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Rule's Property(4)

By:Lynda Chance


"Courtney? What's she got to do with this?" Nick asked, confused.

His brother looked at him as if he'd grown an extra head. "Are you dense? What the fuck is wrong with you today? I told you she's home from grad school. I told you I gave her the key cards to the penthouse. Where do you think she'll be staying, exactly? If mom can't live in the house while it's being updated, how do you think Courtney will be able to?"

Nick let out a slow, exaggerated breath while he tried to get his brain to keep working. Keep up with the fucking conversation, Rule. You can do it. Get your goddamn head back in the game and out of that girl's pants. "I guess I don't get a vote in the matter?" he forced himself to ask a question that wouldn't sound suspicious to his brother.

"Look, Nick, I'm sorry. It'll only be for a few weeks, okay? Maybe less. The penthouse has four suites. You'll never know they're living there."

Nick frowned but said, "Fine."

"Fine? You're giving up that easily?" Damian asked incredulously.

Giving up? More like restraining himself to his seat. It was true that the thought of his mother living with him for a few weeks was horrifying. But Courtney living under his roof? That was an entirely different matter. "What the hell do you want me to say, Damian? You've left me with little choice."

"I appreciate you not busting a fuse about this. They're probably moving in as we speak."

Nick's lips tightened as he dismissed his brother. "You're going to owe me, and you're going to owe me fucking big."

"Yeah, I already figured that one out," Damian replied as he turned and left the room.











Courtney unpacked her suitcases in the second bedroom suite of the Rule Corporation's penthouse. The apartment contained four suites and now, only one sat empty. Earlier in the day, Justine Rule had settled into the third suite, but she'd already left for a meeting with the contractors who were remodeling the house. This morning, when Courtney and her godmother had arrived at the penthouse together, the older woman had been just as loving and considerate as she'd always been, insisting that Courtney take the most spacious suite available.

Of course, Nick already occupied the largest set of rooms. Fortunately or unfortunately, Courtney couldn't decide which, the suite she was now settling into happened to be the one closest to his. She let out a sigh. Nick. He was her nemesis as well as her savior. Courtney knew the terms were inconsistent, but even as she had the thought, she shrugged a shoulder. Nick was what he was, and there was no changing him.

Several years ago, whether it had been from the flip of a coin or a simple matter of logistics, she didn't know which, Nick had commandeered the entire penthouse for his own personal use, and Courtney knew from what Justine had told her, that he wasn't going to be happy sharing his space with houseguests.

She smiled wickedly at the thought. Too damn bad.

Nick had been getting his way for far, far too long. A strong arrow of annoyance took hold of Courtney that she was unable to shake.

It was unbelievable, un-freaking-believable. She was twenty-four years old.

Twenty. Four. Years. Old.

And still a virgin.

How in the hell had that happened? She liked to think of herself as normal and she was certainly healthy. But evidently, somewhere along the way, she'd become Nick Rule's property and he never let her forget that fact.

To the rest of the Rule family, she was just Courtney Powell. Orphan, extended family member, goddaughter and ex-ward of Justine Rule.

But to Nick, she was . . . something more. What exactly that was, she wasn't sure. Nobody else in the family seemed to know what was going on in his head. Courtney reanalyzed that thought, and although she wasn't entirely certain, she figured Damian had to have a clue about how Nick treated her, and if he didn't, she had no idea how he'd missed it.

It had certainly taken Courtney awhile to figure Nick out--and she still didn't have all the puzzle pieces in place just yet. But it was coming along; she'd figure him out eventually. And living in such close proximity would help that along, it had to.

As she shook out another blouse and placed it on a hanger, she figured it was probably only her imagination, but she could almost smell Nick's scent lingering in the apartment. Just the thought of being in his home for a few weeks, even with his mother around, was causing her legs to tremble.

Damn him.

He'd always caused her legs to tremble. Even from the very beginning.

With her, it had always been about Nick. Always. But her thought process had been so clouded by grief that it had taken her years to figure out that she meant something to Nick as well.

At first, she'd thought her feelings were one-sided. Sure, there had been that crazy kiss on her eighteenth birthday, but at the time, she hadn't had a clue what had prompted it. Maybe it had been mere sympathy on his part or simply a fluke; maybe he'd been thinking of someone else. The only thing she'd understood at the time was that he cared for her somewhat, in a way she couldn't possibly figure out, but she knew it wasn't the same way that she was beginning to care for him.

After her birthday was over, he'd gone back to ignoring her as a member of the female population, just as he'd done before, only treating her in a semi-friendly way, when he deigned to notice her at all. So she'd done her best to put him from her mind and go on with rebuilding her life as she'd been trying to do since she'd arrived in St. Louis.

Her last year of high school had been nothing but a test of perseverance. After her parents had died in the car wreck, Mrs. Rule had transferred Courtney from her prestigious, all-girls school in Florida to an even more prestigious one in the suburbs of St. Louis.

Once she'd graduated from high school, Courtney couldn't find the desire or fortitude to go away to college. It was in the back of her mind to return to Florida and rejoin her friends there, but she'd felt ambivalent, almost scared about uprooting her life again. So her first two years after high school were spent in a small community college on the outskirts of St. Louis, both to get her feet wet academically, and so she wouldn't have to leave Justine, who'd become a surrogate mother to her.

Nick had all but ignored Courtney during the time she'd attended the small college and her pride had demanded that she ignore him as well. It had been extremely difficult after his insane kiss, though she tried to manage it as well as she could. But sometimes she couldn't help feeling hurt. He'd smile at her but it felt forced. He'd look straight past her, as if she were a nuisance he had to put up with.

It had been impossible, even back then, not to realize that Nick treated her differently than the rest of the family did. But when had she begun to understand that it was because he was attracted to her and that he was trying to keep himself in check? It was undoubtedly once she'd been at college in Florida for a while; after a time, there'd been little question of his true feelings. But looking back, she realized there had been clues even before she'd left St. Louis, although she hadn't recognized them at the time. She thought back as the memories began to wash over her.











Academically, her two years at the community college had been a piece of cake. Luckily, making high grades had always come easily for her and during those two years, when the warm months finally arrived, Courtney found herself spending a lot of time in the backyard swimming pool. She enjoyed the subtle glow of a tan on her skin, and lying for an hour or so on a float here and there was incredibly peaceful to her.

By this time, Garrett had come home from graduate school. While looking for a place to live, he'd temporarily moved back into his old bedroom, and Courtney finally had a chance to really get to know him. The few times he'd been back for holidays hadn't been enough to even scratch the surface of his personality. Even though he was only a year or so younger than Nick, Courtney found him to be more approachable than either of his brothers. Maybe that was because he was younger than Damian, and certainly Garret had never grabbed her and kissed her as Nick had done. But because she did feel more comfortable with the youngest Rule brother, a deep camaraderie developed between them that she was only now beginning to experience with Erin.

It was as if she finally had a brother, but in a very adult kind of way, and during the three weeks he'd been settling in before assuming his full mantle of responsibility at the Rule Corporation, the two of them had become close. They'd enjoyed any number of deep, philosophical discussions. They talked about movies and television and debated the impact of digital technology on literature. They discussed world politics, religion, the scope of the universe, and whether or not any other beings were 'out there'. Garrett had shared confidences with her that she didn't think he'd even told his brothers. They laughed and they argued, but never once did Courtney feel anything for Garrett other than a deep, familial type friendship and respect . . . and never once did she feel anything other than a sibling-like relationship being returned.

That truth was underlined one day when Erin came by and all three of them spent some time together. It didn't escape Courtney's notice that Garret seemed to treat her exactly as he treated his sister. That realization didn't upset Courtney in the least; it had the opposite effect, it made her feel more grounded within the family fold. She was becoming rooted, and the knowledge enveloped her in a sense of contentment that she hadn't felt in a long time.

With Garrett seemingly unaware that she was an unrelated female, the two of them were floating in the pool one evening when the sun was just beginning to sink after she'd spent the morning helping him move the first of his boxes into his new apartment. Justine had been sitting under an umbrella chatting with them, but she'd walked into the house only minutes before to check on supper.