The Rocker That Savors Me (The Rocker...) (6 page)

“Baby, I missed you.” Nik came into the living room looking tired. I guess working on their new songs was hard work. He pulled Emmie close and kissed her softly on the lips. It was sweet and yet none the less passionate. I had to avert my eyes because the look on Emmie’s face was so full of emotions.

Jesse grunted. “Break it up, you two. I can only stand so much of that before I want to break Nik’s face.”

Nik shot him the finger without even lifting his head.
I grinned and picked my keys up off the end table where I had left them earlier. “Well on that note I think that I will head out.”

“You can’t leave. We’re going to cook out.” Jesse followed me out of the living room and stood in front of the door, blocking my exit. “I grill a mean cow.” He gave me that cocky grin that had literally melted my panties yesterday. “Come on, Layla. Don’t go home yet.”

I was so tempted. I wanted to stay, and not just to try out his mad skills with the grill on the patio. My heart was aching to be close to him just as much as my body was. That alone terrified the shit out of me. “Maybe another time. I really have to get home.” Wait, why did I have to get home? Oh yeah, the girls.

His eyes narrowed. Was it me or had his eyes actually changed color? That was so sexy! “Do you have someone waiting for you?”

“Yes.” I told him honestly. His eyes darkened and for some reason I was quick to tell him about the girls. “My sisters.”

Those incredible eyes of his changed again, turning back to the brown from earlier.
“Sisters?”

I grinned. “Yes. I have custody of both my sisters. They will be wondering where I am
, so I really have to get home.”

“Call them and ask them to join us. Tell them to grab a cab
, and I’ll pay the driver when he gets here.” He took a step closer to me, and my breath caught in my chest. “You know you want to stay,” he whispered.

I tried to keep calm, tried to remember how to breathe
, but he was to close, too alluring and smelled to damn good. “I…” I had forgotten how to form words.

“Call them.”

Finally I found the strength to suck in a deep breath. “I can’t.” I couldn’t let Lana and Lucy ride in a cab by themselves all the way out to Malibu, especially when they had school in the morning. The disappointment in his eyes—
oh goodness, they’ve changed color again
—made my heart ache a little. “They have school in the morning,” I told him. “I would love to stay, really, but school is important.”

His mouth lifted in half a smile. “Okay
, I understand.” He stepped back enough that I was able to breathe without getting assaulted with that deliciously sexy smell of his. It wasn’t cologne, but something both subtle and hypnotizing. “Drive safely.”

Jesse opened the door for me and I was reluctant to walk out. I had to force my feet to move. The entire drive home I felt almost depressed.

Stupid, stupid, stupid! I was already developing feelings for the rocker.

Jesse

It was crazy, but I felt depressed after I watched Layla pull out of the driveway in her beat up old car. I had been thinking about her all day, had woken up hard as a fucking rock twice the night before with her on my mind.

I hadn’t wanted to go into the studio this morning because I wanted to see her again. Then when we got home it was to find Shane undressing her with his eyes and her grinning up at him like she knew it too. So I might have shoved him a little harder than was deemed playful to get him to keep his eyes to himself.

Layla Daniels had invaded my mind
, and I didn’t know why, but I was willing to explore the possible answers. I wanted her with an ache that I had never felt before in my life, but it was more that. I wanted to get to know her too, and that wasn’t me. Jesse Thornton didn’t care about getting to know women. All he cared about was his band brothers and Emmie. I was a bastard like that, but they were all I knew and all I loved. Nothing else mattered.

Yet here I sat with this desire to know that little goddess inside and out.
Sisters? Why did she have custody of them? How old where they? Did they look like her? Where were her parents? I wanted to call her, to ask her all of those questions and more, a million more. I had never called a girl in my fucking life!

“You’re quiet tonight
,” Emmie commented after swallowing a big bite of the bacon cheeseburger that I had made for her. I was getting tired of the very smell of bacon, but that was all she wanted, so that was what she would get, even if I gagged at the thought of eating another slice of pork again.

“He’s been moody all day
,” Shane muttered, taking a swallow of his Corona.

Emmie gave me a long thoughtful appraisal. She knew us all inside out, so I knew she
would realize what was wrong with me. And I both wanted to talk to her about it and hated her for seeing so much. “You really like her, huh?”

I shrugged, not wanting to talk about it with the other guys sitting right there with us. Nik’s head shot up from playing with something on his phone.
“Who?”

The brothers seemed just as curious. I raked a hand over my smooth head and glared up at the star filled sky. “Okay, so I like her. She’s…” I broke off, because I didn’t know what she was like. I was attracted to her on a deeper level than any other woman I ha
d ever met, and from the few minutes I’ve actually spoken with her, I had enjoyed her personality.

“She’s great
,” Emmie told me. “She’s sweet and caring. I love that she can get just as bitchy as I can. I don’t have to ask her to help me because she jumps right in without complaint. I could really see her as my friend.”

We were all surprised at Emmie’s praise of the other woman. Emmie had a hard time trusting other females. Her monster of a mother had really fucked her up and she felt like she could only trust herself. The guys and I hadn’t helped much in that department
, letting her see how other women acted around us and, subjecting her to all the jealous bitches that wanted to be her simply because she was the only female that would ever hold our hearts. If Emmie thought that Layla was already good friend material, then there was something very special about Layla indeed.

“So…” Shane took another pull from his beer. “
…Jesse likes Layla. She’s so fucking hot, dude.”

Emmie, seated between him and Nik
, smacked him on the back of the head. “Respect, Shane. Respect.”

“What?” He grinned at her. “She is. Come on, Em. Tell me you don’t think she’s hot. Tell me.”

“She’s beautiful.” Emmie conceded, “but you guys need to show her some respect. I mean it. You will not talk to her like you do your little sluts. And with her and her sisters moving in this weekend, you will clean up your language. Understand?”

“She’s moving in?” That news blew me away. She was going to be right here, every day? How would I survive that without getting to touch her?

“I told you guys I wanted a live-in. With the baby coming I can’t clean your shit up like I use to. She and her sisters are going to take the guest house.” She narrowed her eyes on us all. “Lucy is only six, so please try to watch your language around her.”

Six?
So young. I wondered if she looked like Layla. “I’ll watch my mouth.” I promised. We had made that mistake with Emmie while she was growing up. She could put sailors to shame with her vocabulary. Sure, she had heard it from her mother daily, but we should have at least attempted to get her to not repeat those words.

The others agreed as well. Emmie pushed her half-finished burger away. “Good. I’m counting on you guys. This will be good practice before the baby gets here.” She took a sip of her milk. “So, which of you will volunteer to help Layla and her sisters move in on Saturday?”

The other three guys groaned, but I was quick to offer my help. I wasn’t about to turn down the chance to spend more time with the little goddess.

Layla

If I was depressed that I had to go when Jesse had asked me to stay, then I was even more so the rest of the week. I didn’t see him at all on Thursday or Friday because the band was spending so much time in the studio. I hated that I went home both evenings with a heavy heart because I hadn’t gotten even a little peek at the sexy rocker.

Lana noticed my downbeat attitude
. She asked me if something was wrong Friday night as we sat on our little couch in the living room sharing the rest of the pizza I had picked up for dinner on my way home. Lucy was already in bed, and I was happy to have some us time with Lana. But she saw way too much sometimes, and I knew that I couldn’t keep my feelings about the rocker from her, especially since we were going to be living right next door to the guy.

“What’s wrong, Layla?” She asked around a mouthful of dough, tomato sauce, and gooey cheese. “
Aren’t you liking your new job?”

I shrugged, “The job is great. Emmie is the best boss I have ever had. I just…” I grimaced and
shrugged my shoulders again. “…I don’t know.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You act like a girl who is crushing on someone who doesn’t know she’s alive. Is it one of those rockers?” Lana had a bigger thing about rockers and relationships than I did. That was probably my fault, because I had left her to deal with our mother’s shit alone when Lydia had kicked me out at
sixteen. Poor Lana, who was only nine at the time, had to grow up fast because I wasn’t there anymore to take care of her like I had always done from the day she was born. 

I had promised the girls when they moved i
n with me that I wouldn’t ever lie to them about anything, so I told Lana about Jesse and how I was feeling. It felt good to talk about it, and she helped me get it a little straighter in my head. I realized I needed to be extra careful because of the way I was feeling. I couldn’t start something with Jesse Thornton. Not only was it dangerous because I technically worked for him, but it was dangerous to my emotional wellbeing as well.

I had to keep my distance…

It was a complete surprise to wake up Saturday morning to him knocking on my apartment door. Emmie had promised me that she would have someone help us move, but I had thought she meant actual movers or something. Not the band!

But no, that wasn’t the case. Jesse Thornton was actually there with Drake Stevenson right behind him looking hung over. “Good morning, beautiful.” Jesse greeted me with a grin and an up and down appraisal of my shorts and tank top clad body.
His eyes lingered on my legs a little longer, taking in the tattoo that wrapped around and around my right leg.

“Jesse, hey.”
I was enjoying my own once over of his delicious body. The way his gray tee shirt stretched tightly over his broad chest and how his jeans hung low on his lean hips. His head was shaved smooth, and I ached to run my tongue over it. Fuck! I had to stop or I was going to have to find myself a dry pair of panties.

Drake cleared his throat. “Sometime today, Jess. Stop eye fucking the chick and let’s get this show started man.”

I couldn’t help the blush that crept into my cheeks, but I stepped back and let them enter my small apartment. “I wasn’t expecting you guys to help me.”

“Neither where we
,” Drake grumbled as he dropped down on my old, worn couch.

Jesse grinned. “What Drake means is that he is here under duress. This is his punishment for pissing
Emmie off last night.”

“I still don’t understand what I did
. One minute she’s all smiles and the next she’s screaming at me.” He shook his dark head, causing his hair to fall in his face. “I hate pregnancy hormones. Cannot wait for that demon child to get out of her!”

I couldn’t help but laugh at him. “That isn’t going to help. After the baby is born she’s going to be worse. Take my word for it, sweetie. Postpartum is worse than the mood swings she’s having now.”

“Ah, hell,” both men muttered.

“Hey
, Layla did you already pack the bathroom?” Lana came out of the bedroom with a frown on her face, not yet noticing the men standing in our living room. “I need…” She broke off when she spotted Jesse standing at the end of the couch. “Oh…”

Jesse’s brows rose when he saw her. I watched his eyes grow wide when he got his first look at my sister’s beauty. Her long
midnight black hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Her eyes, an almost amber color were startlingly beautiful. Her nose was ever so slightly upturned at the tip, and her lips looked bee stung and plump. With her long and slender body and those boobs that I knew most girls would have paid thousands to have, she was what I had always wanted to look like. Seriously, I didn’t know how she had made it through school without a boyfriend, but I was sure it had something to do with her ability to freeze fire with her glare sometimes.

“Lana, this is Jesse.” I introduced with a smile. “And that’s Drake.” I pointed to the couch. “Guys this is my
seventeen
year old sister, Lana.”

I watched Jesse closely while I introduced them
, but other than giving her a once over, he seemed to dismiss her beauty. “It’s nice to meet you, Lana.” He nodded.