I whisper, “You’re incredible,” kissing his earlobe.
He rises, looks in my eyes, and says, “I just want something casual. I hope that’s okay.”
I squeal and hit him really hard. He busts up laughing. “I’m kidding!”
“Jerk.”
“Yep,” he murmurs, burrowing into me. Within seconds I hear snoring. Amazing.
DREW
M y phone, true to form, wakes me with a muffled text all the way across the room in my purse. While we slept, we must have changed positions because Jake’s spooning me with his back against the cushions. I slip out without waking him and his arm falls off the side of the couch, hanging limp.
So jealous of how deeply men can sleep.
Oh, shoot. I forgot Bernie texted me earlier. This is her again, asking if I’m coming.
It’s important. I need you.
Maybe she’s ready for rehab! Oh, God, I hope so.
I glance to Jake and consider waking him. He won’t want me to go.
Coming, Bernie. But I can’t stay long.
I slip my phone in my purse and tiptoe naked to my room to put on some clothes. Maybe I’ll be back before he even knows I’m gone. Slim chance, but, that’s okay.
Sometimes it’s easier to say sorry than to ask permission.
Buzzing the security intercom in Bernie’s building, I check my phone to see if he’s texted. Can’t ignore him anymore, now that we cleared it all up. I don’t want to scare him, or piss him off.
Well, maybe I could piss him off a little. ;)
“Hello?” Bernie’s scratchy voice comes through the speakers.
“It’s me, Bern. I’m outside.”
“Oh, Drew!” She sounds a little too happy. I know what that means. “I’m so glad you could make it. Come on up.”
The door unlocks with a loud honking buzz. Something in me hesitates. Why did she say she was glad I could make it like she’s a polite host or something? My gut is telling me I’m not going to like what I’m about to find.
So I buzz her again. She answers, “Hello?” this time with confusion.
“Bernie, I was thinking you might be calling me for…well, to help.”
“I am! Drew, what are you waiting for?” she asks with unusual jubilation. “Get on up here!”
The security door honks again. I grab it, and go in. Now I’m curious. What is up with her?
She opens her door after my first light knock with a flourish like I’m her favorite guest, the one she’s been holding the party for. “Finally! So good to see you!” She takes in my jeans and blouse. “Guess you could have worn something nicer, but still, come in! Guys, this is Drew! My best friend in the whole world!”
She ushers me in before I can ask, what the hell is going on? Two large ugly men in suits, turn at my confused entrance. They take me in like I’m dinner. “She couldn’t wear a dress?” one grumbles, motioning to my body.
“This isn’t what we paid for.”
Paid for?
Bernie takes me by the arm and explains with a large smile and overboard enthusiasm, “Drew’s an All-American type. She’s like a virgin type, sweet and all that. You’ll love her.”
I yank my arm away. “Bernie, what the hell?” Her eyes are tweaking, her nose is red-tipped and her nostrils still have white powder around the edges.
And she looks terrified. That smile is an act.
Oh shit.
Bernie’s a hooker and I didn’t know it until now.
“Umm…I have to go.”
“You’re not leaving,” one of the men says.
I smile as flirtatiously as I can and correct him, “Change! I have to go change! I thought the party was at ten. Bernie said she’d loan me her black Valentino. Right Bern?”
“Yes!” she painfully grins then says to the brute, “She looks GORGEOUS in that dress. You’ll love it.”
The two men walk closer to us. The one with the big nose, lifts up my hair and smells it. Sickling goosebumps of fear race up that side.
“She smells like cologne.”
Oh hell.
I smell like Jake.
Of course I do.
“Sorry, last customer. I’ll just go freshen up.”
He doesn’t argue with this. No man paying wants another man’s smell on you, I guess. Bernie tries to follow me, but they stop her.
“Ah ah ah. You’re staying here.”
“Well, where else would I want to be?” she coos.
I disappear into her room and scramble for my phone, texting Jake. I’m too scared those guys would hear my voice if I called. And I can’t trust Bernie if I called 911. She might act like nothing is going on just to save herself from being arrested.
How did I not know this is what was happening all those nights she had so many men over? I just thought she was a little slutty, and I blamed it on the coke.
Jason telling me, “All those men,” in that weird way, was him testing to see if I even knew she was a prostitute.
And I was living here when she was doing it!
I feel nauseous.
Jake. I’m in trouble. I’m at Bernie’s. There are two bad men here.
My thumbs hover over the keys, and I decide not to mention these guys think I’m a hooker. Instead, I hurriedly type,
Please save me.
Copying it, I paste it into a new text, sending the same thing to him three times, that way hopefully he’ll hear me. Then I dial him and set the phone down.
“Drew!? Hurry up!”
“Sorry, just a minute!” Shaking, I quietly lock her bedroom door and pace. I hate leaving her out there, but hopefully they’ll wait until I get back before they do anything sexual.
Stalling is the best chance I have to save us both.
She was hoping I could.
I know that now. I saw it in her eyes. She’s scared out of her mind.
My phone lights up. He must have picked up, hung up, then called me back. I rush over and hang up to text:
I can’t risk them hearing me call you.
I wait for his reply.
I’m coming! Does she still live cross from Ansley Mall?
Relieved, I type back that she does as banging sounds on my door.
“We’re waiting!!”
I call back with a forced smile, “I’m glad you’re so eager. Hold onto that, big boy!”
I wince at my cheesiness. How does a whore talk to her trick? I have no idea.
Running to Bernie’s bathroom, I turn on the shower and shout, “Be just a few minutes!”
“Drew!” Bernie’s voice is shaking. “Don’t wash your hair or anything crazy.”
No, we wouldn’t want to do anything crazy, Bernie, would we.
For fifteen minutes, I sit on the bed with the shower running and them yelling through the door. Bernie laughs it off over and over, and keeps offering them more vodka. When she asks them for more coke — “I just need a little bump” — I put my head in my hands and start to cry, just like Jason did when he remembered how hard it was to let someone you love, go.
Harsh yelling on the other side of the door makes me sit up straight. Bernie’s trying to placate those guys has come to an end, because they’re over it. I leap back on the bed as the door comes crashing in. The guy with the big nose kicked it down and now he’s seeing me still dry and in the clothes I came in wearing.
“What the fuck!” He sees my phone. “She called the cops!” he bellows to the other beast. I scramble toward the headboard as he runs at me, leaping onto the bed to tackle me.
“I didn’t call the cops! I promise!” I try to dodge him by rolling off the side, but he gets ahold of my shirt and the fabric pulls me to him. Bernie comes running in.
“STOP! DON’T TOUCH HER!” she screams. The other guy punches her in the back of the head so hard that her eyes roll back. She grunts and falls to the ground, blonde hair flying.
I scream, “BERNIE!!!”
“I’m getting what I came here for,” Big Nose hiss
es, pulling me onto the bed and yanking the button off my jeans.
I kick and bite at him, screaming, “STOP IT! GET OFF OF ME!” He’s pinning me with one hand, unzipping his fly with the other. He’s having trouble with his suit getting in the way, gravity pulling the bottom down and flapping it around with my struggle.
“Fucking stay still, bitch!” He slaps my face really hard and grabs both my arms, holding them above me on the bed with one hand as I struggle.
“GET OFF ME!!!”
A crash sounds in the other room. A second later Jake leaps onto the bed, yanks the guy back by his lapel, and punches his face hard as he goes down. Big Nose rolls backwards off the bed with a loud grunt and Jake dives onto him and hammers his face with fists that won’t stop.
Panting and filled with adrenaline, I stand on the bed and see Jason pummeling the other guy just outside the door. Or maybe that’s Justin? Yes, it’s Justin, because Jason is leaning over an unconscious Bernie, lifting her head and whispering to her.
“Jake,” I croak. “Stop. Don’t kill him!” Grabbing onto his shoulders, I pull him back. “You’ll go to jail! Stop it! I’m alright! I’m okay!”
Though he’s seeing red, Jake hears me and turns to make sure I really am okay. He gets up and pulls me off the bed into his arms, rocking me. “Oh my God, baby, did he hurt you?”
“He was about to. You got here just in time.” I break down, sobbing. The fear of being almost raped by that disgusting man and saved from it, pours out of me in great swaths of relief.
Jake looks over his shoulder and kicks the guy. “Fucking animal. Hey Justin! Call the cops!” He kisses my head a few times, then pulls back to see my face, inspecting it.
I whisper with so much sadness, “I didn’t know she was selling her body.”
Jake nods on a deep frown. We look over to Jason as he tells all of us, “The back of her head is bleeding. Justin, tell them we need an ambulance, too. I’m going to keep her where she is, in case he fucked up her spine. Can’t take any chances.”
I pull away from Jake and go to kneel by them. “Oh, Bernie. What happened to you…”
Jason and I share a look that only people who’ve ever loved an addict can understand.
JAKE
A t the hospital, I watch Jason closely to make sure he isn’t falling under the witch’s spell again. As they moved her from the ambulance gurney to a regular bed, she told him he saved her life, with those big doe eyes she uses when appealing to the opposite sex. I saw them after she played Drew like a fiddle that night. And I’ve seen it before, used on my brother.
My jaw clenches, but the doctor addressing Drew switches my focus. “Let’s see that bruise.”
My eyes narrow as I turn to discover her face, which I thought was just red from fear since she flushes easily, is now showing marks on it. “You said he didn’t hurt you.”
She shrugs, “It was just a slap.”
“Just a…”
She reaches for my hand as the doctor inspects her and asks her to open her mouth.
“No cuts,” he says, under his breath.
“No, it wasn’t a punch. I’m okay.”
The doctor looks from her to me, and politely excuses himself. Justin approaches us as he glances over to where Jason sits beside Bernie, holding her hand. “The police want to talk to you, Drew.”
“What’d they ask you?”
“What we were doing there. They’re not surprised we fucked the guys up. Bernie’s head is enough to show them the girls were in trouble, that we did what we had to.”
Drew and I head out. Neither of us is looking forward to this. We haven’t agreed on what to say. She glances to me with a look that says she’s worried. I take her hand and approach two members of the Atlanta P.D. Both men. One black, one white. Both have seen everything before. They’re hands are on their belts as they turn to face us.
Drew explains her side of things. Nurses and doctors bustle through the hallway corridor around us. When asked if there’s anything she’s leaving out, she stares at the floor for a long moment. “Yes, my friend has been hiding that she’s a prostitute.”
The policemen look at each other then glance from me back to Drew. “You know this for a fact?”
“Yes,” Drew sighs. “I used to live with her. I didn’t know the men who came by were paying her. I just thought she was addicted to the drugs and they were giving her some.” She sees their narrowing eyes and quickly adds, “I’ve known her since we were little. I know what you’re thinking, cocaine is illegal, but I’m sorry to say a lot of people are doing illegal things and not ratting their friends out about it.”
This reality relaxes the men’s faces a little. I put my hand on Drew’s lower back for support, to let her know I’m here.
“And I didn’t know she was selling her body until today.”
“This isn’t the first time,” I tell them as Drew looks up at me. “My brother used to date Bernie and he knew about it for a long while. He used to try to protect her. She’s an addict. She can’t stop herself.”
Drew frowns from me to the cops as they inform her, “You know we have to arrest her now.”
“Yes, I do,” she quietly says. “Thank you.”
“You’re going to have to submit to drug testing, too.”
“Of course. That’s fine. I’m clean. Can I go see her now?”
They nod, and she and I head back to the room. Justin is waiting just outside the door. “I could hear all that.”
“Drew’s hoping this will be what gets Bernie sober.”
She looks up at me, a little surprised I caught on. “Yes,” she says, taking my hand and leaning on me. I kiss the top of her head and ask Justin, “How’s he doing?”
“Who knows? She’s his Kryptonite. You remember,” Justin mutters, glancing into the cold white room. “This is going to take some time. I’m going to get us some food. Hang on.”
He walks over to the policemen and with his usual ability to charm people, has them laughing in seconds. “So you don’t mind if I bring us all back some pizzas?”
“Nah.” “That’s fine.”
He comes strolling back with a big smile.
“I’ll go with you,” I tell him, and lean down to give Drew a kiss. “I’ll be back soon. I know you want to stay with her.”
She nods and touches my cheek. “Thank you, Jake. I know you don’t like her.”
“That doesn’t matter right now.”
She nods and squeezes my hand before I head off with my brother. When we’re out of earshot, I tell him, “I hope Bernie stays behind bars forever.”
“No fucking joke, man,” he grumbles. “The girl is dangerous.”
DREW
“Home has never felt so good,” I sigh as we take off our shoes. I’m absolutely exhausted. “Being tested for drugs makes you feel like a criminal!”
Jake reaches over and locks the deadbolt, then says, “C’mere you crook.”
I walk into his embrace and melt into him. He’s been so good to me tonight. “I feel terrible you had to go through all of this for me.”
“Hey hey hey. Stop that.” He lifts my chin, his eyes full of feeling. “If you didn’t have me to call, you know what would have happened?” I nod. “I’m just glad I came back in time. If I was still in Denver…I’d be going to jail soon for finding those motherfuckers and tearing their dicks off with my bare hands.”
I shudder and burrow into his body, loving how safe he makes me feel. He takes my hand and leads me to his room. “You’ve never been in here before, have you?”
“No. I wanted to peek when you were away, but it would have been too hard, so I didn’t.”
“Well, I looked in your room once.”
I gasp and meet his smiling eyes. “You did!?”
He chuckles, “Yeah, I guess I was curious. You kept fucking running away and I didn’t know anything about you.”
I can’t believe he did that! I’m really having a hard time picturing it. “What di
d you find? I don’t have a journal so it must have been very boring.”
“Nope. Not boring,” he smirks, leading me to his bed. “I know you’ve been through a lot, so let’s just sleep together here tonight.” He lifts me up and starts undressing me. His fingers pause at my missing button and his jaw flexes in anger. He meets my eyes.
“What’d you find in my room?” I smile, guiding him to a nicer subject.
From the way he blinks, it’s hard for him to let go of his protective anger. His voice is thick with it as he tries. “The books you were studying. 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, and all those.”
He pulls my shirt off and inspects me for bruises. “He didn’t touch me there, Jake. I promise I’d tell you.”
“Even if you know I’d want to kill him?”
“Even then. I won’t lie again. I saw how mad you were when the doctor checked my face.”
Jake frowns as he leans in and kisses my collarbone, unsnapping my bra and freeing me from it. He glances to my naked breasts and kisses the soft flesh above one of my nipples. “I wish you’d told me you were going over there before you left.”
“You were sleeping. You were passed out! Snoring!” I’m trying to be light, but Jake’s eyes are stormy.
“I could have gone with you.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. He pulls off his shirt and undoes his jeans, tugging them down and stepping out of them. His socks get yanked off, then my jeans, panties and socks. He crawls onto his bed to lie with me on top of the covers. It’s very humid out tonight, and our body heat will be more than enough to keep us warm.
“Drew?” he rasps, coming up one elbow to see my face better.
“Mmm?” I murmur, tracing his chest muscles lovingly.
“I don’t want to lose you.”
My fingertips stop where they are, and I meet his eyes. “I don’t want to be lost.”
He leans in and gives me the slowest, most sensual kiss. My leg instinctively wraps around him and he mounts my body as our tongues touch together. With tenderness our hands explore each other’s bodies. His erection grows more urgent against my pelvis but he makes no move to do anything about it. After we kiss for a while and I feel myself relaxing in every way, I reach to touch him there and he groans as my warm fingers wrap around his hardened length.
Cocky Roomie: A Bad Boy Romance Novel (Cocker Brothers of Atlanta Book 1) Page 15
