Chapter 10 Roman
ROMAN
Jane zips up her suitcase and places it on the floor while I watch her from the doorway.
“You all set?” I squirm from one foot to the other in an attempt to overlook the mounting pang of melancholy taking up residence in my chest.
The sound of my voice startles her. She spins in one smooth move to face me. Her tight, shocked, expression smooths out at the sight of me, and she offers me a small smile.
“Yup.” She wheels her luggage past me, and I follow her toward the door of the suite.
We only have a few more minutes before she has to go, and as much as I wish to walk her all the way down to the front entrance, I can’t. All it would take is a photo of the two of us and everything we’ve achieved in the past twenty-four hours would be for nothing.
“Before you leave, I have something to tell you.” I tug on her wrist.
“What is it?”
Sliding in front of her, I take both of her hands in mine. “Okay, I’ve been thinking a lot about what Hil said.”
She cocks her head to one side, puzzled. “What are you talking about? Did something happen?”
“No. Everything’s fine. I’ve been thinking about what she said about you and how good you were yesterday. Pal could really be your doppelg?nger.” I flash a flirty smile, hoping to lessen the mounting worry furrowing her brow. “Not to mention what you said to Monty last night.”
I can’t help the smile, huge and cocky, as I relive what she threatened him with in the early hours of the morning. Waiting things out in the bedroom had been rough, but her recount of their conversation when she came to bed was priceless.
“Hil’s right. You’re a natural, and before you say anything, I want you to hear me out. All of it. I have a friend in senior administration at the University of Southern California, Marty Cantrell. I told her about you. Hilary also gave her a call. She wants you to call her.”
Jane gasps, eyes widening in what looks a lot like terror, and it forces me to keep talking, needing to settle her nerves and make her see this is a good thing.
“Listen, I explained you’re going through some stuff right now and it might take a few weeks, so she isn’t expecting a call tomorrow, but I’d say call her in a few weeks.”
“Um, thank you, but you didn’t need to and shouldn’t have done that.
I can’t afford USC. I told you yesterday, college isn’t for me.
” She tries to pull away from me, but I tighten my grip on her hands.
“While I have some savings, it isn’t much.
Certainly not enough for USC. I’m most probably going home to Marathon after I give notice at work. ”
“Hey, you promised to hear me out. I’m not done and you haven’t heard the best part. They have scholarships, and Marty thinks you have a good shot. Nothing’s guaranteed, of course, but you’ve got a leg up with a recommendation from the head of the Montrose PR Agency.”
My fingers squeeze hers and her eyes dip to the floor. “You most probably don’t know it, but Hil’s a big deal in LA. She’s one of the two top PR agencies in Hollywood. If she’s raving about you, people listen.”
She releases a long sigh and her shoulders drop from where they’d risen to her ears. “Thank you, but no. I’m going back to Florida.”
I slide a finger under her chin and tip her head up to lock eyes with hers. “What’s there for you? You told me about your father and his wife. It doesn’t sound like they’ll welcome you into their home. This is a chance at a fresh start. I could give you some money.”
She yanks her hand violently from my grasp. “No. I don’t need a handout.”
I hold up a hand in surrender. “Shit, I didn’t mean it as a handout. I just would hate for you not to take this chance. I think you have a much bigger and better life ahead of you than both Monty and Florida.”
Her body doesn’t soften; nor does her expression. “Don’t you see, this is no different from what I did with Monty.”
“How so?”
“Everything I have is Monty’s. The condo, the car I drive. All I have are my clothes and the little I’ve managed to put away from my job. You talking to this woman feels like all of that. I have to stop living my life this way. I’m no mooch.”
I slap my lips together to hold back a laugh. This is funny. Not her, but how skewed and inaccurate her description is of herself.
“Jane, you’re the furthest thing from a mooch.
And this opportunity isn’t being handed to you.
You still have to do the work, prove yourself.
I’ve merely made an introduction. This kind of thing happens every day and yeah, for some, this is huge, and others would say it’s my privilege showing.
All that may be true, but I’m not doing anything you wouldn’t do for someone you cared about. ”
Her gaze softens and she nibbles on her bottom lip, studying me, nothing more. And as much as I want to continue to show her the countless ways that she deserves this chance, I keep my mouth shut and wait.
Jane finally blinks, and whatever she was thinking is now gone. She straightens and angles her chin just so. “Roman, I have to go.”
“I know.” I rest my hand on her arm and pull her close. “All I’m asking is don’t throw this away. It’s only a conversation. What could it hurt? And if you decide you don’t want to do anything with it, well, I can’t make you.”
My hands slide around her neck and upward so my palms cup her face, and she shivers. “Don’t get mad, but I may have given her your phone number. Marty’s going to call you if she hasn’t heard from you in about a month.”
She groans and her eyes bug out at me. “You are the worst.”
Playfully, she bats at my bicep then rests her forehead on my chest and slides her arms around my waist.
“Please do this for me.”
“Okay, you big bully.” Her splayed hands glide up my back. “Thank you. I wish you hadn’t done this, but I can’t say it isn’t appreciated.”
I capture her lips and kiss her deeply, fervently. This is the last time I will kiss her.
Somehow, some way, this weekend became about a whole lot more than two strangers sharing a hotel suite. The sex was unexpected and magnificent, but the greatest surprise of all was Jane. I enjoyed getting to know her and yet, I’ve only scratched the surface. I want more.
How we got here, to the point where I don’t want to let her go, is one big blur and something I wish I could control.
I wish I could stop time and keep us in the here and now for forever.
I’ve had weekend flings before, though Jane doesn’t need to know that, but none like this. None that have left a mark not only on my heart, but also my fucking soul.
How is it possible to like someone so much after only two days?
How is it possible that for the past few hours, I’ve been running through the ways in which we could make this work?
A relationship.
It’s crazy.
Forget that Jane and I don’t live in the same state and our lives are vastly different, there’s also the very important fact that I need to completely focus, one hundred percent, on my new position with AKS.
Jane would be more than a distraction; she’d be my undoing. I can’t have that.
And I wish this were all my dick talking, but if I’m honest with myself, it isn’t.
Jane’s a special kind of someone.
She breaks our kiss and looks away from me as she mashes her lips together. Then she’s pulling away from me…one step, then two.
Her hand wraps around the handle of her suitcase, and when she looks back at me, she’s smiling. Big and bright. But it’s all too much of everything. Too forced. Too painful.
“Goodbye, Roman.” She leans in and pecks me on the cheek. “I’ll be watching from afar as you take AKS to new heights.”
I grab for her and she puts up a hand to stop me. In my unraveled state, I snatch her hand instead, anything of hers to hold on to for that much longer.
My head bends and lips gently kiss the soft tips of her fingers. “Jane Hastings, it has been an utter fucking pleasure to know you.”
Dropping her hand, I swallow with difficulty. She wheels her suitcase to the door and sniffles, but she doesn’t look back as she opens and closes the door behind her.
Instinctually, I eat the small space to the door and hesitate, desperately wanting to open it and stop her. But that’s foolish.
We had this weekend and that’s it. There isn’t anything more to be had, and in time, I’ll be okay with that.
I have to be.
My forehead leans against the door, and I sink all my weight into the wood and rest my hands flat against the cool surface. Closing my eyes, I utter final words of goodbye in my head.
JANE
The door to Roman’s suite clicks shut behind me, and I turn to face the door. Silent tears now flow freely down my face.
How is it possible to miss someone I only met two days ago more than my ex-boyfriend of seven years? To miss them wholly and undeniably as if I’ve lost a limb, a part of me?
It’s silly, really, and I can’t begin to understand it.
I wipe at my tears and splay a palm against the door. As if in response, an echo to my deed, I sense a weight pressing in from the other side. Large and solid. Almost as if there’s someone doing something similar from inside the hotel suite.
Roman? No. That’s wishful thinking, but the heavy mass draws me in. Keeps me there.
I push my hand harder against the flat surface and hold still, inhaling deeply. Each breath. The still air. The wood. All of it helps soothe and ground me, helps me pull the broken pieces of myself back together.
The future may be unknown, but I’ll be okay.
Only seconds pass, yet the longer I stand there, I seize, hoard, and commit to memory every single, glorious moment of this past weekend.
And the man…
Roman Kingsley moves right on in as if he belongs there, taking hold of a special place in my heart.
Ten years later, PR maven Jane Hastings is summoned to a client meeting where she unexpectedly comes face-to-face with the one and only Roman Kingsley, the one man she never got over.
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