Beautiful Broken Rules (Broken, Series #1)(112)

Jaxon whipped around and looked at Cole with wide eyes.

“That’s right, *, I heard it. I almost pummeled you into the ground right there, but I wanted Em to take care of it first.” And look at what a great job I did…

“Don’t worry, I already told Mom, she’ll do it for us,” Jace laughed.

“Fuck… I’m such an idiot.” He turned toward me with sad apologetic eyes. I quickly turned away to tell Quinn goodbye and give her a hug.

He started coming back over to me, when Jace cut him off, “Come on, Romeo, you’ve done enough for one night.” He grabbed his bicep and steered him for the door. “See ya later, Emmy.” Jace called out.



Chapter Twenty

The Auction

We had everything ready and set up for the auction to begin. Micah helped me set up a stage with a runway coming out from the middle. Cole had agreed to be the “auctioneer.” I had asked him because he knew how to be loud and capture a crowd. Cole and Jace came early to finish with the set-up and heavy lifting. Quinn was in the back helping all the girls finish getting ready to walk the stage.

I lifted up a stack of three chairs to carry over to tables that still needed them when they were unexpectedly lifted from my hands. Jaxon stacked them onto another set of four chairs and carried all seven behind me as I showed him where they went. I didn’t have anything to say to him, so he just followed silently. We kept up this silent exchange for four more tables and twenty-four more chairs. He didn’t say a word and I didn’t either. I pointed to the banner that stated the football team was sponsoring the event and he hung it up above the stage. He looked down at me from the ladder to check his work and I just gestured my hand upward to indicate that the left side needed to be a bit higher.

After he fixed it, he looked at me for approval and I turned to find something else to do. I heard his feet hit the stage as he jumped down off the last couple of rungs on the ladder. He came up right behind me and followed me around lifting anything he deemed heavy, although I didn’t think a box of napkins weighed too much.

“It looks good guys, thank you,” I called across the room. “Might as well grab a drink from the bar before everyone else gets here.” I pointed to the bar set up in the back of the room.

“Want something, Emerson? I’ll get it for you.” I shook my head at him. “Tequila? Beer? I’m sure I can find something you like.”

“I don’t drink,” I replied, walking out of the ballroom. I shouldn’t have been surprised to see him jogging up behind me.

“What do you mean you don’t drink?” he demanded.

“It means that anything that contains alcohol doesn’t go into my mouth,” I retorted, annoyed with his dumb question.

“I understood that part, it’s the ‘why’ that I’m curious about.”

I continued walking down the hotel hallway looking for the closest bathroom. “I don’t drink since it ruined the best thing I ever had.” With that, I finally found the bathroom and walked in, leaving him behind. Thank God there was no one else in here.

Without missing a beat, Jaxon came in right behind me and locked the door behind him. He bent down to check for feet under the stalls and when he didn’t see any, he stalked forward toward me.

I continued walking until I reached the last stall. “Jaxon, this room is for women only. I’m sure you saw the sign.”

He grabbed my waist before I could enter the stall and pushed me up against the wall next to the paper towel dispenser. He stared at me, inspecting my face. I needed to stay strong. I couldn’t let him think that he could just seduce me whenever he felt like it now. Yesterday was a one-time thing to get each other out of our systems, no matter how much of a lie I was telling myself. He ran the pad of his thumb along my bruised bottom lip; the friction made me wince slightly.