Page 53 of Unspoken Rules (Rules 2)

“He’s not my boyfriend.” I take a long sip of water, hoping that the wait will make him change the topic. It hurts to say the words. No, he’s not my boyfriend. He’s not my boyfriend because he wants the sex but not the title.

“Oh, I’m sorry. My bad. It’s just…” He pauses, obviously uncomfortable. “Your neck.”

Shit.

It comes back to me. Haze gave me the biggest hickey of all time yesterday. It slipped my mind the second his fingers slid under my underwear. He got away with it. I can’t believe it.

I bring my hand to my neck, my eyes widening. I’m going to kill him when he comes back from wherever he went tonight. Then, I guess I’ll call Kendrick and leave the lake house. What else is left for me to do? Stick around to let him break my heart even more? I can’t be just another Bianca to him. I won’t.

“It’s complicated,” I say q

uietly.

“Well, if that makes you feel any better, I’m sure he doesn’t know what he’s missing.”

Oh, he kind of does, actually.

Because my stupid ass let him into my pants.

I’m so thankful that I didn’t go all the way. I would’ve felt awful if he’d told me he didn’t want a relationship after we’d slept together.

When he sees that I don’t intend to answer, Ryder takes the hint that I don’t want to talk about it.

“What are you doing here alone anyway?”

“Power’s still out where I’m staying, so I thought I’d spend the day in town.”

The waitress brings us our meals and bats her eyelashes at Ryder, who also doesn’t seem to notice. Maybe it’s just a female thing, and I’m the only one who sees what she does. Maybe Haze really didn’t have a clue last time.

“Well, there’s a fair in a nearby town, and I have two free passes, if you’re interested.” He gets two tickets out of his pocket.

“They have power?”

“The storm went right by them. Lucky bastards.”

“What’s to say you’re not a dangerous killer who wants to kidnap me?”

“I’m not, I swear.” He puts his hands up. “But I get that this is what every serial killer says, so we can get a cab there if that makes you feel better. It’s on me.” He grins.

“Don’t you want to use the passes on friends and family?”

“My friends are back home. I’ve been here visiting my grandparents for a while now, but I’m not sure Grandma would enjoy the monster roller coasters.”

I let out a small laugh and glance at my phone. I have no new messages from Haze. He obviously doesn’t care that I didn’t answer his previous one. The pain burdens my heart, and the words come out before I can think about it.

“Sure. Why not?”

Haze

The rumble of my car is all I can hear when I pull into Vic’s parking lot. I glance up at the large apartment complex building ahead of me and stop in the visitor spot. I don’t know why I’m here. And by here, I don’t mean at Vic’s place.

I mean, in this fucking town.

I shouldn’t have brought Winter here in the first place. I think I always knew, deep down, that eventually I couldn’t contain myself anymore and it would come to this. Of course she would end up wanting a relationship. Any other scenarios I fed myself before that were bullshit. Why does she need the damn title? It’s like she needs to put us into a cage.

I push the gear to park, kill the engine, and get out of the car with the memory of her body convulsing in pleasure intoxicating me. I can’t stop thinking about how insanely sexy she looked. I can still feel my fingers squeezing their way inside her. She says that she’s not a virgin, but just by the way she felt and how her innocent brown eyes widened at my touch… I’d be surprised if she’d had more than one guy.

And I know I’m an asshole who doesn’t deserve her, but I really, really, really… want to be number two.