Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Harper glanced over her shoulder to see Carmen hot on their heels as they headed toward the bedroom at the back of the massive jet.
Aware of the predator closing in, Roman protectively reached for Harper’s hand to pull her closer. “It’s okay,” she told him, not bothering to whisper. She had no problem facing this woman. Bring it on.
Carmen leaned in behind her, most likely setting her eyes on Roman from over Harper’s shoulder and brought her mouth to Harper’s ear. “Have your fun because it ends for you after this weekend. And then he’ll be mine, I promise you that.”
Harper swung around, taking Carmen by surprise and causing her to stumble back a step. She had to hand it to the woman, though, because Carmen quickly recovered and flashed a sly smile like she still had the upper hand.
“You will never be his,” Harper hissed. “And talk to me like that again,” she whispered right back into her ear, “and you’ll find out what I’m capable of.” With that, she turned and tugged Roman by the arm, urging him not to further engage with the woman. She didn’t deserve his time.
“You okay?” he asked once they were alone in the bedroom. “What’d she say to you?” He quickly discarded his jacket.
“I think you can guess.” She chewed on her lip as she watched him tug at his tie and wrestle with the knot Luciano had pulled tighter. “Your uncle was testing you, right?”
She felt bad leaving Finn alone with the sharks, but he wasn’t an actual seal that’d get swallowed whole. He could handle himself.
“It was a test I failed, and now he knows with absolute certainty how I feel about you.”
She closed the small space between them and set her hands on his chest to remove the tie since his hands were shaking with rage.
He kept his eyes locked on to her as she worked the knot free, her body still trembling from the exchange with his uncle, but she felt better now that they were alone.
His stunning brown eyes pinned her in place with a soft look, and his shoulders fell as if trying to lose hold of his anger at himself for walking right into his uncle’s well-laid trap.
“It doesn’t matter what he knows about us because we’re going to take him down,” she whispered the reminder upon pulling the silk tie free and tossing it over her shoulder. “We won’t let him win.”
But is there an us again? Who am I kidding? When was there not an us?
They both sank down to sit on the edge of the bed while Roman worked open the top two buttons of his black shirt.
“He’ll test me again tomorrow when we arrive. I don’t know how, but I’m just not sure if I can handle much more now that you’re in the thick of it all.”
“We’ll get through this.” Harper reached for his hand. “You have me. Finn. Everyone else may be scattered about, but they’re doing their part to piece this together and figure it out. It’ll be over soon.”
Roman raised their clasped palms between them and stared down at their hands for a long, quiet moment. “You know that I’d never let . . . what he suggested happen.”
No doubt in her mind.
But if for some reason their plan for the weekend failed, and this thing with his uncle dragged out, she would go to Barcelona with Roman.
She’d be Roman’s “mistress” while he played the part of a devil to conquer the real one.
Didn’t he know if only he’d been honest with her earlier, she would have helped him figure this out much sooner?
Maybe everything happens for a reason. Maybe the cards played out the way they had because now was the right time. Who knows? All she could do was move forward and not let the dark shadows of their past hurt them anymore.
“I, um.” She twisted her neck to look back at the bed.
When she peered over at him, his brows tightened.
“I can’t,” he said, looking worried she was about to suggest they have sex on his uncle’s plane.
The absurd idea almost had her laughing.
And okay, a small part of her—a very small part—wanted to make Carmen jealous, but no, she wouldn’t be doing anything other than maybe sleep for a couple of hours.
“I was going to ask you something, and maybe we could also lie down?”
He set his hand to his forehead and gripped his temples with his thumb and middle finger. “Sorry, I might have sex on the brain even though that’s wrong, but it’s been five and a half months since we’ve made love.”
Make love.
That sounded nice, and she felt herself relax at the idea.
No, she scolded herself, don’t go down that rabbit hole. The one with Roman-naked-on-a-bed-of-pillows-in-a-brothel kind of hole. And shit, did his uncle own any brothels? She had no clue. Oh, jeez.
“Harper?” The first real smile she’d seen in what felt like forever swept across that full mouth of his.
“Yes?” she whispered.
“You wanted to ask me something?” He brought their linked hands to his mouth and pressed a kiss on her knuckles.
How was such a gorgeous man so humble and sweet? So modest and caring. She supposed she’d lucked out, working with ten Teamguys who were all genuinely amazing people. But Roman . . . he was just . . . well, he was hers.
“Can we lie down first?” She tipped her head to the side, her body fatigued. The psychological warfare with his family and the mental strain of their case was a lot more grueling than anything physical.
Roman stood and unholstered his piece. He had his favorite 9mm. A longer barrel for better ballistic performance with a ten-round mag capacity. It was also her gift to him for his thirty-eighth birthday last May. She’d had a trident engraved on the left side of the weapon.
After placing his gun on the small nightstand, they stretched out on top of the covers, and he rolled to his good side to face her, propping his head on his open palm.
He had to be hurting, but he didn’t act like a man who’d been hit by a car. She didn’t expect him to, either. He’d hide the pain, why wouldn’t he? He was fairly good at hiding everything.
Ugh, she didn’t want to be mad at him, but . . .
“Tell me something.” She blinked. “Not random facts. I mean, tell me why you pulled the plug on our relationship that first week in September. Tell me why you chose that particular day.” The day you somehow talked me into believing it was an amicable split.
Roman reached for her palm and set it on his chest. Her hand looked so small inside his large one as he held her gently in place, the strong, steady beats of his heart comforting.
“My uncle called while you were at my place. You were in the shower. And I didn’t want to answer, but he kept calling.
He said he was pleased with my assistance the week before in Miami. ”
When did you go to Miami? She thought back to September. Oh, he’d lied and said his sister wanted him there for her birthday. Don’t be mad.
“What kind of assistance?”
“It, um, doesn’t matter.”
“No more secrets.” She started to pull her hand back, but he held firm.
“I’m sorry. Habit,” he said in a husky tone.
“Break the habit,” she warned. “I’m still hurt you lied, and also jealous you were going to go to Emilia for help.”
He lifted a brow. “You have nothing to be jealous about. Not ever.” He squeezed her hand a bit tighter. “You think you’ll forgive me? Will the guys?”
“In time.” She frowned. “But it’d help if you stopped pulling away. Withdrawing from me when things get uncomfortable.” It’d help if you said I love you again.
“I’m sorry.” He closed his eyes. “The idea I hurt you is—”
“Stop.” She used her free hand to reach for his cheek, the five or so days’ worth of beard he sported prickly beneath her touch.
“Okay.” His dark brown eyes returned to her face.
“So, what did you do that he was proud of and had you suddenly breaking up with me for good?” she whispered.
“I just had to track someone down and make sure they went back to Spain.”
“Just?” She wasn’t buying that, or he wouldn’t feel so remorseful about it.
“The man was Italian mafia, but he stole from my uncle. My uncle wanted him found, and he’d heard the guy was hiding in Miami,” he explained.
“You hurt him?”
Roman lowered his eyes to their clasped palms. “When I found the guy, he was in a hotel room roughing up two prostitutes.” He gulped. “He, um, couldn’t exactly walk when I handed him off to my uncle’s men who came for him.”
Her body went stiff at the thought, and she shuddered. Roman seeing two women hurt like that . . . he’d snap. Go Denzel-Washington-Equalizer on the guy.
“After I finished the call with my uncle, well, I realized it was the first time since being forced to help him I didn’t feel guilty about what I’d done. And for that very reason, I had to end things between us.” And his eyes were closed again.
“That scared you,” she whispered in understanding. “You were worried you might turn into someone like Luciano and hurt me even more because of it, right?”
He nodded without opening his eyes.
“Look at me,” she demanded, and he slowly parted his lids. “You’re nothing like that man. You saw two women being mistreated, and your instincts to help them kicked in. You have no reason to regret being that man.” Because that was the man she loved.
Her heart hurt so much for him, for what he’d had to go through alone. She recalled all of the times she’d been upset with him and they’d argued . . . He kept so much locked up tight, which was dangerous.
“I joined you in the shower after the call and made love to you, knowing it had to be our last time.”
Harper thought back to that moment, and now it all made sense. The look of absolute anguish in his eyes as they’d made love for the last time. And shortly after, they had the “talk” about going back to being friends.
“I’m—”
“No apologies. I don’t need that.” She brought her mouth closer to his. “All I need you to do is kiss me.”
Roman hesitantly set his mouth to hers, then wrapped a hand around her back and pulled her tight against his body while deepening the kiss.
They didn’t intend to make love back there, but yeah, they could kiss. And she sure as hell wouldn’t let anyone stop her from doing exactly that.