Chapter 15 Ember #2
The hostess leads me through the restaurant and through a door in the back corner of the room.
We walk down a short hallway that leads to an outdoor patio.
It’s fenced off with an iron fence that has little metal roses in the rods.
The patio floor is constructed from flat, stone blocks, and every table has a white linen cloth with little red roses embroidered in the hem and a votive candle burning in the center…
And every table is empty except the one in the center. Roman sits there in a tailored suit and tie, his muscles and broad shoulders barely hidden under the fine material. As soon as we enter, he looks up and his eyes widen, then drift down to my outfit.
He stands as we approach. The hostess sets down our menus and excuses herself, but I don’t really notice.
He always looks good in a suit, but tonight there’s something sexy about the way it’s hanging on his body.
Or maybe it’s the fact that he’s slicked his hair back and his ocean blue eyes look as though there are stars in them as he gazes at me.
“You look good,” he says. “Really fucking good.”
I snicker. “Smooth, Orlov.” Then, “You look really fucking good, too.”
He pulls the chair out for me to sit and our dinner date begins. The waiter appears almost out of nowhere and takes our order. The whole time, I can see him doing his best not to look at my cleavage. Weirdly enough, I want him to. I kind of like the attention that he’s giving me tonight.
“Well,” he says after the waiter leaves, “interesting choice for an outfit tonight. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to seduce me.”
“Good thing you know better,” I say in response.
“Ah. So… you’re not trying to turn me on, then?”
“I like the dress. I think I look pretty in it. If you’re turned on by it, that’s hardly on me, is it?”
He smirks in response. The waiter returns with our wine and the second he leaves, I take a sip from my glass. A merlot… it’s really good.
“I only ask about the dress because you said this was a business dinner. Just us discussing the club.”
“I did say that,” I respond. “And I meant it. I also would like a chance to get to know you a little better. How everything started off between us was… well, it wasn’t the way I normally like to connect.
I was hoping for a chance for the two of us to actually get to know one another like normal human beings. ”
He chuckles and says, “There’s nothing normal about this relationship,” he says. “In any sense.”
He’s got me there. “Still. Don’t you want to know anything about the person running your club? I’d like to know some things about my boss.”
He nods sagely. “Interesting. I would think a straight arrow like you would rather not know the dark and dirty details of my life.”
“True… but that doesn’t mean you can’t tell me about the lighter ones. Like your daughter. When I asked if you were married you said, ‘Once upon a time.’ Care to elaborate on that?”
He takes a drink from his glass as his expression darkens. “Sasha’s mother died when she was young,” he says flatly. Suddenly, I feel like I just stepped in it.
“Oh, um, sorry, I didn’t—”
“Please,” he says with a gentle smile. “Don’t apologize. I’ve had enough apologies about it to last me a lifetime. Plus, it’s not like you knew about it.”
That’s fair. “What happened to her? I mean, if you don’t mind talking about it.”
He pauses, looking off to the darkness beyond the patio, back toward the brick wall several yards away across a small grove of flowers behind the restaurant. “She was killed,” he says. “Stray bullet during a party.”
I open my mouth to respond, but nothing comes out. A million questions shoot through my mind. He sighs.
“Whatever you’re thinking, you might as well ask it.”
“I’m thinking I probably shouldn’t have asked at all.”
“Yeah, it is kind of a mood breaker. In any event, I’ve been a single father ever since.”
“How old was Sasha?”
“She’d just turned five. It happened when she was very young.”
I swallow hard. “It’s probably a good thing that it happened when she was so young. Losing a parent is tough.”
He nods, then his eyes narrow a little. “You say that like you have some experience.”
I shrug. “My dad. He, uh, he was a cop. Died in the line of duty.”
Roman raises an eyebrow and asks, “How old were you?”
“Fifteen,” she says. “Sometimes, I wonder if it would have been better if I were little when it happened. Not as many memories.”
He takes a drink from his glass solemnly, as if to have a drink for my poor departed father. “If he could see me now,” I add, “he’d be breakdancing in his grave.”
Roman laughs. It starts as a low rumble and flourishes into a full belly laugh. The sound of it is infectious and suddenly, I’m laughing too. Jesus, what’s wrong with us? “That isn’t funny,” I say, covering my mouth shamefully.
“Well, no, it isn’t. But you have to admit the irony is amusing. Listen to us. Poor, lonely souls with tragic back stories. It’s practically a Dickens tale. It also explains everything I’ve been trying to figure out about you. Your high sense of justice and your work ethic—”
“So, what? I’m a cop’s kid and therefore, I must always follow the rules?”
“In a nutshell. Yes.”
He’s still laughing and his face brightens like the sun. I can’t seem to stop either. I take a drink from my wineglass to calm myself. “Fuck you,” I say. “I can be bad if I want to be.”
“If you’re bad, I’ll have to punish you… again,” he says. My face flushes. I can almost feel his hands on my ass again.
“Is that what it’s like… being with you? I mean, all the Dom play is nice but—”
“It’s more than that. If you’re with me, I can be more than just your lover. I’m already your teacher. I would be your protector. Your… everything.”
I blink as my heart thrums in my chest. “How do you know I want you to be that?”
He smiles at me slyly and drinks his wine.
“Ah. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes,” he says quickly. “I definitely would. It seems to me that’s the thing you need the most, more than this job, more than merely a boyfriend. You need someone to cover you.”
“You talk a big game,” I say. “I might be trouble, though.”
“You probably are,” he says with a chuckle. “I imagine you’re probably more trouble for me than I’ll ever be to you. Lucky for you, I love a challenge.”
I kind of hate how true that might actually be. Especially now. Especially with my possibly holding the keys to his freedom.
Dinner comes and suddenly, everything is relaxed. We eat and talk and for a while, I forget. By the time they’re taking our plates away, I’m looking across the table at him. He seems to be glowing under these amber lights.
I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a man more than I do right now.
“You’re staring,” he says to me as he empties his wine glass.
“I am.”
“Can I ask why?”
I look down at what’s left of the wine in my glass. We’ve had two glasses each. Hardly enough to qualify as too much drink. Yet here I am feeling as light as air.
“You know,” he says, “Sasha’s spending the night at a friend’s house. What do you think about having dessert there tonight?”
My mind says not to do this… but I can’t seem to hear it very well right now.
“Sounds fun.”