Page 28 of Breaking the Rules
Chapter 14
My phone buzzed onthe coffee table, the screen lighting up with a FaceTime request from Shay.I stared at it for three full rings, my heart doing a weird little skip.I hadn’t spoken to either of them since they’d fled my apartment two nights ago, leaving me alone with a feral Henry.They’d sent a few cautious texts, “u alive?”from Shay, and “Please confirm you have not been murdered and dissolved in acid.”from Felix, but I’d only replied with a simple: “Alive.All good.Talk soon.”
Soon was now.
I took a steadying breath and swiped to answer.Shay’s face, pixelated for a second before sharpening, filled the screen.He was in his own living room, looking uncharacteristically serious.Felix’s face popped into a small box in the corner.
“Holt,” Shay said, his voice lacking its usual boom.“You’re vertical.That’s a good start.”
“Told you he was fine,” Felix said, though his eyes were scanning my face, looking for clues.
“Hey, guys,” I said, aiming for casual and landing somewhere near strained.I leaned back on my couch, tucking my leg under me.I was wearing a loose hoodie, but underneath, the marks Henry had left were a secret map against my skin.
“So,” Shay started, leaning closer to his camera.“We’ve given you, like, forty-eight hours of radio silence.Which, for me, is a personal record.Spill.What the hell happened after we...made our tactical retreat?”
A tactical retreat.That was one way to describe them practically tripping over each other to get out of my apartment.
“He stayed,” I said, the words simple.My fingers, of their own accord, drifted to the collar of my hoodie, tracing the edge where the bruise on my collarbone lay hidden.The memory flashed, bright and visceral: Henry’s teeth, the sting, the possessiveness that had melted into something else entirely by morning.
“He stayed?”Felix echoed.“Like...stayed-stayed?All night?”
“All night,” I confirmed.I could feel a stupid, soft smile trying to break through.I fought it.“He, uh.He made eggs.”
The silence on the other end of the line was profound.
Shay’s eyebrows threatened to disappear into his hairline.“Emerson.The human glacier.The guy who looks at a salad like it’s a quarterly report.Made you eggs?”
“Scrambled,” I said, as if that clarified anything.
“I’m losing my mind,” Felix muttered, rubbing his forehead.“Okay, backtrack.After we left, did he...I mean, was he angry?He looked like he wanted to dismantle the building with his bare hands.”
He was, I thought.And then he wasn’t.My fingers slipped under the hoodie’s fabric, finding the tender skin.A different memory surfaced: his lips on that same spot the next morning, not to claim, but to soothe.A quiet apology in the shape of a kiss.
“He was angry,” I admitted.“But not...not at me.Not in the way you think.”I struggled to find the words.“It was like...the anger was because he cared.Because the photo got to him.”
“The photo we orchestrated,” Shay said, wincing.“Shit, Holt.I’m sorry, man.That was a next-level stupid idea.I thought we were just gonna yank his chain a little, not summon the demon.”
“It’s okay,” I said, and I meant it.“It kind of...forced everything out into the open.”It made him show me what was underneath the control.
“So, what, you had a fight, he made you breakfast, and now everything’s peachy?”Felix asked, his skepticism clear.“What about the supermodel, Charlie?The ‘business meeting’?”
I took a breath.This was the part that still made my stomach clench, but Henry’s explanation in the soft morning light had felt like the truth.“It was a charity thing for her fashion line.Old history.He said it meant nothing.”I met Felix’s pixelated gaze.“I believe him.”
Shay and Felix exchanged a look that was pure telepathic brotherhood.
“Okay,” Shay said slowly.“Let’s say we believe the billionaire.What now?What are you, like...doing?”He waved a hand in a circular motion.“Are you and Henry Emerson...a thing?”
The question hung in the digital space between us.A thing.It sounded so small for the seismic shift I felt inside.
He put me to bed.I wore his clothes.He stayed.
“I...we’re seeing each other,” I said, the phrase feeling both incredibly significant and totally inadequate.“It’s new.We’re keeping it quiet.For the team.For my career.”
“For your career, or for his reputation?”Felix asked pointedly, not unkindly.
“Both,” I admitted.“But mostly for me.I don’t want to be the guy who slept his way into the lineup.I don’t want the headlines.”I just want him, I didn’t add.The realization was still so fresh it felt fragile.
Shay nodded, his expression turning uncharacteristically grave.“Look, man.We tease you because it’s our job.But this is serious.You’re involved with our owner.The guy who signs our paychecks.The guy who could trade any one of us to Siberia because he’s having a bad day.”
