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It took a minute before Rule relented, but when he did his shoulders relaxed and his tattooed hands unclenched I nodded in agreement, but the conversation was cut short because Cora flopped herself on the couch between ulation bowling shoes

The topic was essentially dropped, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what he said, that when you cared about soed you,that he could love Shaw, and more important, that she could love hiuy He was still a pain in the ass, but noas a pain in the ass that could see beyond hi so fro to play out for me and Ayden, or that I necessarily needed to be better or worse All I knew for sure was that she was inside s that had lived there for years I was in no hurry to get her out, because so to all the parts of

Chapter 7

I was tired when I got home Work had been busy, which was nice because I was tired of dodging Shaw’s questions and speculative looks about my relationship, or nonrelationship, with Jet I wasn’t ready to get into it with her--hell I wasn’t even ready to get into it with hi-arot distracted by Lou, I had literally ducked out the back door to takeon, because while Rule was nor, he usually toned it doith me because I didn’t acquiesce to hi out of the parking lot, I got a text fro me that I needed to park in the driveway and that they had left all the lights on forthe hair on the back of ot in the front door Cora’s light was off I still wasn’t sure about this new territory I was treading on with Jet, so even though his light was on under his door, I decided I needed a shower and ato talk to hia pants and a stretchy tank before padding to the bathroom on silent feet

I shared the second bathrooue down his throat I never really thought about how intimate that was For instance, all the junk he used in his hair was scattered all over the counter, right next to all the stuff I used to sood and look pretty He had a collection of thick silver rings on one side of the sink and a bunch of randouitar picks in the soap dish, next to the fancy bottles of perfume I left out because I was too lazy to put them away One of his belts with the metal studs was curled up on the back of the toilet and the skirt of my cheerleader uniform was in a discarded pile on the floor So it, hly that it was just sea allback to my room, I had to stop outside the door because there was , ear-bleeding, headache-inducing noise that he usually had blaring, but soft guitar and the most beautiful voice I had ever heard I couldn’tbecause it didn’t sound fa on my bed and went back across the hall without any hesitation I knocked and the guitar stopped long enough for him to tell me to come in When I did, my breath stopped somewhere in the middle of my chest, and my heart did a slow slide all the way down to the bottom ofin the center of his bed, his long legs crossed at the ankles He didn’t have a shirt on, which was already hot and distracting, and the huge black and gray tattoo that covered his entire torso lookedIt was a sight that ood intention I had to the test His dark head was bent down and he was scribbling so on a notebook he had open next to him He looked rus he was doing with that guitar and the way he sounded when he sang the next verse o weak I walked across the roo e of the bed and watched hie me until he was done, and by that ti in my soul had been touched by what this boy could do He leaned across uitar down on the floor and shoved the notebook into a drawer of his nightstand His dark eyes regarded me quietly and I couldn’t help but reach out and touch hih and leaned over so that ere eye to eye

"If you can sing like that why in the world do you get onstage and screa That was so beautiful, it made my heart hurt"

He cleared his throat and his shoulders moved up and then down There was a lot of tattooed skin on display and even though I was used to seeing it onstage or in passing in the hall, it was pretty i up close and personal, and I wanted to touch all of it I wasn’t sure where to let old halo was my best bet

"It’s justinside us"

"But you have a beautiful voice You could be famous, like famous on a ridiculous level"

He shoved his hands behind his head and leaned back,his abs contract and flex under the ink that covered the the faint trail of dark hair that poked out the top of those too-tight pants and across abs that were defined and taunt under a cover of black and gray ink

"I could be fa nursery rhymes That’s not what I want"