Rules of the Game (Rule Breaker, #2)

by Jessa Wilder

“I thought she wasn’t supposed to date the same guy twice.” Jax choked on a laugh. “Did you really think she was participating in the Hunt?” I didn’t think of it at all for the sake of my sanity. “I’m guessing she’s not?” He looked back at the flag, keeping his voice low. “Not a fucking chance.”

“So, she likes this guy?” “Looks like it.” Jax glanced my way, his mouth in a flat line. “It’s not too late.” “Yeah, it is.” Self-loathing burned in my chest. This was exactly what needed to happen, but I fucking hated it.

Piper’s date leaned down to say something to her, and she smiled up at him. The sight of them was a gut punch that had my ribs caving into my lungs.

She threw her head back in a laugh that I couldn’t hear, but I knew exactly what it sounded like, and it was like bands were tightening around my chest each time she spoke to him.

This was my future. A million tiny knives cut me as I watched my girl with another guy. I took steadying breaths, but each one came out harder than the other. I couldn’t fucking do this. The buzzer rang, ending the period, and I busted out of the penalty box but...

She smiled at me, but it melted off her face when I banged on the glass and pointed at the board. “Open the door.” Piper’s eyes rounded, and she took a tentative step toward the metal handle on her side of...

I was a bastard. I wasn’t fucking ready for her to move on.

“What’s going on?” Piper stepped in front of me, but I bypassed her in two steps and glared down at the guy she was with. “You don’t fucking deserve her.”

“You don’t even know her. But I do. I know what cereal she likes, that her favorite movie is Pride and Prejudice, her favorite song is the ten-minute version of ‘All Too Well.’ I have spent my entire life loving her, and it’ll be a cold fucking day before some asshole brings her to my game.”

“You’re an asshole, you know that? You had the perfect girl, and you left her, and now you pull this shit?” He pushed past me and followed her out.

I turned to leave, but Misty stood in front of the door to the ice. “You need to do better. She needs you to do better.” I swallowed hard. “I don’t know how.” She placed her hands on her hips, blocking me. “She loves you.”

“Either claim her, or let her the fuck go.” “What are you, her keeper?” I hissed. River lowered his voice so only I could hear. “One of us needs to protect her.”

“You had no right to speak to Eric like that.” “Like fuck I don’t,” I growled, the anger from earlier reigniting under my skin.

“You abandoned me.” Her fists rained down, but I couldn’t feel it through the pain in her eyes. Her chin trembled as she yelled at me. “You can’t say things you don’t mean just because you think I’ve found someone else!”

I wrapped an arm around her, pulling her into my chest, and pinned her arms between us. “I fucking meant it, Piper.” “You. Left. Me.” Her chest rose and fell with her labored breaths, and her lips wobbled. Piper trembled in my hold, and I ran my thumb along her cheekbone, stroking her hair from her face. “Babe, I could never stop loving you.”

“I lost my mind when you showed up with him.”

“I wasn’t with him. He was on a date with someone else. I went with Misty.”

“I’m going to come if you keep doing that, and I need to taste you first.”

“You’re so fucking perfect.”

I was going to come from eating her out, and I didn’t fucking care.

She pushed my head down until I couldn’t breathe, and I’d die fucking happy.

“I killed your brother.”

“Marcus caught me leaving the guest room that night.” Her chest visibly caved. “What?” “We fought. It was bad.”

“He got in the accident because he was angry at me and not paying attention. It’s my fault.”

“That’s why you stopped talking to me? That’s why you cut me out of your life?” She stepped forward and palmed the side of my face, running her thumb under my eye.

“You didn’t kill Marcus.” My ribs tightened over my chest, but I couldn’t let her deny it. “I did. I’m the reason he got into an accident.”

“I was talking to him on the phone when he crashed. I was explaining that I loved you.” Tears overflowed and wet her lashes. “Do you think I killed my brother?”

Like a knife to the gut, my stomach wrenched because I’d done anything but take care of her this past year.

“I thought you’d hate me, and I’d never survive it.”

it felt like I could take my first breath in a year as hope filled my veins. I didn’t kill her ...

Piper placed her hand over my heart. “I could never hate you. I’ve loved you since I was seven.” She gripped my shirt, pulling, and her lip trembled. “You told me you didn’t want me. You made me think I was just a part of some stupid game.” “I’ve always wa...

“How can you say that after abandoning me?” “Because there’s never been anyone else.” I guided a loose strand of her hair b...

She stepped back, mouth dropping open. “Since when?” “Two years ago.” Tears streaked her blotchy cheeks, and her face crumpled inward. “You decided I wouldn’t forgive you. You decided we were over. You decided it was your fault, and you let me go.” I searched her eyes, and realization sank in. I ...

“Oh, you two look close.” Jax rubbed his hands together, practically giddy, and crossed to the opposite side of the island. “Lucas finally get his head out of his ass?” “Fuck off” was Lucas’s reply before going back to his cereal.

I shifted in my seat, suddenly not hungry, when strong fingers laced with mine. “What’s wrong?” Lucas questioned, searching my gaze. My vision caught on our connected hands, then went straight to Jax. “Fucking finally.” He gave us a lopsided smile before shoveling cereal into his mouth. Tension flooded out of me, and I leaned into Lucas, who kissed my temple before nudging me to eat my breakfast. Everything about this was surreal.

What if I left and he changed his mind?

Lucas leaned in and placed a soft kiss to the side of my mouth. “I’ll see you tonight.” I nodded and sighed. He seemed to know exactly what was going on in my neurotic brain. “What’s tonight?” He cupped the side of my cheek and guided my chin up. “Night one of me proving to you just how much you mean to me.” “You don’t have to—” He took my lips in a long, slow kiss. “I want to.”

“Have I told you the absolute chokehold these dresses have on me? I’m pretty sure my self-restraint from not pinning you to every surface has taken years off my life.”

“I missed you.” “You just saw me.” “You seem to think that matters.”

“How did you remember this is my favorite?” Lucas met me with serious eyes. “I remember everything about you.”

Pride and Prejudice was loaded up, and I made a happy squeal sound that would have made Misty proud. I raised a brow at him. “You hate this movie.” “You love it,” he said matter-of-factly and hit Play.

“Watch the movie,” he rasped in a low command, and a shiver trickled down my spine, sending goose bumps erupting over my skin. I settled back and rested my head on his shoulder. “You’re distracting.” Lucas kissed my temple, and I could feel his smile. “Good.”

“You smell like green apples.” “It’s my bodywash.” “I know. I bought the same kind because it drove me crazy missing it.”

“I’d use it to jack off in the shower. Fuck, you have no idea the hold you have over me. The things I would do for you.”

“What’s got you distracted?” “You,” I breathed out, struggling to pull air into my lungs. My skin burned with the need to feel him everywhere. “Best fucking answer.”

“Breathe. I’ll make you feel good.”

He widened his legs, giving me space. “Open.”

“What about you?” I asked. “Not until this is real. Not until you completely trust me.”

She seemed to want everything to be okay between us, and I was so fucking thankful for that. But I’d really fucked up. I left her when she needed me, and if I wanted what I knew we could be together, then I needed to show her unequivocally that I never stopped loving her.

Piper reached for her bag when we got out of the dorm, and I swung it out of the way. “Not a chance, babe.” I leaned down and took her mouth with mine until she pressed both hands against my chest and her breath came out in shallow pants. “I’ve wanted to carry your backpack since we were seven. You think I’m giving up the chance now?”