Cocky Roomie: A Bad Boy Romance Novel (Cocker Brothers of Atlanta Book 1) (9 page)

The soft turn of her key in the front door lock makes me nearly drop the photo. I shove it back on the shelf, rapidly aligning it with the dust outline its absence left behind.

The click of heels sounds for two steps and the door closes. I know she’s taking off her shoes.

How the fuck am I going to explain being in her room?!

Shit! My heart is pounding.

What the hell is wrong with me?

This is so not cool, Jake.

Running an unsteady hand through my hair I take a big breath and walk out, ready to face my own weakness head on. Better to just fess up. This ain’t gonna be fun.

Her gaze drifts over to me from where she’s slipping out of her heels at the mat. Her eyes widen with surprise and she glances from me to her room. Before she can say anything I grin. “Hey, I was just looking for you.”

Her frown flickers and then fades away. “Did you just get home, too?”

“Yep. Two seconds before you did.” So much for honesty. But looking at her reminds me of when I saw her last, when I smacked her ass on the way out of my office. She was grinning from ear to ear and trusted me in that moment. I’m not ready to give that up, just because I got a little curious about her.

“Where ya been?” I smile, shoving my hands in my pockets.

Her eyes flicker to them and her smile becomes forced. “Jake, we have to talk.” She sets her purse down and wrings her hands.

I exhaled and mutter, “Shit. Not this again. Just so you know I was going to tell you we have to talk, too.” She stares at me, and I admit, “Okay, that came out sounding childlike.”

She smiles. Fuck, she’s beautiful. I didn’t think so, at first. I knew she was fuckable but now the woman is growing on me. Except for these fucking talks.

“Okay, go ahead,” I grumble, leaning on the wall and crossing my arms.

She glances to my biceps and pauses. I flex them just to fuck with her. She smiles wider. “Nice. Stop that.”

“Stop this?” I pump them back and forth to make them dance for her. “This thing? Stop being charming? Have you seen my cock? Because that’s the finale.”

She stifles a laugh. “Okay, come on. I really think we have to discuss things between us because this is very weird living with you, doing what we did.”

“Fucking like wild animals in a man-made cage?”

Pushing her tongue into her cheek, Drew looks at me like the memory has her fired up again. She sighs and adjusts her blouse. “Yes, that.”

“It was hot,” I growl.

“It was very hot. And it’s not going to go anywhere.”

I already know this, but that she’s saying it, irks me. I know why I think it has to stop, and why Denver isn’t an altogether bad thing when it comes to Drew and keeping my hands off her. I know I’ve never had a desire to really love someone, and give them everything.

But why is she putting the brakes on?

“Why not?” My nerves ball up, expecting her to bring up my age again. I really don’t want to hear that shit again. What does age matter? That’s not our problem.

“Why not?” she asks like I should know the answer.

“Yeah, tell me why.”

After a long sigh, she crosses her arms, too. “Do you want something serious? Do you want to be in a relationship?”

Struck silent, I stare at her. “No.”

Unblinking, we hold each other’s look before she slowly nods. “That’s what I thought.”

“Why does it have to be serious?”

“Because it does. Because it is,” she sighs, releasing her arms to run her fingers through her long hair. I can still remember how it smelled when I buried my face in her neck. “Sex is the most intimate thing two people can do together outside of giving birth and killing one another. Acting like it’s casual is lying to yourself.”

“Lots of people have casual sex and are just fine with that,” I argue.

“Not me,” she whispers. “I can’t do that. After I left today, I drove around the city and I went to Piedmont Park and just sat and thought about things. Today was incredible, Jake. Too incredible. And that’s how I know I can’t keep sticking my hand in the basket thinking the cobra won’t bite. Sooner or later.”

“Are you calling my cock a cobra? I’m thinking more python.”

She smiles. “I’m being serious.”

“I know. I really do agree with you, I just don’t like it.”

“Me neither.” She runs her hands through her hair again and shakes it out. “I will fall for you, if we continue to do what we did today.”

“Fuck like our lives depended on it?”

She smiles. “You’re ridiculous.”

“You like it,” I mutter, pretending to be having fun, but there’s no smile in my gut or on my face. Losing the jokes, I look at the floor and confess, “I’m not used to this, what you’re doing right now. I’m used to games and attempts to manipulate me.”

Drew laughs a little. “I’m sure. But isn’t it better this way?”

“Harder to hear. You have to face it.” I inhale and push off the wall, shoving my hands in my pockets. “You got the job.”

Her eyes go wide and her jaw drops open with happy surprise. “I did?”

“Your interview was spectacular. That’s what I told my uncle.”

She runs over and smacks my arm. “Shut up! Are you fucking with me? I really got the job?”

“Yeah. I told him you were eager.”

She hits me again and I can’t help but laugh.

“Jake!!!”

“To learn! Eager to learn! No, seriously. You got the job. Congratulations.”

Her smile disappears in an instant. “Is it just because we…”

“No! No, I think you’ll do great.” My mind is on the books she’s been studying, but I can’t tell her how impressed I am by how she’s going after this. The job search was one thing, but that nightly studying deepens my respect for her.

“My uncle has a thing for helping people, so it was actually in your favor that you have no experience. That’s why I have to go to Denver. He kept trying to give this guy Dwight a chance, but he blew it. My uncle thinks he’ll still get his shit together and get sober. I’ll be there until that happens, I guess.” Drew is watching me intently. “Uncle Don never gives up on someone until he has no other choice.”

When she knows I’m done, she softly says, “Your uncle sounds like a good man.”

“He is.” A lump forms in my throat, because of how proud I am of my family. The one I’m going to be far away from. Now is the perfect time to exit this too difficult conversation. “I’ll leave you to whatever it is you do at night.”

Drew calls after me, “Thank you for the job, Jake. I won’t let you guys down.”

I wave over my shoulder without looking back. In my room I close my door and take a half dozen deep breaths. I tear off my shirt because it’s suddenly very hot in here. Blinking around my room, I shake my head and walk to a photo of my own, one that hangs on the wall. It’s my brothers and me when I was only fifteen. We’re all such different heights here. Jaxson is the oldest but Jett, one year younger is taller than him in this, stockier, too. They’re the same height now, maybe an inch difference. Jett’s still stockier. Jax is sinewy from workin’ on his ranch. Then there’re the twins on either side of me. Justin’s mouth is open because he’s telling our mom how to take the picture. Jason is laughing because Justin’s bossing her around. I’m smirking because of the shit we pulled that day that Mom didn’t know about. I forget what it was, but we got into some kind of trouble in Cascade Springs Park. In this I’m scrawnier than the older four, shorter by a couple inches at least. Then there’s Jeremy, Mr. Serious, only thirteen, the baby. “Can’t believe you’re a Marine now, you fucker,” I mutter to his goofy smile. I haven’t seen him smile like this in a long time, always so serious now that he’s a man.

Grabbing the doorknob, I walk out to find Drew. Her bedroom door is closed, so I knock on it, feeling another tinge of guilt for having broken her privacy earlier. I hear her padding toward me. She opens the door with raised eyebrows, blue eyes guarded.

“Yes?”

“You hungry?”

She pauses. “Actually, yes. Very.”

“Let’s make some dinner. Watch a movie. Just friends.”

She stares at me like she’s trying to figure out if I’m tricking her. “Okaaaaay.”

I hit the nearest wall and flip around, calling over my shoulder, “Great.”

DREW

B
reakfast for dinner is one of my favorites. When I suggested it he told me he feels that way, too. Then he tore off his shirt and tossed it onto the floor, telling me he prefers to be shirtless when he’s home.

“I noticed,” I smiled.

Now we’re easily moving around each other while he sautés spinach, ham and onions for the omelets, and I fry up red potatoes with garlic, basil, salt and pepper.

“Bummer we don’t have any bacon,” I tell him as I add a little more salt.

“Mmmm. Bacon,” he mutters. “Did you go to college?”

“This is not something I’m proud of, but no.”

Jake flips the sizzling contents of his pan as he says, “I didn’t either. But I knew I was staying in construction. Everything I learned was on the job. Been working with Uncle Don since I was fifteen.”

Reaching around him, I slide open the utensil drawer and grab a spatula. My arm brushes his naked lower back and electricity sparks. Jake glances at me as I retract my arm and turn over the potatoes. “Ten years at your job and you’re only twenty-five? Do you still love it?”

He makes a face like that’s a crazy question. “Fuck yeah! That’s what men are meant to do. It charges up my battery!” His eyes drop to my pan. “You’re turning over every single one of those?”

I nod, carefully poking each potato wedge until it rolls onto its soft side. “I like them to be evenly crisp.”

I sneak a look at Jake and catch him smirking at me. A flush fills my cheeks and he laughs, shakes his head and places his pan on a dead burner. Cracking eggs into a fresh one, he hums to himself. We cook the rest of the meal in an easy silence. Without asking what the other wants to do in terms of duties, I set the table while he pours the orange juice. I turn on some music. He piles the food onto our plates. I butter the toast. He takes them from me and places them next to the omelets, says, “I’ve got it,” and carries both of our plates to the dining table.

“Delicious,” I say after a few devoured bites. I didn’t realize I was so hungry, but he definitely worked up my appetite earlier. It’s hard to keep the images of him groaning in ecstasy away as he sits across from me just hours later. Friends. How am I going to be friends with this stunning man?

“When was the last time you talked to your husband?”

I wince, because after what I did today, it’s hard to hear that word. “He called a couple nights ago.”

Jake’s fork freezes and his eyes meet mine rather violently. “He did? What’d he want?”

I shrug it off. “Wanted to ask if I’d just give him the house outright since he earned the money to pay for it.”

“Fucking prick.”

I stare at him, because he literally growled that. I pick at my food and tell him, “Yeah. Edward wasn’t always that way, though.”

“Yeah he was.”

“What do you mean?” I squirm in my seat. Jake’s clearly angry, but this subject is still too near to my heart. Way too painful. He must sense that, because he goes back to eating, taking a couple slower bites before he changes the subject. “You ever been to the Botanical Gardens?”

Stabbing a couple potato wedges on my fork, I say, “I parked there today to go to Piedmont Park.”

“Yeah, that’s what made me think of it. Ever been?” I shake my head. “Let’s go tomorrow after work. I think you’d like it, Drew.”

He goes back to eating like the invitation was nothing. It sounds like a date.

What’s he playing at?

I watch him eat as if nothing is amiss. After a couple bites myself, I softly say, “Okay.”

“You want to carpool to work?” He glances up as he’s about to drink some orange juice. “It’s not a hard question.”

I smile, “Sure. Yeah. That’d be great.”

He nods, takes a sip, then asks like it’s nothing, “Was your husband the only other guy you’ve been with?”

I drop my fork, and wipe my mouth with a napkin. “Why would you think that?”

Did my voice actually just crack? Really? Come on!

“You married at nineteen,” he says frankly, leaning back with toast in his hand. He takes a huge bite of it, his face totally casual.

“I could have slept with other boys in high school.”

“Did you?” he asks through the chewing. Now his eyes betray him. They’re suddenly on fire with curiosity.

I pick my fork up and push my food around, keeping my eyes down. “I’ve only been with Edward.”

“Until today.”

Lightning cracks in my veins.

I lay the fork slowly down. “Yes.”

We can’t look away from each other. He sets his fork down, too, and leans forward to rest his elbows on the table. Under his steady gaze my heart starts pounding in all kinds of unusual places. What does he want me to say? That I want him? I do, God help me. But I will not sacrifice my sanity when I’m just getting secure footing.

I hold my breath, waiting for what he’s going to say. His eyes are full of unspoken things and his muscles are bared to me, tense with determination to keep his hands off me, or on me, I can’t tell which.

Frankly, I don’t know if I have the courage to turn him away.

“Drew…”

“Mmm?”

“I want to throw this table to the ground and pin you to this wall.” The stubble sways as he clenches his jaw. “It’s taking all I have to resist the urge of making you beg me again. I know I could do it.”

“Well, that’s very assumptive of you.”

He says, dead serious, “I know I could do it. But I respect you, and I respect what you’re trying to do. Starting your life up. A real life. Of your own.” He pauses. “I think it’s wrong that you’ve waited this long to work for yourself, have your own place, be in a city that has so much to offer you. I’m glad you went to the park today. I’m glad my Uncle gives people with empty resumes a chance. I don’t know what’s going to happen to you. You may not like it here after a while. You may move back. You may become Mayor one day, who knows?”

I laugh softly at the idea. “Oh please, I’m not going to be…”

“You have no idea what you’re going to be, Drew.” He holds my look with meaning. “You’re only just now trying to find out.”