Beautiful Broken Rules (Broken, Series #1)(49)

It took me just as long to get back to the apartment, if not longer, because I had to keep wiping blood from my face. When I walked in my front door, I was drenched in sweat. Quinn was sitting on the couch with her phone in her hand. When she saw me, she jumped up and ran toward me. She crashed right into me and held me so hard I could barely breathe.

“Quinn, stop. I’m sweaty, bloody, and I can’t breathe,” I gasped.

“YOU IDIOT, where have you been?” she yelled.

“I was running and besides, I left you a note on the fridge.”

“Jaxon said he saw you leaving three hours ago, and you NEVER run for more than an hour.”

“I’m sorry, I had a lot on my mind and I went further than I thought. Besides, you and Cole were occupied this morning anyway.” She started giving me a sad look when I interrupted her, “Oh, no you don’t, don’t get upset. I ruined your night together; don’t be sad because you were with your boyfriend.”

“What the hell happened to you?” She gestured toward my fat lip.

“I fell in some loose gravel, I’m sure it’ll look better after I wash off.”

“Shit! Cole and Jax went to look for you, I need to call them,” she said while dialing her phone.

“You guys are so ridiculous.” I walked to the bathroom for a shower and I heard her saying that I had made it home.

I washed my hair and shaved my legs. I mostly just stood under the spray of the water with it turned on as hot as I could stand it. There were still tiny pieces of gravel embedded in my palms that I gently removed. When I got out, I brushed out my hair and scrubbed my teeth, until they felt clean again. My bottom lip was so swollen it looked like I had been punched. When I walked out of the bathroom, Cole looked down the hallway and saw me walking toward my door. He met me halfway.

“Em, why are you scaring the hell out of me lately?”

“I’m fine. I didn’t mean to scare anyone.”

“Jax is going to freak when he sees your lips.”

“Just don’t tell him about it, I’m sure the swelling will go down soon,” I responded.

I walked into my room and closed the door behind me. Sitting down on the edge of my bed with a towel wrapped around me, I thought about everything that had been going on lately. I felt like a mess. I was usually so in control, now I felt like I didn’t have an ounce of it. I wasn’t surprised when my door flung open and Jaxon walked in. I fell backward onto my bed, looking up at the ceiling.

“Jaxon, I can’t do this right now,” I said, frustrated.

He climbed up onto my bed, and looked down at me. He ran the pad of his thumb over my swollen lip. “Emerson, what happened?”

“I fell. I’m fine, but I’m going to be late for work if I don’t hurry up.” Although my argument was a little weak considering, I wasn’t attempting to move from my position on the bed. Having his gorgeous body leaning over me again had me frozen with desire.

“Please stop running from me,” he whispered.

“Please stop trying to catch me,” I said getting up to leave.

He grabbed my hand and squeezed. “I didn’t sleep with her. All I did was take her home. She was pissed, but that’s all that happened.”

“There’s no reason to tell me this—“

“Damn it, Emerson, just stop!” he yelled, “Stop pretending you don’t care. Why won’t you let me in? Why won’t you let me care about you? Because for some maddening reason, I do!”

“I warned you from the beginning. Don’t make me out to be the bad person, here.”