Page 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Rook

I had no idea what changed, but Tessa had been off since the engagement.

Sure, after she slept, she was a little less short with me. But she was still very—I don’t know—distant. When she was even around. It seemed like she started taking shopping gigs the moment the store opened in the morning and went until it closed at night.

And the weirdest part?

I missed her.

I’d been excited to have an excuse to call her when I saw Nancy’s car pull down the road, to know she would come and be around me for a few minutes.

“Oh, shit. Okay. I’m just on the way back from the apartments. I’ll be there in less than ten.”

“You have your ring on, right?”

“Always.”

The rap on the door had me wincing.

“Even her knock sounds snotty.”

“I know, right? See you in a few.”

“What took so long?” Nancy asked the second I slid the lock. “Were you hiding something?” she asked, shoving past me and rushing toward the bathroom, listening. Like I’d been flushing drugs or some shit. Even though I literally had no history with them.

“I was on the phone with Tessa,” I told her. I couldn’t lie. If she checked my phone, she would see that.

“Why? Is she not living here any longer?” Nancy asked, sounding pleased by the prospect.

“She is. Actually, we have some big news,” I said, waving toward the framed photograph sitting on one of the bookshelves.

Nancy moved closer, nose in the air. And she literally sniffed as she saw what I was showing her, her lip curling.

“You’re engaged?”

“We are.”

“Why?”

“Why?” I asked, not having expected that question.

“Yes, why?”

“Because… we love each other?”

Nancy waved a hand at that, seeming to dismiss the whole idea of love.

“Relationships need more than love. Love fades.”

I wasn’t exactly a romantic, but even I thought that was some sad thinking.

“Well, we also… like each other.”

“You barely know each other.”

“We’re living together.”

“For, what, two weeks?”

Had it been that long since she’d dropped in? That was… odd. Was that the Tessa effect? Because Nancy liked her more than me, she left us alone more?

I almost felt bad for the poor sack who was getting more of her attention now that I wasn’t taking so much of it up.

“I think it’s one of those things.”

“What things?”

“When you know, you know.”

I swear she actually rolled her eyes at that.

“Well, I am going to do a little search. Sit where I can see you.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She went to the bedroom first, and I was a little sad that I hadn’t gotten a chance to screw with her and put fake used condoms in the bin next to the bed.

Instead, all she would find in there were the wrappers to the fruit snacks that Tessa popped like a little addict. I swear she went through a box every two days.

Luckily, though, Tessa was dedicated to the bit. She kept bridal magazines next to her bed. She’d even gotten a little flyer from the closest florist that she’d marked up with her favorite bouquets.

Hell, she even made sure she put a fresh, half-empty glass of water on the opposite nightstand each evening, just in case Nancy dropped by.

Nancy was still digging around in the closet when Tessa came bustling in. Gone was the long-sleeve tee she had on when she’d left that morning. In its place was a black tank top. Her hair, which had been down, was pulled back and wet at the root.

“Sorry I’m so late. I was trying to work off those fruit snacks on the treadmill. What is—oh,” she said, trailing off as if she was noticing Nancy for the first time. “Hey, Mrs. Bird,” she called, all easy smiles, making me painfully aware that I hadn’t seen a smile even close to that in two weeks.

“You don’t need to work anything off,” I said, walking over and wrapping my arms around her. “Love your body just as it is,” I added, letting my hands sneak to the top of her ass as I pressed a quick kiss to her lips.

“Stop!” she said, whacking my chest playfully. “I’m all sweaty. And, yes, I do. I have to try on wedding dresses soon. Did you hear the good news?” she asked, turning a sunshine-bright smile to Nancy, then thrusting out her hand to show off the ring.

Nancy’s curled lip moved from us to Tessa’s hand.

“It’s like he snatched my dream ring right out of my head. Without me ever having to tell him. He’s so intuitive.”

“Where’d you get the money for that?” Nancy asked, making me fight the urge to snap at her. “I’ve been saving for a long time. For a new couch,” I said, waving toward it. “Then I fell for her, and, well, we spend more time in bed than on the couch anyway…”

“Rook!” Tessa scolded, pretending to be a mix of scandalized and annoyed by my comment.

“How much was it?”

“Four grand,” I told her. She’d ask for the receipt. I had it. “As you know, my bills here are… minimal. And I make good money at the studio. So I had a decent chunk sitting around.”

I’d made sure to be very careful about my ledgers. I had proof of my income, the outgoing bills, and some missing ‘fun money’ for take-out and such. The rest sat in the account. It had been almost exactly six grand. I figured a man in love would want to put as much down on a ring as he could afford while still having a little money stashed away.

“I can show you my ledger,” I added.

“Yes, I will want to see that. I will also be needing your fiancée to do a drug test before I can approve this marriage.”

“You can’t make her do that,” I objected, my tone a little harsher than I’d intended.

“You’re right,” Nancy, not appreciating my tone, agreed in a sharp tone. “I can’t make her. But I can forbid you from marrying her if she won’t do one. I can remove her from your life entirely.”

“Why the fu—” I started, getting cut off by Tessa grabbing my hand and squeezing hard.

“Of course I will do a test,” Tessa said, tone light to distract from the way I was practically vibrating with rage. “That’s no problem at all. I have nothing to hide. Like I said, my mom suffered from addiction. And I suffered because of that too. I don’t touch drugs. So I’m fine proving that fact.”

She shouldn’t have to.

Especially when she clearly had a bad history with drugs impacting her life by proxy.

“You shouldn’t have to hash up all those memories just because—”

“Rook, it’s okay,” Tessa said, pressing a hand to the center of my chest. “I don’t mind.”

I minded.

And while Tessa’s reaction seemed to make Nancy retract her fangs, she still shot me a cold look.

“Whatever it takes so we can get married, right?” Tessa went on. “That’s all that matters.”

To an outsider like Nancy, that probably just sounded like the words of someone in love. But I knew what point Tessa was trying to make.

This was my only shot to get a wife and someone to check in on my mom. If this failed, there was no way Nancy was going to buy another too-quick relationship.

This was my one and only chance to get eyes on my mom.

“Right,” I agreed, slipping an arm around her. “If you need me to piss in a cup again, I’m game.”

“I have a feeling a pre-pee-test water-drinking contest is in our future.”

Nancy, sick of us, went back to her search with even more gusto than usual.

Tessa and I went to the couch, and I pulled her legs up over mine so I could lean in and whisper in her ear without Nancy hearing.

“Thanks for keeping shit from escalating.”

“She really seems to hate that we’re together,” Tessa whispered back, her warm breath on my neck making my body get all sorts of ideas.

It was the first time we’d been within a foot of each other since the engagement. The first time I’d been this close to any woman in that timeframe, actually.

I didn’t even have an explanation for that. It wasn’t like our arrangement came with some celibacy clause or anything. I just hadn’t been interested.

Well, that wasn’t true.

I was interested, judging by the explicit dreams and the way my cock stirred to life just at the thought of kissing her.

But I was interested in Tessa.

The one person I couldn’t be fucking.

“I mean, I don’t get it. She’s dedicated her whole life to making ex-cons’ lives miserable because someone once hurt her husband. Shouldn’t she love love?”

“Maybe she just thinks none of us deserve love, since we were in prison.”

“That’s ridiculous, though.”

“Yeah, dunno. Don’t get it either.”

“Well,” Nancy said, coming back far too quickly for my liking, since her presence was the only reason I had Tessa draped over my lap. Tessa would jump up the second she was gone. And that strained distance we’d been dealing with would continue. “I want you both at the testing center tomorrow.”

“Road trip,” Tessa said, giving me a little smile. “We will be there first thing tomorrow morning,” she said, shooting that same smile at Nancy.

Nancy exhaled hard. “Fine. I will keep an eye out for the results.”

With that and nothing more, she was gone.

“Wow,” Tessa said, head flopping into the back cushion, exhaling hard. “She’s stressing me out, and she doesn’t even hold my freedom in her hands.”

“And she’s been better than usual lately.” I reached out, patting her knee.

“That’s hard to believe.”

“She once did a drop-in and search twice in one day.”

“She must have no life.” Tessa flexed her sock-clad feet, and I was reminded of the foot roller she’d had delivered to the house. Her job required long hours walking back and forth across the grocery store for other people. Her feet were hurting.

I knew my best bet was to keep my hands to my damn self.

But I reached for one of her feet and pressed both my thumbs into her arch.

The long moan that escaped her went right to my dick as she stretched out against the couch, eyes closed, her breathing deep and slow.

That was all the encouragement I needed.

Unfortunately, though, the more I rubbed her sore feet, the more her breath hitched, the more she whimpered and moaned, and even arched her back off the cushions in pleasure.

I had to do my own deep breathing, trying to reason with the desire growing in my body. I didn’t want my cock getting hard when her legs were over my lap.

“Forget being a biker,” she said as I released one foot to reach for the other. The first leg fell onto my chest. “You could make a great living as a foot massager. I would pay good money for this.”

“You can have my hands anytime you want them,” I told her. I hadn’t meant for it to come out sexually. But the way Tessa’s legs pressed together made it clear she’d taken it that way.

And that was the last damn thing I needed to know.

I forced myself to focus on her foot.

But once I was done with that, I went ahead and let my hands work up her ankles, then her tight calves.

Tessa’s breathing went shallow and quick as I worked up her calf, then made it to the undersides of her knees.

It was right then I learned that the backs of her knees were a hot spot for her. A surprised, throaty moan escaped her lips, and her thighs actually spread.

And, well, I couldn’t fucking help myself, could I?