Beautiful Broken Rules (Broken, Series #1)(63)

“Nothing besides speak the truth. I guess Jaxon doesn’t like that side of me.”

“He’s protective of you, Em.”

“Just what I need, another protective friend,” I grumbled.

She was about to comment on that, when we heard the guys start talking loudly again.

“Man, Em’s no fun anymore anyway,” Easton complained.

“Yeah, I swear I’ve taken her to my room four times this semester and she just zones out while we’re making out, and then pushes me away. Last year, she was much cooler,” I heard Blake say.

“Maybe it’s your moves, dude. I wouldn’t want to get with your ugly ass either,” Cole joked.

“I reached that f*cking three-time limit, so I wouldn’t know how she’s been lately,” Micah griped.

The other guys chimed in with the same complaint as Blake. Traitors, all of them. Guys aren’t supposed to get together and chat about this stuff. It was also kind of embarrassing to hear about how many people I had gone upstairs with lately. If this was last year, I would have slept with all of them. Jaxon thought that’s what I’ve been doing.

“Hold up, what are y’all saying? None of you have slept with her this entire semester?” A familiar southern accent chimed in.

Crap. He was putting the pieces together.

When I heard a round of ‘no’s’, I downed another shot and scrambled out of the kitchen toward the front door. I knew he was going to want to know why, and I was still frightened to tell him that he was the only person I wanted to be with. That I had never felt so close and safe with someone before I met him. I was also terrified to explain to him that even though I wanted him, I knew I would be terrible at a relationship. I would mess it up and I would piss him off. At the same time, he seemed to have moved on, so maybe all this worry was for nothing.

Just as I was hitting the front door, I heard the back door open and Jaxon hollered, “Emerson!”

I kept going and knew he hadn’t seen me because, right before I slipped out, I overheard him ask Quinn if she knew where I was. Here’s hoping my best friend and sister has some sense of solidarity. When I reached the driveway, I realized I couldn’t drive home. I didn’t have the car keys and I was far too intoxicated. I reached Jaxon’s truck that was parked a of couple houses down the street and I laid the tailgate down to sit on it.

Since it was November, it was a little chilly out. Southern California doesn’t have much of a winter, but the breeze blowing off the ocean was giving me chills on my bare legs. Another reason I would never make it in the north; I loved wearing shorts and flip-flops year round. When you have to hunt down gloves, hats, scarves, and boots at any time of the year, that’s when I call it quits. I have a grandma that lives in upstate New York that we visited once for Christmas. I was miserable in the cold, I stayed indoors the entire week we were there.

Suddenly, I heard boots hitting the sidewalk at a quick pace. I knew he had to be Jaxon because he doesn’t like to let anything go. He was still pretty far away and I realized he wouldn’t be able to see me, since the truck was facing him and I was sitting on the tailgate.

“EMERSON!” he barked, sounding a bit panicked.

He continued running down the street and I watched as he passed right by me. His body froze and he whipped around to face me. I made eye contact with him as he stalked toward me with a determined look on his face. The air around me grew warmer and there was a current charging between us. He came right up to my legs and placed his hands on my knees. I gasped as he shoved my legs apart so he could come even closer to me while his hands rested on my thighs.