DON'T BREAK THE RULES

DON'T BREAK THE RULES BOOK 2: CHAPTER 2

"Joe."

"Yes?" he raised his eyebrow, glancing in their master bedroom. Connor was standing in front of his mirror, buttoning up his suit and examining a detail from the dress shirt.

He stayed silent for a few seconds before he turned around, "How do I look?"

"Nice."

"You didn't even look," Connor chuckled, stepping towards him. Joe's eyes had never brightened once, enveloped into a grey tint ever since that day.

His eyes travelled from his pointy dress shoes to his gelled hair and then he shrugged his shoulders, "Same answer."

"Joey, come on." He reached forward, seeing Joe flinch when he did. Even so, he still grabbed his fingers and pulled him closer, connecting their chests together and letting Joe take a full hit of the cologne he had just sprayed on himself. He reached around Joe's waist, the other hand raised together and he began slowly moving along the floor, as if they were at a ball.

Joe was stiff, barely following his motion and he grabbed his arm, fixing its position. "Your arm had to be around my shoulder while mine has to be around your waist; I thought we've danced like this before."

"Can't recall."

Connor smiled, increasing his speed and noticing that Joe's steps were growing quicker as well. "So," he breathed beside his ear, "now how do I look?"

"I need to clean."

"Come on, you don't even want to hang out with me before I leave?"

"I'm tired."

Connor noticed that Joe's eyes were filling with tears again and it instantly broke his mood. He pulled away, returning his gaze on the mirror and studying himself, fixing the strands that had fallen apart.

"You always fucking cry Joe." Joe rapidly wiped the back of his hand against his cheeks, realizing that a few tears had slipped past his desperate attempts to withdraw them. "You have to fucking get over it! It's been a year. Think about them being in heaven or something."

"Can I go?"

"No," Connor snapped, twirling violently on his heels. He returned to the mirror where he accidentally ruffled his hair to hard and exhaled a long curse, narrowing his eyes.

It had always been this way ever since he accepted Joe back—whenever they were near, Joe cried. Even their intimate moments were lost of love, Joe only withhold his cries for a few minutes before he burst out in sobs.

There was once where Joe had agreed to get drunk with Connor, and the alcohol filled them with lust and Joe had made the first move. However, as he was sitting on Connor's lap, gripping his jaw and lowering his lips to glaze over Connor's thin skin of his neck, he thought of the one person he wanted to be with. It always happened, way too many times to count, but Connor hadn't been in his right mind.

When Joe whispered, "Jamie," Connor instantly swung his fist forward and slammed his knuckles into the corner of Joe's lip. Joe was instantly propelled onto the floor and it took him a moment to realize what was happening, but nothing hurt. It was only when he placed his fingers against his lip that he realized there was blood and when he glanced towards Connor, that's when he realized he had been hit.

In that instant, Joe hadn't even flinched. He had been way too drunk, his emotions had derailed that the only thing he thought to do was reach forward, pry Connor's knees apart and pull down his zipper. The next morning, when they woke up in each other's arms, naked on the couch, Joe couldn't meet his eye. Not because he was ashamed, but because he knew if he did, he would cry for the rest of the day.

"Fix my hair," Connor snapped, causing Joe to sigh before walking to him and straightening his hair back onto the gel. When he did so, he was seconds from moving away when Connor gripped his chin. "Look at that, you're crying again."

"Joe's crying?" 

They suddenly heard a voice from the entrance and Connor rapidly removed his hand from Joe. The moment that happened, Joe turned away and attempted to blink away the tears that had formed, but Chris had already heard that. He removed his masquerade mask and stepped towards them. "Joey, why are you cry—"

"He's not crying. Why are you in here?" Chris was taken aback by the stern tone in Connor's voice, and when he glanced towards Joe, he rapidly stepped in front of him to hide Chris from the view. "He's fine. I said why are you here?"

"Because I'm your damn Vice President," Chris spat after a scoff. "I don't appreciate being questioned whenever I'm around."

"I don't remember asking you to enter my bedroom."

"As if I've never walked in here before," he rolled his eyes. When he heard a gasp from Joe, he rapidly added, "Not like that of course." His small chuckles only made the room full with awkwardness and he rapidly cleared his throat, "Luca is waiting for us downstairs. We need to leave."

"Alright, guess we're all ready." He glanced backwards towards Joe, and when he saw that his eyes were no longer glinting, he stepped away and headed towards his wallet. "I won't be staying long."

"Wait," Chris never turned. Instead, his eyes were stuck on Joe who flinched and rapidly eyed elsewhere. He barely spoke nowadays, which was not something Chris could ignore.

Connor attempted to place himself in between again, "He's fin—"

"He's going like that?!"

That caused both their eyes to widen and Joe turned to Connor, noticing that his jaw squeezing tightly. He had no intentions on letting Joe attend a masquerade ball with several different businesses, let alone leave the house if it wasn't with him. But Chris didn't know that, and if Connor said no, it would only trigger Chris to begin snooping and ask more questions as to why their relationship had been different ever since they got back together.

Connor forced himself from grimacing and said, "Joe said he didn't want to go tonight." He turned to Joe with a forced smile, "Said he felt sick, isn't that right?"

"No, you have to go Joe! It's a masquerade party—these things barely even happen in our damn generation." Chris reached for Joe and grab his wrist, storming towards Connor's closet. "Let's pick out something for you."

"Chris, you really shouldn't—" Connor tried but Chris was adamant.

"It'll be fun, trust me!" Chris grinned, patting Joe's back and Joe glanced at him for a minute, realizing that there was something he was supposed to pick up on.

Chris was trying to tell him something...what was it?
FULL CHAPTER POSTED ON PATREON. CURRENTLY AT 43 CHAPTERS ON PATREON OF BOOK II, COMING TO AN END! CHECK MY BIO FOR THE LINK!