Rooter (Double H Romance) (14 page)

“He can’t be stupid enough to try something,” I say to Rooter. “You warned him to stay away.”

“He was seriously pissed off,” Miranda counters. “And you know how he gets when he’s high.”

“If he’s doped out, there's no way of knowing what he might do,” Rooter agrees and sits upright, rubbing his chin. “He probably won’t come here, but he could show up somewhere else. I wouldn’t put anything past him.”

“He’s never sounded like this,” Miranda whimpers. “He was serious.”

Rooter picks up Miranda’s phone and hands it to her. “Unlock it.”

She hesitates and stares at the screen. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to call him.” He snaps his fingers, impatient.

“That’ll only piss him off more, especially if you call from my phone. He’ll think I had you call him.”

“That’s the point,” Rooter explains, still holding his hand out for the phone. “If he thinks you called me for help it might scare him enough to drop it.”

Miranda unlocks the phone and hands it to Rooter, her reluctance showing by how slowly she hands it to him.

Rooter finds Mike’s number and calls it and I hear screaming blaring through the speaker. “Stop talking and listen fucker,” he growls into the phone.

Chapter 17
Personal Space

Miranda’s face is pale and turning a strange shade of green which only happens when she gets upset enough to throw up. I consider backing away but then she grabs a hold of my hand and squeezes it tightly.

“Did I or did I not say no retaliation against these girls?” Rooter doesn’t allow Mike to answer. “If you want to keep your limbs, you will
never
threaten these girls again. Do you understand?”

Silence.

“Tell me you understand!” Rooter bellows, startling Miranda. “Good. Now promise me you will stay away from them… Good boy.” Rooter hangs up the phone and places it on the table. It amazes me how he switches from pissed to utterly calm in an instant. “I think he got the point, but to be sure, either me or one of my guys will keep watch over you both for a while.”

“Thank you,” Miranda says and cries again. “I never believed he’d actually hurt me, but now I’m sure he will.”

“I won’t let that happen,” Rooter assures her.

“It’ll be okay,” I tell her.

Miranda leans into me and her body shakes as she cries. “No, it won’t. I’ve lost my entire family.”

Her words break my heart. I know what it’s like not to have any family. I don’t want this for her. As much as I hate seeing her hurt like this, I’m glad she finally sees Mike for what he’s become and is taking his threats serious. There was a time when I thought his threats were empty, but not anymore. Not since the night he hit Miranda. The Mike I grew up with is gone. Maybe not forever, but certainly for now.

“I know it feels like the end of the world to you, but it will be okay,” I assure her. When she doesn’t respond, I continue. “Your parents may be gone, and Mike is messed up, but you’re not alone. You will never be alone, Miranda.”

“What would I do without you?” She sniffles and balls my blouse into her fists.

“You’ll never have to worry about that.” I watch Rooter go into the kitchen.

“Promise me you’ll never leave me, Sophie.”

“I promise.”

Rooter is talking on his phone, but I can’t make out what he’s saying. Miranda wipes her eyes as he walks back into the living room.

“Bear will be here in a while.” He turns to Miranda. “He’ll stay with you while I take Sophie to work.”

“Is he the scary one with the beard?” Miranda asks me and Rooter laughs.

“That’s the one,” I say.

“Good. He’d scare the shit out of Mike.”

“He scares most people.” Rooter chuckles.

According to the clock, I’m due to be at the Grand in less than an hour. “Speaking of work, I need to get ready.”

“I’ll wait here,” Rooter says.

I had expected he’d go home, but if he’s going to stay, I’d rather he was with me. “You can come with.”

Rooter looks around my room as though he’s never been in here. He reads the quote stenciled in black paint on the wall behind my headboard:
I crave a love so deep the ocean would be jealous
. I turn to my dresser to retrieve my work pants so he doesn’t see me blush. When I turn around he’s sitting on my bed sifting through the romance novel I’ve been reading. Of course it’s a smutty bad boy meets good girl story. He grins at me with a questioning brow.

“Have a thing for bad boys?”

“I thought that was obvious.” I try to sound nonchalant, but my insides are churning.

I’d never given much thought to how much a person’s bedroom says about them until this moment. This room is filled with personal mementos and tidbits like this book, revealing who I am. There are pictures of me and friends, old and new, all over the room. Perhaps most revealing is the collection of postcards pinned to the wall of the places I dream of going to such as Bali, Paris, and the Grand Canyon. Rooter gets up and walks to the postcard covered wall.

“What are these?” He points at a postcard of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

“Places I hope to visit one day.”

“There’s a lot of them here.”

“I dream big.” I sigh.

“That’s a good thing.”

I flick one of the postcards. Who am I kidding? I’ll be lucky to make it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. “Yeah. Good for setting myself up for big failure.”

“Don’t say that.” Rooter turns to face me. “You can do anything you want with your life. You’re strong enough to make your dreams come true.”

“Yeah, well, strong or not we don’t always get what we want in this life.” My track record proves it.

“You’re right, we don’t,” he agrees. “But the fact you have these on the wall proves you haven’t given up hope.”

“Sometimes, I feel like hope is all I have.” I regret the words as soon as they slip out.

“You have so much more, Sophie,” he strokes my cheek with his thumb, “but hope is one of the most important things to have. My Nona always said that without it, we have nothing.”

“She sounds like a wise woman.” If only I had someone like her. I walk away from the wall to put space between myself and my unreasonable dreams.

“She was.” He pauses and surveys me with a thoughtful expression. “You remind me of her.”

“I do?” I look at Rooter through my dresser mirror as grab a fresh pair of panties, hoping he won’t see and quickly wad them up into the pants.

He comes up behind me so close I can feel his heat. “Your demeanor is the same. Incredibly sweet and strong.”

“I’m not that sweet,” I counter and fiddle with the things in my hand.

“Yes, you are.” He leans in to my neck and inhales deeply. My body goes haywire when he snakes his arm around my waist places an open mouth kiss just below my jawline. “And you taste even sweeter.”

Right now the only dream I have is of Rooter’s lips on mine. I drop my things to the floor, spin around and attack his lips with mine. He doesn’t hesitate to kiss me back and relief cascades over me at finally being this close to him. Evidently, I’d been yearning for this kiss even more than I realized. I throw my arms around his shoulders and pull his body against mine, deepening the kiss. Rooter’s mouth is heavenly. He tastes delicious. His hands creep low on my back. He’s barely touching my butt and yet it’s enough to set my body on fire.

Everything he does is perfect, yet it’s not nearly enough. I crave this guy in a way I hadn’t even realized was possible. My hands move down the front of his chest beneath his cut, over his pecs to his taut abdomen. I can feel every line and curve of his muscles through his thin shirt. Rooter’s hand slides even lower and cups my ass firmly. His other hand reaches up and grabs a fistful of my hair and tugs just hard enough to convey his desire.
Oh my.
A wild groan escapes my lips prompting him to kiss me deeper, harder.

I reach under his shirt to touch his skin with my fingertips. The moment our skin meets Rooter throws his head back and moans, deep and raspy. My fingers trace the lines of his six pack. When his eyes land back on mine they convey a carnal hunger that sends tingles straight to my core. No man has ever looked at me in such a way. My legs quiver.

Rooter leads us to my bed and lays us on the mattress. His mouth moves from my lips to my neck and I arch my back to give him better access. His tongue teases my skin with soft, languid movements. I fantasize about his mouth, his tongue on my entire body. His lips leave a trail of wet kisses as he makes his way upward. When he nips my earlobe it sends sparks throughout my body. He breathes, warm and ragged against my flesh. The temperature in my room spikes to a hundred degrees.

The hand that was in my hair travels down my side. Rooter raises my legs up to his hips and wraps them around his waist. He glides his hands along the outside of my thighs, gripping tightly once they make it back to my hips. The timber of his tone is desperate when he moans my name right before grinding his hardness into me.

Images of Adam hovering over me flood my mind. Panicked, I gasp and jerk away from Rooter. Sensing my distress, he jumps off of me with a curse.

“I’m so, so sorry, Sophie.” Fear and remorse are thick in his eyes. “Are you okay?”

What the hell is wrong with me?
Embarrassment quickly replaces my panic and I fold my arms over my chest. Unable to speak, I nod in response.

“Talk to me,” he coaxes gently. “I need to know you’re okay.”

“I’m fine,” I squeak and cover my face to hide my shame. “I’m sorry.”

“Hey,” he tugs my arm away and looks into my eyes. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I let it go too far.”

Too far? We barely did anything. “I don’t know why I reacted that way.”

“Because you’re not ready for this, that’s why.” He pushes away from the bed and stalks to the far end of the room facing away from me. “I can’t believe I did that,” he fumes.

“It was my fault. I started it.” Exactly like me to take a perfect moment and crap all over it.

He spins around. “Don’t make excuses for me Sophie. You should be able to kiss me without worrying about me jumping you. I just...” He rubs the back of his head. “I’m not used to… having to control myself. That’s not an excuse. There is no excuse.” He rushes over to me and drops to his knees, his arms lay at his sides. “You know I wouldn’t have... let it go any farther, don’t you?”

“Of course I do.” So why did I freak out? And why the hell would I think of Adam in that moment? Rooter is nothing like him. And unlike Adam, I actually want to be with Rooter. I’ve only been fantasizing about it for a year. I finally get my chance and I wig out.

“Sophie, I’d never do anything you aren’t ready for. Shit.” He jumps up and away from me. “What am I saying? I just
did
something you weren’t ready for. I promise, it won’t happen again. I never want you to be afraid of me.”

“I could never be afraid of you,” I assert.

“But you were, just then,” he motions toward the bed, “when you jerked away. I scared you.”

“No. I wasn’t afraid of you. I was…” I can’t find the right words. Yes, I panicked, but not because I was afraid of him. “It was a stupid memory.”

The way he screws his eyes shut tells me my words make him feel worse not better.

I stand before him and take his hand into mine. “Listen to me, I’m fine with what happened.”

He opens his eyes and scans my face for proof that my words are true.

“I am,” I insist. “Actually, I really liked it and I feel stupid for freaking out.” Embarrassment creeps over me again.

“Of course you freaked out, babe.” He reaches up and grazes my cheek with the back of his hand. “That was way too much, way too soon.”

“I didn’t exactly do anything to stop you.”
Wait. Did he call me babe?

“I know,” he sighs and drops his hand. “But for the first time in my life, I want to be with someone. In a relationship. But I want to do it right and I’m already screwing it up.”

“You haven’t screwed anything up.”

“I told myself I’d take things slow with you. One step at a time. But when you kiss me, it’s like I can’t think straight. All I can think about how good it feels.”

His emphasis of “good” sends my insides into somersaults. I’ll never get over this guy, a living deity, actually wanting me.
Me
. “I feel the same way.”

He smiles, but it doesn’t meet his eyes. “You’re trying to make me feel better.”

“Yes, but I mean it.”

Rooter pulls me close and kisses the top of my head when there’s a knock on my door.

“Bear is here,” Miranda calls through the door.

“You should get ready for work.” Rooter says and turns to the door. “I’ll go downstairs.”

“Hey.” I tug his hand. “We okay?”

“Of course, babe.” He winks before leaving the room.

Babe? He seriously just called me babe. Twice. And then he winked. Holy hell. That. Was. HOT. I go to my bed and plummet face first, silently screaming into the mattress. Why the hell did I have to go and freak out and ruin everything? I’m such a spaz. Like a toddler throwing a tantrum, I kick the bed.

“Um?” Rooter’s chuckle sends a jolt through my body and I cease all movement. “I left my phone.”

Forget embarrassment. That has nothing on the utter mortification I’m experiencing at this precise moment. I lay completely still as Rooter reaches down next to me to retrieve his phone.

“You might want to hurry,” he suggests, his voice laced with humor. “We need to leave in fifteen minutes.”

“Mm-hmm,” I mumble into the mattress and wave him away. He chuckles again on his way out.