Page 121 of Unspoken Rules

There, I said it. Mentioned my birthday and going out with friends. Didn’t say he couldn’t go. Didn’t invite him. I left it open.

“But your birthday is on Saturday.” I smile behind the can, taking another sip. So he remembered.

“I think she’s working.”

“Ah. Well, I hope you plan to go with her.”

“It’ll be a bunch of people, knowing her, but I want to. I haven’t seen them in a while.”

He walks over, tilts my head back, and kisses me.

“Then go and have fun.”

It stings a little that he doesn’t want to go. It also makes me happy that he wants me to go and have fun. That he trusts me to go without him.

“Do you ever get jealous?” I ask as he walks back to the stove. I don’t know why I blurt the words out, and after I say them, I feel a little stupid. Especially when I see his shoulders shaking from silent laughter.

“Of course,” he finally says.

“I’d never know,” I mutter.

“Because being jealous has nothing to do with you and everything to do with me, so why would I put that on you?” He looks at me over his shoulder, this time giving me a smile.

“Touche,” I mutter, then finish my beer.

He chuckles as I get up to grab another.

“Do you want to know when I’m jealous?” he asks.

I pause at the fridge, staring inside. Of course he isn’t going to let this go. He never lets things go.

“I’d take it as a compliment,” I say, grabbing the blue can and going back to the table.

He turns, resting against the counter and crossing his arms over his chest.

“Well, I am right now.”

I frown. “Why?”

“Because you are going out with your friends tomorrow night, and I can’t go. You’ll be with them, having fun, and I can’t be a part of it. And I bet the guy who likes you will be there, and though I trust you, I don’t like thinking that he’ll be looking at you. Probably trying to figure out a way to ask you out or get you alone.”

I open my mouth to speak, but he holds a hand up and moves toward me.

“I’m also jealous most days because you spend your entire day with other men, and I don’t like that. I don’t like that you’re with other people all day when I can’t see you because I want to be with you every second of every day, but I’m an adult with responsibilities and I know that isn’t possible. But it doesn’t mean I don’t want it. So yeah, baby, I get jealous. A lot.”

My heart pounds in my chest, but all I can do is smile. Then I start to laugh.

He stands taller, looking down at me with a frown. “I don’t think it’s funny.”

“I’m not laughing because it’s funny,” I say. “I’m laughing because it’s crazy.”

He smirks, still watching me. “Is that so?”

“Yes,” I add through more laughing.

“What I think is crazy is how hard my dick is for you right now, when all you’re doing is sitting there laughing.”

My laughing fades, then so does my smile as I glance at his crotch and see the familiar thick outline of his cock.

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