Cocky Roomie_ A Bad Boy Romance Novel(5)

“Thanks, Momma.”

“Well, he did, Drew.”

“I know, Momma.”

To her credit, she knew I’d always wanted to move to the big city, and that I regretted falling in love so young and getting married right out of high school. She knew I needed to break free of the cement shoes I wore that had Dublin, Georgia engraved on their sides.

My parents love Bernie like she was their own daughter. She might as well have been my sister. We were attached to each other ever since we were in diapers. That is, until Bernie moved away. We’d lost touch over the years since our lives were so different. It was a big shock when I moved into her place and found out what I did.

I have to get out of there.

She keeps sayin’ she doesn’t need help.

I can’t watch her kill herself like that any longer.

And I will not give up when I’ve come this far.

I take a deep breath.

“Because I can’t afford to live on my own just yet, and you want a roommate. I’ve been to dozens of places. Some in the wrong parts of town my daddy would die if he ever visited me in. Others with landladies who thought dirty and uncared-for was their ‘nice apartment.’ And then there was the slew of lies on Craigslist that I can’t bore you enough with my descriptions of how misrepresented they were! And then there’s you. You, in person, are everythin’ you seemed to be in your ad. If I’m right about you, what you see is what you get with Jake Cocker. It’s refreshin’. And I’m tired. I just want an honest and safe place to put my head. I pay my bills. I won’t be a bother. You can have as many women over here as you want as long as you’re respectful of my time if I have to get up for work the next morning, when I get a job that is. I do have some limits in terms of manners. I hope you do, too, though I’ve seen little evidence of it so far so maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree.”

Oh, that was scary!

With a look I can’t decipher, he’s watching me.

After a few terribly awkward and silent moments, I cave. “I’ll go. I’m sorry. I just had to try.”

Casually, he stops me. “Let me show you the room you’d be living in if you were a dude.” As he passes me our arms brush each other. “It’s this way.”

Ignoring the electric shocks lighting up my skin, I follow him into an empty room that has a beautiful bay window with loads of flower-laden bushes and trees just outside it. This is the last unit on the first floor so I guess I’m looking at the backyard.

My heart aches at the sight. There are forest green curtains framing the view and I walk over to touch the heavy fabric, picturing how I could decorate this room. “So pretty,” I whisper.

“Yep,” he grumbles. “That’s the problem.”

I turn with raised eyebrows. “Sorry?”

“You’re too pretty for me to live with. Boy’s name or no, you’re not a guy.” He shoves his hands into the pockets of his sweats pushing them dangerously low by accident. “It’ll just cause problems.”

“I’m also eight years too old for you!!”

He shrugs a little. “You’re not too old for me to fuck.”

Struck dumb, I stare at the dark-hardwood floor.

Where does this leave me?

Where will I go?

Nowhere.

I’ll have to stay at Bernie’s and get ear plugs.

With anxiety and desperation twisting up my insides, I turn on the cocky sonofabitch and march up to him. “You say that like it’s even an option!”

Brown eyes narrow on me. “What do you mean?”

“What if I told you that sex between us is an impossibility? Could you live with me then?”

“It’s not an impossibility,” he smirks. “It’s a probability.”

“No, it really isn’t.”

He pauses. “And why’s that?”

“Because I am not the fool around type. And you are too young for me. If you can’t keep it in your pants from your own willpower, then let me help you out. I have no desire to sleep with you!”

“That’s not what your nipples are saying.”

“They get like that when I’m upset!!”

He smiles at me with a cockiness that is crazy-annoying. We glare at each other ‘til I get riled up.

“You listen up, Jake!” I give his beautiful chest a good poke and almost break my finger. “I wouldn’t fuck you if you BEGGED ME TO.”

He frowns, clearly not used to rejection. “That’s a lie.”

“I can assure you it IS NOT. Because I am meant to live here and I will be able to resist messing that up. Sleeping with you would be a DISASTER.” I inhale patience and lower my voice. “But being your roommate would be fine. I could do that. And so could you.”