Cocky Roomie: A Bad Boy Romance Novel (Cocker Brothers of Atlanta Book 1) (7 page)

DREW

W
hat a relief after the hell I went through with Jake that morning to meet Don Likuss, a sweet man with an open smile and naturally friendly way. He insisted I use his first name when I addressed him, and then he sent me to meet his nephew.

I almost had a heart attack when I saw my bastard roommate sitting behind a spotless desk with his fingertips resting on an old-fashioned calculator.

I almost turned right around and left.

I knew exactly how this was going to go.

I return the smile he’s giving me. “Well, Mr. Cocker, I didn’t expect such a nice surprise.”

“I agree,
Mrs.
Charles. So…let’s see.” He lifts up my pathetic resume and reads it as slowly as if it were written in Portuguese. “How long have you been married?”

So that’s how he’s going to play it.

“I’m not sure that my marital status matters when it comes to job performance.”

“Loyalty plays into everything.”

“I am extremely loyal, Jake…
Mr. Cocker
.”

His eyebrows rise slightly. “It looks like you haven’t worked a job other than house duties.”

I cringe inwardly but hide it. I had to list what I did for Edward because it was all I had. And frankly, housewives work hard. If anyone tells me differently, I’ll set them straight, and quick.

Smiling, I shoot back, “Running household finances is administrative work. Also accounting. And long and short term financial planning.”

Jake doesn’t say anything at first. He just stares at me with those incredibly seductive eyes of his and for a moment I think I’ve won round one.

But then he leans back in his chair with a cocky smirk. “Which is why I asked how long you were married. I’d like to know the length of this rather
inventive
job experience.”

My lips purse. “Since I was nineteen.”

“And you’re how old.”

“You know how old I am.”

“Right. So that’s how many years?”

“Don’t know how to count?” I bite back, leaning forward. “And with a calculator right at your fingertips. That must be very frustrating for you.”

His eyes turn to ice. Oh shit, I poked the sleeping tiger.

“Are you still married, Drew?”

“I am.”

His eyelashes fall to the resume as a wall erects around him. I can see the bricks slamming on top of each other by the second. Even the air around has grown cold.

“I see. Well, that would have been something you could have mentioned when you shot me down this morning.”

“I didn’t think it was your business.”

He sucks on his teeth, staring at the paper. “I guess it isn’t.”

We sit in a terribly uncomfortable silence until I can’t take it anymore. “I didn’t say anything because we’re separated…and it’s very fresh and embarrassing.”

His gaze drifts up and locks with mine. A heat shoots into my tummy as I watch the wall stop growing.

“How badly do you want this job?”

My lips part in surprise. “Badly.”

“How badly.”

“Why do you ask?”

“I want to know
what you’d do for it
.”

“Well, what’s that supposed to mean? Are you going to ask me to…”

“…No, Drew. I want to know how you’d approach working in a field you know nothing about.”

Wringing my hands where he can’t see them, I think for a minute. I thought he was going to suggest sexual favors. I wouldn’t put it past him. Not after the things he’s said before.

“I’m very eager to learn. And I’m smart. I will study the business, whatever aspects are most important to know first I’ll focus on, and then grow from there. I’ll spend time studyin’ after hours, too. I know I have a lack of experience to make up for, but the person who really wants the job, and who badly needs it, will be the hardest worker. That would be me, if you give me this chance.”

He is simply staring at me. It’s incredibly unnerving. “Why are you getting divorced?”

I swallow against the dryness in my throat. God, these memories are not what I want to dig up right now! I’m already on pins and needles as it is. I have kept him at a distance for a different reason, but now I really don’t want to tell him why I’m in Atlanta starting over. I know he’s going to say something cruel just to get back at me for rejecting him. His eyes are mean and suspicious and downright chilly!

“Why?” I cry out in frustration. “Why do you want to know that? How does that have anything to do with being an administrative assistant?”

“
Mrs
. Charles.” He tosses my resume dismissively on the desk as if the interview is over now.

“Oh shit, really? Okay, if you must know, Edward cheated on me. And from what I gather it had been goin’ on for a very long time.” I sit back in defeat. “
There!
Let me have it, Jake. Give me the best you’ve got, because Lord knows I can take more than I thought I ever could!”

His sharp eyes have clouded over. He’s flicking his thumb with his index finger. “Your husband cheated on you?”

“Yes!”

“After all those years.”

My chest is heaving now. “Yes.”

The tips of Jake’s fingers slowly rest on my mostly-empty resume. “I’m sorry, Drew. That’s fucked up.”

Stunned, I stare at him.

The evil smirk, the darkened eyes, the tension in his shoulders, they’re gone. A friend is staring back at me.

The façade of interviewing me vanishes as Jake’s volume drops on a deep frown. “They’re sending me to Colorado.”

Taken aback, I whisper, “You’re leaving?”

Jake glances to the window. “Yep.”

“For how long?”

He shrugs. “Don’t know.”

“You’re not happy about it?” He slowly shakes his head, staring off into an unwanted future. “Oh God, Jake, I’m sorry about that. Well, if it helps, I was thinking of moving out at the end of the month anyway, what with everything that’s been goin’ on. Us bein’ roommates is clearly not workin’. So you don’t have to worry about me and where I’ll land.”

With a dismissive wave, he mutters, “You can stay. I’m keeping my place while I’m gone. I’ll pay my half.” He looks back at the window with both anger and sadness. I have the urge to hug him, but I don’t know if that’s appropriate, so instead I just whisper, “I’m really sorry, Jake.”

“Why didn’t you work?”

“Well, Edward and I worked for a long time, but then…”

He picks up my resume and cuts me off. “When you were married, why didn’t
you
work?”

“Oh. Um…if I tell you, will you hire me?”

He chuckles, “Depends on the answer.”

“God, you’re unbelievably frustrating!” I sit back, exasperated. “Edward said that mothers don’t work. They should be home for the children.”

Jake tosses the paper yet again, this time disgusted. “What the fuck? You have kids? Why aren’t they with you?”

“Oh please!” I snap with fire in my eyes. “If I had children they wouldn’t leave my sight!” Torn by defending myself and being mortified by my past choices – being so gullible – I explain with all the pain that this memory brings up, “I’ve never had the joy of bein’ pregnant, Jake. There are no children waitin’ for me to come home. He kept promisin’ that
next
year would be the year. But then time would pass and he’d put it off again. Always when I was about to look for work of my own, gain some independence, that’s when he’d reel me back in. I found out later that he’d had a Vasectomy without my knowledge. He’d been lyin’ all along, just to control me.” I pause and stare at my hands. “You know how I found out? Our doctor called to confirm his appointment to
reverse
the Vasectomy, which apparently they can do. Like an idiot, I asked, ‘What vasectomy?’ to a doctor who’d known me since I was just a girl. It was terrible. To make things so much worse, he wasn’t reversin’ it for me. No, I got that call
after
he told me he was leavin’ me for Debra Morales, a woman who
worked
with him, if you can believe the irony.”

I am blinking away pain as I remember the pretty brunette I saw watching me in church that one morning. I knew in my gut that something was very personal about how she stared at us, but I ignored it.

Forcing a laugh, I tell him the finale of it all. The part that I still have a hard time believing, had it not been my own momma who told me. “She’s pregnant now, this Debra person. With his daughter, I’m told. So, yay Edward. A father after all. And she’s keeping her job.”

Jake was silent during all of that. He surprises me by rising up and coming around the desk. Confused, I stare at him as he pulls me from my chair and gives me a bear hug that tears my heart to pieces.

“I’m so sorry, Drew,” he whispers, squeezing me harder. The kindness is too much for me. I slip my arms around his neck and bury my face in his shoulder, fighting back tears. He rocks me with heartfelt sincerity. “I’m so sorry that happened to you. I’m so sorry.”

“I didn’t expect you to be nice!” I croak.

“Yeah, well…I’ve got a soft spot for family. He was yours. He shouldn’t have hurt you like that.”

Jake keeps rocking me for a long while until all my muscles are puddles.

He releases me and I’m so desperate for the comfort that I can’t look away from him. I wait for him to go back to his seat or tell me that the interview is over, or…something! But he’s silently holding my shocked gaze, his lips set in a firm line.

All I want to do is bury myself into his strength again.

I want his arms around me a little longer.

I step close and touch his face. He blinks at me like he’s making a hard decision, then out of the blue leans down and captures me in a kiss. We stay with our lips pressed hard together like this as electricity courses through our bodies. His jaw unlocks and he claims my mouth with the best kiss I’ve ever had. Our tongues dance together as he fists my hair and pulls my head back so he can kiss me deeper. I moan into his openness and he groans into mine as his hands travel down my back and rest my ass. He gasps for breath and stares down at me.

“There’s no turning back if we keep this up. Now’s your chance to keep your promise about never fucking me.”

The strength of his fingers gripping me close to him feels so good, and the pressure of his erection against me can’t be ignored. I don’t know if it’s because he’s leaving and I’ll miss hearing him move around the apartment, or the leaving means there’s no chance of getting too attached to a guy I know can’t return the affections in the way I need, or the relief from sharing my shameful secret and him being so kind about it. I don’t know why, but instead of turning him away, I whisper, “Just this once.”

“Just this once, what, Drew?” he rasps into my neck as he presses rough kisses into it.

“Just this once make my pain go away.”

He looks at me with a hunger I’ve never seen before in anyone. Jake takes possession of my mouth until I’m trembling. He reaches to his desk, wiping everything but the computer off it with one swift motion. Papers go flying. The calculator hits the ground with a thud as Jake lifts and plants me on the desk, separating my legs. My eyelids feel heavy with need as I lace my fingers into his hair and watch him kneel in front of me to hike up my skirt. His fingers don’t hesitate. They dip underneath my pink panties and slide into my secret, swollen folds.

“Fuck, you’re as slippery as an oil spill in August,” Jake groans.

Pulling my panties off and tossing them without looking, he dips his gorgeous head between my legs where he licks me long and slow. I grab tighter onto his head and moan as his gravelly voice vibrates my sensitive crevices. “I knew you’d taste this good.”

I cry out as his tongue lunges into me there. Amazed by his effortless ability, my hips rise on their own, aching to give myself to him completely.

He growls into my wetness, “You like what my tongue is doing to your cunt don’t you baby?”

The fire his filthy talk sends into my core is shocking. Shyly, I moan my reply, but of course that’s not good enough for a man like Jake Cocker.

“
Tell me
you love it, Drew. Tell me how much you love my tongue flicking your swollen clit like this.”

He proceeds to tease me until I’m panting and gripping his head in a vice. “Oh God, Jake!”

He pauses and breathes onto me, opening my folds with calloused fingertips. “Tell me, or I’ll stop.”

“I love your tongue,” I moan. “Is that good? I’ve never talked dirty. Tell me what you want me to do!”

He smiles, dips into my pussy and starts flicking again. Then he stops and breathes hot air onto me until I’m a puddle from this delicious feeling. “I want you to beg me to fuck you.”

“I will do no such thing!”

He starts flicking again, slowing and speeding up and playing my pussy like a fiddle in the backwoods of Georgia.

“
Beg
me,” he growls and slides two fingers inside my tight cave, pumping steadily. He starts licking me while he does this and I am one wet hot mess under his skill. Reading my reactions, he stops just short of the sweet release taking me over.

“You asshole!” I cry out, panting.

“
Beg
me, Drew.”

His fingers slide really, REALLY slowly in and out of my trembling body as he watches my expressions growing desperate. Lady or no, I’m about to do whatever he asks of me because I am so close to cumming, right on the edge, that it is unreal. He knows it. He’s torturing me on purpose, to win.

“Beg me, baby. Beg me to take you over the edge into the sweetest orgasm of your life. I’ll take you there, but only if you tell me what I want you to. Then I will fill you so full with my cum that you will never want be with another man again without thinking of
me
while
he’s
inside you.”

“Oh God,
stop,
Jake,” I moan, out of my mind, throbbing everywhere.

He holds his fingers as deep as they’ll go as he kisses my clit, then looks at me again. “First you’re going to cum all over my tongue. These fingers I’ve buried here in your hot, wet little cunt? You’re going to soak them. Then you know what I’m gonna do to you? I’m going to fuck you right here on my desk. I’m going to stretch your walls and pump between these gorgeous thighs until I fill you like I promised. Do you want it?”