Page 1 of Rulebreaker
ONE
Atlas
“And then he says”—hervoice drops into a rough approximation of mine, and if I wasn’t so annoyed at the gorgeous woman making fun of me a-fucking-gain, I’d be impressed at how good she is at that—“I haven’t had a hot dog in my mouth since college.”
Yup.
Not one of my finer moments.
But I turn into a bumbling dumbass around this woman.
Lily Maxwell is beautiful. And funny. And smart and talented, a country star who’s successfully made the transition to full and complete pop star in the last six months.
People sport T-shirts with lyrics from her songs.
Her tour dates sell out in seconds.
Social media shows her on every other video—or maybe that’s just my algorithm because I can’t seem to scroll away when she comes up on my phone.
Number one singles. Platinum records. That aforementioned worldwide, sold-out tour.
All of which has cemented her spot as an A-lister.
And none of which seems to have changed her.
She’s still the same vivacious, smart, confident, and yes, it has to be said, beautiful woman with a mischievous streak a mile wide.
“Dude,” Banks mutters, slanting his gaze at me, his green eyes dancing with mirth.
I know.
If it was anyone but me who said that shit, I’d be dying of laughter.
Unfortunately, it was me.
And itisme who’s on the receiving end of my friends’ laughter. Briar, my assistant—or in actuality, the woman who’s become my right hand in my business—cackles the loudest of them all.
And Aspen and Banks, Royal and Jade, Willow and Dash all laugh pretty fucking loudly.
I scowl, lift my glass to my lips, tossing back the dredges of my Gamebreaker, the drink our deceased friend, Colt, created way back in our college years.
No, it doesn’t pair well with hot dogs.
Probably why I hadn’t had one between then and the last concert of Lily’s I attended.
I was starving, the spread was there, and…
So was the infamous Lily Maxwell to overhear my idiocy.
To the rest of the world, I’m Atlas Delarosa, powerful businessman, billionaire before I turned thirty.
To this crew, Lily included, I’m just Atlas—a former college hockey player who is loyal and steadfast and…
Great.
I sound like a golden retriever.
Lily’s phone buzzes and, thank fuck, it cuts off the rest of her teasing.
