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Rule's Property(7)

By:Lynda Chance


But that wasn't the way he felt about her, it never had been. She wasn't one of them.

She wasn't his sister. She wasn't even his stepsister. She didn't carry their last name and there wasn't an ounce of shared blood between them. No matter how hard he tried to forget those facts, he couldn't. He'd been intrigued by her since the moment she'd come to St. Louis, even though he didn't understand exactly why. Certainly she'd been pretty, even as a teenager, even if it had been a quiet beauty that she herself didn't seem to recognize.

But it was her strong character, her fortitude that held his attention, at least at first. She'd been just a girl, and really, his emotions hadn't turned into infatuation for months, maybe almost a year. But the second he'd realized her eighteenth birthday was right around the corner, his curious and sympathetic thoughts toward her had transformed into sexual thoughts. He'd gone from wanting to hold her in his arms and stroke her hair, to wanting to hold her underneath him and stroke her body.

She became something he fervently wanted that he couldn't have. It had made him feel like a sick fuck, but he'd never been able to shake his need for her. And the fact was, letting Courtney go to Florida had been the hardest thing he'd ever done. It was only supposed to have been for two years, but with graduate school, it had turned into four.

But now she was back, and she was all grown up. She wouldn't be as vulnerable anymore.

And he was damned if he was ever going to let her leave again.

He leaned against the wall of the elevator as it rose to the top of the building and tried to contain the turmoil roiling through his bloodstream, but it was impossible.

Courtney was back. She was his.

And in a few moments, she'd know that truth.











Courtney began stacking her shoes in the built-in shelving unit at the back of the closet. As much as she tried to keep her mind focused on something productive, like preparing for her job interviews, she couldn't keep her mind off Nick. If the argument he'd had with Damian before she'd left for Florida all those years ago had been bad, it still didn't compare to how he'd acted during her four years away.

When Courtney had left St. Louis, her initial plan was to only be gone the two years it would take to finish her bachelor's degree. Justine had made the trip down with her in Courtney's car, helping her drive part of the way. Her godmother had stayed for a couple of days, helping her settle into her off-campus apartment with her girlfriends, before flying back to Missouri.

The first few months in Florida had flown by for Courtney. Settling into classes and familiarizing herself with the huge university was actually secondary; getting caught up with her girlfriends was the most important thing and it had been wonderful, amazing. It was exactly what Courtney had needed emotionally, and the last of her deep, soul-crushing grief had finally begun to recede.

Although she was having fun at school and adjusting well, Courtney was surprised that she missed St. Louis so much. It confused her. How could she be homesick when she was finally home? But she didn't feel like she was home; she was homesick. She and Justine had grown close over the years, the older woman becoming a second mother to her as well as a friend, and so they talked on the phone often. Justine had always been involved in Courtney's life, and her godmother always asked about boys. And at the beginning of her time in Florida, at least, Courtney always told the other woman the truth. Sometimes there was something to tell, and sometimes there wasn't.

Several months in, Courtney had become fairly interested in a frat guy. The boy obviously didn't compare to Nick, but Courtney had known she had to get over Nick Rule, to get over the way she felt about him. It had seemed to her at the time that although Nick was protective of her, he didn't feel the same way about her that she felt about him. And the frat boy was more than interested in her, and he was smart and good-looking to boot.

Looking back, in retrospect, Courtney knew she'd probably gushed about him a little too much to Justine, but she couldn't have guessed what Nick's reaction would be when he found out.

He'd shown up on her doorstep within twenty-four hours. He'd flown almost a thousand miles across country, and shown up out of the blue. He'd had a ready excuse, something about checking out a piece of property not far away. He'd insisted on meeting not only her roommates, but also 'the kid you told my mother about.' Courtney had tried to argue about that, but Nick was inflexible.

He'd gotten his way and met her new boyfriend. Courtney could still remember how Nick's expression had frozen, how his muscles had grown rigid. All it had taken was a single ferocious look and a stern warning, and the boy had fled and never returned.

Courtney had been beyond livid.

But Nick had brushed off her anger as if it meant nothing and had taken her out to dinner where he'd grilled her for a couple of hours about her classes, her professors and her friends.

After he'd gone back to Missouri, it had taken several weeks, but she'd slowly gotten over her anger and gotten on with her life again. It was amazing, looking back now, that she hadn't recognized Nick's jealousy for what it had been. But she hadn't and her life had gone on. It took Courtney several more months before she found another guy who intrigued her enough to begin dating him.

And when she had, the same cycle went into play. Courtney had told Justine, Nick had shown up unexpectedly and her newest boyfriend was dispatched posthaste.

That was when she'd had her first doubts about everything she'd believed to be true about Nick when she'd left St. Louis. How could she not have doubts when he seemed prepared to fly halfway across the country just to get rid of her boyfriends?

It had been confusing; it had been suspicious, because those were the only times she heard from him. But after several more months passed by, she began to think it had all been her imagination and that the probability of Nick having deeper feelings for her were next to nil. But just to be on the safe side, when she began dating someone new, she didn't mention it to Justine.

But the problem was, nobody could compare to Nick Rule. Not a single kiss could compare to the kiss that was so instilled in her memory that she could conjure it up day or night. Nobody could make her knees tremble and there was absolutely nobody who she cared enough about to make her part with her virginity.

She wasn't purposely saving it for Nick; she wasn't.

But whatever the reason, the outcome was the same. Her interest in dating became less and less as the months went by, so she put it on the back burner and threw herself into her studies and having fun with her friends.

She began to love being a college student. She studied hard, partied harder and went to the beach whenever she could. She had the freedom to try things she'd never tried before. Tanning beds, thong underwear, shots of tequila.

Life was suddenly fun again. Her parents became a sentimental memory always in her heart, but finally, life truly became fun again.

Everything went great for a while, except that the few recent trips she'd made to St. Louis hadn't been satisfactory to her. For one reason or another, when she went to visit, she and Nick were never at the house at the same time. And that bothered her. Was it by coincidence or his design?

One evening in the middle of the week, she was studying for a test, but no matter how much she tried, she couldn't seem to concentrate. By this time, she'd been in the second semester of her second year in Florida, close to graduating with her bachelor's degree. So why was she suddenly homesick again? And then it dawned on her. She realized it had been almost a year since she'd seen Nick. And when she realized that, she began missing him. Missing him badly.

Missing him so badly that she did a semi-evil thing.

Okay, a really evil thing.

She literally couldn't drag her mind off Nick and of course, she thought back to when he'd flown to Florida to get rid of her boyfriends. Had the times he'd come to see her been just a coincidence or not? The more she deliberated the small amount of evidence at her disposal, the stronger the idea took root in her head again. Before long, she'd developed a hypothesis; he'd come to Florida for the express purpose of getting rid of her boyfriends, not to look at real estate, as he'd maintained. Crazy idea, maybe not so crazy, but the more she missed him, the more her reasoning seemed sound.

That's when she'd come up with the brilliant plan to test her hypothesis. Evil, for sure. Although she wasn't dating anyone at the time, and hadn't been for a long while, she did have several male friends and one of them was exceptionally brilliant and good-looking. Unable to stop herself, she'd picked up her cell and called Justine. They had a lovely, hour-long chat about everything under the sun.

Nick had shown up on Friday after her last class.

Her roommates had gone to Daytona Beach for the weekend, but Courtney hadn't been feeling up to joining them because she'd been suffering from cramps earlier in the day. That evening, her cramps were mostly under control, thanks to three ibuprofen and a heating pad. She was on the couch watching television in her shortie pajamas when the doorbell had pealed.

She'd glanced at the door and her heart had constricted and then started beating more rapidly. No way. It couldn't be him.

It couldn't be true.

Slowly, she'd stood to her feet and walked to her door, thanking the good Lord that even though she'd been feeling bad, she'd gone to class that day, because that meant that her hair was clean and she was still wearing make-up.

She looked through the peephole and almost had a coronary.