Tragic

"Wait!" I say, resisting before we walk through the doorway. "What're you doing?"

"Going back to bed, Rook. It's early. Way too early to get up and worry about clothes." He tugs me to the bed and sits down. "Sleep next to me for a few more hours."

Holy crap. What do I say to that? "Uh," is all that comes out. He takes my indecision as a signal, which it is, if I'm being honest. Regardless of all those feminist she-nis thoughts I had last night lying here alone, this morning his self-serving idea sounds like a well-thought-out plan. So he pulls me the rest of the way down and I'm sitting next to his prone body.

"Lie down, come on. I won't bother you, I promise. Let's sleep for a little longer."

I give in. I'm weak, what can I say? He's hot, and not just in the looks department, he's got a heat radiating off his body that is calling me. It wants to wrap me up and it's been a while since I had that kind of affection, so I sink into the bed next to him and his arms open and then settle against my stomach.

I close my eyes. Because this feels good. This feels better than good actually, this feels perfect. He tucks his face down into my hair and takes a deep breath.

I smile because he just sniffed me.

"I'm just checking to see if you're drunk, ma'am."

I giggle a little.

"And if I wasn't so tired, I'd check you for drugs as well. Pat you down until I found your hidden stash."

"I'm naked, remember?"

"Awwww, come on, Rook! I'm trying not to think about that. Be good now, or I'll break my promise and bother you all up. Make you all bothered…" His voice trails off, already giving in to the call of sleep.

My entire body releases four years of tension and fear. And I snuggle against his chest.

And fall asleep thinking this is what people mean when they say they are content.

Chapter Fourteen - ROOK

When I wake I'm alone, but I can hear the TV out in the living room blaring a baseball game, so I know I'm not really alone. I smile at this. He's still here, watching baseball in the living room. Like he belongs here.

Maybe he does belong here?

Rook, stop it. He's a player, he's a user, and he's probably got a million girls strung out all over this city. That's why he left last night and that's why he came back so late. And then you went and let him sleep in your bed and act like he's your boyfriend.

This has got to stop.

I roll off the bed, still clutching my sheet to my body, then pad over to the laundry closet in the hallway.

"I already took care of it." Ronin calls out.

"Took care of what?" I ask, peeking around the corner to see him. He's kicking back on the couch, feeding himself peanuts and drinking a beer. "Sheesh, comfortable much?"

"You know what the best part of living next to the baseball stadium is, Rook?" he asks, ignoring my snarky remark.

I shrug and simultaneously listen to the Charge! organ music on the TV and the fans outside in the stadium as they go wild.

He points to the bag of peanuts in his hand. "Baseball park peanuts at home." He grins a huge, wide-eyed, baseball-is-awesome-and-so-are-peanuts grin.

"You went over there to get peanuts?"

"No." He shakes his head. "I got a guy."

I laugh. "What? You have a peanut guy? Like a peanut dealer, who stands on the corner and sells peanuts from the curb as you drive by?"

"Nah, that's stupid. He delivers them to the freaking door. Anyway," he says, waving a hand at me. "I folded your laundry for you and do you know what I found out?"

"What?" I ask, shaking my head.

"That you do not own any panties."

My whole face goes hot. "What?"

"Panties, Rook," he says, pointing to the laundry closet with his bag of stadium peanuts. "I folded your seven articles of clothing over there so that when you woke up you'd have something to wear besides that sheet, and I found no undergarments."

I open the closet and there are my seven articles of clothing sitting on top of the stackable washer lid. Folded. "Uh…"

When I turn Ronin is standing next to me taking a swig of beer. He swallows and grins. "I can help you out with that, if you'd like."

"I'm lost. Are we talking about getting me panties, or taking them off me?"

He laughs. "Both, I think. Come on," he says, taking my hand and setting his beer down on the coffee table as we walk by. He pulls me outside and the only thing I smell is cherry blossoms. Every single cherry tree is filled with flowers, so many flowers every bough bends under the weight. It creates a heaviness that transfers across the terrace and pulls me into the scenery. Ronin catches my gaze and stops for a moment. "We're gonna take pictures of you out here tomorrow. It will be perfect, don't you think?"

I stare at the trees a few more moments and then mutter, "They're so beautiful I can barely stand to look at them."

"I know the feeling." His boyish charms are gone now as he looks down on me with a hunger I haven't seen on a man's face in a very long time. "And a picture of you surrounded by those blossoms will be enough to make a guy shed a tear over the perfection of it all."

I wait for the joke but it never comes. He just stares at me for a few more seconds and then squeezes my hand and pulls me into the studio.

"Where are we going? I have no clothes on!"