Falling for my Biker Roommate

16

I watched her leave from the dark living-room window.

She stepped out the front door in a black dress that hit mid-thigh and heels she almost never wore. Her hair was down. She looked like she had put real effort in. The guy from the hardware store was already waiting by a clean silver truck. He opened the passenger door for her like a gentleman. She smiled at him. The smile didn’t reach her eyes, but it still landed in my chest like a punch.

The truck pulled away.

I stayed at the window until the taillights disappeared around the corner. Then I turned and walked straight to my room.

The rest of the night was ugly.

I cleaned my Glock twice. Field-stripped it on the desk, oiled every piece, put it back together, then did it again just to keep my hands busy. When that stopped working I paced the floorboards until I knew every creak by heart. The apartment felt too quiet without her in it. Every few minutes I checked my phone like an i***t. No messages. Of course there were no messages. She was on a date. She was allowed to be on a date. I had told someone on the phone she was just my roommate and that everything was under control.

Control was a joke.

By midnight the black mood had settled deep in my bones. I sat on the top step of the stairwell in the dark with my back against the wall, waiting. I told myself I was just making sure she got home safe. I knew that was a lie.

The front door opened quieter than usual.

Lily stepped inside and locked it behind her. She was still in the dress. Her heels dangled from one hand. She looked tired. When she turned toward the stairs and saw me sitting there she froze.

“Leo.”

“You’re late.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I didn’t realize I had a curfew either.”

I stood up slow. The stairwell felt smaller with both of us in it. “How was dinner?”

“Fine.”

“That’s your favorite word lately.”

She climbed two steps so we were closer to eye level. “What do you want me to say? That it was amazing? That he made me forget every single thing that’s been happening in this apartment?”

“Did he?”

“None of your business.”

The words came out sharp. I felt something snap behind my ribs.

“You heard me on the phone,” I said. It wasn’t a question.

Her chin lifted. “Yeah. I did. ‘She’s just my roommate. Everything’s under control. She’s not going to be a problem.’ Real nice, Leo.”

I took a step down. She didn’t back up.

“You weren’t supposed to hear that.”

“But I did. And then I went on a date so I could feel like something other than a problem you’re managing.”

The last of my restraint went.

I closed the distance in one move, pinned her hard against the drywall with my body, and took her mouth like I had been starving for it. The kiss was not gentle. It was angry and hungry and months of held-back want crashing through at once. She made a small shocked sound against my lips, then her hands fisted in my shirt and she kissed me back just as hard. Her heels dropped to the floor with a dull thud. I felt her melt into me, arms sliding up around my neck, body pressing closer. The taste of her short-circuited every warning in my head.

For a few seconds there was nothing else. Just her mouth under mine, the soft give of her body, the way she made that quiet desperate sound when I deepened the kiss.

Then reality slammed back in.

I tore my mouth away, breathing hard, forehead pressed to the wall beside her head.

“Go to bed, Lily.”

My voice came out rough and wrecked.

I pushed off the wall, turned, and walked straight into my room without looking back. The door shut harder than I meant it to. I stood in the dark with my heart hammering and the taste of her still on my tongue, knowing I had just made everything a hundred times more complicated.

And knowing I would do it again in a heartbeat if she let me.