Necessary Roughness

by Julie Brannagh

  She pulled him deeper inside her as she moved on him. He knew he wasn’t going to last. It had been a long time for him, but he was surprised to see the flush spreading over her chest and feel the first ripples of her orgasm. She tossed her head back and let out a loud cry. Even more than the feeling of her body tightening around his, the visual of Jordan’s pleasure brought him off. She enjoyed herself. She didn’t hold back. He knew he wanted more of her too.

  She leaned over his chest and brushed the hair off his forehead. He reached out to pull her into his side. He could feel her heart still pounding.

  “That was amazing,” he said.

  He was surprised to see her blush a little. “I got kind of loud.”

  “Loud is good. You make as much noise as you want,” he said. He reached out to kiss her again, a sweet, slow caress. He didn’t ever want to stop kissing her. She burrowed closer to him.

  “I loved it too,” she whispered. She laid her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her. They fell asleep holding each other.

  Chapter Seven

  THE NEXT MORNING, Tanner stirred in his sleep as sunshine warmed his face. He still had his arm around Jordan. He breathed in the scent of her perfume as she snuggled against him. He wanted to go back to sleep, but something was wrong. Seconds later, he heard footsteps in the hallway outside his room. Adrenaline flooded his system. He sat straight up in bed and looked around for anything that could be used as a weapon. The security system was on. He remembered arming it when they arrived home last night, but it wasn’t going to help him now. His phone was across the room.

  He was going to have to deal with whoever was in his house with whatever he could grab.

  He threw back the blankets as he heard the “crash” of the bedroom door hitting the opposite wall. He was off the bed seconds later. He grabbed his cane. He’d hit the intruder with it, and hopefully it would slow him down enough to get to the panic button on the security system.

  “Get the fuck out of here,” he shouted.

  The woman now cowering next to the bedroom door screamed. He was so far gone on his fight-or-flight response that he almost hit her. It took him a few seconds to figure out this wasn’t the typical intruder.

  “Don’t hit me! It’s Star!”

  He lowered the chair to the floor and forced himself to take deep breaths.

  “Tanner?” Jordan said. She sounded scared. He was scared too, and pissed off. He stepped away from Star. She was giving him a defiant glare. Of course she thought it was perfectly normal to break into his house, and he hadn’t seen her for months. He didn’t want to see her again. She must have thought he was joking.

  “What the hell are you doing here?”

  He could hear Sadie’s frantic barking. She must have shut herself inside Jordan’s room somehow.

  “I wanted to talk to you,” Star said.

  “Have you heard of a cell phone? You broke into my goddamn house!” He stared at her. “What exactly did you think was going to happen here, anyway?”

  Jordan grabbed the robe that was draped over his bedroom chair. “I’ll go get Sadie.”

  “You don’t have to do that,” he said.

  “Don’t worry about it.” Jordan shoved past Star like she was attempting to avoid dog poop in the street.

  “Of course I’d come over and you’d have another woman here,” Star said. “Doesn’t surprise me at all.” She stared up at him with disgust in her eyes.

  “It doesn’t matter what I am or am not doing with anyone else. We’re not together. I told you I didn’t want to see you again, more than once. You need to leave. Right now.”

  “I have to talk to you.”

  “No. Get out.”

  The newly released Sadie threw herself onto Star. Tanner pulled Sadie off before the dog bit Star and he ended up getting sued for it. Star was screaming, Sadie was growling at her and trying to get free of Tanner so she could protect her owner, and Jordan stepped into the room.

  “I hit the panic button on your security system,” she said.

  “Fucking bitch!” Star screamed as she jumped to her feet.

  Tanner reached out to grab Jordan and shove her behind his back. If things had been less than optimal before, they were degenerating by the second.

  ***

  TANNER WAS SHOUTING at Star to leave, she was yelling back that she didn’t have to, and Sadie was still barking. It was a good thing Tanner had a grip on her collar. Jordan heard sirens outside, and she reached out to grab Tanner’s arm. She tried to shout above the din.

  “The police are here.”

  “Great,” Tanner said. “Let me grab something to put on.” He pulled another robe off the chair in his room. He must have collected them.

  “You’re not going anywhere,” Star said. She grabbed the doorknob and pulled the door shut behind her.

  He tried to yank the door open. Initially, he couldn’t get enough of a grip on the doorknob. He was still shaking with adrenaline. He pulled the door open, it slammed against the wall, and he managed to get into the elevator for the trip downstairs.

  Jordan could hear footsteps in the entryway. Star must have let the cops in. Even worse, Tanner had no idea what she’d said to the cops. If she could get downstairs, maybe she could help him. She took the stairs as quickly as she could.

  Instead of the sweet morning after that Jordan had envisioned before she’d fallen asleep last night, she was in a war zone. The officers were patting them down as they ensured nobody had a weapon. Star was screaming. It was taking everything Tanner had to keep Sadie under control.

  “Officers, this is Star Jenkins, but most people would recognize her as Flowerbomb. She broke into my house.”

  ***

  SEVERAL MINUTES LATER, Star was in handcuffs, Sadie was in her crate, and Tanner was apologizing to Jordan.

  “I had no idea she was going to do something like this. I’m sorry. I wanted this morning to be special for us,” Tanner said. He rubbed a hand over his face.

  “You’re apologizing to her? Apologize to me! I’m the one you left. You didn’t give a shit about me. I should get the apology!” Star shouted.

  “Sadie, quiet. We’re fine. It’s okay to stop barking,” Tanner said.

  Star was still insisting at the top of her lungs that she had done nothing wrong, she wanted to leave, and she was the victim. Tanner stared at her without saying a word. He was quiet until she screamed out, “Barb told me you tried to fuck her!”

  “What?” he said.

  “Oh, yeah. Don’t try to deny it. I know all about it. I sent her over here to make sure you weren’t with anyone else, and she told me that you tried to get her in the shower.” Star’s eyes were wild. “I know. I know.”

  Jordan put one hand over her mouth.

  “Were you invited here this morning, Ms. Jenkins?”

  “Not exactly.”

  The officer recited Star’s Miranda rights, which left her momentarily speechless. That didn’t last long. She started screaming again about how she was the victim, Tanner cheated on her, he never loved her, and she would get her revenge on him.

  Jordan heard Tanner’s voice in her ear. “Do you think she realizes she just committed another crime in front of police officers?”

  “Probably not.”

  One of the other officers approached Tanner and Jordan. “We have additional questions. We’d like to talk with both of you if you don’t mind waiting a few minutes.”

  The officer glanced back at the three officers who were escorting Star out of Tanner’s house. She was kicking and screaming, and she tried to dig her heels into the highly polished floor. It didn’t work. They half dragged, half carried her out. A few minutes later, one of the police cars pulled away with Star in the backseat.

  ***

  THE REMAINING POLICE officers cleared out of Tanner’s house about an hour later. Jordan sank onto the living room couch. She realized he’d already apologized for what happened and it might be a good
time to chill, but she was a little freaked out about the whole thing.

  “I need to ask you a question,” she said.

  “Do I want to run off to a tropical island for a few weeks? Hell yes,” he said.

  “I like that question.”

  “I’m fond of it too. What’s up?” He sat down next to her, threw his arm around the back of the couch, and pulled her closer.

  “Does that kind of thing happen often?”

  “People breaking into my house? Nope.” He stared at the floor. It must not have been a great subject for him.

  “How did she get in here?”

  “She had the codes to the gate and the security system.”

  Jordan turned to stare at him in shock. “Why? You broke up.”

  “We did. I wish I had a better excuse for this, but the truth is always good. I forgot to change the codes. I never dreamed she’d do something like this, either.”

  “Are you mad I hit the button for the cops?”

  “Hell no.” He rubbed his face with one hand again. “The cops told me that Barb isn’t really a nurse, either. They’ve been working on this case for a while now. They’re still not sure how she knows Star, but she usually robs people’s houses and disappears.”

  “Barb told me that her daughter went to college with Star, and she was here to check up on you.”

  “When did this happen?”

  “The day she left.”

  Tanner’s cell phone rang. “Shit,” he bit out as he got a look at the phone’s screen. She started to get up, and he reached out for her arm. “Please stay. I want to keep talking, but I have to answer this.” He hit the button to answer. “Mom. What’s up?”

  Jordan could hear his mom without the speaker button. “Your dad says there’s something about a break-in and an arrest at your house on TMZ. He got an alert on his phone. Is this true? Are you hurt? What happened?”

  “Nobody is hurt. Everything is fine. Don’t worry.”

  “What do you think I’m going to do, Tanner? You didn’t call me. Why didn’t you call me?”

  “I didn’t think it was national news.”

  “We’ll be up there by tonight. Your dad still has those tickets you sent us, and there are several flights this afternoon. We have packed suitcases, and we can be in the car in fifteen minutes. I can’t believe you didn’t call me. You could be dead or something. Why—”

  “I wouldn’t answer my phone if I was dead.”

  “That is not funny, young man. Not at all. I’ll see you in a few hours.” She hung up.

  “Let me guess,” Jordan said. “Your parents are coming to visit.”

  Chapter Eight

  JORDAN WASN’T SURE how she felt about seeing Tanner’s parents again. They’d met while he was in the hospital. Tanner and Jordan had slept together, so it seemed like the next logical step, but she wondered if she needed to go stay with her parents while his folks were here. Meeting them was one thing; they might feel differently if they knew she was living in his house. It wasn’t like Tanner needed a ton of physical therapy anymore, either. They worked together a little in the mornings and the evenings in his gym, but now it was mostly strengthening and stretching exercises. He was at the physical therapy practice a couple of days a week to work with her, and he saw the massage therapist. Tanner’s rehabilitation nurse, Kyan, was tapering off the time he spent at Tanner’s now, too. He was finally safe to take a shower without supervision. The rest of his recovery depended on Tanner and how willing he was to keep working until he had only a slight limp when he walked.

  She’d spent a month with a man who drove her out of her mind with irritation, made her want to scream on a regular basis, and ended up melting her heart as he moved from someone she initially detested to someone she was developing real feelings for. She should get her suitcases out, pack up her stuff, and hit the road before his mom and dad showed up.

  The sliding glass door that led to the patio outside her room (and the comfortable padded deck chair) beckoned. If she packed her things, she could spend a few minutes enjoying the chair and the view one last time before she left. She was going to miss the beautiful view and the luxurious and comfortable room, and she’d miss Sadie. She’d filled out a few rental applications over the past week. One of them would pan out, and she’d go back to having her own place again. Tanner would have to ask her out if he wanted to see her. She grabbed her suitcases out of the walk-in closet, flopped them open on the bed, and started pulling stuff out of the built-in chest of drawers.

  Ten minutes later, tears were running down her cheeks, and she sat down hard on the side of the bed. She didn’t want to leave. She couldn’t stay.

  Sadie looked up at her with entreating eyes. If there was one thing she’d learned from living with a Labrador retriever, they were never full and they all had advanced degrees in begging. She started sniffing Jordan’s pockets for treats.

  “Don’t give me the eyes. I know you. We’ll go outside, and maybe your dad will find you some treats later.”

  Sadie gave Jordan a play bow. Jordan reached out to open the sliding glass door, and they stepped outside. Despite the fact it was overcast today, the air was still warm and it was comfortable to sit and relax. Sadie explored the yard while Jordan concentrated on breathing deeply. She brushed more tears off her face. Sadie sniffed around to see if other dogs had been in her yard.

  Despite Jordan’s best efforts to stay awake, she fell asleep. She woke late that afternoon to Sadie’s happy barking and the dog racing upstairs. She heard a woman’s voice. “There’s my sweet Sadie! Grandpa brought some treats for you, sweetheart. We’ll get them out later.”

  “Mom, she knows what that word means. She’s going to bug you until she gets them.”

  “Oh, I don’t mind. She’s such a love. Sadie, come over here, and sit on the couch with me.”

  She heard an older man’s voice. “Christine, you treat that dog like she’s a baby. Dogs don’t understand that.”

  “Your grandpa is just cranky that I didn’t bring any treats for him. Up. Up. There we go! We’ll cuddle and ignore the boys, won’t we?”

  Unless Jordan was wrong, Tanner’s mom and dad had arrived.

  “Mom, I have some steaks. Would you and Dad like baked potatoes? I also have some salad.”

  “I’ll get them, honey. Why don’t you relax with your dad for a little while? Also, isn’t Jordan here? We should ask her if she’d like to have dinner with us.”

  “Sure, Mom,” Tanner said. “That would be great.”

  “I’m surprised she’s not upstairs yet. Didn’t you tell me she’s in the guest room? I’ll go find her,” Tanner’s mom said. “Come on, Sadie.”

  A couple of minutes later, Jordan heard footsteps outside her bedroom and a tap on the door.

  “Come in,” Jordan said.

  Christine Cole walked into Jordan’s room. “It’s great to see you again. You probably heard us upstairs already.” She nodded at the half-full suitcases on the bed. “We are so glad that you were able to stay here and help Tanner with his physical therapy. He has made such wonderful progress since the last time we saw him. We wanted to stay with him while he was getting better, but he wanted us to come up when he could take us around to the tourist stuff. You know how that is.”

  “Yes. My parents live here, and they still go to the tourist spots too.”

  Christine either didn’t notice the tearstains on Jordan’s face or chose to not mention them.

  “Are you all going to see some of the local stuff while you’re here?” Jordan said.

  “I hope so. We came up to find out what happened this morning.”

  “Has Tanner explained yet?”

  “Oh, no. He has some other things to explain too. He must have told you about his coach calling him.” She reached out and gave Jordan’s hand a squeeze. “You’ve been crying.”

  “I—I was surprised.” She was a lot more than surprised, but she wasn’t going to go into it right now.

/>   “Tanner wanted to get into coaching after he retired from the league. He’s not going to play again, so his coach offered him an assistant coaching position with his old team in Atlanta. He’s leaving next week.”

  When he’d talked with her about all this last night, Tanner had made it sound like nothing was definite and he was still in the interviewing process. This must have happened in the past couple of hours. Jordan tried to pretend like she knew exactly what his mom was talking about. “Oh, of course.”

  “Did he mention that if they hire him, he’s going to have to move there? He’ll miss this gorgeous waterfront house, but he’s wanted this for a long time now. We’ll miss him too, but his dad is about five years from retirement. We’ll be able to go and visit anytime we want then.”

  “That’s great,” Jordan said. It wasn’t great at all. “Christine, I need to take care of something before I go upstairs. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

  “Sure. I’ll let the guys know.”

  Jordan walked into the bathroom, shut the door behind her, and covered her face with her hands so nobody else could hear her cry.

  ***

  TANNER DID HIS best to pretend like he was listening to his parents joke with each other and attempt to draw him into the conversation. His mom got up from her chair and said, “I’ll go get the plates and silverware to put on the table.”

  He glanced at the doorway leading to the deck so many times his dad said, “Are you expecting someone else to show up for dinner?”

  “What? No.”

  “Your mother told you Jordan would be up here in a few minutes. What’s going on?”

  The only thing that saved him from the dual parent interrogation was the fact his mom was in the kitchen. He wasn’t sure what she was doing; the salad was ready to go, and he’d be grilling the salmon steaks soon. Maybe she was taking an inventory of the contents of his refrigerator. If she was in the kitchen, she wasn’t out here asking him questions.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Tanner said. “She woke up to Star screaming at her. She got in because I forgot to change the gate and security system codes.” He folded his arms over his chest. “I screwed up.”