My Rose

12. Briggs

Chapter 12

Briggs

“If you surrender kisses, I’ll make it clear I’m your lover.” ― Ovid

“ S o, are you going to fess up about Jasmine’s best friend in there, or do I need to threaten you to get it out of you?” Dean’s freckles stood out in the hazy yellow lights of the diner, the smirk he was giving me raising them higher toward the light. Why I agreed to come was beyond me, other than the fact that Dean told me he wanted me to hang out with him and Jasmine, and I was too loyal to turn him down. He neglected to tell me it wouldn’t be just us. And I certainly had no fucking clue Jasmine was the girl listed as ‘Minnie’ in her file all but twice. Those PIs were never going to get another job doing their line of work again.

I raised my hands slightly above the table. “No threats needed. She’s my friend.” I cringed internally at that.

“You don’t have friends. Especially not friends who look like that.” I clasped my fingers together on the table, cocking my brow right back at him. “Oh, cut it out, Briggs. I’m taken, but I’m not fucking blind. She’s hot.”

“Watch it, Dean.”

He made a clicking sound with his tongue. “Well damn. If she’s just your friend, then maybe Jasmine wouldn’t mind a three—”

“I’m not above kicking your ass right here if you even think about finishing that sentence.”

Dean’s knowing smirk turned up more. “That’s what I thought.” He pushed the blinds aside and peered through the window. “Your father is going to be home in a few days. You might as well take advantage of it and take that girl home.”

“I would never bring her to the estate.” My words cut sharply through the air as my fists curled in. Dean nodded and then let go of the blinds, turning his attention back to me.

“What about one of your other houses, then? Or is she more of the ‘fuck and dump’ type?” A waitress came by with another glass of water and walked away quickly when she heard Dean’s notion of treating Rose as if she was trash. My jaw worked. “Ah, so you do like her, then. Is this who you’ve been so busy with?”

“Hardly.”

He leaned in over the table. “Listen here, Briggs. If you like her, you can’t push her away. I know you like to do that shit, but some people are worth letting in. And if Jasmine is her best friend, I can only imagine how wonderful of a girl she really is. So fuck her, don’t fuck her, whatever. But stop playing games and do something.” His eyes fell to my hand. “Your father didn’t say anything about someone needing to be dealt with. My trainer do something?”

I squeezed my hand shut. “No. He’s fired, by the way.”

Dean scrubbed his hand down his face. “What the hell happened with this one?”

“He got busy snooping in rooms he had no business looking at.” More specifically, the room I probably had no business setting up myself in the first place. But fuck Kevin-Carl for trying to invade my privacy.

“I’ll have a word with him.”

I flexed my hand out. “Don’t bother. I’ll go at it alone for a while. Help with all those games I keep trying to play.” I grinned at him as he kicked me with his booted foot under the table.

Jasmine and Rose appeared at the table a few minutes later, and my shoulders immediately relaxed back on the bench as she slid in next to me.

The next thirty minutes were painful. I struggled to keep my attention on the words coming out of Jasmine and Dean’s mouths, and the few times Rose spoke up were the only times my ears seemed to settle and focus.

For lack of better words, I was fucked.

I pushed up my sleeves and took the check from the waitress when she came by, noticing Rose tracing the lines of my tattoos—the beauty that covered the pain I didn’t want to show—with her blue eyes the second they were exposed. I followed her gaze to where my sleeves stopped along my forearms and adjusted the sleeves to cover the one I didn’t want her analyzing too deeply. She should have found more interest in the artwork—the statues and quotes relating to the most obvious thing we had in common. Instead, she found the one piece that represented something deeper—ink that threaded in and out of most of the pieces on my body. A mark of agony that was mine to bear.

“Briggs, hello…” Jasmine was snapping her fingers in front of my face, dragging out the last syllable.

“What?” I held back on using the tone I wanted because Dean would never let me treat his woman with such disrespect, and besides his slight misstep in what we will call a misunderstanding earlier, I would never let him do the same to—

“Rose took the bus here. Do you think you can give her a ride?” Jasmine batted her eyelashes as if that would have some effect on my answer.

“Of course.” Then I turned to Rose, whose brows pinched together in confusion as she pulled her eyes from my arm. “You took the bus? You have my number, you know. You should have called me. ”

Her eyes narrowed. “I could say the same to you.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” I could see the faint outlines of Dean and Jasmine getting up and leaving their seats, but Rose and I remained locked in place on our bench.

“You know what that means.” Her tone was vicious. I liked it.

I folded my arms across my chest. “The phone works both ways. If you were waiting for me to call or text you, you could have done so as well.” Rose texted me the day I saw her at the graveyard after I took her home, thanking me while presuming she was gracing me with her number. Little did she know I’d had her number stored in my phone since long before then.

Rose shook her head and buried her face in her palms. And then, she started laughing. Forcefully laughing. “You know what? No.” She popped up from the bench and snatched her jacket from between us. “Bye, Briggs.” She didn’t even put her jacket on before she left.

I knew because I was right behind her. No way I was letting her avoid the fight she wanted to have. I wanted to hear it—her words were becoming a vice, almost as addictive as the way her body moved when she was angry. I wanted to fuck the fight right out of her— grab her hair and yank her back, put her on her knees. The things she said with that mouth only made me imagine what it would do if I shoved my cock into it.

The door of the diner flung open as she pushed through it. After a few heavy steps, she stopped and turned, her face a mix between way too fucking adorable and absolute devil-spawn. “Why did you push me away?” she seethed .

I stepped in closer, but slowly enough to not upset her more, if possible. I’d never seen her so mad, yet that twisted part of me loved seeing her get so riled up. And knowing it was over me was getting me worked up all the more. But my fantasies couldn’t become a reality. “I told you I was no good for you, Rose. Why can’t you accept that?” I reached my hand up to tuck her hair behind her ear, allowing my fingers to trail down her mostly healed cheek, my thumb caressing the fine line of her jaw that my tongue so thoroughly invaded a few nights ago. My cock jumped at the memory of her thighs straddling me. The way her breath caught as she said my name. I couldn't get her out of my damn head.

She didn’t lean into my touch this time and instead rolled her eyes, so I dropped my hand. Maybe I was playing games. I shouldn’t be touching her and telling her to stay away from me at the same time. Dean was right—that fucker was right . I didn’t reach out to her because I wanted to keep her at a safe distance, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want to. Hell, the amount of times I pulled out my phone and wanted to call or text her was pathetic. I’d even memorized her number just by staring down at her contact information and had changed my PIN to something that reminded me of her whenever I took out my phone.

“Don’t touch me if you aren’t good for me, then.” She turned and whipped out her phone from her pocket. The name August Coleman flashed on her screen, and before she could hit the call button, I reached over her shoulder and plucked her phone from her fingers .

“Give. That.” She turned to face me again, her palm out, her eyes heated. “Back.”

“Absolutely not.” I tucked her phone into my back pocket. “Were you calling him for a ride? How has that worked out for you in the past, Rose?” She said nothing, her cheeks turning red. “I might not be good for you, but him? He will rot everything pure and beautiful about you and then spit you out like you were nothing. Then, he will move on to the next one. And the next, like a leech.” I scoffed and said under my breath, “I would at least respect you and treat you well.”

“Then why aren’t you!” she shouted, her aggravation only making my cock twitch harder. She lowered her voice as a few people left the diner and gave us what I assumed were odd looks. I could only hear their feet behind us as my eyes stayed trained on her and her red lips and her dark brown hair that whipped around violently with the storm that was coming in. “Don’t you dare give me another one of your damn jackets, Briggs.”

I pushed my arms back into my sleeves, not even realizing what I was doing. She did, at least, bring her own jacket this time, though she refused to put it on. I’d never wanted to clothe a woman yet simultaneously rip off each layer, one by one, with my own goddamn teeth. It was maddening. Our eyes locked again, but this time, she had wells in her baby blues that threatened to roll down her cheeks. And that was the worst threat I’d received so far today. Possibly in the last month.

She sniffed, her nose beginning to run, and it wasn’t from the cold. “Give me my phone so I can find another ride, then. My grandparents will be home in a few hours, and I’m not above waiting here in this goddamn parking lot for them to come get me.”

My teeth clenched. “Your grandparents shouldn’t be driving on the roads like they are. Let me take you home.” I reached for her hand, but she pulled back. My brows dipped together. “Please, Rose.”

“It’s not your job to worry about me, so stop trying to be there for me and then not. Just give me back my phone, and you can leave.”

I placed my hand over my back pocket. “If I give you your phone back, I don’t know what I’ll do if you call him.” I reluctantly pulled her phone back out and slid it into her open hand. “Not. Him.”

Her hand clutched the phone like a lifeline to her chest. “I’ll call whoever the hell I want. Goodbye, Briggs.” I could still see her phone over her shoulder as the name Minnie flashed on her screen. I watched her turn and walk a few steps away from me before I started moving back toward my car, unable to hide the grin that worked its way across my face. If she wasn’t getting in my car, then Dean’s was second best, tied with her grandparents. Shit, I’d prefer anyone inside that diner to drive her home over him. The bus stopped running a few minutes before we left, but even that would have been a better option than August’s car with his roaming, slimy hands.

Sliding into my car, I looked over at Rose to see she was swaying on both feet, her phone pressed to her ear. If she knew the things I’d done, knew my past, she’d be far from the parking lot. She’d be running from me, just like she was doing now rather metaphorically. Maybe Dean was right about not playing games and letting her in, but what did I have to offer her other than the man I was raised to become and a ruthless father who’d hunt her down once he found out who she was?

Rose Heather Fields was the one woman I knew I couldn’t ever have, and as forbidden as she was, she was also the only woman who made me feel something again.

And it could all go terribly, fucking wrong—a fact that was starting to eat into my subconscious more and more. One moment, I was incredibly hard for her. The next, I was trying to deny it all, knowing it was the safer, better option. I wanted to hold her as close to me as humanly possible, yet I knew being that close to me could have devastating consequences.

I was startled from my thoughts by a light tapping on my window. I rolled it down, knowing the gorgeous brunette on the other side was going to lay into me more. And maybe I did deserve it.

“Min refused to come and said, and I quote, ‘Tell Briggs to pull his head out of his ass and do something.’”

I snorted because it was damn bold of her to repeat that phrase, yet I wasn’t the least bit surprised that she did. Rose was bold and beautiful, and I had never wanted a woman more in my life. I don’t know when my hand slid up and grabbed onto the back of her neck or when she leaned in more through my window. All I remember was the moan she let out as I kissed her. And I wasn’t being gentle. Not until she lightly slapped my cheek and pushed me back into my seat. Everything in me told me this was an awful idea— we were an awful idea. But I just couldn’t resist it anymore. I couldn’t resist her anymore .

She spoke as if the breath had been stolen from her lungs, her hair a disheveled mess from my hand. “What was—”

“Get in. I’m taking you somewhere.” My breaths came out uneven, my world tilting off-kilter as I cut her off.

I should’ve scolded her on the way she complied. I should’ve tried to push her away again and make all the negative things this could cause stick for good. But then I would be denying the part of me that had been undeniable. The part of me that was completely enthralled with Rose Fields.

Perhaps I was being selfish. Perhaps it was the dumbest thing I’d ever done and will ever do. But the pain I used to feel around her was becoming this insatiable need that I didn’t know would ever ease without giving in.

So decidedly, I gave in.