SEVEN - JAMESON
“Ever since we announced the Haunted Hearts Gala, Kane’s threats have been more and more frequent. But if it makes you feel any better, it was a small boat that I sunk, and he was able to retrieve everything.”
I knew that wouldn’t make a difference to Roman; he knew more about Kane than I ever did. I knew enough to know I was in way over my head, though I’d never actually admit that to him.
“So far, none of what you’ve told me has made me feel any better.”
If he didn’t like what I’d already told him, he most definitely was not going to like this next part. “He also said he wants to meet up and have an in-person chat.”
“He what?” He jerked his head up. “How do you know that? Did you talk to him?”
“Yeah. He called me. The day after I sank his boat to get back at him for killing Briggs. He said he thought it was about time he and I got together for a little one-on-one.”
“Did you already set up this meeting?”
“No. Not yet. It’s not exactly high on my priority list.”
“We might just need to move it up there.”
I watched as Roman took a long sip of his coffee; his hand practically wrapped around the entire cup.
Watching him and his every move stirred up memories of what those hands used to feel like gripping my body, pinning me down.
The way his fingers curled and dug into my flesh.
My body responded to the way we’d once moved together.
It had been way too long and at the same time not nearly long enough since we’d been together.
The best thing for me to keep a straight head and clear mind around Roman had always been to simply stay away…
which had rarely ever worked out. No matter how many times I’d told myself in the past he and I needed to lie low—we could not be caught together—inevitably, we found our way back to each other.
Given the context of our current conversation, I had zero business thinking about being pinned beneath him.
“Jameson.” He snapped his fingers. “Did you hear anything I just said?”
I shook myself back to reality. “What? Yes, I heard you.”
“Then what did I just say?” he asked.
I cleared my throat because, shit. I hadn’t been listening. I’d been lost in thought about all the what-ifs and had-beens.
“That’s what I thought,” he hummed. He wasn’t buying my bullshit.
“I’m sorry. I just—I’ve got a lot going on.
I think things are finally catching up to me.
Between Kane, the fundraiser, now you coming back from the grave—” I gave him one of those looks, the kind that sent a message without saying we’ll talk about this later. “—it’s hard to stay focused sometimes.”
He held my gaze. I swear if I didn’t know any better, I could feel him physically reading my thoughts. Right now, that was not a good thing.
He continued. “I said I’m going to need a few things from you.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Like…?”
“First and foremost,” he said, clasping his hands together, “I need a gun.”
“I can do that.”
“I’m also going to need a burner phone on your network.”
“Noted. Anything else?”
He smirked. “Master keys. Ones that will open every door on the property—all of them.”
“This is where you lost me. You’re only here to keep me alive through the gala.
Nothing less, nothing more.” Emphasis on the more because I needed to remind him and myself that he was only here for work.
Because being this close to him again was all too tempting.
“You can have a gun and a phone. You don’t need keys to anything. ”
“You want me to do my job? Then that’s what it’s going to take. I don’t think that’s asking for a whole lot, considering. Based on everything you just told me, you don’t have much of a choice. If I’m going to protect you, I need access to you.”
I closed my eyes. I couldn’t believe this was happening. Why, of all people, me? Why, of all people, him? Is there not anybody else who could do this job?
“Fine. I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you.” When I opened my eyes, I caught him staring, the slightest hint of a smirk tugging at the corner of his soft, full, dark pink lips. “See, that wasn’t so hard, now, was it?”
“Everything about you is hard.” My mouth snapped closed just as fast as the words escaped.
“You have no idea,” he mumbled under his breath.
I completely ignored his comment. No way I was touching that one—figuratively or literally.
“I’ve got a question for you,” I said, tilting my head.
“Fire away.”
“Where’ve you been for the last year?”
“I was working.”
“Working? That’s it? Just working?”
“Yup. Just working.”
“Interesting. Because Ivan told me you were dead.” Those weren’t his exact words, but death had been implied.
“You’ll have to take that up with him.”
“I did. He won’t talk.”
He shrugged as if to say, tough shit. “I don’t know what to tell you. He gave me a job, and I did it. We had a deal. If that changes, I’m sure you’ll be the first to know.”
“You mean like him bringing you back here to play bodyguard, or babysitter, as you called it? You mean first to know like that?”
He pressed his lips together. I guess our past didn’t matter. Roman didn’t want to talk? Fine. I knew his weaknesses. Two could play this game.
If he wanted to withhold information from me, then I’d coerce it out of him. It wasn’t a want but a need at this point.
I stood up and rounded my desk. He watched in silence as I propped up against the edge of my desk in front of him and rested my foot on the seat of the chair in the space between his legs.
His eyes wandered from my face down to my chest, to the space between my legs.
This position gave him a clear line of sight up my skirt—enough of a view for his imagination to run wild but not enough for him to actually see anything.
He propped his hands in front of his mouth, his index finger covering his lips.
“See something you like?” I asked nonchalantly as I inspected my nails like I didn’t know what I was doing.
He casually raised his shoulder. “I’ve seen better.”
“Liar.” I slid my foot forward, pressing the bottom of it into his crotch. He didn’t flinch.
Heat pooled between my legs at the sight of him sitting there, laid-back, just as casually as if he were watching a football game on TV in the comfort of his own home.
He reached down, grabbed my ankle, and rubbed the bottom of my foot against his crotch. Even through my shoe, I could feel he was already rock hard.
I gripped the edge of my desk for support. Shit. Don’t let him win this.
“Where’ve you been?” I asked again softly.
He glanced up at me through his long, dark lashes. “I already told you—working.” The pad of his thumb lazily slid back and forth over my bare skin on the inside of my ankle.
“Hmm. It’s a shame. We used to be close. Very, very close, remember? We used to tell each other everything. You seem to have forgotten.”
He skimmed his hand up the back of my calf, stopping just behind the back of my knee. “I remember everything about us—about you.”
His hand continued to roam upward to the inside of my thigh. Just as he reached beneath the hem of my skirt, I snapped my legs closed and stood up.
“Nice try, but you did forget one thing. I’m the one in charge now, and the only place you’re putting your hand is between me and a bullet.”
“I’d like to think I’m not going to have to do that—not for you or anyone else.”
“You will if you have to.”
“Not at all sounds even better.”
“You’re insufferable.”
When I turned to walk away, Roman’s arm wrapped around my waist and, in one swift move, had me bent over my desk, his chest pressed to my back as he pinned me down against my desk from behind.
He grabbed a fistful of my hair and gently tugged my head back, exposing my neck. The last time he had me in this position, he was inside me.
“Let’s get one thing straight. I don’t give a fuck who’s in charge anymore.
When I tell you I remember everything, I mean everything.
Every dip and curve of your body, the way you taste, how your tight, wet pussy feels gripped around my cock.
Oh, I remember all of it. I’ve been there…
done that. Don’t you ever forget it.” His words were soft, his breath warm against my ear as he spoke.
Oh, this is so bad.
I used my desk as leverage, pushing my ass into his hard cock, nudging him back just enough to give myself some room to spin around and face him. “If you’re not going to tell me where you’ve been, then we are done here.”
He stepped forward, pushing me back into my desk until I had nowhere else to go. He caged me in with his arms on either side of me, pinning me with his gaze like a predator to its prey.
“Yeah,” he challenged. “Something tells me we’re just getting started.”