NINETEEN - ROMAN
I could tell James was getting sick of sitting here, and quite frankly, so was I. I hadn’t seen much, but I’d seen more than enough. We’d been here for almost two hours, and nothing had changed since the light incident, and I still didn’t know what to make of that.
“We should’ve gotten snacks,” she stated matter-of-factly.
“Snacks?”
“Yeah. You know? Chips, M the mystery light would no doubt not be turning back on anytime soon. “I agree. Let’s go.”
“You want to check in on the other two properties while we’re out?”
She curled up and laid her head on the middle console. “No. I want to eat and go to bed.”
“Don’t get too comfy.” I put the car into drive and coasted a few houses away before turning on the lights. “There’s one more stop I wanna make.”
It was sometime after midnight when we finally rolled into the underground garage.
Our bellies were full of barbeque from her favorite BBQ joint, the Pit, and she was sound asleep in the passenger seat.
I hated to even wake her up, but we’d surely catch the attention of any and every prying eye if I carried her inside.
I nudged her awake and walked her back up to her penthouse. Once I knew she was safely inside, I turned myself in for the night in my own suite across the hall.
Tomorrow was a new day, and I needed to have a chat with Ivan ASAP.
As soon as I locked myself inside, I fired up my borrowed laptop and started digging. I didn’t know what I was looking for, but I went through file after file that I had access to. Everything was a red flag, and everyone was an enemy at this point.
I checked the camera feeds. A few of them glitched out here and there, but things appeared to be status quo.
The hallways were empty, doors were secured.
There wasn’t a whole lot of activity at this hour during the week.
My camera feed didn’t have access to the hallway outside of Jameson’s office. No surprise there.
A small stray cat casually sauntered across the back dock, stopping to lick its paw before carrying on whatever journey it had been on.
It was almost two in the morning, and there was no way in hell I was gonna sleep now. Not after tonight. I no longer trusted leaving Jameson unattended, even as close as she was being right across the hall from me. I wanted to check on her one last time for my own reassurance.
When I opened the door of my suite, music spilled out into the hallway from behind Jameson’s door.
The hell? I thought she’d been asleep the whole time.
I walked over and put my ear up to her door. Eighties rock music played from inside her penthouse.
I checked the door handle—it was still locked.
I turned to go back to my place when something crashed from inside.
I knocked my knuckles against the door. “James?” No answer. I knocked and called for her again. Nothing. “Jameson. Open up, or I’m coming in.”
Still no response.
I stuck my ear up to the door again and listened harder. All I could hear was music that had now been turned down. “God damn it.” The last thing I wanted to do was invade her private space uninvited.
“Last chance,” I called out into the door.
When she didn’t respond, I pulled out my key card. The light turned green as I badged myself inside. Music played from her bedroom. I scanned the penthouse as I made my way through. Everything seemed normal, from what I could tell.
I placed my hand on my gun and called for her again, slowly making my way across the living room. Her bedroom door was slightly ajar. I nudged it open with my toe just as Jameson stumbled out from behind it, laughing to herself with a bottle of wine tight in her grip.
She jumped back and let out a screech when she finally noticed me. “What the hell! You scared the shit out of me, Roman!”
“Sorry. I heard something crash.”
“Did you think to knock?”
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” I mouthed under my breath. “I did knock—twice—and I called your name—more than twice.”
As much as I would have loved to have stood around, bitching back and forth, my mind had all but shut down at the sight of her.
She’d taken her tight ponytail down, letting her hair hang in loose, unruly waves.
She’d changed out of her head-to-toe all-black ensemble in exchange for nothing but a gray, faded vintage Guns N’ Roses T-shirt that stopped just beneath the waistband of a pair of black lace panties.
She curled her toes, digging her neon pink-painted toenails into the carpet. “Well, I was in the bathroom. I didn’t hear you.”
To keep my eyes from continuously raking over every inch of her body, I stared at the tiny freckle on her forehead, just above her left eye.
I cleared my throat. “Fair enough. So what crashed?”
“A shelf.” She nodded behind me. “I stumbled on the edge of the carpet and caught myself on it. It fell off the wall.”
I looked back and saw the shelf, resting face down on top of her coffee table. Then, I eyed the bottle dangling from her grasp. “Are you drunk?”
“Not really.”
“I don’t care if you are. You’re allowed to drink.” I knew Jameson. She was drunk as shit right now. I could see it in her eyes. “It’s just really late. We have a busy day ahead of us.”
“After tonight, I think I’ve earned it.”
“I didn’t say you didn’t. You want me to fix that shelf for you?”
“No, it’s fine. I’ll get someone from maintenance to rehang it.”
She stepped forward, closing the short distance between us.
I took a step back, glancing down at her standing inches in front of me. “Now that I know you’re safe, I’ll resume my post. Try not to hurt yourself in here.”
As I turned to walk away, I heard a thud. I looked down behind me to find the bottle of wine she’d been holding lying on the floor. When I turned back around to face her, she grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me into her.
“Um, what the hell are you doing?” I asked, thoroughly confused.
“I’m not ready for you to leave yet.”
Two hours ago, I would have been all over this opportunity. Now? No fucking way. “You are very drunk right now. I don’t think this is a good idea. Actually, I know it’s not. This is a terrible idea.”
“I’ve made worse decisions. I think you owe me.”
“I wha—”
She loosened her grip on my shirt and pushed me back. “Now, go, sit. You’re already here. You might as well let me get you a drink.”
“Not necessary.” My words fell on deaf ears. She’d already worked her way around me and disappeared into the kitchen…and I watched her the entire time she walked away. My dick perked to life at the sight of her ass cheeks peeking out of the bottom of her high-cut panties.
Down, boy.
Now more than ever, I needed to be on my A game. We were both in a vulnerable state of mind—hers from drinking. Me? I had no excuse other than my primal instincts were kicking into high gear, and when it came to Jameson, she was my kryptonite.
Still, against my better judgment, I took a seat on the end of her couch closest to my only escape route—the one I should have been running out of.
She reappeared a moment later with two shots—one in each hand. “Here,” she said, handing me a glass. “Let’s toast…to us?”
I grabbed the offering and set it down on the end table beside the couch. “Let’s not.”
“That’s rude.” Shot glass in hand, she climbed onto my lap and straddled me. “I invited you to stay for a drink, you drink.”
“James,” I warned. “Don’t do this. Not now.”
“Now’s the perfect time. I’ve had just enough to drink to let my guard down and not change my mind. Unlike some people.”
“That sounds like the absolute worst time.”
She ground down on my lap, rocking her hips. “Hmm…is that your gun, or are you just happy to see me.”
“Both, actually.”
“Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve been thoroughly fucked?”
“Nope. Not a clue. And I don’t need to know.
” I didn’t want to know. That was not something I wanted to think about when it came to Jameson, much less a conversation I cared about having with her.
Because the only person that came to mind was Chris.
I closed my eyes and prayed to someone, anyone, for some kind of guidance here because if left to my own devices, I was probably going to fuck her raw.
“You’ve managed to go this long. I’m not going to be the one to change it now. Not tonight.”
She tossed back her shot and slammed the empty glass down on the table beside my full one causing it to slosh and spill over. “You’re probably right. If I’m going to break my streak, I’ll need a real man to do it.”
“Hmm. Chris wasn’t?”
“You going to drink this or what?” she asked, ignoring my question.
“No. It’s all yours.” She picked up my glass and tossed it back. “If you’re done here, I’ll go. We’ll just act like none of this ever happened.”
“Hmm. It’s a damn shame you don’t want me. I just got waxed at the spa a few days ago.” She hooked her finger into the crotch of her panties and pulled them to the side, exposing a lot of bare skin, showing off her fresh wax job. This time, I looked without even trying to hide it, and fuck.
I sucked in a deep breath, holding it deep in my lungs until it physically burned. Then, I slowly blew it out.
“You asked when it was going to be your turn to return the favor. How about now?”
My hands were planted firmly at my sides as I gripped the couch cushion, damn near ripping the fabric with my fingertips. “James. Don’t do this.”
Did I want to? Judging by the way my cock strained against the inside of my jeans, that was affirmative. Right now though? Hard pass. I wasn’t about to put her in a position to accuse me of taking advantage of her or her waking up with regret. Not that she would, but it wasn’t worth the risk.
“Touch me.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Please?” Her voice had gone from hard and demanding to soft and pleading.
Now she was begging me. Never in a million years did I ever think I’d have the control to tell Jameson no, much less her beg for me.
“No fucking way,” I swallowed, my words ragged.
“Why the hell not?”
“I—I just can’t.” Despite my granite-hard and painful erection, I was not caving in.
I’d already fucked up and let my hormones get the best of me when I practically attacked her in her office.
Then, I let her suck me off earlier tonight.
Plus, our hot make-out session. That was more than enough crossing a line for me.
She slipped her delicate fingers between her legs, and they disappeared into her panties, her eyes closed. “Roman,” she moaned quietly, “I need you.” Her hips started to rock ever so slightly as she finger-fucked herself on my lap.
“James. God damn it.” My restraint was dissipating by the second. “Please stop.”
She reached down between us and grabbed my dick. Then, she leaned forward and ran her tongue from the dip at the bottom of my neck up the side to my earlobe. My entire body tensed. “I don’t think you really want me to,” she whispered.
I reached up and gripped onto her hips, digging my fingers into her soft flesh. “No, I don’t. What I really want to do is flip you over, face down on this couch, fuck you senseless from behind, and come inside that pretty little pussy of yours. But you’ve had way too much to drink.”
This was pure hell for me, and she knew it.
A year ago, I never would have turned down this opportunity.
She and I used to sneak off every other chance we had and fuck like rabbits.
While it was fun and exciting at first, the more time we’d spent together getting to know each other, the more I did it because I cared about her. I still did.
I had one head telling me to give in, just give her what she wanted—what I wanted. My other head told me to back off; she’d sober up, and by morning, she’d be beating herself up over this. Because the last thing I wanted to do was take advantage of her.
Sensibility finally won.
In one smooth move, I picked her up, spun around, and sat her down on the couch next to where I’d been sitting.
“What the hell, Roman? You can’t just—”
“Listen to me. I fucking told you no,” I practically barked out at her. “I just—” I shoved my fingers into my hair with both hands. I wanted to rip out every strand by the root. “I just—we can’t. Not right now.”
“You can’t? You didn’t try and stop me when I was sucking your dick!”
“Oh, for the love of god. I didn’t ask for that. You did that on your own.”
“And you didn’t try to stop me. Rest assured, I won’t let it happen again.”
“I—I’m sorr—”
“Just get the fuck out,” she yelled. “Now. Get out!”
I wasn’t about to sit here and argue with her. I turned around, heading toward the door to make my exit. “I’ll be outside if you need me.”
“I will never need you!”
As I closed the door behind me, something shattered against the wall—a shot glass and my ego.