The Rocker That Needs Me(31)

I tossed my shoulder bag on the sofa and flopped down, glaring at the TV that was already on some sports show. Looked like Linc was already home from the gym. “Are you in the kitchen?” I called out.

“Yeah. You want something?” my deep voiced roommate called back.

“Got anything harder than beer? I need a drink.” He knew that I was kidding. I had only gotten drunk once since moving to New York. That night had been bad, and I didn’t want to relive it.

“How about a pint of Ben & Jerry’s and some hot fudge?” He appeared at the end of the couch with the ice cream in one hand and the hot fudge in the other. One look at my face and the hulky man dropped down beside me. “What’s up?”

“My brother-in-law is picking me up at six.”

“Jesse Thornton, right?” I nodded. “So what’s the problem?”

“It’s a surprise visit. I don’t know why he’s here, and all he said when I asked was that he needed to see me.” I pushed my hair away from my face. “He never does things like this, and I’m worried something is wrong.”

Linc cracked his neck, making me grimace. It was what he always did when he was thinking. After spending the last seven months under the same roof with him, and my two other roommates, I knew all his little quirks. “I guess you will just have to wait and see,” he finally said.

I glared at him. “Thanks for those words of wisdom, babe.” I rolled my eyes at him and took the ice cream.

He winked as he got to his feet. “Anytime, sweets. Anytime.”

I threw the lid at his retreating back. It bounced off his hard ass and landed on the end of the couch. “Where are Dallas and Harper? I figured they would be back by now.”

“Still shopping.”

I hoped they would be back before Jesse got here. It was already after four, and I needed my two best friends here to diffuse the whole “Linc is living in the apartment” situation. It wasn’t like he didn’t know that I had a male roommate. I had told Layla and Jesse all about him. Fitness model, check. Good friend, check. Gay, double check.

Linc was all of those things. But looking at him, talking to him, you would never guess that he was one of the gayest men on the planet. He was sexy as sin, and I will honestly admit that when the dude walked around in little to nothing—okay, sometimes nothing at all!—I wasn’t shy about looking. Neither were Harper and Dallas.

Still, it was going to be hard to convince Jesse that big, hulking, sin on two legs Linc Spencer was the guy I had told him all about. When I had first met Linc, I hadn’t believed that he was gay either. It had taken him bringing some random guy home from a club one night to make me believe. And only then when they had started making some very X-rated sounds from the bedroom across from the one I shared with Harper.

Yeah, Jesse was going to hit the roof when he showed up to pick me up.

At five, my roommates still weren’t home, and I rushed to get ready. By ten to six, I was ready and waiting, impatient to get this over with. I was almost tempted to ask Linc to hide when Jesse got here but didn’t want to hurt my friend’s feelings. He was a Demon’s Wings fan and would want to meet Jesse.

The door opening startled me, and I looked up to find both Harper and Dallas entering the apartment. Each had their arms loaded with bags, and I figured Dallas was being rebellious again and maxing out her mother’s credit cards. Her hair was pulled back from her face, exposing the dimple in her right cheek. She had been one of Europe’s highest paid models from the age of fifteen until last year when she had turned twenty-one.

That was when her contract had come up for renewal with her agent and she had refused to sign on again. Modeling had never been her thing. In fact, she hated every second of it. Her mother had been the one to force Dallas into it and signed the original contract, making her unable to get out of it until it ran out. When Dallas had refused to continue, her mother had gone ballistic.

Since then, she had made sure that her mother wouldn’t want her to do the model thing. She had tattooed and pierced her body until her mother nearly had a stroke from just looking at her. I applauded Dallas’ rebellion. It was her body, after all.

Of course I had lent my support and went to get a tattoo with her on Valentines’ Day. My first ink had left me with an addiction for it. I was already thinking of what I wanted next, and this time I was going to go all out with a big piece of ink on my back. Compared to Dallas, Harper looked like a librarian in her cashmere skirt and cardigan. Her caramel colored hair was pulled back in a French braid and her glasses hid those lavender eyes of hers. I had met Harper my first day of NYU, and we had become friends fast. When my roommate had gone all psychotic bitch on me the second week of spring term, and I had needed a place to stay, she offered me the twin bed in her room.