them, noticing that I was in almost all of them. There were pictures of me and his mom, me and Jace, me and some of his buddies back home that I met at a couple of parties, me, Cole, and Quinn, and finally, me and him.

My favorite picture of the two of us was sitting next to his bed on his nightstand. It was the night of Garret’s birthday party, when we weren’t even together yet. I remember we were standing next to the counter in the kitchen right after I had taken the tequila shot in front of him. I was looking up at him like he was the only person in the world. I was amazed that I was able to give anyone that deep of a look. My hands were, as always grabbing the waistband of his jeans tightly.

I remembered that Mason, who was majoring in photography, had taken this picture. He was usually snapping away at every event. At the time, we hadn’t realized that he was taking our picture, not until after we heard the identifiable click of a camera, and then he came over and showed us the image on his screen. I remembered we had both smiled at it, but I hadn’t seen the photo since then. I wondered if Jaxon went and asked him for it, or if Mason had given it to him. If he had given it to Jaxon, why hadn’t he given it to me as well?