Free Panic by J. A. Huss

my earlobe until I squeal. “I’m gonna miss you real bad, Gidget. I’m gonna go crazy down here thinking about you up there with Spencer and Ford.”
    “And I’m gonna go crazy up there thinking about you down here with Clare and the GIDGET models.”
    “There’s only one Gidget for me and that’s you.”
    “And I belong to you, Ronin Flynn.”
    He flops back and pulls me onto his chest. “God, I want to hear you say that again.”
    “I belong to Ronin.”
    His lips find mine, kissing me softly, his hand slipping inside my t-shirt to tickle my stomach. “And I belong to Rook.”
     
     

Chapter Eleven - RONIN
     
    “How?” Rook asks me with a totally sincere expression on her face. “How will I ever survive until Friday afternoon without you?” Her fingers dance along the arm of the new couch I bought her, along with all the other furniture in her little basement apartment. “I’m gonna be bored to death.”
    “You won’t be. Spencer and the guys will keep you busy. Besides, I bet Veronica will be here all the time.”
    “Unless Spencer gets sick of her because he’s got commitment issues,” she sneers.
    I finish up with the surround sound set-up and then grab the remote to check it out. The TV comes on and I flip through the guide until I see a movie she might like. “Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!” blares from eleven strategically placed speakers in her large basement apartment in Spencer’s farmhouse.
    Rook turns quickly. “Bruce! Oh, I love Bruce. And this Die Hard is the best!”
    It’s the second one and I agree. “See, you forgot about me already.”
    She saunters up to me and wiggles against my leg, making me laugh. “You’re the one who hooked up the movies. All I need is a popcorn machine and I’m set.”
    “I’ll put it on the list, ma’am.”
    “You can’t call me ma’am and not jump my bones, Mr. cute-total-stranger-cable-guy-who-just-showed-up-to-hook-up-my-surround-sound.”
    “I jumped your bones twice today already. But if you need it again I’m happy to oblige.” I wink at her. “Ma’am.”
    “Will you miss me?” she asks, suddenly insecure.
    “More than you’ll miss me, that’s for sure. You have Ford and Spencer, they’re already friends, so it’s not like you’ll be alone. I have no one.”
    She snorts. “That’s not true. You have Clare .”
    “I can’t hang out with Clare. What do we have in common? Nothing.”
    “You’re her boss now, right? She’s the main Gidget model?”
    “Yeah, but she needs that job, Rook. She needs to stay busy until she’s confident that she won’t slip back into her old habits. If you’re jealous, you should save yourself the angst because I’m not interested in Clare. At all. She’s like a fucking sister to me now.”
    Rook wraps her arms around me and whispers, “Thank you. I just needed to hear it one more time.”
    I kiss her sweetly. “You’re welcome. Now walk me up, because I have to get back to Denver and you need to settle in. I guess there’s a big party planned for tomorrow with all the Shrike cast members, so that will be fun, right?”
    “Yeah, I guess.”
    We walk up stairs and meet the guys in the living room.
    “Hey, you leaving already, Ronin?” Spencer asks from the kitchen. “Not gonna stay for the Let’s-Embarrass-Rook welcome dinner?”
    “Ha, ha, Spencer,” Rook says as we walk past.
    “No, I gotta get back. Roger and I have casting bullshit tomorrow. We need to sort through the audition pics and figure out if we can fill up all the spots for GIDGET.”
    “Don’t strain yourself, Ronin,” Ford says dryly from the dining room where he’s messing around with a tablet. “And don’t worry about Rook, I’ll take care of her while she’s here.”
    “Ford—”
    “Relax, Larue,” Rook interjects as she rubs my arm. “He’s messing with you. Come on, let’s go outside, I have a gift for you.”
    She tugs on my hand and when I look at the expression on her face I know she’s