The Rules

by Delaney Diamond

  “Don’t worry. I’m over it.”

  “Are you sure? I don’t want to hear about Twiggle and our supposed kiss when I get back.”

  “I said it’s fine!” Terri snapped.

  He muttered something unintelligible, and she strained to hear but couldn’t distinguish any of the words.

  “Fine,” he said. Then he hung up.

  Hung up. Without saying goodbye.

  Terri lifted a hand above her head to fling the phone across the room, but changed her mind and simply tossed it onto the sofa.

  “Fine,” she spat to the empty room.

  Terri bounced up from the chair and went into the kitchen. Minutes later, a pint of chocolate chip ice cream in hand and a two-liter Pepsi wedged under her arm, she dragged herself over to the sofa and plopped down. Flipping on the television, she stared at the screen, cursing herself for nosing around Gavin’s social media account. Now she wished she hadn’t been so curious.

  Screw him, she thought, and settled in for the night.

  ****

  Loud pounding startled Terri from sleep. She bolted upright, frowning and searching the dim room for the source of the racket. Melted ice cream pooled in the container on the coffee table, and an infomercial extolling the virtues of a new and improved diet pill played on the oversized flat screen TV.

  The pounding came again, and she wondered who in the hell had the audacity to pound on her door this time of night. There better be a bomb scare in the hotel.

  She scampered to the door and peered out the peephole. Gavin. His intense stare focused on the door, as if he could see her. A shiver shimmied up her spine.

  “Open the door,” he said.

  “Maybe I have company,” she called out snidely to annoy him.

  “Maybe you want me to break this goddamn door down.”

  Terri unhooked the latch and opened the door, and he lanced her with an icy glare.

  “You think it’s funny to make me wait out here?”

  “I was asleep. I didn’t know you were out here.” In black pants and shirtsleeves rolled up on his muscular forearms, he looked delectable. “Why didn’t you just come in?”

  “I don’t have the key on me, and besides, I told you this is your space. You have to invite me in.”

  He stated those conditions in the beginning, and not once had he ever broken his promise.

  Terri stepped back and widened the door. “Come in.”

  Gavin marched in, tension rippling off the rigid set of his spine. She followed him to the middle of the living room, where he cast a glance at the half-empty bottle of Pepsi and melted ice cream.

  She folded her arms over her yellow cami. “What are you doing here? You aren’t due back until day after tomorrow.”

  “That was the plan, but my woman called me a few hours ago, acting like a damn fool.”

  My woman. When exactly the change took place, Terri couldn’t be sure, but he was hers and she was his.

  “If I’m such a fool, what are you doing here?”

  “To talk to you in person and prove to you there’s nothing going on between me and Twiggle.”

  “How do you plan to do that?”

  “I have a message for you.” Gavin showed her the phone, Twiggle freeze-framed on the screen.

  “What—”

  He turned on the video and the actress spoke in her lilting Irish brogue.

  “Hello Terri, please don’t be mad at Gavin-pooh. He’s a dear, dear friend of mine and was only doing me a huge favor. Helping me save face, actually, after my dreadful ex humiliated me.” Her lips turned downward into an exaggerated sad face. “You don’t need the sordid details. Please don’t be mad at him. For him to ask me to record this message means he must be crazy about you. I would feel terrible if doing me a favor caused him any trouble at all. You have nothing to worry about, love. He adores you, and there is absolutely nothing going on between us. There never was.”

  Terri’s face burned from embarrassment, but she was very pleased, too. “You came all the way here to show that to me?”

  Gavin tucked the phone in his pocket. “Are you satisfied now?”

  She nodded. He made her so weak. Unstable. “You could have just sent me the video.”

  “We both know that wouldn’t have been enough.”

  “So you’re upset with me?”

  Gavin hardly ever expressed anger toward her, but she tested his patience with her tardiness. Last week she rushed out of the bedroom, full of apologies. He waited with crossed arms and mouth pressed together.

  “Next time, I’m leaving your ass,” he warned.

  She sidled up to him and pressed kisses to his lips. He was unmoved, so she grabbed his junk. “You sure about that?” she asked, as he grew in her hand.

  He bit his lip to keep from smiling, but amusement sparked in his eyes.

  “That’s what I thought,” she said and cockily dragged her lips across his mouth. This time, he succumbed to the kiss. Then she took his hand and led the way out.

  “Of course I’m upset. I can’t do this every time,” he said, handsome face hard and unyielding. “You’ll have to trust me. Can you trust me?”

  “Yes,” Terri answered. She licked her lips, imagining sucking on his full bottom lip.

  “You sure?”

  “Mhmm.” The heat of arousal crawled up her thighs. Unable to bear the separation anymore, she pressed against him. “I can’t believe you came all the way back here.” She looked up at him from beneath her lashes. “That’s so hot.”

  His eyes narrowed on her upturned face. “Hot, huh?”

  “Mhmm.” Terri trailed her fingers down his shirt, pressing the tips into the hard muscle. “You have no idea how hot.”

  Gavin’s lids lowered over his eyes. “You drive me out of my mind, you know that?”

  “Mhmm.” She fit a hand over the massive bulge in his pants. His body stiffened, and his nostrils flared.

  “You don’t even know how to behave, do you?” he asked, voice low and hoarse.

  “Nope.”

  He pulled her in until their bodies rested flush against each other. Gazing up at him, lost in his eyes, the helplessness she often experienced flooded her body.

  With him, she was liquid. Putty.

  He kissed her, his mouth gentle and moist as it moved over hers.

  “So you’re not mad anymore?” he murmured against her lips, the light brown of his eyes barely visible through the thin slits his eyes had become.

  “How could I stay mad when you flew all the way back here just to deliver this message?” Terri flicked her tongue against his mouth and nipped his bottom lip. “You knew I was upset and came to fix it.”

  “So how jealous were you?” he asked, sounding smug.

  Pursing her lips, Terri wound her arms around his neck.

  “Hmm?” he dropped a kiss to her pouting mouth.

  “Only a little.”

  “I have to admit, it’s kind of sexy. Women usually let me do whatever I want.”

  “That’s the problem. You’re spoiled.”

  Tightening her arms around his strong neck, Terri raised up on the tips of her toes and opened her mouth. She gave him a deep, thorough kiss—one that made her moan and her breath catch when he cupped her bottom, possessive and rough, and hauled her tighter to his groin.

  Her fingers ran over his closely shorn hair, the faux hawk completely abandoned now, and ventured below his collar to caress the back of his neck. The kiss deepened as their lips tangled together, both of them moaning and tasting. He plucked at her bottom lip with his teeth and she teased his top lip, sucking it into her mouth.

  Their movements became more frantic as Terri smoothed her hands over his hard chest. The muscles underneath the expensive shirt flexed beneath her palms. When he hastily shoved her shorts down around her ankles, she tugged his shirt free of his waistband and slid her arms along the warm flesh of his narrow waist.

  “I want to make love to you bad, baby, but I don
’t have anything.” He breathed the words into her neck, urgency in his hands as he massaged the smooth globes of her bottom and ran his hands over her hips and down her thighs.

  “It’s okay,” Terri said. She yanked the two sides of his shirt apart and three of the buttons popped off. Undoing the last button as she pressed her lips to the expanse of brown flesh revealed, she flicked her tongue and dragged her teeth along his firm pecs.

  Gavin groaned, placed a restraining hand on her shoulder, and eased back. “Give me five minutes and I’ll run—”

  “No,” Terri whined, shaking her head vehemently. She dragged the tank top over her head and tossed it to the floor to stand naked in from of him. “Just pull out. I want you. Now.”

  His breath came faster and irises darkened to vivid copper. He bit down on his bottom lip—simultaneously cute and sexy—wrestling with his decision.

  “I’ll pull out,” he said, sounding like he was trying to convince himself that he could.

  They moved over to the sofa and he disposed of his shirt. Terri arched her back, wrapping her legs around his waist. He pressed his face between her plump breasts and gathered them together, sucking the tips and laving the nipples with moisture from his tongue. She urged him on, moaning until he raised up on his elbows and their gazes met.

  When he eased into her warmth, his eyes closed, the pleasure of entering her raw so unbearably sweet he could hardly stand it. He filled her, thrusting into her wet sex, and she met each forward drive of his hips by lifting hers up to greet him.

  “You’re so sexy, baby. You feel so good.” Terri moaned, rotating her hips against his.

  Gavin stilled, looking deeply into her eyes, in such a way it appeared as if he was seeing her for the first time. “You know why I came back?” he asked.

  Terri’s heart pounded. She couldn’t look away. He’d ensnared her with his gaze.

  “Because I hated that you were upset, and I did want to fix it.” A slow smile crossed his face. “I love you.”

  Terri gasped. Her heart now racing out of control. “Gavin…”

  “I just wanted you to know how I feel. You don’t have to say it back. There’s no doubt in my mind that you care about me.”

  “Gavin…”

  “I love you, baby.” He touched a finger to her cheek, the tenderness in his gaze pulling at her heart. Emotion seized her vocal chords. “I didn’t expect this to happen, but it did. You’re beautiful on the outside and on the inside. You have no idea how rare that is.”

  Terri loved him, too, but the words lay wedged in her throat. She’d fought the emotion tooth, nail, and dagger, determined not to break the most important rule of the new life she created in Seattle. To never fall in love. But he charmed his way into her heart, and how could she not love a man like Gavin? He was a series of lovely, exquisite contradictions. Strong but tender, firm but affectionate, arrogant yet humble. From the first night they met and he decided to pursue her, she never stood a chance against his advances.

  He kissed her neck, gently biting the skin on her collarbone, and Terri closed her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. “Gavin,” she whispered again.

  “I love you, baby,” he said again, offering the words freely, even though she didn’t reciprocate.

  His hips started moving again. His thick length slid in out of the slickness between her thighs.

  “I love you,” Gavin panted, keeping an eye on their joined bodies.

  “Gavin,” she gasped, pressing her cheek against his. Her legs clenched tight around his waist, loathe to allow even the merest distance between them.

  Gripping her bottom, he thrust harder and faster. He pressed her deeper into the sofa, his breaths rough and heavy. He bit into her nipple, and she arched her back at the searing pain. He made her wetter, made her hotter.

  Harder and faster, he drove into her, her cries growing louder with each solid pump of his hips.

  “Oh god,” Terri breathed. She bit his shoulder and gripped his broad back, sinking her nails into his flesh as he rotated his hips and used long deep strokes to drive her out of her mind. His tongue dipped into her mouth, stirring a passionate response that made her hips move faster. He matched her pace and released her mouth to drop kisses along her jaw and down to her neck.

  She gasped his name again and he swore viciously. Their bodies became a tight bundle of thrusting hips and panting breaths.

  Terri came first with a loud cry. Limbs contracting, rough tremors shaking her body as she pulsed around him.

  Gavin placed his hands on her hips and yanked her even closer, digging deeper, knocking his hips against hers fast but with such precision that another orgasm broke from her loins. She shivered, burying her face in his neck, fingers and toes constricting against the tremendous force of ecstasy that hijacked her nerves, her cells, her muscles.

  Above her, Gavin gasped as his body shuddered and emptied, his hand tightening on her hips, his forehead resting on the cushioned pillow beneath her head.

  In the afterglow, spent, his sweat-damp body collapsed atop hers. That’s when Terri realized the mistake they made.

  He hadn’t pulled out.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  “I’ve been thinking about opening a mechanic shop. Been working on a business plan.” Damian’s voice on the phone sounded timid, as though embarrassed or afraid to get his hopes up. “Found a couple of books at the library that were helpful.”

  He loved cars and went to tech school to work on them. He’d done well, too, and apprenticed under another mechanic at one time.

  “I believe in you. I know you can do it,” Terri said.

  “Yeah well, we’ll see.” Damian cleared his throat. “Hey, the money you sent the other day—”

  “Was a gift.” Since she didn’t have to pay rent or utilities anymore thanks to Gavin, Terri took the extra money and put away half for herself and sent the other half to her brother. “You have a wedding to plan, and it’s the least I could do.”

  “You don’t owe me anything. When are you going to forgive yourself for what happened?”

  “It was only a few hundred dollars,” Terri said, but planned to send more next month.

  “Leesh, if you’re—”

  “Don’t worry,” Terri said, recognizing the warning in his voice. “I’m not doing anything stupid. I learned my lesson.”

  “I hope so, because I’m beginning to wonder how a nail tech can afford to send her brother that kind of cash when she has bills of her own.”

  Terri didn’t respond.

  “Are you seeing someone?”

  She remained silent, wavering on how much to share with her brother.

  “You gonna answer me or not?”

  She sighed. “I’m seeing someone, and…I like him.”

  “A lot?”

  “A lot,” she confirmed. “Actually, he told me he loves me, and I love him, too.”

  Damian let out a heavy breath. “Damn, you and this love thing.”

  “He’s different,” Terri assured him.

  “How does he treat you?” her brother asked, skepticism lacing the question.

  “The way you treat Shanae, like I’m special. He opens doors, and he likes taking care of me.” In fact, he asked her to move in with him a couple of days ago. The question surprised but thrilled her, and she told him she’d think about it. She worried about repeating the same mistakes, but Gavin was different. No doubt about it.

  “What about his family?”

  “I met them. I like them, and they like me, too.”

  Boating season started in May, and she’d joined the Johnson clan on their yacht during the Seattle Yacht Club’s Opening Day Parade. The boat was crowded with the entire immediate family, a few cousins, and friends, standing out on the deck and waving to people on the shoreline during the parade of boats. Gavin participated in the sailboat race, and he and his crew had won first place. She looked forward to the Fourth of July party where they went out on the boat again, ate, dr
ank, and enjoyed the fireworks.

  She’d participated in several outings to restaurants where the extended family, including spouses and girlfriends, dined in private rooms. Friends sometimes joined them, but for the most part, they seemed more inclined to spend time with each other.

  She’d even had an occasion to wear the ruby necklace Gavin gave her, during a charity event she attended as his date. When she saw the satisfaction on his face, she was happy she hadn’t done something foolish like pawn it to get money when she lost everything in the fire. She apologized profusely for not wearing it before. He seemed to get such pleasure from taking care of her, and what woman in her right mind didn’t like getting spoiled by her man—even a little bit.

  There always seemed to be some local engagement the Johnsons, or at least a representative from the family, must attend. Terri had become lax about being seen at public events with Gavin, but she restricted the appearances to local ones, managed to stay out of most publicity shots, and insisted Gavin not share her image on social media.

  During evenings out with the family, she noticed the eldest brother, Cyrus, had warmed to her, and was much more polite than the first time she met him. Last time they all went out, his wife shared pictures of the new house they bought in Spain. While Cyrus smiled indulgently at her, Daniella complained about the task of having to decorate their new home long-distance, at which point Constance recommended a decorator in France she had worked with.

  It was very interesting to watch them have these conversations, talking as casually as someone like her would mention needing to find a pair of shoes to match a new outfit. Charity events, interior decorators, and vacation homes was their normal, and she had an insider’s view into that lifestyle.

  “Does your new guy know everything?” Damian asked.

  Terri hung her head and stared at her sandaled feet propped on the coffee table, toenails painted in a creamy beige this week. “No.”

  Her brother grunted. “When are you going to tell him?”

  “I don’t know,” Terri snapped. “Why are you badgering me?”

  “Because I don’t want to see you get hurt. Is this great, wonderful man who’s so in love with you going to understand everything about you and your past?”