I laid in a pile of worthless goo as he rose up off the bed and began to haphazardly pull his clothes off. The show was a delight in itself so by the time he crawled in the bed beside me I was ready to purr and curl up around him like the satisfied sex kitten he was turning me into.

“That was certainly a nice way to wake up.” I curled my hands up around his shoulders as he rolled over me and put his knee between my legs.

“You were out for most of the afternoon. I kept waiting for you to peek your head out and join us but in never happened.” He dropped his head so that his nose rubbed against the side of my face. “I checked in on you and you just looked so perfect all sleepy and pretty in my bed I couldn’t help myself.” He laid a soft trail of kisses from behind my ear to the sensitive hallow of my throat. His fingers skimmed down my arm and lightly encircled my bruised wrist. Gabe had left a ring of black and blue marks that stood out in stark relief against my pale skin so I couldn’t help the emotion that clogged my throat when Rule lightly stroked the damaged flesh and lifted it up to press butterfly kisses around the circumference.

“This should have never happened, I’m so sorry.”

I trailed a hand down over his flank and let my fingers spread out across the colorful surface of his ribs. “I shouldn’t have gone in the first place. I need to learn to set boundaries with my parents and stick with them. It’s not worth sacrificing things that matter to me in order to try and make them happy.”

He took the hand he was holding and pinned it to the bed above my head, his pale eyes blazed into mine with a mixture of want and compassion. “Shaw I’m the one that feels the need to burn the house down when the faucet springs a leak, I know I tend to go the extreme and I need to back off. However if you think I’m ever going to stand by and watch you purposely put yourself in danger with that asshole again be prepared for us to do battle.”

I didn’t get a chance to reply because he kissed me, really kissed me, kissed me with an edge so that there was no mistaking he was serious and that I needed to pay attention to what was happening between us. There was a bite of teeth and the press of metal and all the goodness that was just Rule as tongues slid together and hands began to roam. He caught my free hand and pinned it above my head with the other one so that I was stretched out and prone beneath him. His eyes glittered with pure wicked intent as he leered down at me.

“I think I like you like this.” His free hand twisted and wandered over sensitive skin and moist creases. I whimpered a little because it felt so good and because I wanted to move but he held me still with the press of his much bigger body into mine. “I like having you at my mercy. I can do whatever I want to you.” He proved his point by taking the top of one breast in his mouth and sucking until it almost hurt. He’d left a hickey the first time we did this too but this one seemed different, more like a territorial marking, a claiming of sorts.

“Good thing for you I like all the things you want to do to me.” He pulled a leg up and hooked it around his lean hips. I felt the hot press of him ready at my entrance and tried to shift so that he came inside. He pulled back and grinned down at me.

“Always so impatient.” I tugged at my trapped hands.

“You have no idea.”

He chuckled again as he kissed me. “So tell me.”

I tried to pull him inside with the sheer for of will alone but he kept moving just out of range with a taunting smirk. “Seriously Shaw tell me.”

I squeezed my eyes shut because there was only so much truth I was ready to hand over to him in one day. He moved my other leg and pressed in just a millimeter or two making me start to quiver. “Tell me why we all thought you and Remy had a serious thing going one but I’m the one that was your first. Tell me why Rome seems to think you’ve had a thing for me for a while now. Tell me why when we do this it’s so much different than whenever I’ve done it before.”

I wanted him to move, wanted him to let me move but when I pried my eyes open he was watching me closely, clearly in control enough to wait me out. I met his pointed stare for a heartbeat before whispering, “Because it’s always been you even when I didn’t want it to be, even when it broke my heart over and over again. It’s just always been you.”

My words changed something in him, his eyes flashed with a frozen spark and suddenly he was in and moving and the rest of the world just stopped and faded away. All that mattered was what was happening between us in that moment and it mattered to him just as much as it mattered to me. His tempo changed with each thrust, he was always a little wild, a little uninhibited in bed but it was like my words had broken something loose inside him and this was the real Rule, the guy that used crazy hair and a body full of ink to deflect anyone getting too close. I gasped and moaned, finally calling his name out in a shaky voice as we raced towards the end together. It felt different like he said, more powerful, more intense and when he finally dropped his forehead down to touch mine it felt complete.

I sighed in contentment and wrapped my arms around him. He pulled me over him and rolled so that I wasn’t getting crushed. I closed my eyes and was about to go back into a very satisfied sleep when the entire length of his long body went board straight underneath me. My eyes popped open as I felt his hands tense in the ends of my hair and I forced my head up to look down at him.

“What’s wrong?”

“The bed’s wet.”

I just stared at him blankly. “So?”

“So that means we didn’t use protection. I haven’t had sex without a condom since I was a teenager and an idiot, Geez no wonder it felt so good.”

“I’m on the pill.”

“Why?”

I made a face and rolled off of him. “Because my mother made me. She thought I was hooking up with one or both of you Archer twins long before it ever happened. I’ve just stayed on it because it makes my period less crazy so we should be fine.”

He pulled me back to his chest and brushed my hair away from my face. “With my history you really wanna chance it?”

I exhaled. “You really know how to ruin a moment Rule.”

“Hey I told you it’s my job to protect you even if that means I have to do it from myself. We have to have clean health screens to work in the shop since we work around bodily fluids, needles and open skin and my last one was crystal clear and like I said I never ever have unsafe sex unless it’s with a high maintenance blond with killer green eyes that makes me so crazy I forget.”

I cuddled into the curve of his body and let him wrap his arms around me. The hand that had his name inked across the knuckles ended up resting across my chest and I used my index finger to trace over the bold letters. “I trust you and I think we’re good so I’m not going to make an issue out of it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah because like I said it’s always been you Rule, even when I really wished it wasn’t.”

“I’m starting to wish I had paid closer attention.”

I laced our fingers together. I liked the way they looked all tangled together. His were long and covered in brilliant designs, mine were small and tipped in boring pink polish but next to each other they were more interesting, more vital. I fell back asleep listening to the steady inhale and exhale of his breath in my ear and thinking that even if I hadn’t been on the pill having a moment of wild, uninhibited and totally unprotected sex with him was most definitely worth any of the risks that were involved with that. I could think of a worse fate that brining the next troublesome Archer into the world.

Chapter 11

Rule

“The first time I came home and saw you sitting in the kitchen with Remy I remember thinking what in the hell has he gotten himself into? You were so pale and scared, your eyes were twice as big as normal and you looked like a little bird that had fallen out of the nest. Remy had always had a soft spot for the neglected so I wasn’t surprised, but I was flabbergasted at how quickly the rest of the family took to you. I always thought it was going to be us Archer’s against the world forever and then there was you and it all kind of broke apart and I became even more of the black sheep than I had been. Rome adored you, mom and dad just took you and Remy as an evitable unit and I was left out in the cold as usual. I think I just took all those feelings of separation and alienation and transferred them onto you. Remy and I were always two parts of a whole and when you came along that went away to some extent. I think I was jealous that he spent so much time and effort being your hero and not being my brother.”

“The first time I saw you I was terrified. I had seen you and Remy around school and everyone always talked about the Archer twins like you were some kind of mythical creatures. Remy was so athletic and had all the right friends and the best grades, you were always in trouble, running around with older kids and constantly getting called to the office for skipping class or whatever else you were up to. Remy saved me and brought me home, he made me laugh when nothing in my life seemed remotely funny and he was kind when no one in my life had ever even tried to be nice before. He sat me in the kitchen told me not to worry when his brothers came home he would keep them in line and then you and Rome came barreling through the door. Rome looked at me and shook his head he asked Remy if I was another stray and you, you just looked right through me like I was a ghost and asked him if he still wanted to go with you and Nash for pizza. I thought you were beautiful in such a different way than Remy. You guys looked so much alike but you turned your looks into something so interesting I couldn’t look away. I stared at you for a full fifteen minutes and then when you and Rome left you looked at me and said ‘Geez Rem get her a cup of tea or something she looks like Casper the Friendly Ghost. Remy just shook his head and sat down across from me he knew then, he always knew, he told me, ‘Rule is a good guy, Shaw, the best actually. I love him more than anything in the world but he’s also a sixteen year old guy and an Archer. Don’t barrow heartache when you can avoid it.’ For years and years he told me over and over that I was being foolish that I shouldn’t get wound up about you when your priorities were elsewhere and then about a year before he died he changed his tune. When you moved to Denver together suddenly he was all about me going to DU after school, all about me getting to a point where I could tell you how I had felt about you. Suddenly he was Remy the matchmaker, it was weird and then the accident happened and I never got a chance to ask what changed his mind.”

“Well I’m glad I know now and I still think you look like Casper.”

“I’m glad too and I don’t mind when you call me Casper, its kinda sweet. Besides when you first started it I thought I was special, none of the other girls ever got a nickname you just called them sweetie, or babe, or honey.”

“You are special, you were special then too I was just too stupid to see it.”

“I don’t think I would have been ready for you then.”

“Are you ready for me now?”

“Any time.”