Rocco

by Lagomarsino, Giulia

  A round of cheers and groans filled the store and the manager shushed them all. “Alright, round one goes to the smaller guy. On my count,” the manager continued.

  This time, I threw out scissors again, figuring he would think that I would mix things up. He threw out paper and I snipped at his hand, then raised my arms in the air in victory.

  “Round two goes to the large man! Alright, ladies and gentleman, the winner of this round takes home the box of tampons. Get ready!”

  The whole place went silent and a bead of sweat dripped down my face as I warred with myself on what to throw out. Rock, I should go for rock. But I hadn’t mixed it up last time and I won. Shit, there was just no way to know what to do. My strategy was all over the place. I couldn’t decide and at the last minute, threw out fucking paper. I slowly blinked as I saw the man snip at my fingers with his scissors and raised the box of tampons in victory. I had lost.

  People walked past me and yelled at me for losing. I should have been pissed, but all I could think about was the fact that I now had to go back and get something else. Mike gave me one last victory grin before heading to the checkout. Ten minutes later, I walked out of the store with a box of every size tampon they had available.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Brooke

  Rocco slammed the front door, making me jump in surprise. I had seen Rocco upset before, but I had never seen him slam around this much. He practically threw his keys across the room and the groceries were tossed carelessly on the ground.

  He shoved a bag in my direction. “I got your fucking tampons.”

  I raised an eyebrow in surprise. Was that what all the banging around was about? “I take it things didn’t go smoothly.”

  He glared at me, his stare making me want to laugh when most people would recoil. “You didn’t fucking tell me what you wanted. I got into it with another guy over the last fucking box of tampons.”

  “There was only one box left?”

  “No, there was only one box of mixed tampons.”

  “Well, I’m sure whatever you got is fine.”

  “Fine? It’s fine?” he asked incredulously.

  “Yeah,” I said, not understanding what the big deal was. “Sure, I have my preferences, but there are more important things to get mad about than what kind of tampons you picked up.”

  He scrubbed a hand over his head and growled as he started pacing around the room. “I don’t fucking understand you.”

  “Um…okay?”

  “Aren’t you gonna yell at me? Tell me that I should fucking listen to you?”

  I was so confused. Nothing he said was making any sense. “I’m not really sure what you want me to yell at you for. Maybe you want to fill me in.”

  He grabbed onto my arms and shook me slightly. “Stop being so fucking perfect! I didn’t fucking ask for this. I didn’t ask for you to be so fucking tempting. Why do you keep doing this to me?”

  “Doing what?”

  He released me and stormed out of the house, leaving me standing there confused and really turned on. Fanning myself, I walked over to the groceries and put them away. He had gotten me five different boxes of tampons and a shitload of pads. Snorting, I piled them into a bin under the sink in the bathroom, but at the last second, I pulled a box out and laid it on the counter, just to piss him off.

  And since he hadn’t told me exactly what it was that I had done to make him so mad, I decided to take it a step further and break a few more of his rules. I grabbed my bathroom stuff and headed into his bathroom, placing my shampoo and conditioner in his shower. I put my toothbrush next to his and emptied the middle drawer of the vanity for all my makeup and hair supplies. I even put my hairdryer on the counter off to the side.

  Nodding to myself, I shut off the light and went back to my bedroom, gathering up my clothes and moving them into his bedroom. I snickered to myself when I put my shoes on the floor of his closet. This was just too much fun. It was a little disheartening though, because while I was doing things to piss him off, I was secretly taking it all in and wishing that this was more than just a prank.

  When Rocco returned, he pretended that I wasn’t there again. He did his usual routine with Evie, but other than that, it was like I didn’t exist. After cleaning up the kitchen and reading for a while, I sighed and headed for my bedroom. But I didn’t want to sleep alone tonight. I wanted Rocco and I didn’t want to sleep in my own room.

  I got cleaned up in his bathroom, chuckling to myself when he opened the door and saw me plucking my eyebrows.

  “Don’t you have your own bathroom?”

  “I do,” I nodded, “but the lighting is better in here.” I turned back to the mirror and continued with my grooming.

  “I’ll get you better lights.” He shoved the door open further and halted in his tracks. “What is all this shit?”

  “Well, if we’re going to be sharing a bed, it just makes sense that we would share the bathroom too.”

  “Why would that make sense? And who said that we’re sharing a bedroom? That goes against the rules.”

  “Hey, don’t get me started on those rules. You’re the one that keeps breaking them. I’m just trying to keep up.”

  He stormed out of the bathroom and into his bedroom. I followed a few minutes later, shucking my clothes and tossing them in the corner.

  “See, this is why you have your own fucking room. I don’t want your shit on my floor.”

  “Well, there’s no laundry basket for me.”

  “There’s one right over there!” he yelled, pointing over by the closet.

  “Yeah, but that has smelly man clothes in it. Our clothes are not mingling.”

  “You have no problem mingling in my bed,” he snapped.

  “Right, well, I can shower afterwards if you’re too sweaty, but that smell in that,” I said, pointing to the basket, “that smell will never leave my clothes ever again.”

  He sighed and threw the covers off the bed, snatching up all my clothes and storming out of the room. I could only assume he went to toss them in the laundry basket in my room. I slipped under the covers on the side that I preferred and made myself comfortable. It just so happened that the side that I preferred was also the side that he slept on.

  “What the fuck are you doing?”

  “Going to sleep.”

  “No,” he said firmly. “I said no sleepovers. This constitutes as a sleepover.”

  “Oh, relax. It’s just sleeping, and if you’re lucky, I’ll wake you up with my mouth around your cock.”

  He clenched his jaw, but stormed over to my side of the bed and scooped me up, tossing me onto the other side.

  “Hey!”

  “You want a sleepover? I get my side. I’m firm on this. I have my gun in the nightstand and my rifle under the bed. There is absolutely no way that I can protect you if I don’t have access to my gun.”

  “You store a rifle under your bed with a toddler in the house?”

  “It’s locked up,” he said irritatedly.

  “It’s- Wait, so, you can’t waste precious seconds getting to my side of the bed, but you can have a rifle locked under the bed that would take seconds to unlock?”

  “Would you please just shut the fuck up? See? This is why women do not sleep in my bed.”

  “Sure, that’s the reason,” I said mockingly.

  “That’s it.” He threw the covers off and stood, pointing to the door. “You have your own room. Go sleep in your own bed and leave me the fuck alone!”

  “Wow, someone’s testy tonight,” I said, slipping out from under the covers and walking over to him. His jaw was twitching, along with his eye. He was really pissed. I may have pushed just a little too far. Wanting to make it up to him, I slipped my hand down his sweats and gripped his cock in my hand. His eyes hardened and his breathing picked up. I let my mouth fall open slightly and licked my top lip.

  His cock grew in my hand, hardening to its full length. I had him right where I wanted him. I sank
to my knees and pulled his sweats down. His cock bobbed out at me, the tip just moistened and ready for me. I took him in one swallow, shoving him all the way to the back of my throat. His hiss urged me on until I was sucking him so hard that he was gripping my hair and fucking my throat. I was soaked and needed him inside me, but he wouldn’t release me. He spilled down my throat moments later, holding his cock at the back of my throat until he was empty.

  I glared up at him, not because of how he had taken control, but because I was horny and needed to get off too. “You could have fucking waited for me.”

  “Yeah? Did you ever think that I’d want to return the favor?”

  I was picked up and tossed onto the bed moments later. He was between my legs, licking and sucking and driving me insane. I felt like I couldn’t breathe, I was so wrapped up in him. Every touch, every lick, sent scorching sensations through my body until I laid in a boneless heap with him on the bed. But when he pulled me into his arms and wrapped me against his body, I knew that there was something going on that neither of us understood.

  “I thought this was breaking the rules,” I said after a moment.

  “Shut up.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Rocco

  I woke up with Brooke snuggled up against me. Her arm was draped across my chest and her face was nestled into my neck. It was fucking adorable. I breathed in the scent of her hair and smiled. God, she was fucking perfect. She wasn’t like other women that nagged all the time. She hadn’t even been upset that I hadn’t gotten the tampons she wanted. Actually, come to think about it, she didn’t even tell me if they were right or not. She just said it was fine. But that’s the way Brooke was, very relaxed and go with the flow. There was never any tension, other than when she was purposely trying to piss me off. And I always knew when she was trying to piss me off.

  When I walked into the bathroom, sure I was pissed, but not because her shit was in there. I was pissed because I liked her shit in my bathroom, and the more she worked her way into my life, the more I knew it was going to be fucking hard to walk away. How was I supposed to convince her that she was the one for me when she didn’t even want to be around Evie? That rule about her staying away was more for Evie’s sake than anything. I didn’t want Evie to get attached to her if Brooke was going to pull a disappearing act when this was over.

  When this was over… Just the thought of her leaving had my chest tightening painfully. I gripped her to me a little tighter and enjoyed the morning until I had to get up for work. I didn’t want to leave her. Hell, I didn’t want to even think about her, because it was just too fucking painful. And that could only mean one thing, I was already well on my way to being in love with her, if I wasn’t already.

  Shit. I unraveled myself from her body and headed for the bathroom. I needed to stop thinking about having her in my life or what I was feeling for her. That wouldn’t do me any good right now. What I needed was to get away from here for a few days and forget about Brooke and her sexy body. There would be no fucking snuggling for a few days and I could get my head on straight and remind myself of every fucking reason that I couldn’t be with her. Hell, I’d make up a few good reasons if it meant getting my head on straight.

  I got Evie ready for the day and made a huge effort to ignore Brooke when she got out of bed. I ignored when she wrapped her arms around me from behind, and how she reached up to kiss my cheek. And when she gripped my chin and forced me to look at her, I just stared at her blankly, even though my heart was beating out of control, and I was sure she could feel it under her palm that was resting on my chest.

  I left the house soon after to drop Evie off at Cara and Sinner’s, and then stormed into the Reed Security building. I was pissed and fighting too many emotions to count at the moment. And I wasn’t used to fighting emotions. I was used to shoving them all to the side to avoid unnecessary attachments. Now I was a pot ready to boil over.

  “I need a job,” I said to Cap as I walked into the conference room. He eyed me curiously.

  “Why?”

  “I can’t be around Brooke anymore. I need a break from her before I snap her neck.”

  He gave me a knowing look, but thankfully didn’t say anything in front of Hunter or Derek. “Well, I have a job for you. It’s out of town.”

  “That’s fine.”

  “Seriously?” Derek asked. “You’re that desperate to get away from Brooke that you’re willing to leave your kid behind for days?”

  “Look, I woke up this morning and she was all fucking wrapped around me again.”

  “Ah,” Hunter nodded. “She broke the rules.”

  “She didn’t just break the rules. She threw them out the fucking window. She moved her shit into my bathroom. Her clothes are hanging in my closet. I caught her fucking plucking her eyebrows in my bathroom!”

  “So, kick her out of your room,” Cap said nonchalantly.

  “I tried. I told her to get the fuck out, but she has ways.”

  “She gave you head, didn’t she?” Hunter grinned.

  “Yes! And it was really fucking good.”

  “I’m not sure what the problem is,” Derek said. “You’ve never had any problems kicking women out of your bed before. When she crawled into bed with you, why didn’t you just tell her to leave?”

  Shit. Well, I kind of screwed myself on that one.

  “Wait,” Cap chuckled, “she didn’t crawl into bed with you, did she?”

  “What’s he talking about?” Derek asked.

  I rolled my eyes, glaring at Cap for pointing out the flaw of what I was complaining about.

  “Just tell them,” Cap laughed. “You can’t hold that shit in anymore.”

  “Tell us what?” Hunter asked.

  “Yeah, what’s he talking about?” Derek added.

  Cap looked at me seriously. “It’s time to come out of the closet.”

  “I’m not in the fucking closet.”

  “Whoa,” Derek shoved back his chair in shock. “You’re in the closet? How did we not know?”

  “I’m not in the closet,” I repeated.

  “But it makes sense now,” Hunter nodded. “All those rules…he’s using women, but doesn’t want to form attachments because he secretly wants the big D.” His brows furrowed and he turned to me. “You weren’t the one Brooke’s fiancé was fucking, were you?”

  “I’m not fucking gay! I’m not in the closet!”

  “Oh, he’s in the closet alright. He’s a closet romantic,” Cap laughed.

  “Take it back,” I said, pointing my finger at him.

  “It’s true!”

  “Is not!”

  “Is too!”

  “Boys!” Hunter let out a loud whistle. “Calm your britches and tell us what the fuck is going on.”

  Cap was fucking laughing at me and I just couldn’t find a way to tell them what was really going on. It was too fucking embarrassing.

  “Our good friend, Rocco, is secretly in love with the idea of being in love. That’s why he doesn’t form attachments to women. He’s waiting for the one to come along. So, in the meantime, he has all these rules laid out so that he doesn’t lead anyone on. The problem is, he’s falling for a woman that doesn’t want kids.”

  Derek and Hunter turned and looked at me in shock. “No shit?” Derek whispered. “All this time, you’ve secretly been searching for that special someone. We all thought that you would be alone forever.”

  “Especially after the way he reacted when he found out he had a kid,” Hunter added. “Wait, did you just not want kids?”

  I sighed and flopped back in my chair, rubbing at my eyes. It was all too much to think about right now. “I was just surprised. I always thought I’d have a family and a wife that would, you know, do all the shit to take care of them. I never thought I would be a single dad.”

  “So…you really like Brooke,” Derek grinned.

  “Fuck, I think I’m in love with her.” I flopped my head down on the table, banging it again
st the wood several times. “And now I don’t know what the fuck to do. I’m getting attached and as much as I try and push her away, I always end up with her back in my bed.”

  “So, last night…” Hunter grinned.

  “Yeah, I fucking pulled her into bed with me. I fucking snuggled her, okay? And you know what? I fucking loved it.”

  “That’s so beautiful, man.” Derek wiped a fake tear from his face and I almost leapt up to pummel him. Cap was faster though, jumping in to solve problems like he always did.

  “Okay, so it’s simple. We just need a solution.”

  “I’m not fucking getting her pregnant,” I spat. “Although, I haven’t exactly been doing a great job with my condom rule.”

  “Problem solved,” Cap grinned.

  “Knight gave her a birth control shot. It’s very unlikely that I would get her knocked up.”

  “You could always get her sick. Antibiotics knock those out of commission,” Derek suggested.

  I glared at him. “You want me to purposely get Brooke sick so that I can give her antibiotics to knock out her birth control shot.”

  He shrugged. “All you have to do is get your hands on some kind of bacterial infection.”

  I looked at the three of them in astonishment. “Do you fucking hear yourselves? Cap, isn’t it enough that you knock up your wife nonstop? Don’t try and knock up mine.”

  “Your wife?” Hunter grinned.

  “You fucking know what I meant.”

  “But you said she was your wife, which means you’re thinking about it.”

  “What I’m thinking about is pulling out my gun and shooting you.”

  “Well,” Derek scratched at his chin. “I think you’re going about this all wrong. If she doesn’t want kids, knocking her up isn’t going to suddenly make this better.”

  “I’m not the one that suggested that,” I said loudly, hoping they would all get the hint that I wasn’t interested in knocking up another woman out of wedlock.

  “What you really need to do is talk to the judge and get her sentence extended,” Hunter said with a nod. “That way, she’s forced to continue living with you for as long as possible. Do whatever you have to. Tell the judge that she needs longer to rehabilitate.”