FIVE - JAMESON
I could have easily given Roman five more minutes to get dressed and take over from here, but what I really needed to do was get the hell away from him so I could collect my thoughts and pull myself together.
Because right now, I loathed how mouthwatering he looked.
Roman was already deliciously distracting as it was.
Now, he looked like he’d put in more work on his body to get into even better shape.
A little time away has been good for him.
Then, he had the audacity to answer the door fresh out of the shower in a damned towel, the rest of his exposed skin dripping wet.
I could have licked every rogue drop of water off his chest.
How sad was it that all I could think about was what it would feel like to have him fuck the stress out of me.
I sighed at the thought. That was then; this was now. Let it go.
Him working for me was going to be a big problem.
I’d already made the mistake of falling for him once; I was going to have to do everything in my power to make damned sure that didn’t happen again.
I was going to have to work overtime to keep my defenses up against him.
That would be the only way not to fall for anything about him because everything about him was all too easy to fall for—cocky attitude, dark sense of humor, steadfast dedication to the important people in his life. All of it.
This is why you made that rule, James, I reminded myself.
Ivan and I exited into the hotel lobby, my heels echoing against the marble floors as I stomped ahead of him.
“I should fire you,” I hissed under my breath, looking back at him.
He let out a soft chuckle. Smug bastard. “Me? What’d I do?”
I stopped short and turned around, causing him to run into me with an oof.
I gave his shoulders a hard shove. “You know good and damned well what you’ve done.
Where has he been?” I asked, with bitterness in my tone.
“Hm? Where the hell has Roman been? Because not dead is blatantly obvious, and you’ve known the entire time? ”
“James. I do—”
I poked my fingernail into his chest, shutting him up.
“Ow, shit,” he said, rubbing the spot where I’d poked him. “That hurt.”
“Good. But don’t you dare stand there like the sneaky little prick that you are and tell me you don’t fucking know, Ivan. I will rip your balls off and gift them to your wife for Christmas embalmed in a mason jar from the kitchen.”
My tone grew louder the angrier I got as I tried to process how in the span of less than a day, my entire world had been flipped on its head, and I had to question everything I thought I knew about my life. I felt like a fucking snow globe in the hands of a toddler on the run.
I’d spent the past year mourning the loss of the only two men I’d loved. First, I watched helplessly as my dad died on the living room floor of our family home, and the very next day, I learned that Roman, the only person I wanted to confide in, was now gone, too.
“First off,” he started, dragging me out of my thoughts, “you need to keep your volume down. It’s too damned early, and guests are gonna hear you.
The last thing Chris needs to deal with before six o’clock in the morning is complaints of some crazy lady losing her shit in the hotel lobby.
” He reached out and gripped my arms, glancing around for wayward patrons or anyone who might be within earshot.
He dropped his head and shook it, then looked back up at me.
“And you’re right. I do know where he’s been.
But I’m sorry—you know this kind of work, it requires a certain level of…
confidentiality. Right now, I can’t say anything. ”
I wanted to tell him fuck you and your confidentiality.
I was running this show now. But I didn’t have the energy to argue with him, knowing he wouldn’t give me the answers I wanted.
I knew then I was going to have to find out on my own.
Unfortunately, as much as Ivan pissed me off and kept my blood pressure through the roof, he’d yet to steer me wrong—minus that one tiny detail that he’d brought a man back from the dead, and now I had to deal with having Roman Stone as my bodyguard.
My shoulders slouched in his grip. “You’re right,” I said, feeling defeated yet not ready to throw in the towel. “But going forward, I know everything.”
“Promise.” He gave my arms a squeeze before letting go and pulling one of his phones out.
“Everything, Ivan. I mean it.”
“I swear. Everything. I gotta go. You got ears?”
I patted my hip where my phone was tucked inside my skirt. “Always.”
“Call me if you need me.”
“Yeah. Sure.” He left me standing helplessly, fuming from everything.
It was still early, but I figured Chris would probably be here by the time I made it to his office. He worked almost as much as I did. I wondered if he sometimes slept in his office, too.
I said good morning to the hotel front desk staff as I passed by, and no sooner did I start the trek through the casino than I ran into Kelly.
“Good grief. What are you doing here already?” I asked her. “This is early, even for you.”
She huffed, blowing wayward strands of hair out of her face.
Kelly had been an integral part of Emerald Haze and our operations for at least a decade.
She’d started out as a cocktail waitress when she was dating one of our maintenance men.
They met in her hometown, got engaged, then moved to this part of the country because it was where he was from.
Then, he got caught having an affair with another cocktail waitress.
Kelly dumped him but ended up staying because she liked her job.
After a few years of being on staff and getting to know her, she took a promotion to events coordinator and eventually became one of us.
“Trying to finalize things for this weekend, get all my ducks in a row…or at least out of the middle of traffic. You know the drill…’cause at this point, I’m one fuckup away from walking out into traffic myself.”
“Don’t do that. You’re doing a great job, and I like having you around..”
“Thanks, James.”
“Seriously. Let me know if you need anything.” I started to walk away but paused. “Oh, really quick before I run off. Do you know if Chris is here yet?”
“I haven’t seen him, but you never know with him. He practically sleeps in his office.”
“Yeah, I know the feeling. I’ve gotta run back up to my office, but if you see him before I do, tell him I need to talk to him for a minute.”
She readjusted the stack of files cradled in her arm. “Uh-oh. Sounds serious. Wink-wink.” She nudged me with her elbow.
“It’s not like that.” Anymore.
Yes, Chris and I had what I would consider a brief fling a few months ago. Operative word—had. That was all water under the bridge. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and when you hadn’t had good dick, or any dick for that matter, in a very long time, you did what you had to do.
Unfortunately, I was vulnerable; he was available.
We both took advantage of a convenient situation.
The only reason Kelly even knew about us was because she’d walked in on us making out in a supply closet, of all places.
I had no choice but to come clean to her about it ’cause how else do you explain sucking face with an insubordinate?
It wasn’t like I was performing any lifesaving measures.
Besides, if Chris and I were going to get caught by anyone, Kelly was the only person I could trust with that kind of info. Regardless, I called things off with Chris later that day out of fear of the sheer messiness our being together could create in a work environment.
“Sure. If you say so. Unless there’s something you aren’t telling me.” She glared at me suspiciously through squinted eyes.
I threw my hands up. “There’s nothing going on with him.” Not anymore.
“Mmm-hmm. If you say so.”
“Nothing. Promise.”
“Okay, well, I just worry about you. If you need anything or you wanna chat, you know how to find me.”
“Thanks, Kelly. I appreciate your concern, but rest assured, everything between me and him is strictly business.”
Whether Chris and I ended things a week or a month ago, I had a feeling things were about to get very, very messy.