Page 10 of The No Touch Roommate Rule
The headlights blind me a moment, but I can still make out a man swinging out of the driver’s side through the glare. He’s tall. Broad shoulders. Moving through the water with purpose.
And then he steps out of the glare into the gentler glow of the emergency lights and…
“Parker?” I croak, tears stinging into my eyes again as he wades toward me, shouting, “What the fuck, Makena? Why are you still here?”
“Why areyouhere?” I shout back as he gets closer. “You could have died. You couldstilldie.” Oh God, he could, I realize, my stomach pitching. “You shouldn’t have come, Parker. You should have stayed safe. You shouldn’t have?—”
He reaches the counter, and suddenly my face is in his hands, and he’s kissing me—hard, fast, but deep enough to take my breath away.
When he pulls back, his eyes blaze into mine. “I don’t leave the people I care about behind.”
My throat squeezes so tight, I couldn’t speak if I tried. Even if I knew what to say. How to thank him. How to tell him how much this means.
No one ever comes to save me.
I always have to save myself.
But here he is, grabbing my hand as he adds, “You can yell at me more later if you want. Right now, I think we should get the fuck out of here, how about you?”
“Yes. Yes, please,” I agree, my teeth chattering again as I drop into the water behind him, clinging to his arm as we start for the truck.
The current is stronger than it looks, tugging at my legs like a kid who doesn’t want me to leave the party. Parker shields me from the worst of it. Still, by the time we reach the truck, his arm around my waist is the only thing keeping me from being swept off my feet.
At the open driver’s side door, he literally tosses me past the wheel into the passenger’s side before surging into the driver’s seat.
“Hold onto your ass,” he says, slamming the door behind him.
The engine sputters as he shifts into reverse.
“Come on, buddy,” I say, willing the truck to move. “Keep going, you beautiful, gas-guzzling planet killer. You don’t get to give up now.”
Parker hits the gas again. The engine coughs one last time before engaging with a roar. We lurch backward through the hole in the building onto the street, and for one terrifying second, I feel the truck lift. Actually, float off its wheels like it’s always dreamed of being a boat and is ready to make that dream come true.
“Oh God, please. Please, keep going, please,” I shout-cry-pray, as Parker shifts into drive and the wheels grab pavement.
Then, we’re in motion, moving up the street, through the water, churning slowly, but steadily, toward higher ground.
But holy shit, that was close.
So crazy, scary close…
I sit panting on Parker’s leather seat, shaking and dripping as I try to wrap my mind around what just happened.
“We…” I gulp, fighting to swallow past the lump in my throat. “We almost died.Ialmost died. Iwouldhave died if you hadn’t come for me.”
“Yeah, I know,” he says, the words low and rough. “Thank God I didn’t listen to the voice in my head saying it was crazy to drive my truck through a building when I didn’t even know if you were inside.”
“Yeah,” I breathe. “Thank God.”
I sneak a glance his way. His jaw is tight and his hands grip the steering wheel like he’s worried it might try to run away from him…the way I did earlier tonight. Water clings to his skin, and his shirt is once again plastered to every perfectly formed muscle. He looks like an action hero. Like a white knight in a wet tuxedo. Like everything I’ve told myself isn’t real, let alone in the cards for yours truly.
But he came for me.
Risked his life.
For me.
This goofy, too-young, over-the-top man-child, who makes me feel things I’m nowhere near ready to feel, looked Death straight in the eye and said, “No, sir, you will not have Makena today,” and charged into battle in his shining silver pick-up truck and I…
