Chapter 22 #2
He arches a single reproachful brow. “You know damn well male dancers don’t use poles.”
I mimic his eyebrow thing and ask in mock seriousness, “Or do they?”
He dismisses my silly retort and steers the conversation back onto the road. “Maybe it’s because we were in a group of your friends.”
He props an elbow on the arm rest and rubs two fingers over his chin as he contemplates this, like it’s one of life’s great mysteries. And maybe to him it is. Like he said, I’m the first non-adult-entertainer he’s met who hasn’t raged at the idea of him continuing to dance.
I channel my serious side and do my best to put his mind at ease.
“No, I really don’t think that’s it. I tried picturing you at some sorority party where the busty co-eds are hanging on you and you’re putting them on the ground to grind your junk in their faces, and I felt nothing but smug amusement.
As long as you’re keeping your hands to yourself, other than to flip them into different crazy contortions, there’s not even a hint of jealousy. ”
He eyes me speculatively. “Even if we do the whipped cream thing?”
I got the low-down on that trick from Jane when she’d accidentally witnessed Chance—and Roman and Austin—at Julia’s twenty-first, spraying their torsos with dessert topping so the women could suck or lick it from their oh-so-hard bodies. I shake my head. “Nope.”
“Even if they do body shots off of me?”
If it’s a typical body shot, the alcohol is either in a shot glass balanced on, or poured directly into, his navel.
They lick salt off of his body somewhere, drink the shot, and then usually retrieve a wedge of lime held between his teeth with their mouths.
I don’t love the idea of their lips touching his, but it’s still not a kiss, it’s just a stupid drinking game.
Again I shake my head. “Still in the clear.”
“So why do I feel like I’m stepping into a trap?”
I smile as I get up and sit sideways in his lap, loving the way his arms automatically slide around my waist to pull me close.
“I promise it’s not. All that matters to me is that I’m the only woman you want and the only one you round the proverbial bases with.
The rest of them can drool at the very sight of you and play grab-ass all they want because I know I’m the one who actually gets to have you. ”
Roman’s smile lights up my world, and he leans in to kiss me, but I hold him back with a hand on his chest. “However,” I stress firmly, “let the record show that when I picture you with another woman sexually—even something minor, like when I remember Misty’s grubby little paws all over you…
” I don’t realize I’m clenching my fists until I feel the bite of my nails digging into my palms. Forcing them to relax, I take a deep breath and say calmly, “I get super pissy. Like, Jerry Springer, ‘Bitch, you better back the beep off my beepin’ man before I claw your beepin’ eyes out’ kind of pissy. ”
He chuckles and cups my jaw with one large hand.
“I kind of like you jealous. You’re like an adorable, spitting-mad kitten.
” I cross my arms over my chest, shooting him an unamused glare.
Schooling his features into a semi-serious expression, he appeases me like the sweet man he is.
“Sorry, baby, I meant a wicked dangerous honey badger.”
“Damn straight, you did,” I say, unfolding my arms. “You’re getting docked a blow job for that one.”
Ooh, there it is, ladies and gentleman, the alpha in the wild.
I love how easy it is to flip his dominant switch.
Instant Alpha: just add challenge. I can make him turn it on any time I want just by being my sassy self.
But I’d never admit to such manipulation.
I value mobility without complications, and I wouldn’t be able to walk right for a week if he even suspected I provoke him on purpose.
“We’ll see about that,” he says, his voice as smoky as the whisky he drinks.
His eyes are now steely gray, and his expression issues commands before he ever says a word.
And it’s making me all tingly in all the right places.
Or wrong ones, considering we’re at work and we have a conference call with a client in—I check my phone sitting on the table and curse the fickle gods—about five minutes.
Keeping up the pretense of indifference, I return to my chair, scoop up a stack of papers and tap the edges on the table to straighten them for absolutely no reason. Withholding the eye contact I know he wants, I say, “I guess we will.”
Before I can process why the world is suddenly imitating a shaken snow globe, Roman has me back in his lap.
One hand easily restrains both of mine as his free one starts to glide up the inside of my thigh, passing the hem of my sheath dress.
“Roman,” I protest weakly, my eyes fluttering closed as his fingertips graze over my panties, “we don’t have time for this. ”
“We might not have time for sex.” He applies more pressure and runs his fingers down the seam of my pussy, causing my juices to transfer to the thin silk. “But I have plenty of time before our call for a fun game of orgasm denial.”
My jaw drops. “I won’t be able to focus. I’ll be a mess.”
“Should’ve thought about that before denying my cock of your sweet mouth, Ms. Paige.”
Roman circles over my clit, and I groan from the friction of my panties on the sensitive bud.
I drop my head back on my shoulders, ready to give in to whatever he wants, pleasure or punishment, as long as he touches me a little bit longer.
I think I feel him stiffen for the span of a heartbeat, but then he rubs me with a single knuckle and I forget my own name.
The conference phone in the middle of the long table beeps and I jump out of Roman’s lap like it set my ass on fire. Maggie’s voice comes through the speaker. “Just a reminder that your conference call starts in two minutes.”
I clear my throat and try to put myself back together, even though Roman never had the chance to take me apart, and even if he had, the people on the other end of the call won’t be able to tell if I’m wearing a business suit or a toga. “Thank you, Maggie. I’ll dial in shortly.”
“Your phone went off earlier.”
“What?” I’m still a little dazed as I glance over to see Roman pulling up the information we’ll need for reference on his laptop. He nods in the direction of my cell on the table between us and says, “It’s on silent, but I think the screen lit up earlier.”
“Oh!” I say, grabbing it up faster than usual and hitting the button to display the notifications on the lock screen.
Shit shit shit. I hope Roman didn’t see who sent the text. I hope he was as focused on touching me as much as I was on being touched. But considering our established phone etiquette, it’s unlikely.
Most people guard their phones with their lives, but we’re not like that.
If I’m in the kitchen and my phone goes off on the coffee table in front of him, he’ll glance at it and say, “Your mom’s texting you,” to which I always reply, “What’d she say?
” and then he reads it to me, or vice versa.
Neither one of us worry about the other seeing whatever pops up on our phones because neither one of us is hiding anything.
Until now. And if Roman sees that Austin is contacting me in secret, I have a feeling things will get real ugly, real fast. I hate keeping this from him, but I don’t have a choice.
I’m hoping I’ll only have to meet with Austin a couple of times, and then our business together will be concluded and I won’t have to sneak around anymore after that.
I don’t want to read the text in front of Roman, so I dump my phone into my purse sitting at my feet.
“Everything okay?” he asks absently, still absorbed in scrolling through files.
“Oh, yeah, it was just Janey. I’ll call her tonight.” He stops what he’s doing and turns to look at me, his expression almost somber, and I start to panic, acid churning in my gut.
But then he smiles at me and says, “Chance is probably getting on her nerves about having another party. He liked dancing for her with the energy of the crowd around. Old habits die hard, I guess.”
I return the smile as my stomach settles. “I think we can make that happen. I’ll call Aunt Martha and the girls, you call all the boys.”
“Deal.”
Then he presses a chaste kiss to my lips and turns his attention to the meeting. As I dial in to the conference, I let out a slow exhale of relief. Crisis averted. All systems are GO.