Rule(24)

“Her roommate is running around somewhere; wanna see if you can grab her.  I’m gonna walk her to our place.”  I wasn’t sure who he was talking to but a familiar voice rumbled an affirmative and the next thing I knew I was being half marched, half carried out the front door of the bar.  The cold January air made me snap my head back as Rule moved me from his front to his side and secured me with an arm around my shoulders.  I hooked an arm around his lean waist and cuddled into his side.  I knew logically it was the vodka making me act crazy, but I couldn’t stop it.

“We’re only three blocks from my place.  I’ll pour a gallon of coffee down your throat and shove some chips or a frozen burrito in your face and get you a cab.  You’re even paler than normal and if you try and get in a car right now you’re gonna puke everywhere.  Why are you drunk and dressed all sexified tonight anyway?”

I shivered a little as the wind breezed across my bare legs.  I turned my cold nose into his ribs and inhaled.  He smelled like the antiseptic from the shop, like cigarettes from Nash, like the hair product in his mohawk and underneath it all the warm, earthy smell that was all just Rule.  In eight years I had never been this close to him for this long.  It was enough to send my deprived and alcohol soaked system into overdrive.

“You think I look sexy?”  That seemed like the important part of the conversation.  We stopped at a stop sign and he looked down at me with exasperation clear in those pale eyes.

“Shaw, every guy in the bar was circling you like you were bait in the water during shark week.  You know you look good, what I think shouldn’t matter.  What should matter is why your suddenly dressing, looking and acting like a different person?  What’s going on with you?”

I wanted to scowl up at him but that seemed too hard especially when his t-shirt rode up in the back and my arm was brushing against nice, warm skin.  I stumbled off the curb as we made our way down another block and a familiar Victorian came into sight.  He pulled me in tighter to his side and I didn’t even try and hide the soft sigh that fell out of me.  “Everyone thinks I need to act a certain way, you, my parents, your parents, the girls from work, Gabe.  Everybody always wants me to be this, do that, walk this line, toe that line and I’m sick of it.  Maybe for just once I just want to act how I want, feel how I want to feel without someone judging me and expecting something from me.”

He was quiet as we walked up the front steps to the apartment.  Maybe he was trying to translate my drunken speech because even I could hear that I was slurring between my chattering teeth.  He pushed the door open and twisted the lock.  It was warm inside so I shook off my jacket and pushed my shaking hand through my hair.  I turned blurry eyes on him and almost swallowed my tongue.  He was leaning back against the door watching me with hooded eyes.  He wasn’t throwing sarcastic barbs at me, or ignoring me he was just watching me.  I blew out a breath and tasted the tartness of the cranberry juice across my tongue still.

I took a few unsteady steps towards him.  He was tall and I was not so I had to stand on the very tip of my toes to reach his ear as I put a hand on his shoulder and one on the door beside his head.  I expected him to move away, to gently shove me to the side but he uncrossed his arms and placed his hands on my either side of my waist.

“It’s my birthday Rule.”

Those pale eyes flared for a second and his mouth twisted down.  The hoop on the side on his lip glinted at me in his frown.  “Shit, I’m sorry Shaw.  I had no idea.”

I shrugged it off and moved a step closer to him.  “It okay, my own family doesn’t even remember it.”  I pressed so close to him that my chest was flat against his and I could feel that the close proximity was having an effect on him.  If I hadn’t had to concentrate on my balance since I was on my toes I might have grinned at that.  All I had ever wanted in life was to affect him, to get him to feel something, anything other than simple tolerance for me.  “I know what I you can do for me to make this officially the best birthday ever.”  I wanted to sound sure, to sound sexy and sultry but I’m pretty sure I just sounded horny and drunk.  I didn’t care.  I was here, the real me, the one that wanted him so desperately and always had and now there was no chance at putting her back in the cage.

I didn’t think, didn’t reason just used the grip I had on him to pull myself up even taller and plant my mouth solidly over his.  The ring in his lip was shockingly cold against my own; the rest of him was undeniably hot and hard.  It was everything I had ever wanted and even though he didn’t kiss me back I still ranked it up there as the best birthday gift ever.  I went to settle back down on my booted feet when something shifted, something changed and Rule went from the pliant recipient to something else entirely.



Chapter 5

Rule

Shaw was drunk, really, really drunk.  She was also dressed like something out of a retro fantasy and had on those boots that made me want to drool.  I had been grumpy and moody all week, my friends had noticed, my clients had noticed, the chick I walked out on Saturday night noticed.  I couldn’t put my finger on it.  At first I thought it was Rome, I was pissed he wouldn’t just tell mom to grow the f*ck up and get over her shit.  I wanted him to spend time with me, to have some good times before shipping back out to the desert but he wasn’t ready to give up hope that he could fix our fractured family and I didn’t want to fight with my brother the freaking war hero.  I thought maybe I just needed to get laid, but the hot blond I went home with on Saturday had started to annoy me in the car there and by the time we got to her room the last thing I wanted to do was see her naked so I bolted.  Sunday came and went and the darker and darker my mood got.  They guys suggested going to the Goal Line, thinking maybe I needed a dose of verbal ass kicking from an ice cold blond to get me out of my head, but I refused and instead spent the day brooding and playing Call of Duty.  I had no idea what my problem was but with Shaw all but plastered to the front of me I was starting to get an idea.