Six
Ihad just gotten off the phone with my friend Sloane—I’d apologized for leaving her the night before, which she appreciated, but she said it had been one of the best times of her life, so I was forgiven—when there was knocking on my front door.
Since I thought it was probably Sam, I went to answer in only my jeans.
I was surprised to find Brandon Rossi on my doorstep instead.
“Hey,” I said, pulling my T-shirt on as I looked at him. “What’s up?”
“I called your office earlier, and your assistant said you were all out today.”
I was guessing Sadie had routed the office phone to her cell, which I did as well when it was my turn to cover. “Yep. We’re closed due to baby.”
He gave me the ghost of a smile. “I have no idea what that means.”
I grinned back. “My partner, Dylan, she had her baby early this morning.”
“Oh, well, give her my congratulations.”
“I will.”
“Your assistant gave me your address. I hope you don’t mind.”
“No,” I lied. I would have to talk to Sadie about that.
He cleared his throat, smiling sheepishly. “Look, Jory, I just wanted to come over here in person and say how sorry I was about the other night. Adam and I just completely lost track of what we were doing.”
“Sure.” I smiled at him. “Don’t worry about it.”
“But see, I really wanted to spend some time with you, and Adam, he…he’s crazy about that girl and—”
“Adam’s done, man,” I said with a cackle, seeing a familiar head of hair appear as he climbed the stairs. I loved his hair; the dark brown waves, how thick it was, and all the colors in it, streaks of copper, mahogany, and bronze.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean that Aubrey Flanagan is now dating Rick Jenner. Adam needs to let it go.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“No.” I smiled over his shoulder at Sam. The way he was looking at me with his dark blue eyes brought back the night before. I felt my face heat.
“Are you okay?” Brandon asked. “You’re all flushed.”
“Fine,” I said.
“What?”
“What?” I was listening now.
“Jo—”
“Excuse me.” Sam yawned, stepping around Brandon to walk past me into my apartment. He slapped my ass hard on his way by, and I couldn’t contain my gasp or the smile that followed.
“Who’s that?”
“That’s Sam.” I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “So, I’ll see ya ’round. Thanks for coming by to apologize, that was really nice of you.”
“Jory.” He reached for me as I tried to retreat into the apartment. “I want to take you—”
“C’mon, Brandon,” I said softly, brushing his hand off my shoulder. “You can see I’ve got company, so—”
“I’ll call you later.” He smiled and turned to go.
“No, don’t do that.”
He turned back to me. “Don’t do what?”
“Don’t call. We’re not gonna be friends, and we’re not gonna date, so there’s no point.”
He stood there staring at me. “Wow. I had no idea I only had one shot at impressing you.”
“Bran—”
“God, Jory, you should put that on cards and pass them out when you meet people.”
“Okay,” I said, closing the door.
But he hit the door before it clicked shut, and it was just dumb luck that it caught my lip and split it.
“Crap,” I groaned, pressing the back of my hand to my mouth.
“Jory,” he said, reaching for my face, “I just wanted to say some—”
“What the fuck is going on?” Sam roared from the kitchen.
It was completely accidental, but Brandon wouldn’t even live long enough to explain. I looked at him with wide eyes. “Run.”
“Jory, I—”
“Run.” I panicked as I heard Sam moving behind me in the apartment.
“Baby, are you—what the fuck?!” His voice dropped low, turning to ice as he charged toward me.
Brandon hit the doorframe, bounced off of it, and ran. I heard his feet pounding on the wooden floor outside in the hall, and then there was silence.
“Sam,” I called before he could get out the door, “I need you.”
He was back in front of me in seconds, his hands on my face, frowning. I grabbed hold of the lapels of his topcoat and looked up into his eyes.
“I will beat that fuck till there’s nothing left.”
I chuckled. “It was an accident.”
“What the fuck was he doin’ over here anyway? And how in the hell does he know where you fuckin’ live?” he growled at me, one hand on the side of my neck, so gentle as he looked me over. “We gotta ice that.”
“Stop swearing,” I told him. “And I’d like to point out that you know where I live too.”
“So what? You belong to me. Of course I know where you live. Are you listening to yourself?” he asked like I was addled.
I nodded, smiling up at him.
“Shit.” He glowered, scooped me up, kicking the door closed behind him, and walking me to the kitchen. Once there, I was placed on the counter while he checked my lip, passed me a paper towel, and then put ice in a Ziploc bag.
“Is this really necessary?” I asked once the bag was wrapped in a dish towel.
“Just hold it on your lip,” he grumbled.
When he was done, I sat there, staring at him.
“What?” He did not sound happy.
“I was going back to your place.”
“Yeah, the note covered that.” He glowered at me.
I smiled at him before I hopped off the counter, gave him the bag of ice, and left for my bedroom to pull on a sweater as well as a belt. While I was fastening my belt buckle, he leaned into the room, holding on to the doorjamb.
“You should have woken me up. I would’ve driven you over here.”
“It’s fine.”
“I woke up and you were gone… I didn’t like it.”
“So that’s why you came? Just couldn’t wait for my return?” I teased him. “Or maybe you thought I wouldn’t show up.”
“No, I just wanted to talk to you, and I couldn’t wait.”
“Wait for what?”
He walked slowly into my bedroom. “I like your place.”
“Thanks.” I smiled at him. “It’s much bigger than the old one.”
He nodded. “So what now, J?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean…was I gonna sleep over here with you? Were you planning to spend the night at my place? Were we getting dinner and then doing our own thing? I dunno what’s going on ’cause you’re not talking. I’ve told you how I want things to be, but you haven’t said anything.”
I stared into those dark, smoky-blue eyes of his.
“J?”
I took a deep breath. “I was planning to pack a bag and sleep at your place tonight, if I wouldn’t upset your morning routine too much.”
The light that came into his eyes was very satisfying. “No, you wouldn’t upset anything. That’d be great.”
“Okay.” I smiled at him. “Sit down and talk to me while I pack.”
He watched intently as I put things into my duffel, and afterward he carried it out for me as I followed him down to his car. He didn’t start the engine once we were inside, so I turned to look at him.
“What?”
“Last night you said it was just for the night. Did you mean it?”
I looked at him, studying his face. “Obviously not.”
“Don’t be funny, okay? I know this is really fast for you, so I’m trying to not push, but it’s killin’ me ’cause there’s stuff I want you to say and… I’m not sure what to do. Should I leave you alone for a little while, or… What should I do, J? Tell me what you want me to do.”
“This is fast, Sam, you know it is. I mean, I just saw you Sunday, now it’s Thursday night, and—” His phone rang, cutting me off. He ignored it, intent on me. I couldn’t. “You better get that.”
He answered while I looked out the window, trying to figure out what I was going to do.
I was split right down the middle. Half of me wanted to throw caution to the wind and beg him to move in with me; the other half wanted to run away as fast as I could.
I was terrified to lose him and terrified of getting hurt again.
When he cleared his throat, I looked back at him. The crooked grin made me smile.
“What?”
“Well, this oughta be the clincher,” he muttered.
“What? Tell me.”
“That was my mom calling to remind me that I’m already late for dinner.”
“Dinner? Don’t you guys usually do the Sunday thing?”
“Yeah, but Mike’s girlfriend is a stewardess—”
“Flight attendant,” I corrected him.
“Whatever, Mr. Politically Correct,” he grumbled. “I’m just telling you that his girl flies, like, every Sunday, so the only time to catch her is in the middle of the week. My mom wants everybody to meet her, so…we got Thursday night dinner at the Kages’.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t sound so excited.”
“No, I didn’t mean anything.” I moved to get out of the SUV. “I’ll let you go, and maybe after, if you want, you can pick—”
“Hey,” he said softly, taking hold of my arm, leaning close enough so he could put his hand on my face. “I’m not going without you.”
“Oh no, Sam, you—”
“Listen, I know you’re scared to go over there, because what the fuck does that mean, right? I mean, me being here is one thing, but my whole fuckin’ family? It’s too fast, and you’re starting to panic. I would too.”
“No,” I lied, even though he had hit the nail on the head. “I just think—”
He tilted my chin up and looked down into my eyes. “But you know, it’s fast because it’s right. And make no mistake, I need you to go with me.”
“Can I ask you a question off topic?”
“Sure.”
“What’s with all the swearing I noticed you’ve been doing?”
“I always swear.”
I squinted at him.
“Yeah, all right. It might be two years with other cops undercover in shitholes too.”
“Speaking of; you never told me, did you get the bad guy?”
He looked at me like I was insane.
“Well, I don’t know.”
“Of course I got the bad guy, or in this case, Roman’s father. He’s in jail and their drug empire was dismantled, but of course, since nature abhors a vacuum, there’s a new guy now, Lenkov, so not much changed.”
“I refuse to believe that you left me for nothing.”
“I left to make sure you were safe from him, and you are, love. He also knows who killed his son and who had nothing to do with it at all.”
I stared at him, and he leaned close and kissed me. It was so soft and so tender, and I tried to deepen it, to draw him down, but he resisted.
“You can hurt me a little, Sam,” I breathed against his mouth. My split lip didn’t even hurt.
“I already did,” he said softly. “Never again.”
And I knew he meant when he’d left. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not,” he said, his eyes on my face. “But I have the rest of my life to make it up to you.”
“Sam—”