Unbroken Rules (Rules 3)

“Hey, babe.” I almost hug him but stop myself at the last second, letting my arm droop back down awkwardly.

“Hey. You ready?” He doesn’t seem to know what to do with his hands either, sliding them inside his pockets as he shifts from side to side. Stupid, stupid game.

“Haze, do me a favor—” Allie sticks her head into the doorway. “—just get her a damn puppy already.”

“She’s going to have to win for that.” Haze grins. “Allie, you still coming to Winter’s dinner party Saturday?”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she assures him.

I hug Allie goodbye and get off her porch with Haze.

“Still not touching me?” he asks as we cross the street.

“Still refusing to get a dog?”

“Looks like it.”

“Then I’m still not touching you,” I confirm.

With the weight of mutual attraction crushing us, we climb inside the car and buckle up. Haze doesn’t ignite the engine right away, his nails digging into his legs. If this morning’s tension was heavy, this one is near suffocating. I want to straddle him already. Just let my desires run wild right there on his lap. His white-knuckled hands squeeze the steering wheel, a sign that I’m not the only struggling to harbor my urges.

“Screw it,” he snaps. “We’re getting this over with tonight. You want a game?” He turns the key, pushes the gear into drive, and accelerates down the road. “I’ll show you a game.”

When Haze unlocked the door to our empty apartment and ordered me to sit on the couch, I found myself wishing I could go back in time and put out the fire that started this. Just so I wouldn’t have to find out what sick revenge game he had in store for me. But now, as we sit in silence, close, but not nearly enough to touch, I’m dying from suspense.

“What are we doing?” I speak first.

“We are not doing anything. At least, not at the same time.”

I frown. “What?”

He pulls his phone out and sets a five-minute timer. Without pressing Start, he throws his phone between us on the couch. “We both have five minutes.”

“To do what?”

“Whatever the fuck we want. For five minutes, you’re mine. You don’t get to say no. Or touch me. If you do, you lose. Then, if you manage not to break the rules, it’ll be your turn.”

Heat pulses between my legs.

I worry my lower lip. “And if none of us flinch?”

“Not gonna happen.” He shrugs off my concerns.

Realization creeps up my spine. “Even if I wanted to, Kendri—”

“Is not coming home.” Haze slumps back into the couch. “I texted him.”

“And he just agreed to stay out all day?”

“He needed a bit more convincing, but yeah.”

I snort. “You mean he needed more cash.”

He doesn’t deny nor entertain my claim. “So, you want to play?”

That’s when I understand that I’ve got it all wrong.

I might’ve started the fire.