Page 55 of The Rules

“So not have sex?”

“Of course have sex.” His face fell. “I mean, if you want to. But the other stuff too.”

The other stuff.They’d been doing a lot of that lately. Without realizing it, they’d been breaking rule after rule, and breaking them was a lot more fun than keeping them. It was all fine and good until her belly started flipping and her heart fluttering.

She didn’t appreciate those little knee-jerk reactions from her other organs. She was doing just fine. She had it under control. Whatever that stupid little fit was over Cass was a fluke.

Dylan was a fun time. He was a summer night, and she had this overwhelming feeling that fall was setting in her life and she was so afraid to end up alone when the air cooled and that beach bonfire went out. And that’s all it was, the fluttering she kept getting. Like Dylan’s chemical reaction spiel, that’s all it was. Loneliness and proximity conspiring to trick her into seeing something that wasn’t there.

And yet, she wasn’t going to leave. She was going to let herself sleep in Dylan’s bed and she was going to warm herself with his fire, and she certainly wasn’t going to think about the way he’d accused her of being jealous of Cassidy.

Or how painfully, devastatingly jealous she’d been of Cassidy.

Dylan’s lips turned up in that Good Boy grin, eyes like emeralds. His hair was flat from the baseball cap he’d been wearing. She ran her fingers through it, spiking it back up, and his eyes slipped closed, the weight of his head settling in her palm.

He pressed his lips to her wrist. “Stay with me tonight.”

She closed her eyes too, shutting out the feeling of free fall that had come over her in favor of soaking in that tiny touch of lips on skin. “Okay, Dylan.”

Twenty-one

Dylan: I left my tie at your place last weekend. When you’re done smelling it before bed, can I have it back?

Dani: Ha. Ha. I think I sent it home with someone else by accident.

Dylan smiled. That wicked mouthwould be the death of him.

He and Dani hadn’t spoken about the whole Cassidy thing—what he’d admitted in Josh’s bathroom. Or what Dani’d admitted by sleeping in his bed that night. She’d stayed longer, they’d had coffee in their underwear and shared a shower, and neither of them said a word about it. As soon as she’d left the next morning, he’d moved Cass’s number from his personal to his professional contacts list.

Then last weekend, he’d gone to Dani’s house Friday night, stayed for the entire movie, and talked himself into her bed for the night. Any time he’d wondered if she had a date the next night, he shoved it away. He certainly wasn’t going to torture himself with details again.

Dylan: That was an expensive tie. I guess you’ll have to owe me something in return.

Dani: Let’s call it even since you drank half of my gourmet coffee before you left.

Dylan: That coffee wasn’t even that good. I only left you two stars on Yelp.

“What are you doing?”

Dylan looked up from his phone at the smirk in Josh’s voice. He’d pulled up to a red light and was staring at Dylan over the center console of his Jeep, his head cocked.

Dylan considered his options. Lie or bend the truth. Bending was a lot easier.

“Texting a woman.”

“Really?” Josh laughed.

“What?”

“Nothing. I’ve just never seen you do that with that look on your face before.”

His neck went hot. “I don’t have a look on my face.”

“You do.” Josh laughed again.

“I don’t think so.”

“Trust me. You have a look.”

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