by P. G. Van
The Royal Roommate
By
P. G. Van
© 2017 P.G.Van
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written permission of the author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner.
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.
Chapter 1
“Mom, don’t talk to me like you talk to Aaron, I’m ten years older than him.” Amy rolled her eyes as she drove on the lonely, dark highway.
Her mother took a deep breath. “Amy, I know how old you are, and I know you are a lot more mature than your brother. I would have preferred you staying back at the hotel instead of driving through the night.”
“Mom, that place was pathetic. It reeked of…” Her voice trailed off not wanting to give her mom the details.
“Of?” Her mom wasn’t going to let it go.
“Of whores, Mom. There, I said it. It looked good when I booked it online, but it was horrible. I should have known when I saw those women in the lobby,” she grumbled.
“But driving in the middle of the night is worse,” her mom objected.
“I only have a few more hours to go, and I will be fine. Can I talk to Dad?” She couldn’t wait to talk to her father.
“You having fun, sweetheart?” Her father’s sweet voice was always comforting.
“Yes, I was until I called Mom.”
“Did she call you a brat again?” He laughed.
“I’m sure she thinks I’m a snob for not liking the hotel.” She giggled.
“You’re not a snob, you just have high standards.”
“Thank you, Daddy!”
“I want you to have fun but be safe.” Her father spoke for a few more minutes and ended the call. Her mom was always the cautious one, and her dad gave her and her little brother the extra freedom they needed to balance out the mama bear love.
She was driving to a new city for an exciting law internship. It was the first time she was going to be almost a day’s drive away from home. Her college was a few hours from her parents’ farmhouse, and she went home almost every weekend, so her mom didn’t freak out.
She was excited to move to San Francisco, and after combing through a list of apartments, she found a location she liked. She would have ended up paying more than half her salary if it weren’t for the corporate subsidy her internship offered.
The large dose of caffeine and sugar drove her to a high with her favorite rock band playing in her mother’s minivan she inherited when she turned eighteen.
It was almost eleven p.m. on Saturday night, and a chill ran through her when she realized her car was the only one on the single lane highway. She would merge onto a major highway in twenty minutes, but the eerie feeling sunk in as she drove along the curvy road. She turned off the music to stay focused and glued her eyes to the road.
A few minutes into the drive, her phone started to beep, the sound it made when it was looking for a wireless signal. “Great, middle of nowhere and no signal on my phone.”
She looked in her rearview mirror through the small gap she had managed to keep in her fully loaded minivan to see if there were any other cars, but no lights were in sight. She turned into a curve and slammed on her brakes when she saw a man walk toward the middle of the road calling for help.
“Fuck!” She almost ran into the man.
It looked like the man’s car had rammed into the rock wall on one side, and he was bleeding. His blood stained his white shirt, and she watched as he approached her car.
“Help, can you please call an ambulance?” The man pressed on his chest with his hand.
Her first thought was her safety, but the pain was evident in his eyes glistening with the unshed tears and his strained breathing. The man was badly hurt, and to her horror, she still had no signal on her phone.
“I… I don’t have a signal.”
“Please take me to a hospital. I have a broken rib and internal bleeding.” He sounded like a doctor.
She took one look at the back of her van trying to figure out a safe spot for him to sit so he didn’t get injured from things falling on him. She reached around pulling the bag on the back seat to one side to make room for him to sit.
She hit the button to open the passenger door and watched as he carefully got into the back seat. He was hurt, and any worry of letting a stranger into the car vanished when she heard him groan in pain while clipping on his seatbelt.
“Hang on, I will take you to the nearest hospital.” She continued on her route.
“There should be one right after you merge onto the highway,” his voice was strained. “Please keep talking to me and help me stay awake.”
She drove for almost fifteen minutes as she conversed and threw riddles at a complete stranger while keeping an eye on her phone to see when she would get her signal back. As soon as her phone picked up a signal, she called the emergency line.
“Hello, I have an injured man in my car, and I am heading to the nearest hospital.” She spoke to the emergency response team member and provided her location and was given the exact directions to the hospital.
“We will be there in ten minutes, keep breathing, please,” she spoke to the man who had become awfully silent.
“Don’t let me pass out,” he pleaded making a shiver run down her spine. She blared her horn in the darkness in hopes of jolting him awake if she was losing him. She could hear him mumble something as they rode, and every time he went silent, she honked. To her relief, he kept talking in a weak voice.
She was relieved to see a team of ER personnel waiting for her outside the hospital entrance. She watched as they lifted the man from the back seat of her car onto the gurney. She gave one of the personnel the location of where his accident occurred and handed over the hospital paperwork she was asked to fill out. Turning away, she was relieved the man was in safe hands. She stopped when she heard one of the personnel call out to her.
She took a few steps closer to the gurney when she saw the man looking at her with his hand stretched out.
“Thank you so much for saving my life, and I need to know about the man.” He took her hand in his and held it weakly. “How did the man in the field know he was going to die?”
She smiled remembering the puzzle she had asked him on their way to the hospital. “Parachute! Hope you feel better soon, and thank you for keeping me company on that scary highway.”
She watched as they rolled the man indoors on the gurney feeling relieved and good about driving instead of staying at the hotel.
*****
“No roommate yet, Mom, and I’m liking it that way.” She laughed. It had been a week, and the roommate who was supposed to move in a few days ago had not shown up.
“Do you like the work?”
“It’s crazy… just the way I like it.”
“Glad you weren’t expecting a three-month vacation, sweetie,” her mother teased.
“I know, and it’s going to get crazier.” She laughed happy to hear her mom’s voice. She had briefly talked to her after she reached her apartment and hadn’t talked to her in a few days.
“I can’t believe you only have a year of college left.” Her mother’s voice held immense pride.
“I can’t wait to move back and work in my hometown.”
“I love you, sweetheart. You make Daddy and me so proud.”
“I have a year to go before I can be a real…” Her voice trailed off when
she heard a knock on the door. “Someone’s at the door Mom, call you back in a few.”
She wasn’t expecting anyone, but she sprinted toward the door knowing it was pretty late for a friendly neighbor, if any, to stop by to welcome her. She froze in the middle of the living area when she heard the familiar beep on the door indicating the lock is turning off.
“Stop!” she inadvertently cried out and heard the clanking of the chain of the door guard. She saw a tall figure through the small opening as she walked toward the door.
“Open up, please,” a deep male voice called out to her.
“Who are you?” Her light brown eyes met dark, deep-set green eyes that bore into hers.
“I am the proud renter of this apartment. Will you please take this damn chain off?” the guy growled.
“What? No.” She wasn’t expecting a male as her roommate.
He showed her the key card in his hand. “Do you need more proof?”
Her mind was reeling, and she kept wondering why the agency set her up with a male roommate when she had requested a female roommate. She took a deep breath before unlatching the chain to open the door.
The guy in front of her filled the huge doorway. “You must be Amy. I’m Sid.” His accent was very different, but her name sounded cool on his lips. Elite British family?
He held out a strong arm smiling at her. She took in his casual stance and confident manner as he shook her hand. “Are you sure you have the right address?”
“I have the right key card.” He smirked.
“Your room is to the left,” she called out taking in the breadth of his shoulders as he walked away from her. He seemed to be a few years older than her but looked immature in his ripped jeans and a Marvel comics t-shirt.
She watched him kick his bedroom door open and drop his backpack on the bed and crash onto the mattress.
“This is awesome!” He sighed.
She cursed under her breath knowing her days of bliss and solitude in the apartment were over. She didn’t have good vibes about the guy and had the feeling it wasn’t going to be fun with him around.
“Amy,” he called out just as she was about to lock herself in her room.
“Yes.” She stood by her bedroom door. She heard the wood creak under his feet as he walked toward her.
“What’s for dinner?”
“Excuse me?” She fumed.
He laughed like he was watching a funny movie annoying her to the core. “I meant to ask what do you do for dinner. Do you cook or eat out?”
“I don’t like to eat out.”
“You cook? That’s awesome. What’s for dinner?”
“Dude, what’s your problem?”
“What’s your problem?” He smirked.
“You… are you sure you have the right address?” She made a mental note to check with the rental agency.
He didn’t respond immediately. “Are you in denial that you have a hot roommate or are you… worried you can’t keep your hands off me?”
She gritted her teeth refusing to dignify his question with a response. She wanted to reach out and slap him, and a thought crossed her mind as she wondered how his cheek would feel under her skin. The rough stubble and the chiseled cheekbones were distracting, and she knew women reacted to his rugged looks. She wasn’t going to let another pretty face let her show any form of weakness.
“It takes a gentleman to have a woman as a roommate, and I wonder if you know how to handle that.” She smiled before turning away from him.
“Really?” He was clearly taken aback.
“Don’t worry, it won’t take you long to learn from me.”
“Good, will you teach me how to be a good roommate by feeding me dinner first?” The sarcasm in his voice made her stop in her tracks. Her palm was itching to come in contact with his tanned cheek, and her nails craved to dig into his skin. What annoyed her most was she wasn’t thinking of the skin on his face.
What an asshole!
“Listen… Sid, I need to be in this apartment for a few months, and I’m not here to make friends or enemies. You keep to yourself, and I’ll stay out of your way.” She crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“Isn’t that boring, and you don’t look like you are a boring person?”
“Dude… that’s your bedroom, this one’s mine, and we share the living area and the kitchen.”
“What about the bathroom?” It was an innocent question, but every word out of his mouth irritated her.
“Your bathroom is that way, and I have one through that sliding door.” She pointed to her room that had a set of glass sliding doors for the entrance.
“What? You get a private bathroom, and I get a ‘walk through the kitchen before you pee’ bathroom?” he grumbled.
“This is San Francisco, and this is one of those modified apartments. It’s a tiny closet turned into a bathroom.”
“Why can’t I have that bedroom?”
“Because I requested a room with an attached bathroom, and you didn’t.” She walked away from him before he could make another smart-ass comment and annoy her further. She looked into his dark eyes for a brief moment before she closed the sliding door to her room.
“Good to meet you too, Amy.” He mocked walking back to his room. He never expected the person of interest in his investigation to be so young and wildly beautiful.
He shut the door before pulling his phone from his pocket.
Sid: On the ground, sir.
He put the phone away not expecting an immediate response. He was at the Army camp when an emergency order was sent for him to investigate a woman in San Francisco. It was not his standard task or method of investigation, but the order came from the top. He didn’t have much time, and if his conversations with his roommate continued as they were, he knew it would be a challenge to get the information he needed.
His phone beeped, and he knew exactly who was responding. His phone number was given to just one person at that time.
Eagle: What’s the ETA?
Sid: Sir, I just got here, and I need to watch her for a few days to study her behavior.
Eagle: We do not have a lot of time. We need to know if they were able to decrypt the information that would lead them to the Guardian and the Royal.
Sid: Understood, sir. This is not my standard operating model, and it will take time.
Sid: Is the Swan in danger?
Eagle: We don’t know yet. The information is hard to decrypt, but your job is to find out what the subject knows.
Sid: Yes, sir.
Sid did not believe in the kind of investigation he was assigned to do. He was accustomed to dealing with suspects in an interrogation room and knowing what the suspect did or did not know within a few minutes of the interrogation. He stared at the ceiling wondering if the innocence in her eyes was real. He stood up to walk to the window looking into the darkness and making a symbol with his fingers before closing the blinds.
If it were up to him, she would be handcuffed to a chair with a spotlight over her head, machines analyzing her every response. A shiver ran through him when an image of her flashed in front of him, her hands and legs cuffed, a gag over her mouth and those eyes, the eyes challenging him to overpower her.
Sid took a deep breath ignoring his thoughts threatening to consume his mind and body reminding himself he had didn’t have a lot of time to get to the truth. He took on the investigation when he realized the rebel group had connections and operations outside his country.
He kicked the door shut before slumping his body on the bed, his need to do things to her making him hot, hard, and annoyed, knowing her large eyes would haunt him all night.
Chapter 2
Amy’s alarm went off at five a.m. Saturday morning. It was the first Saturday in two weeks she didn’t need to work after having put in sixty hours a week. Her body objected to the movement, but she wanted to get a run in to loosen her tight muscles after sitting so many hours in a chair at work. She had barely spent any
time in her apartment and saw her new roommate only a few times all week. She chastised herself when she drooled over his ass while he spoke on the phone oblivious to her eyes roaming over his back. She was convinced it was best to stay away from him the moment she laid eyes on him—he was bad news.
She was running on less than four hours of sleep a night since the day she started at one of San Francisco’s prestigious law firms. She took in the sweet, moist breeze of the San Francisco Bay before hitting the sidewalk for her morning run.
The music blasted in her ears transporting her to her hometown of Lanesville in Northern California. Just the memory of the endless greenery and the happy faces brought a smile to her face. She loved her little brother who annoyed her to death. A smile played on her lips as she ran, building energy one tiny bit at a time with every step she took on the concrete.
Thirty minutes into her run, she halted for a few minutes and stood staring at the bay water in the early morning sun before starting her jog back toward the apartment. She had barely taken off when a runner swept past her almost knocking her off balance. She looked at the tall guy who continued to run oblivious of how he had taken her by surprise.
She shook her head and started to run behind the guy unable to take her eyes off of his almost bare back. The tank he was wearing showed off his perfect muscle definition without making the guy look too bulky. She couldn’t help but admire how the muscles rippled under his glowing skin coated in sweat. Her breath was coming fast as she took in the strong neck, wide shoulders, and noticed in awe how beautifully his shoulder blades moved as he ran swinging his arms. She ran a little faster to keep up with him as he picked up speed.
Seriously?
She was breathing hard and knew she had hit her limit. Just when she thought she was going to start wheezing like a kitten, he slowed down and jogged in spot as he waited for the walk symbol at the traffic light. She walked toward the intersection her feet protesting, and her calves splitting in pain.
