Page 39 of Break the Rule
“I can and I am,” Charlie insists, rolling over in bed. His ass is sore in the most delicious way, and though he can’t see it, when he touches his left ass cheek the soreness confirms what Alec saw—his mystery man definitely left marks. He can only imagine what the rest of his back must look like if the pleasurable ache in his shoulders is anything to go by.
“So a bear or?—”
“Just some guy,” Charlie answers evasively. He’s never been shy sharing his sexual exploits with Alec, so he’s not sure why he’s hesitant to share them now, especially when last night was quite possibly the best fuck of his entire life. Normally he’d be bragging and smug.
“Some guy huh,” Alec says, grabbing a shirt and boxers from Charlie’s dresser and chucking them at his head.
“Why are you and Andrew always trying to dress me?” He asks. “I shouldn’t have to wear clothes in my own house.”
“Because I don’t need to see your dick out while I make you pancakes and because Theo is waiting in the kitchen.”
“You brought Theo.”
Alec’s face falls, his easy expression tightening in a way that fills Charlie with guilt. He knows he’s being a dick about this, has been since Alec got hurt last year, but forgiving and moving on are apparently two wildly different things in Charlie’s brain. He hasn’t yet figured out how to move on from the anger he feels toward Theo for hurting his baby brother. Even if Alec has moved on, even if it’s clear that Alec is happier than Charlie has ever seen him. Even if Theo is perfect for him.
Ugh, Charlie needs coffee to handle this. He doesn’t want to deal with his other brother’s lifelong best friend turned his youngest brother’s fiancé who broke his heart before fixing it. Honestly, there’s not enough coffee in the world to handle this.
“You canceled on us the last two times.” Alec’s frowning, that same sort of unhappy pout he used to do when he was a little kid. The kind of face that had Charlie sneaking into his room after their parents put him to bed to read him an extra story or slipping him an extra cookie when no one was looking. Despite their massive age difference, he’s always been incredibly close to Alec, which even he can admit is why he’s struggling to let go of the last of his grudge against Theo.
Theo made a lot of mistakes, but he’s a good man. There’s no question he worships the ground Alec walks on. But Charlie doesn’t have Andrew’s grace or Jason’s happy-go-lucky demeanor or Alec’s too-forgiving heart of gold. He’s a petty fucker who holds a grudge.
“I was busy,” Charlie lies. Unlike his brothers, he has no scruples about lying. He’s not some kind of pathological liar, but he doesn’t have moral qualms about not sharing truths he isn’t in the mood to hash out. Like his complicated feelings about the fact that spending time with his brother almost always includes Theo now. It has occurred to him—possibly because Andrew told him—that he feels like he’s being replaced because Alec always needed Charlie. Now he has Theo and doesn’t need his bigbrother as much, and that makes Charlie resent Theo. But since Charlie didn’t ask Andrew to psychoanalyze him, he takes that with a grain of salt, the kind he’d like to bury in the backyard five feet underground where it belongs.
Honestly,jealousof Theo? What a load of shit.
“I’m making blueberry pancakes.”
“You’re buttering me up for something.”
“I’m making your favorite breakfast because I miss you,” Alec says, crossing the room and wrapping his arms around Charlie. Alec hasn’t grown much since he was a teenager, so much smaller than Charlie but so much braver too. Fuck, Charlie is proud of him.
“I missed you too, Ally.”
“Then you’ll stop canceling when I want you to hang out with me and Theo?” He asks, pulling back to blink those big, puppy dog brown eyes of his at Charlie. “And you’ll come in the kitchen right now and tell Theo you’re so glad he’s here and play nice.”
“Unless you’ve put something that causes a personality transplant in those pancakes, that's unlikely.” Alec’s face falls and Charlie sighs, knowing he’s going to give in. “I will go out and play nice, but I’m not going to be his best friend or anything.”
“I don’t need you two to be best friends. I need my two favorite people to get along so I don’t feel like I’m being used like a ping pong ball in your weird passive-aggressive niceness game.”
“Me and Theo aren’t passive-aggressive,” Charlie balks.
“At the family dinner last month you passed him the mashed potatoes and told him you really hoped he didn’t choke on them.”
“I did hope he didn’t choke,” Charlie points out. “You’d be sad if he died, and I don’t like when you’re sad.”
Alec smacks his arm. “You two are going to get along if it kills me, which for the record, it might. I’m going to give you five minutes to wash off whatever questionable white substance is flaking on your cheek, then you’re going to come out and have Sunday breakfast with us.”
Charlie reaches up to his cheek. Sure enough something flaky is there. He doesn’t remember getting come on his face, but last night was pretty epic, so maybe he did and didn’t notice.
“So, fun question,” Alec says in a tone that suggests whatever he’s about to say will be anything but fun for Charlie. “Has it occurred to you that you’re getting a little old to still be slutting it up with randos? You’re almost forty.”
“Oh fuck off,” Charlie laughs. “I’m thirty-two you pipsqueak. Talk to me when you can reach the top cupboard.”
“Just for that I’m going to hide raisins in your pancakes.”
There isn’t a lot Charlie hates, but raisins are one of them. Vile little chewy things. Thinking about finding one in his blueberry pancakes would be enough for Charlie to revolt.
“Put raisins in my pancakes and they won’t find your body.”
