“When you what?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing,” he nodded. “Okay, so, events in which you might discuss kids…. You told her about Evie.”
“Not a fucking chance in hell,” I growled.
“Okay, so it wasn’t that, then… She found Evie’s diaper bag in your truck.”
I shook my head.
“You asked if she had any kids to get home to?”
This was ridiculous. “Look, the point is-”
“You fucked her without a condom,” he said with a grin, but then shook his head. “No, you’d never be that fucking stupid.”
I must have paused a moment too long, too fucking stunned that he had guessed it so easily, because he looked up with shock on his face.
“No fucking way. Are you serious right now? You fucked her and you didn’t suit up?”
“Look, it was a heat of the moment kind of thing.”
“And you didn’t pull out?” he asked incredulously.
“I wasn’t thinking. She was really fucking hot and the sex was amazing!”
“Still, fuck, Rocco. This is you we’re talking about. Where was your fucking manual?”
“Look, I get it. It was totally careless and completely irresponsible.”
“And exactly the type of thing a guy like you pulls when he doesn’t want to admit that he’s found the woman for him.”
“Spare me the she’s the one bullshit. We fucked and I wasn’t paying attention.”
“Yeah, because you wanted to fuck her so bad that all common sense flew out the window. Yeah, that’s happened to me a lot.”
“Really?”
“No, you fucking idiot,” he said, slapping me upside the head. “I was always prepared. The only woman that it didn’t bother me with was Maggie. And we all fucking know how that turned out.”
“You wanted her,” I pointed out.
“And you want Brooke. Just because you can’t admit it to yourself doesn’t mean it’s not true.” He jerked his chin at something behind me and I turned around. Brooke was being escorted out by the police, and I was facing my doom. Cap gripped onto my shoulder, squeezing slightly. “This is gonna be so good.”
His version of so good and mine were not at all the same. All I could think about was the fact that I was going to have another person living in my space, and it wasn’t even someone that liked kids. How the fuck was I supposed to deal with that?
CHAPTER TEN
Brooke
We arrived outside of Reed Security and I felt my stomach drop. I was being forced to live with a man that I didn’t even like just so I could stay out of jail. The cops had been nice enough to let Sebastian go to Gary’s house first to grab my bags. I wasn’t allowed on the property, but I was allowed to sit in the car and wait for Cap to grab what I needed. But as soon as I walked into Rocco’s house, I was under strict house arrest. The cop opened the car door for me and I stepped out, staring at the huge building ahead of me.
Rocco walked out of the building, heading straight for me. He looked pissed, and I couldn’t really blame him for that. He was definitely taking one for the team. He stopped in front of me, his jaw clenching hard as he stared down at me.
“Officers, what do you need from me?”
“We need to set up the perimeter for her ankle monitor, so we need to see where she’ll be staying.”
“This way,” he said with a nod. But when he turned around, I saw Cap standing there, his hand in the air, halting us.
“Change of plans,” he said, a smirk tilting his lips. “We’ve got a house for you.”
“A house?” Rocco asked in confusion.
“Right, well, if she stays where you stay, she’s not ever going to get to go outside. So, we had a house on the property, just sitting here empty and ready for someone to use.”
“And you just got it all furnished and decorated this morning,” Rocco said blankly.
Cap grinned at him. “You know, it was pretty convenient that Jessica put the finishing touches on this morning. Who knew that we’d need this house? By the way, I’ve taken the liberty of having all your things moved over there.”
“I bet you did,” Rocco ground out.
What the heck was going on? There was something strange happening, but I didn’t really understand it. So, I followed them over to the house that would be my residence for the next year. It was a small house, nothing fancy about it, but at least it was in good condition.
I walked inside and sighed. It was a nice house with a homey feel, but it wasn’t my house. The front hall had a nice, big closet that would definitely fit all my shoes, if I had brought them all with me. Off to the left was the living room and the furniture looked very cozy, and there was even a fireplace that would be nice for curling up in front of this winter. The kitchen was at the back of the house with a small dining area off to the left. From the dining area, there was a great view of the woods. That was where I’d be having my morning coffee.
I headed through the living room to the other side of the house to check out the bedrooms. There was plenty of space for the two of us, so at least we wouldn’t be in each other’s way. The first door that I opened was a nice room, decorated with blues and whites. It was simple and just my style. But out of curiosity, I wanted to check out the other rooms. I was just about to open one of the other doors when I heard Rocco talking with the officers in the front.
“Brooke!” he shouted. I headed to the front.
“Ma’am, you’re allowed to the end of the driveway and most of the backyard. You can go for a walk and check it out. Mr. Turner knows precisely how far you can go. If the light starts flashing on your ankle monitor, you need to get back within the perimeter within five seconds or the police will be called and you’ll be in violation of your house arrest and you’ll be sent to jail. Is that understood?”
“Yes.”
They tipped their hats and were on their way. Rocco turned and glared at me, shoving past me into the house. I followed, wondering which room he would head for. When he opened the door I wanted, I spoke up.
“That’s my room.”
“You can take the one at the end of the hall.”
“No, I want that one.”
His menacing stare met mine. “I said that I’m taking this one. It right across the hall from this room,” he said, pointing at the door across the hall.
“Well, I’m glad you know your directions. I like that one, so I’m taking it.”
He stalked forward slowly, each step making my heart race just a little more. “Look, Sweets, you got me into this mess, so you’ll do what I say, when I say it. I had a nice place that was all my own, but now I’m stuck with you, so you’ll take what I fucking give you.”
“We’re going to be stuck together for an entire year. I’m not sure that treating me like trash is going to make this a very comfortable arrangement.”
“I’m not treating you like trash. I’m telling you that this is my house now, so you’ll do what I fucking tell you in my house.”
A knock at the front door had him storming past me, shoving against my shoulder just slightly. “How’s my girl?” I heard him say in a cutesy voice.
Who the fuck was he talking to? I walked up behind him as he held his arms out. As I stepped out from behind him, I almost fell flat on my ass. He was grabbing a little girl that couldn’t be even two years old yet.
“Daddy!” she squealed as he lifted her into the air and then pulled her in for a hug. I heard him make some slobbery sound and she squealed happily. My jaw dropped to the floor. He was a father? No. I couldn’t do this. I wasn’t staying where a kid was staying. I didn’t do kids. I didn’t do the slobber and the noise. And I most definitely didn’t do the throwing up and snot.
“Please tell me she lives somewhere else,” I said before I could think better of it.
Rocco’s face turned murderous, and he pulled his daughter in closer to his body. “Evie lives with me, and she’ll be here the whole
fucking time, so you’d better get used to her.”
“So,” the woman at the door said.
I turned to see the woman standing in the doorway was Cara, Sinner’s wife. I had met her briefly before, but had been too distracted by the snot-nosed little demon before me to notice. Okay, she wasn’t all snotty and she didn’t seem at all demon-like, but the day was still young.
“Are you having Brooke watch her now or should I come back tomorrow?”
My eyes widened in horror at the thought of having to watch Rocco’s daughter, but luckily, Rocco saved me.
“Hell fucking no, she’s not watching her. Do you really think I’d let a woman like Brooke watch my daughter?”
Cara stared at him in shock. “That’s a little harsh.”
“No, it’s not,” I interjected. “He’s right. I’m not at all a baby person, and I’d probably forget to feed her or burp her or something.”
“She’s almost two. She doesn’t get burped,” Rocco said testily.
“See? Not a baby person. Besides, I’m under house arrest. What would happen if she needed to go somewhere?”
Cara looked at me funny. “If…Evie needed to go somewhere?” she asked slowly.
“You know, like if she needed to go to the store for more…diapers or…food.”
Cara cleared her throat, smiling at Rocco. “Yeah, I’ll be back tomorrow. Seven-thirty?”
“Sounds good. Thanks, Cara.”
He shut the door and I breathed a sigh of relief that at least they saw how wrong I was for that sort of job. Speaking of which, I had to figure out what I was going to do now that I was on house arrest and couldn’t go into work anymore.
“Do you cook?” Rocco asked, dragging me out of my thoughts.
“Um, yeah, I can cook.”
“Do you cook well?”
“That’s a loaded question.” He looked at me funny. “Well, I can obviously make things like spaghetti and mac n’ cheese. And there are a few soups I can make. It’s nothing special, but it’s good enough. Oh, and I make a mean pot of chili. So, I can cook a little bit, but most of it is a learning curve.”
“So, you can’t cook. Just say that next time. We don’t need to go into details.”
“Wow, I knew that you were prickly, but knowing what I can and can’t cook is too much detail for you?”
He sighed heavily, shifting Evie to his other hip. “Look, I get that we’re going to be stuck together for the next fucking year of our lives, but that doesn’t mean that we have to see or talk to each other. You hang out and…do your thing, and Evie and I will do ours. You can handle the cooking and cleaning since you’ll have nothing better to do. If you need groceries, make a list and I’ll get them. There’s cable and I’m sure enough shit that you can entertain yourself all day.”
“Wait, you expect me to cook and clean and…sit around watching tv all day?”
“Well, what else are you gonna do? We’ve already established that you can’t and won’t be watching Evie.”
“I was planning on finding a job online.”
He chuckled slightly. “Yeah, someone’s going to hire you right now.”
“Hey, I could find plenty of work. I just have to be creative.”
“Sure, well, in the meantime, you can do the cooking and cleaning. I want to spend some time with my daughter, so why don’t you go start dinner.”
I glared at him. I really hated that he could tell me what to do, but I was in his house and he did save me from having to go to jail, so if he wanted me to make dinner, I’d make dinner.
✯✯✯✯✯
I watched as Evie shoved another handful of spaghetti into her mouth. The sauce was all over her body, and now I understood why Rocco had undressed her for dinner. It was disgusting. And Rocco just sat there laughing, telling her how cute she was. I didn’t get it. I saw her little face scrunch up and Rocco scrambled on the table for something. He shot out of his chair, knocking it over as he ran for the counter. He snatched several of the paper towels and was just about to shove them at Evie when she sneezed. Snot and sauce went flying across the table and I felt droplets of snot hit my hand. I grimaced and did my best not to gag, but I couldn’t help it. I ran for the bathroom, just to get away from the disgusting mess at the table. I almost threw up, but after a few moments of taking deep breaths, I was good to go.
I walked back out of the bathroom and picked up my plate, dumping the rest of the food into the garbage. There was no way I was finishing anything on that plate. If snot hit my hand, it was most likely all over my food. Was this the way it was going to be every night? Was I going to have to eat with this kid and guard my food so that I could eat it without being contaminated by her bodily fluids?
I started cleaning up the kitchen. I had a strong desire right now to disinfect the whole house. Call me crazy, but after seeing snot flying, I could picture the tiny particles floating around in the air, landing on every surface. While Rocco took Evie out of her high chair, I cleaned up the entire kitchen. I made sure to give the table an extra good wipe down. Pleased with my work, I paused when I heard Rocco talking to Evie. Curious, I snuck down the hallway and saw Rocco in Evie’s room, the room right across the hall from the room I had wanted. Now it made sense. He wanted to be close to her.
He didn’t have a shirt on, and I watched his sexy muscles flexing as he moved around her room. He laid Evie on the table, rubbing her body down with a towel and pressing her nose like a button. He put a new diaper on her and then he lifted her up, pulling her in close to his body. Evie gripped onto his arms and snuggled into his shoulder. I found that I was very jealous right then and wished that I could be Evie, snuggling against his shoulder and gripping onto his biceps.
He walked over to a rocking chair and sat down. I moved further back into the shadows so he couldn’t see me, but I was fascinated and found that I couldn’t look away from the man. He was so sexy. And even though I didn’t want anything to do with kids, even I could see how sexy it made him to be cradling his daughter in his arms as if she was the most precious thing in the world.
“Should we do a bedtime story, Evie?”
She nodded and snuggled further into his arms. I smiled and waited to see what story he would tell her. It would probably be something about princesses or fairies.
“Alright, which story do you want to hear?”
“Daddy go boom,” she said excitedly, giggling when he tickled her side.
“Again? But I tell you that one every night.”
“Again, Daddy.”
He sighed, chuckling just a little. “Okay. Daddy went out on a job one time to a far away place called Kansas. He was there with his teammates, Derek and Pappy. We were going to protect this woman that had run away from her husband. He was a very bad man that used to hit her and push her around.”
I stepped back in surprise. This was the bedtime story that he was telling his daughter? And she requested it?
“So, Daddy went off to protect the woman until we could get the bad man and make sure that he never bothered her again. But the bad man had other ideas and he got to Kansas before we could. We got to the woman just in time to get her out of the house, but the husband opened fire on us and started chasing our SUV down the backroads.”
He stood and started walking around the room, his movements excitable with every part of the story he told. I didn’t even hear most of what he said. I was too mesmerized by how his muscles moved as he walked around the room. I was practically drooling when he turned toward me and I got a really good view of his jeans hanging low on his hips. That sexy V was just so damn edible, and he had a thin line of hair that trailed down below the waistband of his jeans. I started licking my lips, my fingers itching to touch him there and everywhere else.
“And then Daddy slammed on the brakes just as the other vehicle exploded. The vehicle was so burned out that they had to get dental records to confirm that it was him. The woman went on to live a happy life and was never bothered by anyone again
. The end.”
Evie started clapping and kissed her daddy on the mouth. Alright, so she was a little cute. I mean, of course she was. She had Rocco for a father. It was kind of hard not to be cute. But I still didn’t want anything to do with her. I waited as Rocco laid her down in her crib and kissed her goodnight before I made my way quickly back to the living room and plopped down on the couch. I pretended to be flipping through the channels, only to realize just a second too late that I didn’t actually have the TV on.
“Whatcha watching?” Rocco asked with a grin on his face. I started to look up, but caught sight of his extremely toned abs and never made it past staring at those. God, they were beautiful. Everything about this man was just so gorgeous.
“Uh…” I remembered he had asked me a question, but what it was, I had no clue.
“The TV?”
“What about the TV?” I asked his abs.
“What are you watching?”
“Abs.”
“Abs?” he chuckled. My gaze finally flicked up to his and I realized what I said. “Uh, ab workouts. I was watching those.”
“Really.”
“Uh-huh.”
“The TV isn’t on.”
I looked over at the TV, remembering before his abs distracted me that I had meant to turn it on. Oops. “I was going to look for an ab workout on the TV,” I clarified.
“Sure you were.”
“Of course I wasn’t. I was too busy staring at your abs.”
He smirked and leaned over, resting his hand on the arm of the couch next to me. His body moved in just inches from mine. There was a faint scent of cologne that drifted to my nose, making me want to lean in and smell him further. I needed to find out where he put it so I could get a whiff of it.
“I want to fuck you,” he said in a gravelly voice that sent shivers down my spine. His fingers brushed against my cheeks and moved down to my throat, pausing on my collarbone. I swallowed hard, feeling my pulse quicken just from him being so close. I wanted him and I wasn’t about to stop fucking him just because he had a kid. I just couldn’t confuse what was really going on here.
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