Rule Number Four (Rule Breakers Book 4)

by Nicky Shanks

  Oh, fuck. She’s going to say something to give my ego a super orgasm and I’m gonna lose control. I can’t take her right now, not when I’m obsessed with what she’s keeping from me. She’s good, though; Julie’s learned—and mastered—the art of seducing Oliver Jackson to the point of paralysis.

  “Oliver, are you okay?” Her small hand touches my forehead.

  It’s just a small touch. Breathe, Oliver. No matter how good her skin feels on yours.

  “I’m fine. Do I know what about myself?” I lean into her touch.

  She knows what I’m doing but doesn’t stop stroking my forehead. I can’t fucking help it; when she touches me I just know that I’m…home. “That you’re smart and resourceful. Plus, you’re strong-willed and direct, which are two traits I’ve learned to love about you. It’s sexy and exciting the way you take charge of things sometimes.” She doesn’t blush or put her head back down. “You’re a good person, Oliver Frankford Jackson.”

  Her wink nearly sends me over the edge.

  “Julie…” I grunt and move my leg so she’ll sit up on her own, and I won’t have to touch her and risk losing the millimeter of control I have left. “You’re the only person in my life who sees me that way. I think you’re looking at me with rose-colored glasses. I’m a fucking mess—”

  Her lips press against mine and everything in my mind dies.

  “I believe in you enough for the both of us,” she whispers, sliding her body into my lap, facing me. “You’re going to do big things, you’ll see.”

  I snort. “Isn’t that from a movie?”

  She shrugs and giggles. “Who knows, maybe. I watched a lot of late night TV at Randy’s when I was staying there.” She licks her lips and I reach up to graze my thumb over them. A fire blazes in my stomach when she whimpers at my touch; she wants me to take her as much as I want to have her.

  “I love you, sunshine.” My mouth moves and words fall out. “You’re the best part of me.”

  “I can’t take credit for something that was already there.” Her lips find mine again and they tuck themselves into a soft kiss. I let her body and soul melt into mine; it’s something I find myself craving hardcore each and every minute of each and every damn day. My hands slide up her back and my fingers find her jaw, gently holding her in place so I can devour her lips completely.

  Her hands find my thighs and she rests them behind her to steady her body, making her mouthwatering C-cups graze against my chest.

  I have to stop this. Now.

  “Julie.” My lips move against hers. “Hey, let’s slow down.”

  She frowns and frantically jumps off of me, pulling up my shirt to look at the scar where my car accident stitches were. When she doesn’t see blood, her eyebrows furrow and she glances down at my wounded knee.

  “I’m fine.” I laugh and wave her off. “You weren’t hurting me. I just think we should slow down for tonight. You had a long day and if we start this, it’s going to be a long night and we won’t get to do anything for the new house.”

  She isn’t buying it.

  Fuck, she sees right through me.

  No, wait.

  She tugs her clothes around her and hides her eyes.

  Shit. She thinks I don’t want her.

  “Oh, Julie.” I brush her hair back from her eyes and tip her head up. “Trust me, it’s not because I don’t want you. It’s because I want you too much, baby. Come here.” I pull her back onto my chest and her arms snake around my body. “It’s hard for me to resist you most of the time, sunshine, it really is. I just think we have some things to talk about before we keep pretending that nothing is wrong.”

  Her body tenses and she pulls away from me. “What do you mean?”

  Hoping she can see the look in my eye and automatically know what I’m thinking about doesn’t work out for me. It makes her withdrawn and angry that I’m stalling so she can fess up about her marriage to Brandon before I say something.

  And it’s on the tip of my fucking tongue.

  “I mean, I think you’re hiding something from me and I want you to come clean,” I blurt out and I’m surprised that I don’t regret it. “I just want you to be honest with me.”

  She groans and crosses her arms over her chest. “Oh, okay. So…what? Brandon’s boss already called you, then? I’m sure he had a lot to say. Did you know that he also threatened me and tried to blackmail me?”

  What the fuck? There’s obviously more that’s happened since I found out about this, so I make the wrong decision to play along instead of coming clean myself. “Why did he threaten you? What did he say?” I make this my main focus because no one fucking threatens her.

  “He said he would tell you about the divorce if I said anything to you about what happened today and had you cut ties with him.”

  I nod like I know what she’s talking about. “And did you ask me?”

  “No.”

  “Why didn’t you ask me, Julie?”

  She throws her arms into the air. “Why would I? It’s not like you would do that just for Brandon. Oliver, you weren’t there. You don’t know what happened, but I know you wouldn’t help him because of why we were there.”

  “And why were you there? And where is there?”

  She scoffs. “At the courthouse or the restaurant?” Two seconds after she finishes her sentence, she realizes that I have no idea what she’s talking about. She knows she’s said too much to stop now and I have a million questions, so she places her anger on me instead of the situation and it doesn’t fucking feel good at all.

  “You know.” Her eyes narrow at me. “You know everything.”

  I can’t pretend anymore no matter what happens next.

  “Before you storm out and leave me, hear me out.” I take her hand and hold it in mine. “Please just try and understand why I didn’t say anything.”

  “You let me go through this alone!” She wipes away a few tears streaming down her face. “You let me worry about you finding out and what you’d do to Brandon when you knew all along? What’s wrong with you?” Her breath is raspy and she’s trying hard to calm it down. “I can’t believe you would do this, Oliver. Not after all the fuck-ups you’ve already had—”

  “Whoa, what the fuck? How did this become my fault?”

  She lets go of my hand and stands up. “It’s not. This is my fault for not telling you. I’m just sorry that you felt you had to keep it from me like you don’t trust that I could take care of something like this and had to wait in the background to clean up my mess again.”

  “Julie…” I stand up and catch her arm before she storms off. “It wasn’t like that.”

  “Then what was it like?” she screeches and turns to face me. I’m waiting for her to clock me in the jaw but it never happens. “Poor little Julie, can’t make decisions for herself; she can’t live life properly, so let’s walk two steps behind her and shield her from the world?”

  “You’re being irrational, just calm down.”

  The glare she gives me breaks my damn heart.

  “Fine, you want to know where I was today?” Her voice calms down so much it’s eerie. “I was with Brandon getting a divorce. He got me drunk a few years ago and took me to a twenty-four-hour chapel, I signed the paperwork, and we got married. I never remembered and I never knew, so imagine my surprise when I found out and didn’t think you’d want me when I wasn’t available.”

  As the last piece of my heart breaks, hers does too.

  “There isn’t going to be a time where I don’t want you,” I say flatly. “Ever.”

  “I was embarrassed to tell you.” Her voice shakes. “I didn’t want you to think less of me because of how it happened, and I didn’t mean to keep it from you for so long.”

  She lets me walk to her without running away. “Oh, baby.” I tuck her body into mine and she starts sobbing into my chest. “It hurts me to know that you think you can’t come to me with anything.” I rub her back and let her continue to cry. “I’m here
for you…with anything. You’re my best friend, Julie—there’s nothing you can say to me to make me turn my back on you.”

  “I’m sorry.” She sniffles and wipes her eyes. “I should’ve said something.”

  I smile and wipe the remaining wetness from the corner of her eye. “I’m not happy that you didn’t, but I understand why you didn’t. That’s why I didn’t tell you that I knew. I trust you to make your own decisions, sunshine, no matter what you think. You’re not hopeless or stupid; you’re actually the best person I’ve ever met.”

  “Don’t say things like that.”

  I pick her up and hold her in my arms, her small feet dangling in the air. “Oh, but it’s true.” She lets me kiss her before putting her back down. “We all have our secrets. I’ve been keeping one too.”

  I have to try and make this up to her. She can’t be the only one getting caught in lies around here.

  “Before we met Lucy, she came home with me.”

  The air is cold when Julie processes that information. “What do you mean?”

  I take a deep breath and act like it’s not a big deal. “I mean, when we fought about you being late a few months ago and you left me—or at least I thought you left me—I met Harley down at The Tavern. I met Lucy and I was already drunk and I brought her home with me.”

  She removes herself from my grasp. “You did what?”

  “We didn’t do anything; I was drunk and I kept talking about you the entire time. She slept in the bed and I slept on the couch because Veronica and Mac showed up and she was too scared to leave.”

  Her eyes get so wide I think they’re going to pop out of her skull.

  She turns and leaves the apartment without grabbing her bag, her keys, or saying a single word.

  When I come to my senses, I follow her but she’s already gone.

  She’s gone.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Julie

  I don’t know where I’m going but I know that Oliver isn’t following me. Why would he? Of course he hid the fact that he brought another girl home when he knows I’m holding a secret myself. What is wrong with us? I don’t have my phone or my bag with the car keys, so I’m left walking alongside the road toward Rita’s Boutique just in case Lucy is working tonight.

  I want to hear it from her.

  How can she be friendly with me and keep this to herself?

  After a few long blocks of cooling off, I realize I left the apartment without a coat and it’s about thirty degrees outside. I can’t shake the feeling of someone watching me, but that’s normal for who I am and what’s happened to me lately. It saddens me that Oliver didn’t follow me and beg me to come back inside, but no matter how much I wanted him to…I didn’t want him to even more.

  “Julie?” a familiar voice wafts into my mind. “Hey…Julie!”

  A rough hand grabs me and the last three months flash inside my mind like a flipbook of memories; before I know it, I’m swinging my body around and my fist meets someone’s face.

  He groans and whimpers away. “Fuck, Julie, what’d you do that for?”

  Casey.

  I blow out the remainder of air in my lungs and fall to my knees. He forgets about his jaw that I just sucker punched and catches me before I can completely hit the ground. I know he’s talking to me but I’m shivering so badly that all I can do is let him pick me up and take me to his car.

  The warmth of the running heater slowly brings me back to life as we sit in a dark parking lot and he frets over me. His sandy blond hair glistens from the faraway streetlight, but I can see the worry in his eyes better than anything.

  I clear my throat and make eye contact with him. “I’m sorry I punched you.”

  He laughs and turns on the overhead light so he can see better. “Well, you owed me one.”

  Casey wants me to laugh, but I need to focus on Oliver and getting back home. “Can you take me back to Oliver’s apartment?” I buckle my seat belt and look forward. “I left without my phone; he’s probably worried.”

  Without hesitation, he puts the car in reverse and pulls back onto the main road. We aren’t far from Oliver’s apartment, but it seems like forever until we pull into the parking garage.

  “Thanks,” I mumble and put my hand on the doorknob.

  “Hey, hold it.” He locks the doors and a bolt of panic swells in my stomach. “What were you doing walking out there in the cold? Did you guys have a fight?”

  I scoff, playing it off. “I went for a walk and he wasn’t even home.” I’m a horrible liar, but Casey, thankfully, doesn’t know this yet. “I locked myself out and didn’t have my phone so I went for another walk.”

  Crap.

  His eyebrows rise. “In the cold?”

  I nod.

  “Without a coat, your keys, or your phone?”

  “Yeah. All of that.” I smile sweetly. “Well, thanks for the ride. I’m sure Oliver’s back now—”

  Casey takes out his phone and dials a number. “Let’s just make sure before I let you go off alone without a way to get inside, yeah? I’m sure he’d be pretty pissed if I let you do that.”

  He’s already going to be pissed knowing I’m in the car with you.

  “Hey, are you home?” Casey says into the phone. “Well, Julie is with me and she says she can’t get into the apartment. I didn’t want to leave her alone without knowing she’s safe. Did you guys have a fight?…Oh, I see. Okay, I’ll tell her.”

  He hangs up the phone and my stomach does flip-flops.

  “Oliver says he doesn’t want to see you.”

  The tone of his voice scares me so badly that I instantly reach for the door handle, but he’s locked me inside. He doesn’t reach for me as I struggle to open the door, but when our eyes meet…he looks emotionless and dead inside.

  “I guess you’ll just have to go home with me,” he says and puts the car in reverse.

  “Casey, don’t do this,” I plead with him. “Let me out.”

  He doesn’t unlock the doors, but he hits the brake and brings the car to a stop again. “Oliver said he didn’t want you and I want you—what’s the problem?”

  I know I should be scared; I’m more pissed than anything that this is happening a second time. A growl escapes my throat and he flinches, prepared for a fight. “What is it about me that makes people think they can just kidnap me? Let me out of here this instant!” I scream and kick the dashboard. “Casey Anderson, you let me out of here right now!”

  “I can’t do that!” he screams back at me, and it echoes so loud in the car I have to cover my ears. “You won’t see me otherwise! I tried, Julie…I tried really fucking hard to make you see what a bad fucking guy Oliver is, but you just won’t listen. So, I have to make you listen.” His voice goes low and it’s barely above a whisper. “I can’t let him keep putting you in danger.”

  “What do you mean? He isn’t putting me in danger!”

  “Yes, he is,” he says calmly. “Letting you walk the streets at night without a phone or a way to defend yourself is putting you in danger.”

  “And you’d lock me inside an apartment, never letting me out?”

  The look in his eyes sends a shiver down my spine.

  “Casey, let me out. Please, let me out. That’s not the life I want…doesn’t that matter to you?”

  “Of course it does.” He turns to fully face me. “We can move away where you can be free again.”

  “Move away?”

  This time, he doesn’t say anything and he starts to put the car back into drive. The panic that’s set into my bones has numbed and I’m ready to figure this out. I have to get the hell out of this car before he gets out of the parking garage or I may never have a chance.

  “Can I at least go and get some of my things?” I ask, quickly, before he hits the gas.

  “What kind of things?”

  Think, Julie! Think!

  “Some of my childhood things; they’re sentimental and I don’t want to lose them.”

&nbs
p; He thinks for a few seconds and pulls the car back into the parking spot. First, I think he’s actually going to let me go upstairs alone, but he gets out of the car and pulls me out with such force I know there’ll be a bruise where his fingers are gripping my flesh.

  “I can go alone, you know.” He pushes me into the elevator and there isn’t a guard at the desk right now. Casey takes a mental note of this and pushes the floor of Oliver’s apartment, letting the doors shut in front of us.

  “I’m not stupid—I’m not letting you go up here alone. You’re coming with me, Julie, don’t forget that. You have five minutes to grab what you can and come with me.”

  “Is there an ‘or else’?”

  He nods and the elevator dings. I can see Oliver’s apartment door from here. I think about screaming out for him, but the grip that Casey has on me warns me not to. During the short walk to the door, I hope that he’s left the apartment to look for me.

  “Wait, we can’t get in…I forgot I don’t have my keys.” I turn to leave the hallway, but he shakes a silver key in front of my face.

  “I have one.”

  He starts to unlock the door when we hear laughing coming from Mrs. Atchley’s apartment and it breaks his concentration on me. I’m able to wriggle free of his grasp and make a break for it, but he catches me against the wall near her apartment, accidentally slamming my head against the wall too hard. Things start to get fuzzy. I can’t fight him now; my limbs are like putty in his hands.

  “What are you doin’ out here with her, boy?” Mrs. Atchley’s scratchy voice booms when the door opens. “I suggest you put here down right this minute.”

  “Go back inside, old woman,” Casey snarls, “this isn’t your fucking business.”

  She takes a step forward and looks at me with sad eyes. He pulls me backward into him and I’m able to focus a little better. I think my eyes are playing tricks on me when Veronica steps out of the open apartment door and snarls at Casey when she sees what he’s doing.

  “What the fuck is this?” Veronica scolds him. “Boy, you better let her go. This isn’t the way.”

  “It’s my way!” he yells, pulling me backward toward Oliver’s door. “Don’t follow us or I promise you that you’ll never see either of us again.”