I silently wished for his chair to fall over.
It didn’t, but the mental image of him falling on his ass made me smile even as I prepared to deal with Rule’s tantrum.
If the man ever heard me refer to it as a tantrum, there was a good chance I would wake up without my dick attached to my body.
As I passed Rhyan’s office, she looked up, her expression one I’d seen many times. She was expecting me to deal with the situation. I nodded, then continued on my way to Rule’s office. The door was open, so I walked in and closed it behind me. There was no lock, but even if there were, it wasn’t needed. No one else would approach Rule when he was in one of his moods.
Rule was sitting in his chair, his head tipped back, eyes closed. Even with the beard, I could see the hard set of his jaw, knew he was grinding his molars together. If I could’ve talked, I would’ve reassured him everything would be fine because it would. Eventually. That was the way of the world. Issues worked themselves out, one way or another. Repercussions were inevitable, and there would always be a price to pay, but in the end, there would be another path available to take.
For now, I was going to take Rule down a familiar path.
I moved closer, waiting for him to open his eyes. By the time I was standing at his side, he was looking up at me. There was a plea in his stare. One I’d seen so many times before. A need so deep, so dark, most men never acknowledged it. And those who did sought something to ease the pain that consumed them, whether it was alcohol or drugs, or in Rule’s case, aggressive, mind-numbing sex.
But if he thought I was going to let him take it out on me, he was sorely mistaken.
I held his stare briefly before grabbing him by the hair and jerking him forward. The chair shot out from under him, crashing into the wall. His knees thudded on the hardwood, his eyes rolling back in his head. For this brief moment, I would take his control away and make it mine. I was the only person in the world capable of doing that for him, and it humbled me to know that I could.
It wasn’t always like that. At one point, I’d surrendered myself to Rule because I owed him. He tolerated that for only so long before he pushed me to my breaking point. It had been on purpose, of course. Rule was good at that. Since then, our relationship has been different. Better, even.
I wasn’t gentle, yanking him by the hair to get him where I wanted while I ripped at the button on my jeans. Rule was there to help, unzipping my fly and tugging the denim down my legs even as he fisted my cock. I was hard as steel, but that was what happened when I thought of Rule. Even after all these years, after all the ways I’d fucked him and he’d fucked me, my cock longed for his attention.
Since I couldn’t speak, I showed him what I wanted, and my methods weren’t gentle. I pinched his chin between my finger and thumb, tugging his hair with my other hand to force his mouth open. He knew what to do, opening wide and taking my cock deep. His eyes met mine. Gratification was instantaneous as he submitted to his hunger, to those desires that fueled his very life force. Rule didn’t make excuses for who he was or what he did, and I admired that about him. I hungered for him because of it.
Although this was a pleasure only Rule could deliver, for him, it was punishment, a way to atone for his sins. A penance he expected for whatever reason. I understood it on some level because I’d been on his side more times than I could count. On my knees, his cock owning my mouth, fucking with unrestrained fury. But it was my turn, and I didn’t hold back, fucking his face like I owned him. Which I did. Deep down, he knew it as well as I did. There would always be others because that was how it worked when you were too damaged to accept that happiness belonged to you, but there would always be this between us.
Rule’s hands curled around my legs, his fingers digging into my thighs as he took every grueling thrust. When he choked, I rammed deeper. When he grunted, I tightened my hand on his hair. And when I was seconds from coming, I slammed in as far as his throat would allow and let go.
Usually, the moments that followed were uneventful. I would get dressed. He would go back to whatever he’d been doing.
Not this time.
I managed to tuck my spent cock back in my underwear, but before I could button my jeans, Rule was in my face. He gripped the back of my neck even as he shoved me against the wall. His mouth crushed down on mine with a kiss as brutal as it was telling.
“Do you want her?” he growled against my mouth, his fingers massaging my neck, although I wasn’t sure he was aware he was doing it.
I waited until he pulled back to look at me. When he did, I nodded. There was no sense denying it. I’d been fascinated by Laikyn from the first time I saw her picture. More when I met her face to face. But after her candid questioning last night, I wanted her with a hunger I’d only ever known with Rule.
“She’s supposed to be temporary,” he hissed.
I nodded because he was right. She was. Whether that would remain the case was entirely up to him and her. I had a job to do, and I knew the boundaries. It wasn’t in my nature to overstep, and I wasn’t about to start now.
“You think she can handle it?”
Byit, I figured he was referring to fucking. I didn’t know if he was referring to him and her, me and her, or the three of us, but it didn’t matter. I nodded again because I believed Laikyn could handle anything. That didn’t necessarily mean she would be up for it. There was a damn good chance she merely enjoyed taunting us. I appreciated that she could because it meant she felt safe with us. A woman didn’t provoke a man she feared might take advantage. I would never, but I was certainly open to exploring this if they were.
Rule kissed me again, this time not as rough as before. “I don’t want to do that to her.”
I kissed him, licking at his tongue as I cupped the back of his neck. With Rule, kissing was a luxury he didn’t usually indulge in. When he did, I knew it was his way of choking back the emotions he pretended he didn’t feel.
“I don’t want to hurt her, Jinx.”
I knew that because I knew who Rule was deep down. He came across as this hard-as-steel man with no conscience, but he wasn’t. He cared. Especially about those closest to him. If he didn’t, I probably would be dead at this point. Instead, he’d stepped in and saved my life when he had nothing to justify doing so. Nothing except friendship.
When he pulled back, he released me and took a deep breath.
“I can’t,” he said as he turned away. “I can’t do that to her. There’s an endgame for her, and I’m manipulating her enough as it is.”
And people claimed Rule wasn’t capable of feeling anything at all. He was. In fact, he cared too fucking much. To the point he allowed it to eat him up inside.
