Beautiful Broken Rules (Broken, Series #1)(15)

Our apartments are pretty decent. I don’t think any other college kids live here. Quinn and I pitch in to help pay for rent and bills, but Ellie and Charles usually cover the majority of it. I don’t know anything about Jace and Jaxon’s family, but I do know that Cole’s dad will basically pay for anything if he stays in the frat and plays football. His dad is a politician, so he likes to present a well-rounded “image”. The apartments in this building all have three bedrooms. While the boys will use their third room as something practical and boring like a bedroom, Quinn and I turned ours into a closet. It’s mostly for Quinn though. I don’t have much of a wardrobe, although Q and I wear the same size, so I guess all the clothes are as much mine as hers.

When I got to my door, Jax walked past me to his door. “Thanks for the ride; I appreciated not having to walk all the way in the heat,” I called down to him.

He stuck the keys in his door and turned to unlock it. “Not a problem, I think we basically have the same schedule on these days. Next time, let’s stay for lunch though.” He smiled at me and started to walk into his apartment.

“Hey, do you want to come in here for lunch? I’ll cook. It’s the least I can do for making you dump yours.”

“I never say no to a home cooked meal,” he said, smiling.

“Well, I’m no Food Network chef, but I can make us some lunch.”

After I had made chicken wings, he helped me to scrub all the dishes off and put them in the dishwasher. We sat on the couch afterward, watching TV.

“Damn, you can cook. That was delicious. We should just eat here for lunch from now on,” he laughed and I thanked him.

I sat on the couch leaning up against him. Then he grabbed my hips and pulled me across his lap so I was sitting on the other side of him, but my legs were lying across his. He grabbed the foot I had hurt this morning.

“Are your feet ticklish?” he softly asked.

“No.”

Then he tenderly started running his fingers down the sole of my foot and I realized he was searching. He found where the beer bottle cap had cut me and left an indention. He made slow soft circles around it and then over it. The movement was mesmerizing.

“I noticed you limping on it today, and this morning you were rubbing it,” he whispered.

I didn’t feel like explaining that I hurt it getting out of Micah’s bed. I’m sure he knows exactly what I was doing coming out that frat house this morning anyway. “That feels wonderful,” I sighed, lazily. It was really hard to continue watching TV after he started that. I got lost in the soft circles around and over, around and over.

*.*.*.*.*

Later that week, Jax and I were hanging out in my room comparing notes for Journalism and I found out we had Media Law together as well. Studying with him was fun, we usually veered way off topic and just started joking around, pushing our textbooks aside.

“Are you guys doing anything tonight? I don’t think Quinn and I have plans.”

“I have to work; I’m not sure about Jace and Cole though,” he answered, looking bummed.

“So is the radio station meeting your internship requirement?” I asked him.

“Yeah it is. At first, I was leaning more toward Broadcast Journalism, so that’s why I took it. All these classes are kind of opening my eyes to more areas, so now I’m not so sure what area I want to major in,” he responded.

“I wish I could get my internship done with over the school year, but I’m excited for it this coming summer.”

He set down his pen to look at me. “Where is yours at?”