Page 3 of The Rogue (Four Corners Ranch #11)

couldn’t say he’d taken kindly to that. To his perfect Rue becoming a sexual being. She was like a sister to him, and it had

felt like another thing he wanted to protect her from.

He just hadn’t wanted her to get hurt.

But she hadn’t gotten hurt. Asher and Rue had stayed together. It was definitely hard on her when Asher was gone. But one

thing he admired so much about Rue was that she was levelheaded even when she was falling in love. He’d always heard that

women got a bit loopy over that kind of thing. Hell, he’d seen men do it too. Love, he knew, was one of the single most dangerous

things on earth. It gave one person an extraordinary amount of power over another, and it could create a hell of a lot of

damage.

The way that Rue had managed to get into a relationship, and stay in that relationship, while maintaining her home, her career

and their friendship, had actually shown him something. But then, Rue had always been a window into some foreign, fascinating

thing. She had always been different. Different than what they had been raised in. Different than what they had been surrounded

by. A source of peace.

He had never been able to quiet himself long enough to learn anything in school. But when Rue taught him, he was able to sit

and listen. She broke it down for him in such a way that she made it all feel possible. He wouldn’t even know how to read

if it wasn’t for her. Forget algebra. So, if anybody could do love and marriage and make it all work, keep their sanity and

all of that, he really wasn’t surprised that it was Ruby Matthews.

His phone vibrated, and he looked down. Right on time he had a text from Rue saying that she would be there fairly directly.

He smiled. He didn’t respond. She knew he saw it.

She wouldn’t expect for him to respond directly either. It just wasn’t how they did things.

They began to get dinner on the table—barbecue and all the trimmings, which was a staple of the King family diet. They did

beef. And they did it well. And anything the Kings did well, they did hard. From work to sex.

He liked that about them. They were definitely a better iteration of the family name than their father had been. And to that

he could raise a glass.

Rue appeared a bit later with a craft bag hanging off of her arm, and a folder under her other.

“Hey,” he said, moving to the door and taking everything from her, unburdening her immediately.

“Hi,” she said, smiling.

“Tell me,” Arizona said, sticking her head out of the kitchen, a mischievous grin on her face. “Are you really going to get

my brother to wear a tux?”

“Yes,” said Rue. “Because I’m getting married in a church like a civilized person, and he has to dress like a civilized person.”

“The trouble is,” Micah said, “I’ve never had the impression that he was a civilized person.”

“I’m not,” said Justice.”

Denver chose that moment to join the conversation. “Oh, he sure as hell isn’t. But he will move heaven and earth to make sure

that Rue has the wedding that she wants. He’s not civilized. He’s a damned good friend.”

“That’s the truth,” said Rue.

Rue, for her part, gave him a level of loyalty that he knew few people ever saw.

He often wasn’t quite sure what he had done to merit it.

Yeah, he’d been there for her. He was protective of her.

He cared for her. But in comparison, he was an absolute disaster area.

Walking caution tape. And she was... perfect.

“I will show up and do whatever I’m told to do,” he said. “This is her wedding, and the bride gets whatever she wants.”

“You’re a good man, Justice King,” Arizona said.

“Oh I’m positively great when I’m on loan. But I wouldn’t be any good long-term.”

Rue laughed. “I don’t know. We’re pretty long-term.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yeah,” she said, wrinkling her nose.

That hurt a little bit, but it was fair. Rue was realistic about him. There was nothing wrong with that. She knew him. She

knew him well.

They served up dinner, and sat around the table. And he watched as Rue smiled and interacted with his siblings. Family, maybe.

That was maybe what he offered. Because for all that they had been broken and damaged during their upbringing, the Kings had

done a good job of rallying around each other, and holding each other tight. They had been through hell, in some regards.

Their father had been a pretty high-level narcissist who had done a lot of damage in the community. And had twisted up his

kids all kinds of ways. It was what had given Justice a healthy distrust for love. Because he had watched their father manipulate

how much they had loved him. How much they had wanted to please him. That was when Justice had exited people-pleasing stage

left. It had been clear to him that there was nothing but danger in that. And that was when he decided the life of a hellion

was the one for him.

It was safer. For all involved.

“He looks great in his tux,” Rue said.

That knocked him out of his reverie a bit. She thought he looked great?

“Do I?” he asked, wanting to press more on that.

“You know you do,” she said. “You know you always look good.”

“It’s a tragedy,” Arizona said, shaking her head. “No matter how many times I warned the female populace about him, his powers

are too strong.”

He rolled his eyes. “Listen. We all have to play to our strengths.” The truth was, he knew that he was shaped the kind of

way women liked.

He was good-looking, he supposed.

But more than that—and the real point of pride as far as he was concerned—he was fucking fantastic in bed.

Part of being raised by a sociopath was making a decision about whether or not you were ever going to use people the way he

did.

A man whore—and Justice was a man whore, no doubt—could become a user if he didn’t decide that he wouldn’t be.

Which was why he went out of his way to be the best lay possible. If a woman picked him to be her evening’s entertainment,

then he made sure he gave her a hell of a good time. He wasn’t a selfish lover. He made sure his lovers had orgasms until

they were shaking. Maybe it was a kink. But hell, he knew his limits emotionally, which meant he physically made sure to be

the best anyone ever had.

He made it his mission to rock worlds. It was his version of being a better man.

He might not be able to offer forever, but he compensated for what he couldn’t offer with world shattering pleasure.

They finished dinner, and he walked Rue out to her truck. “I didn’t get a chance to show you all the stuff in the folders.

I’m trying to choose flowers.”

“Oh. Did you want to come back to my place for a bit?”

“No,” she said. “It’s okay. I... Asher ended up getting delayed back at the base. So he isn’t going to be here for a couple

more days. Would you help out?”

“Whatever you need.”

“Well, I need help choosing some things for the bouquet. Not the flowers—I had to have those grown over a year ago, but she

thought that it was a good idea for me to hold off on ribbons and things until closer to the time, so now I have an array

of things to look at. Just fine details. And then, I need to do my final dress fitting with Sue. I was kind of hoping you

would come.”

“You want me at your dress fitting?”

“The final one. To make sure everything’s good to go. In case I lost weight or gained it, or whatever. Obviously most of this

was done a year ago.”

“Obviously,” he said.

There was nothing obvious about that to him. But then, that was Rue. Always prepared. And he couldn’t imagine that she actually

needed his input on anything. But, she did like to double-check a box, and so he knew it was important to her to make sure

that everything was thoroughly managed.

“What time do you need to meet?”

“I need to go to the florist at nine.”

He grimaced.

“Is that okay?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “I just won’t go out tonight.”

Because the truth was, he would do anything for Rue. She was on the path to her perfect life, and he wasn’t going to let anything

mess that up.