Rule Breaker By Accident

by Parker, Ali

  “No.” I took a step toward her, finally breaking the spell that had momentarily rendered me immobile. “Don’t leave. Please. I’m sorry, you just caught me off guard. I’m glad you’re here. Would you like a drink?”

  “Yes, please.” She followed me to the kitchen and watched as I rummaged around in the fridge. “Anything is fine.”

  I pulled my head out of the appliance and gave her an apologetic smile. “I’ve got beer and water, unless you want something warm. There’s always coffee in this house.”

  She smiled. “Water is good.”

  I filled two glasses and went to join her at the island, pulling out one of the stools for her and one for myself. “So, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

  Holding her glass in both hands, she took a breath and blew it out slowly. “I know the truth, Rylen.”

  Her voice was soft, but I had no problem hearing what she said. Coming to terms with it, however, was a different story. “The truth about what?”

  “You and Will and Rayce.”

  Fuck. I sucked air into my lungs, but there was a sudden vise around them that refused to allow them to expand with it. “How?”

  “My friends told me,” she said, an understanding softness shining in her eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t trust you when you asked me to. I never imagined it would be something like this.”

  My eyes screwed shut. “How much do you know?”

  Throughout her explanation of what her friends had told her over dinner, my eyes remained tightly closed. I didn’t need to see the look in hers while she recounted the story of what I had gotten involved with.

  When I heard her voice tremble toward the end, I opened my eyes and was surprised to see her expression hadn’t changed, but that her eyes were now misty. “I understand why you did what you did, Rylen. I would have done the same thing if I had been in your shoes, no doubt about it. These people are more than our friends, they’re our chosen family. I don’t understand how all the pieces fit together, but I’d like to, if you’re willing to tell me.”

  I met her gaze dead-on. “You do understand there are risks involved with knowing everything, right?”

  Now that I was aware of how seriously she took hiding things, I never wanted to keep secrets from her again. On the other hand, I would keep what she didn’t know from her if it meant protecting her from consequences she wasn’t willing to take.

  Olive didn’t hesitate to give me her answer, though. “I understand, but I want to know. I can help to protect all of you, but not if I don’t know what I’m protecting you from. Valerie and Heidi already know everything, and they told me they would tell me, but I wanted to have the chance to hear it from you first.”

  “Okay.” I sighed, keeping my eyes locked on hers. “I’ll tell you, but first, I want you to know that I would have told you from the beginning if it wasn’t dangerous for you to know. Especially for you to know before everything was done.”

  She nodded. “I might have tried to put a stop to it or even gone to the authorities and messed everything up.”

  I rocked my head from side to side. “Yeah, but I didn’t think you would. I just didn’t want to involve you in something you didn’t need to be involved with. Will and Fulton came to me for help, and I agreed. I made the decision to help partly because I care about you, but also because I care about Will and Rayce.”

  “That’s what you meant when you said it had nothing to do with me?”

  “Yes. It was my decision, not yours.”

  “Okay.” Olive rested her forearms on the marble counter and linked her fingers together. “I appreciate what you did for me and that it was your decision to help them or not, but it is my decision now to hear the full details. I want to hear them, Rylen. I don’t want there to be any secrets between us, especially not ones my friends are also involved with.”

  “Is there still an us?” I asked, my voice soft but even.

  Olive’s blue eyes flashed at the question, but it wasn’t in anger or denial. It looked more like hope than anything else. “I think that’s up to you at this point. I broke us up, but I would like for there to be an us. If you still want that.”

  I wanted it all right. “I think you should hear me out before you make your final decision.”

  “I’m all ears.” Disappointment darted across her features before she could school them. It cut me up all over again to see the emotion and to know that I had caused it—again, but I needed to get it all out in the open first.

  If she still chose me after, I wouldn’t have to worry again. But until then… Let’s not get our hopes up, shall we?

  “The owner of the last bank that was robbed is called Yates Finance, as in Fulton Yates.”

  Olive brows climbed up her forehead. “Wow, I can’t believe I never made that connection.”

  “The bank is named something else, but Fulton’s company owns it. He came to me with Will and said he was financing the whole operation to get Rayce out of prison.”

  “Why would he do that?” She frowned, tucking her chin into chest.

  I shrugged and ran a hand through my hair. “I asked myself the same question, so before I gave them my answer, I asked him point-blank. What it boils down to is that Will and Rayce gave all the money back. Fulton took that as them turning over a new leaf. He related to the story and didn’t want someone close to Will sitting in prison for a crime—where in end—nothing was taken.”

  “I didn’t realize those two were that close.”

  “I don’t think they were, but they are now.” I brought my hand up to scratch my chin and pressed one corner of my mouth in. “The two of them have been talking a lot from what I’ve heard. Fulton had a feeling something was off with the arrest, so he kept reviewing the security footage. He wound up identifying Will by a tattoo.”

  “Why didn’t he turn him in?”

  I shook my head, rolling my shoulders. “You have to understand that I only came into this thing after a lot of this stuff had happened. I asked all the same questions, but I can only tell you what they told me.”

  “That’s okay.” She smiled and touched my arm, resting her small hand on it. “If I’ve got any questions after I’ve spoken to you, I can always ask them. I just want to hear your side of it first.”

  “Fair enough.” I returned her smile and brought my hand up to rest on hers. The contact felt like a part of me that had been drifting and was now clicking back into place, prompting me to thread my fingers through hers. I never wanted to let her go again. I only hoped that by the time we got to the end of this story, she felt the same way.

  “Fulton loves Valerie more than anything else in the world. Valerie loves you and Heidi like sisters. When Fulton figured it out, Heidi was pregnant with Will’s child. If he turned him in, he would have caused a child to grow up without his father and would have created yet another single mom.”

  I lifted one shoulder and sucked my lips into my mouth. “He told me he couldn’t be responsible for that. It would have hurt Adam, Heidi, Will, and Valerie immeasurably. He knew he would have lost Valerie, and he couldn’t bring himself to take a dad away from a kid. Apparently, Fulton would have been alone in the world if not for his dad. His dad was all he had.”

  Olive drummed the fingers on the hand that wasn’t on my arm on the table, nodding slowly. “So he’s a humanitarian financier? Don’t think I’ve heard of many of those.”

  I chuckled. “That’s one way to put it, but yeah. He got to know Will, liked him, and was happy about his decision. Will told him about Rayce and the two of them started coming up with a plan together. They got everything in place, but they needed a doctor to help them pull it off.”

  “And you agreed to be that doctor?”

  I nodded. “I couldn’t say no. Not when you, Will, and Rayce were involved. I need you to know that I’ve been out of that life for a long time, Olive. When I told you before I’d had a few hiccups, I might have been downplaying my upbringing. The truth is that I ran with a rough cro
wd, but those guys were like my brothers for the longest time. I’d never have gotten where I am today if not for them. Hell, I’m not even sure I would have survived growing up if they hadn’t been there.”

  Tears filled her eyes, but they didn’t fall. “I know all about having friends like that. I don’t blame you for downplaying your history, not anymore. I glossed over some of the darker parts of mine myself.”

  I tightened my grip on her hand. “I just wanted you to know who I am now before you learned about who I used to be. I was afraid you’d run if you knew.”

  “I might have,” she said, honesty darkening her blue eyes. “I feel like I do know who you are now, though. Who you used to be doesn’t scare me the way I think it would have back then.”

  Her words hit me with the force of a superhero’s hammer. Relief so intense it made me dizzy spun through me. “For real?”

  She released my hand and got up, nudging my legs apart with hers to stand between them. Her hands came up to cup my neck and her forehead dropped down to rest on mine. “For real. I love you, Rylen. All of you. You have a heart of gold and you’re a great friend. I’m sorry I didn’t trust you before, but I do love you.”

  A slow grin spread on my lips, my hands landing on Olive’s hips. I hauled her closer to me, pulling her right up against my chest. “I love you, too, Olive. I can’t promise that I’ll never keep anything from you again, but if I do, you need to know that I will only ever do it if it’s to protect you.”

  “I understand,” she whispered.

  “What about the rule?” I asked, praying that we could get over that hurdle too.

  “We don’t have to worry about that anymore,” she said, smiling just before her lips found mine and the burning hole in my chest finally sealed up.

  Chapter 38

  Olive

  Rylen kissed me so hard and with so much passion that it felt like he was giving me his body, his heart, and his soul. In return, I gave him mine.

  I never thought it was possible to feel such raw emotion transferring by touching your lips to another person’s, but that was what was happening between us. Rylen’s lips were firm but soft, his tongue delving and stroking like it was the first time he was getting to explore me.

  His hands flexed on my hips, holding me in place as he kissed me until my knees threatened to give out. Feeling them buckle, he broke the kiss and formed a band of steel around my waist with his arms.

  “Can’t have you falling down on my kitchen floor.” He adjusted his grip and then picked me up, not breaking eye contact with me. “I want to take you my bedroom, is that okay with you?”

  “Yes,” I whispered, winding my arms around his neck and hanging on as he carried me to his bed. I’d always thought it was a little weird that men in books and movies were always carrying women around, but I had to admit that I liked it. It made me feel wanted, safe, and protected.

  Gazing lovingly into his eyes like the lovesick fool I apparently was, I didn’t even notice that we had moved until he laid me down gently on his bed. I felt the mattress beneath my back, but I still couldn’t take my eyes off his.

  The hazel heated and burned in an expression unlike what I’d ever seen anyone wear before—especially when it came to looking at me. He stepped away from the bed. He didn’t make any moves to take his clothes off before the mattress dipped on either side of my legs as he climbed onto it with me.

  His lips closed over mine again, but the kiss was much more intense this time with the weight of his body sinking mine into the mattress. I smelled the faint hint of his cologne, felt the hard planes of his body hot against mine.

  My hands ran up and down the ropes of muscle in his back, into his hair, and over his shoulders. It felt like I couldn’t touch him enough, couldn’t taste him enough, couldn’t get enough of him. Rylen touched me in the same way, and every so often when he broke our kiss to say my name, it sounded as reverent as a prayer.

  Since I felt the same way about him, I didn’t understand why he wasn’t taking things further. Then I realized that I had broken up with him a week ago. We were back together now, or at least I thought we were.

  We had confessed our true feelings for each other but despite that, Rylen was waiting for me to set the pace. Once again, he was trying not to push me into something I might not be ready for. The man’s self-control astounded me, but I respected him for it as much as he respected me enough to be patient with me.

  “Make love to me, Rylen,” I whispered, my lips brushing against his.

  He pulled back far enough to look into my eyes, letting out a desperate sounding groan at whatever he saw in them. “Yes.”

  Sitting up on the bed, he took off his own clothes first and then started on mine. It was slow going, his eyes only leaving mine to sweep the length of my body once I was rid of the last item.

  The light ghosting of his hands across my bare skin as he’d removed my clothing, the way he was looking at me like I were a new planet and he were the astronomer who’d discovered it, made my heart swell to proportions that had to be dangerous.

  But that wasn’t the only effect it had. I could feel my heartbeat in my clit, the space between my legs throbbing and pulsing with need. Rylen’s hands made their way up my thighs. His eyes were burning into mine as he pressed a soft kiss at the corner of my mouth. “I love you, Olive.”

  My heart swelled to a bursting point then, doing a happy dance as it pitter-pattered in my chest. I cupped his face between both of my hands and kissed him hard.

  “I love you too.” I wanted to keep telling him over and over again, and I wanted to keep hearing it.

  His lips turned up into a sexy smile and his eyes shone with pure elation. “I don’t think I’m ever going to get tired of hearing that.”

  “Good, because I was just thinking the same thing.”

  A bright smile split his face in half, then his lips came crashing back onto mine, kissing me breathlessly and letting me know exactly how he felt about me. Our bodies became one as we kissed, limbs entwined and frantically touching each other everywhere we could reach.

  Our loving kisses and touches soon turned into something more as both of us chased those high peaks of climax. We found them together, moaning and writhing as we rode them out.

  Lying in Rylen’s arms after felt like finally coming back inside and relaxing in front of a fire after being out in the snow for too long. It felt like I was back where I belonged, and I wanted to stay right there for as long as he would let me.

  “You’re the most caring person I’ve ever met,” I whispered into the darkness of the room. “I mean it, Rylen. What you did for your friends, not many people would have done that.”

  He stroked my hair and planted a soft kiss on top of my head. “Takes one to know one.”

  Shifting and scooting down on the bed so my head was resting on his biceps, he smiled. “I do care, and obviously that was my primary motivation for doing it, but it wasn’t the only one.”

  “What do you mean?” I bent my head forward so the tips of our noses were touching. “What other motivation did you have?”

  “If anything had gone wrong, it might have cost me my career at the very least.” His voice was low, his hand still stroking my hair and my back. It was relaxing, but I wasn’t sleepy at all. I was suddenly wide awake, needing to know the final piece of the puzzle. “In order to compensate for the possibility of that loss, I got paid too.”

  My brows went up. I knew Fulton was a billionaire and I knew he had bankrolled their operation, but how much had it cost him? “How much?”

  Rylen simply smiled. “Enough, baby. Don’t worry about it, okay? I’m not trying to keep it a secret, I’m just not telling you because it doesn’t matter. All you need to know is that we never have to worry. Is that a good enough answer for you?”

  I looked into his eyes in the faint moonlight filtering in through his window, studying what I could see of them before releasing a shallow breath. It had been a long couple of d
ays and honestly, I was on information overload.

  Besides, he was right. It didn’t really matter, not when I had him, and all my friends were safe and happy. That was the important thing. No amount of money could ever be worth knowing that all was well with the people I valued most in the world.

  “That’s a good enough answer for me.” I smiled, bringing my lips to his and giving him a long, lingering kiss. “You’re right. The amount doesn’t matter. I love you, Rylen. That will always be good enough for me.”

  Chapter 39

  Rylen

  One month after that fateful day that Olive came to my house and healed the both of us with those three little words, I looked around the deck at Olive’s beach house and smiled. I never thought I would be here.

  Not at the beach house, I was here all the time now. Every night that Olive didn’t spend at my house, we spent at hers. I just never thought that I would be part of one of those deliriously happy couples who kept exchanging glances even while they were surrounded by all of their friends.

  I was totally that guy now, though. The one who tracked his girl with his eyes and was aware of where she was at all times. The one who couldn’t keep his eyes off her and was simultaneously having a really good time with his friends and wishing that they would all just leave so he could be alone with her.

  Olive smiled at me from where she was sitting on the beach with Valerie. Adam cooed from the carrier in Will’s chest, reminding me that I was actually in the middle of a conversation. “Sorry, what were you saying?”

  Will laughed and clapped me on the back. “Don’t worry about tuning out, dude. It used to happen to me all the time when I looked at Heidi. Coming to think about it, it still happens to me all the time.”

  “Yeah.” Rayce snorted. “He really does do it all the time. It’s like her ass places a spell on him whenever he sees it. You should try fucking living with them. It’s like you’re invisible.”