Beautiful Broken Rules (Broken, Series #1)(67)

“I kind of like that.” I was mesmerized, tracing the backward letters. When he looked up into my eyes proudly, I whispered, “It’s like you’re mine as well.”

After a second, I realized that the sun was already up, so I turned to look at the clock on the bedside table. “Shit! We have to be in class in thirty minutes.” I started scrambling out from under him.

“So what, let’s skip,” he laughed at me. “Stay in bed with me today.”

“Jaxon, I can’t, I’ve already missed way too many classes. Patterson will drop me if I miss anymore this semester, and then I’ll lose my internship.”

“Okay, it’s not that big of a deal, we’ll go. You’re extremely adorable when you get flustered like this though,” he laughed.

When I got up, I noticed he stayed in bed, not attempting to get out. I gave him a questioning look.

“Yeah, you go ahead. I… kind of have a situation... I need to wait out.” He gestured at himself under the sheets. “I’ll be set by the time you’re ready to leave.”

I leaned forward with my hands on the bed and knew he was enjoying the view of my naked body. “Join me in the shower and I’ll relieve… your situation.” I winked at him.

I’d never seen him move so fast as he sprang from the bed. I bounded out his door laughing, completely naked and ran straight into the bathroom. I knew no one had seen me, but at the same time, it didn’t even occur to me to care if they had. When I reached the shower and turned on the faucet, I felt large hands on my hips from behind.

“Emerson, I’ll be honest right now, I’m not going to handle guys seeing my girlfriend naked very well,” he growled in my ear.

I spun around to look up into his eyes. “Girlfriend?” I gasped nervously.

“I don’t care what label you put on it, but you’re mine regardless. I won’t share.”

When I just stood there with a shell-shocked expression on my face not responding, I saw the worry shoot across his. He lowered his voice and spoke slowly, “Babe, when I asked you if you wanted only me, last night, I wasn’t talking about one night only. Were you?” he asked, nervously clinching my hips tighter, as if I might leave if he were to let go. The steam from the shower began engulfing the room. The mirror was already fogged up and all I could pay attention to were his blue eyes contrasting against the white steam.

I shook my head no and watched the relief wash the worry away in his eyes. “I can’t be a girlfriend though. I’ll be terrible at it. I just can’t… I’ll hurt you… I just can’t….” I started shaking my head back and forth with my rising panic and rambling.

He gently pushed me backward into the shower and shut the glass door behind us. The water poured down over both of us and I slowly started calming down with his hands running through my hair. He softly tilted my head back to soak my hair under the spray of hot water. Without saying a word, he was bringing me down from my panic, without saying a word, making me feel safe and cared for.

I turned my face to the side. “You deserve someone better than me,” I whispered into his arm.

“You deserve to know how great it can be for someone to care about you.”

“I don’t even know what a good relationship is.”

“I kind of gathered that, and one day, you’ll tell me why you’re so afraid of them.” He tilted my face up to his. “I’ll show you how great we are going to be. Because you’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever met, and I’m not talking about your gorgeous face, your stunning hair or your drop-dead sexy body. I never knew it was possible to be so attracted to your best friend.” My breath caught at his words. I’d never thought about it like that before, but slowly, he had become my best friend in all of this.