28. Lavinia #2
“Oh! Jules gave me something to give to Kai. I did that first before coming up here.”
There’s another knock on the door, this time louder.
Roman drops his arm from around my waist and moves to the door. The cats all chirp, agitated from the door knocking, and they follow him in a line. He’s the mother duck. It’s so adorable I want to squee.
“What do you want to bet it’s Kai on the other side of the door?” Roman doesn’t wait for me to answer before he unlocks the door and opens it.
Holden is standing in the hallway, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. His mouth snaps shut as soon as the door opens, and his wide eyes bounce between Roman and me. There’s an earbud in his ear and I know there’s someone on the other side of it.
I step up behind Roman. “For the record, I win this bet because I know Kai would never.”
Kai is far too sweet to get roped into whatever this scheme is.
“Vin, hey!” Holden’s smile widens when he sees me.
“And Roman, you know, the guy whose door you knocked on?” Roman leans on the doorframe beside me, his hands in the pockets of his sweats. Holden’s smile drops a little and he straightens to his full height.
“You can’t have all the attention,” I say. “Leave some for the rest of us.”
Roman’s eyes skate over me in a slow perusal that has my blood warming and my belly fluttering. The way he looks at me is like he’s already seen me naked, like he already knows me inside and out. Like I belong to him. “You always have all of my attention.”
I blush and look away from his heated gaze. My skin is still tingling from where he was touching my waist before and the heat in his eyes is not helping.
“How can we help you, Holden?” I ask.
“Coffee,” he says. “Do you have some? I ran out.”
Roman glances at me with a raised eyebrow, not that I have any idea what it means.
“Yeah, let me take a look.”
He walks back into the apartment, shooing the cats inside so they don’t try to sneak out.
“Didn’t expect to see you here,” Holden says. His mouth lifts in a smile which is classic Golden Boy. The one who got away with everything because he was class president, had the highest GPA in school, all the while leading his sports team to victory. Which is why I’m not buying his innocent smile.
“In my husband’s apartment? Where I told Kai I was going?”
Holden’s blue eyes shift a little to the left, almost as if he’s listening to whoever is on the phone and in his ear.
“Who are you talking to?”
“What?” He laughs. “I’m not talking to anyone.”
“Holden,” I say his name flatly. “Is my brother on the phone right now?”
Holden shakes his head quickly. “No! If Drew finds out, we’ll be in so much trouble. We wanted to check up on you.”
I can’t be mad with these guys. They’re like family. I didn’t realize how annoying it is to have more than one brother.
“Thank you for checking up on me. It’s sweet.” I step out into the hallway and arch up, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Please know that Roman’s not going to hurt me, so tell Ford he can sleep easy tonight.”
Holden’s smile widens. “Ford says it’s not him.”
It makes me laugh, and I step back as Roman opens the door with three boxes of coffee pods in his hand.
His eyes look between Holden and me, and the lack of distance between us.
Reaching out his free arm, he wraps it around my waist and subtly pulls me closer to him, resulting in an eye roll from me.
These guys really do belong on a team together.
Holden takes the coffees from Roman.
“When did you start drinking coffee, by the way?” Roman asks.
My friend looks like a deer caught in headlights and I push him gently down the hallway with a laugh. “Good night, Holden.”
I lead Roman back into his apartment and close the door behind us. “By the way, my parents have invited you to Thanksgiving dinner. If you don’t have plans already.”
Roman freezes in the middle of the kitchen, slowly turning to face me. “I don’t really do family holiday parties.”
I suspected as much, given everything Dad’s told me about Roman’s parents. Which isn’t much because apparently, they’re really private. I know enough to know that Roman’s family is very different from mine.
I decide to change tactics. “Why do you want the team to like you all of a sudden?”
“I don’t want them to like me. I’m worried about relocating the cats.”
I blink at him as he opens the fridge and pulls out a bakery box. He places it on the island and turns back to grab a plate and cutlery.
“Is that a wedding cake?” I ask as he opens the box and removes a cake covered in vanilla frosting with tiny little pearls decorating it.
“Lemon cake with vanilla frosting.” He cuts a slice and places it on a plate, pushing it towards me. “Do you want something to drink?”
I stare down at the slice of cake in front of me. He got me my favorite cake…to celebrate our wedding?
“Vin?” Roman is next to me, his fingers under my chin tilting my head back and around to look at him. Worry shines in his eyes. “What’s wrong? You don’t have to eat the cake if you don’t like it.”
“Oh no, I’m definitely going to eat this cake. I…it’s nothing.” I shake my head. I don’t want to share unpleasant memories with Roman and seeing this cake brings up a lot of those about Josh.
“Are you sure, Blossom? You know you can tell me anything.” He looks so sincere when he says that, I almost want to believe him.
“I’m sure.” I smile at him, and I know it’s genuine because I can feel it. Josh is history, and so is everything that happened with him. I’m not going to let it cloud my present.
I take a bite of cake, and my eyes roll back into my head as flavor explodes in my mouth. The sweetness of vanilla and the tartness of lemon sends it to the next level. It’s also immediately familiar, bringing back pleasant memories this time.
“Did you get this from Delphine’s?”
“Yeah, it’s your favorite bakery.”
“You went all the way to Cambridge for me?”
Roman frowns. “Baby, it’s a fifteen-minute drive. I’ll drive all the way to New York to get your favorite dessert.”
Warmth fills me from the center of my chest outwards through my body. No one other than my family has ever gone out of their way to get me my favorite dessert that I didn’t even ask for. It might have been a fifteen-minute drive to get there, Roman still put the thought and effort into it.
“Thank you for doing that for me.” I look up at him. “Do you want a taste?”
Roman’s eyes heat, dropping down to my mouth.
“I’d love a taste.” He kisses me, his lips soft against mine, tongue delving into my mouth.
I moan, unable to resist the pull of him.
When Roman kisses me, I get the feeling he’s trying to memorize the feel of my mouth, the shape of my body under his hands.
There’s something reverent in his kisses, like I’m something precious, even as he tries to devour me. I wrap my arms around his shoulders, pulling him even closer as I arch my body up to meet his. Why should he get to have all the fun?
“Delicious,” he murmurs on my lips. “I can see why this cake’s your favorite.”
I open my eyes and Roman’s mouth tilts up into a smirk, though the hungry look in his eyes tells me he’s not as unaffected by the kiss as he wants to pretend.
“I’m glad you see my reasoning,” I whisper.
“You made a very good argument.”
I chew on my lip as I let my hand wander over Roman’s body. His body is exactly as firm as I’m expecting it to be, and it still sends a delicious curl of heat to my lower belly. “Do you think we need rules?” I ask.
Amusement curves up his lips. “Why, Blossom? Do you think you can’t control yourself around me?”
I don’t laugh. “Honestly, yeah.” I know I’m going to need rules to keep myself away from him.
“Do you think you should move in here?” Roman asks. “I mean, we are married.”
I don’t see that ending well for me. I can’t be in such close proximity with him and not develop feelings.
“I think, for now, we shouldn’t change our living arrangements. Just so neither of is uncomfortable.”
“I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.” He’s not even touching me anymore, and my body is already tilting forward towards him.
Please make me a little uncomfortable, in a totally consensual and sexy way.
“I’m so glad you agree that we need boundaries in our relationship, so things don’t get complicated. We wouldn’t want anything to change our friendship.”
Roman’s smile is breathtaking and casual. I narrow my eyes at him. I know him well enough by now to know he’s not agreeing with me as easily as he’s making it seem.
“I’m going to let Mom know that you’ll be coming for Thanksgiving dinner, unless you have other plans?”
“No plans. I’ll be there.”
I text Mom so I don’t forget. Roman asks me if I want to stay for dinner and I decline because I can’t stay in his apartment without going back on everything we talked about.
It’s going to be a very long, very horny, hockey season.
I call Jules as I’m driving back to our place.
“I thought he would have seduced you by now,” she answers. “Unless this is a post-sex phone call.”
I laugh at her ridiculousness. “There was no sex. I’m on my way back home.”
“What’s the point of having a husband you’re insanely sexually attracted to if there’s no sex?” Jules sounds so confused.
“I don’t want sex to complicate anything between us,” I reply.
I signal to change lanes and as I glance at the side mirror, I see there’s a bike following me. My mouth drops open. In all of Boston, it can be literally anyone who’s riding that bike. But I know someone who doesn’t care about the weather when it comes to being on his motorcycle.
“I think Roman is following me,” I tell Jules. I change lanes and look in the rearview mirror. The biker also changes lanes with me.
Jules laughs in disbelief. “Are you serious? He’s actually stalking you now?”
“I don’t remember him being this intense when we were kids.”
“He probably didn’t develop his stealth stalking skills until later,” Jules muses.