The Rule Book

by Sarah Adams

She is sunshine parting the clouds in my miserable day, and it makes me angrier.

Jeez, I’m tired of acting like an overbearing dick. I really thought she’d have quit by now. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.

“Nora…please tell me that you did not take the endorsement deal with the suit designer?” “I could tell you that, but since I subscribe to the idea that honesty is the best

sassy bubble butt

Her beautiful ass became my calendar, and—yeah, that’s not something I should be thinking about anymore.

Don’t let her smile fool you, she’s covered in yellow daisies but she’s dangerous as hell.

“And number two, I’ve been instructed to tell you by the guys that if you resist, they will tell me about the thing they found in your bedside table a few months ago.”

“Derek, you’re the biggest dipshit I’ve ever met if you thought we wouldn’t use this against you. Get your ass on that plane or I’ll tell her what we found.”

it’s that men are not worth pinning your future happiness on.

“It might have stopped hurting sooner if I’d known.” This time, I feel the hit.

There’s an invisible string tied from his lips to mine and it’s tugging hard. The pull is almost too much to withstand, so I inch closer.

Neither of us moves away—and when I feel that familiar glimmer between us pull taut, I’m struck with the realization that I never want to be separated from Derek again. I want him to touch me. To put his hands on my hips and tug me to him until there’s zero separation between us. My body is craving a pressure that only he can satisfy.

I’m living off hopes and dreams and coffee and I’m sure there’s a slightly rabid look in my eyes, but I don’t even care.

“Yes—I’ve eaten about four thousand milligrams of caffeine, and I’ve gained spidey-senses. It’s great, everything is swirling and tingling around me.”

“Listen to me, rookie. We’re not going anywhere until you eat something.” He sets down my backpack and I slump. “Do you have any eggs in your fridge?”

“I’m making you eggs, you’re going to eat them, and then we’re going to go to the airport and you’re going to sleep the entire flight. I mean it, Nora, if I even see a sliver of your green eyes, I’m going to call it all off, understand?”

“Nora.” Derek turns and levels me with a look so full of memory and emotion that my knees nearly buckle.

Do I hate her? I hate that when your mouth curves into a smile, I can’t kiss it. I hate that you hold my heart in a vise grip and you have no idea. I hate that I’ve never been able to move on from you—not for a single day. I hate that if I were to tell you all of this, you’d leave, and I’d be left vulnerable and bleeding out at the bar.

His hand moves around me to clasp mine, and in the process, his warm bare chest presses against me.

I hold my hand up between us and he does the same with his. We stare at each other’s ring fingers.

“It’s possible…” he begins with a measured calm, “…that we got married last night.”

“A tattoo,” I say in a faint whisper. “We…got tattoo wedding rings?”

“You don’t understand what it’s like, Derek. I’ve—I’ve worked so hard to prove myself over the past two years. Including going by a name that I hate because you get further in this industry when other men think I’m one of the guys over email.”

“You were fully clothed, but your tongue was down his throat and you two were holding up your ring fingers like middle fingers. A very screw-you-we’re-in-love photo. Epic…but…” “Trashy.”

And then like a ghost, I slip out of my skin long enough to stare at this sad lump of a person and judge her for not having the decency to remember what I’m sure was a damn good French kiss with Derek. Life is deeply unfair.

“You’re the only other person in this toxic office who understands what we’re up against. I can’t lose you or I’ll have to quit too. So fix it.”

“You’re a good friend, Nicole.”

This hug is like coming home from a long trip and finally drinking coffee from your favorite mug. Curling up in that plush blanket you’ve been dreaming about for days.

“You’re not getting fired—and if you think for one damn second I’m going to let you get your fingers cut cleaning up my mess, you don’t know me at all. Lift your arms.”

“I should never have assumed that I wouldn’t immediately fall in love with Nora all over the second I saw her again. I should have been open with Nicole and the agency in anticipation of needing to spend the rest of my life with this woman.”

My mind is stuck back there where Nora stared at my mouth like it was something wonderful that belonged to her.

Nora is all beautiful curves, strong-looking legs, and soft pale skin that I’m trying with all my respect not to notice but failing miserably. Especially when I’m able to remember—hazy as it is—what all that soft skin felt like under my fingertips.

And now I know I’m no better than the dude in the elevator because I want to take Nora’s hips in my hands and pin her back against this hotel door, and kiss her until our mouths are bruised. But of course I won’t unless she asks me to.

And then I’d somehow wake up pregnant and there’s no way I’d be able to birth one of Derek’s monstrous babies; therefore, I will claim the couch.

“You mean sixty—” “Don’t finish that sentence,” he warns, and the serious note to his voice has me thinking maybe he’s not so unaffected after all.

“I’ve started drinking chamomile tea at night, Nora. And I like it.” He says this like a confession of murder. “It’s been a weird couple of months for me.”

“I’m happy for you, Nora. You’re good at what you do. And I’m glad you didn’t give up on your dream.”

“Same goes for you. I screamed so loud when they called your name in the first round of the draft.” My smile fades when Derek’s eyes sharpen on me. I realize my mistake instantly.

“You watched for me in t...

“You’re always loony, Nora.” But there’s unmistakable affection in his voice that warms me up like a cup of sweet hot chocolate.

“I noticed you still wear your days-of-the-week panties.”

“No one loves their woman more than I love Bree.”

“Woo her? What are you, an eighty-year-old grandma?” “Woo is a good word. You’re not trying to seduce her. Wooing insinuates you’re trying to get to her heart, not just her body.”

I slide my eyes to Derek and…he winks at me. Holy Mother of Harry Styles.

I smell his deodorant and it makes me want to lick his bicep. I’m unhinged.

“Two is worse because it’s so specific. Two means you really knew them—and you can most likely still remember them perfectly.”

“Please, Ginger Snap, will you tell me the names of the guys you dated?”

It’s now that I realize the shape he’s been drawing on my palm is a heart. Over and over again. Just like he used to.

“Because if you’d stayed—you would have seen the truth of just how not over you I really was. How not over you I…” He stops himself. “You what, Derek?” Say it. Whatever it is, say it!

Because without you, I was lost.”