TWENTY-FOUR - JAMESON
We spent the rest of the day and entire night locked away in Roman’s suite…
specifically his bed. I didn’t know who needed who more, but it didn’t even matter.
We’d all but become one person. At one point, I’d tried to get away for a while and go back to work, but there was no way he was letting me go.
Roman had me in his clutch, and in more ways than one.
During one break, I did text Ivan, told him to take over things for the rest of the day and have Chris handle any administrative fires that came through since he’d decided to come into work for a little while.
Then I got back to Kelly, who’d blown my phone up wanting to know what the hell went down and why I wasn’t responding to her.
Because Roman is going down on me. But she’d already figured it out by the time I’d responded to her.
I was lying in Roman’s bed, wrapped in his arms with my head on his bare chest, leg thrown over his thighs. This was exactly what I’d been needing, what I’d missed so much. The physical act of being with a man could have come from anyone, but Roman and I always had this connection.
“Are you glad to be back?” I asked him as I traced my finger along his chest and abdomen in a figure eight.
“Hmm. Considering the circumstances, not really. But because it’s you, yes.
If you’d been anyone else, I don’t think I’d care enough to put forth half the effort.
” He ran his hand up and down my arm. Taking my wrist in his grip, he guided my hand down until he wrapped my fingers around his rock-hard erection.
“I know something else that doesn’t take any effort. ”
“Hmm. I see.” With his cock firm in my grip, I stroked him up and down.
The thought of having him inside of me again, over and over, had me dripping down the inside of my thighs. I couldn’t believe either of us had anything left to give after the night we’d just had. Apparently, judging by his rock-hard erection, we had plenty left.
“What about this?” I asked as I rolled over on top of him. “How much effort do you think it would take to finish?”
He grabbed onto my hips and pushed me down onto him as he thrust upward, gliding his length between my legs. “You or me?”
“Yes.” I held on to his chest as he slid back and forth, coating himself slick. The pressure of the length of his cock gliding across my sensitive clit was enough to damn near make me come on the spot.
He lined himself up for entry, then slowly pushed inside. I lowered down onto him until I was seated on his lap and he was inside of me as deep as he could possibly go.
“Fuck,” he hissed. “You’re so fucking tight and wet. I don’t think feeling you like this will ever get old. God, I’ve missed this so much.”
I slowly rocked my hips, grinding and rubbing against him.
“You seem to have that effect on me.” I kissed and licked up his neck, across his stubbled jaw, to his ear. “I’d kiss you on the mouth, but, you know, morning breath.” Something neither one of us liked. Then again, does anyone actually like it, or is it just tolerable under certain circumstances?
“Is it still considered morning breath if we’ve hardly slept?”
I smiled. “Yes.”
“I’ll tell you what I don’t mind,” he said, grinding his hips upward, pushing in deeper.
“Hmm. What don’t you mind?” I nipped his earlobe between my teeth, grinding back down.
“Morning pussy.” Roman leaned up and wrapped his mouth around my nipple, taking it in and sucking hard. He sat us up, grabbed onto my shoulders, and pulled me downward. I wrapped my legs around his waist and rode him with everything I had left in me.
It was midmorning by the time we’d finished our last session. Just poof, half the day gone already. I didn’t even care anymore. Roman had fucked any give-a-damn I had left right out of me.
Despite my protesting, Roman eventually got up and headed to the shower. I wrapped myself in the bedsheet and watched him as he disappeared into the bathroom. As much as I’d wanted to join him, I declined his offer because I really did need to do some work today.
I’d somehow lost track of all time and neglected all of my duties for the last twenty-four hours. Okay, so I knew exactly how time had gotten away, and it showed by the sheer volume of missed calls, text messages, and unread emails I had waiting for me.
First on the list was to call Ivan back. I’d just disconnected my call with him when Roman appeared from the steam-filled bathroom, towel wrapped around his waist. If not for the conversation I’d just had, I might find this scenario more appealing.
“What’s wrong?” Roman asked.
“He talked to him,” I said, clutching my phone. My stomach turned and twisted into knots. Not only because I hadn’t eaten since we ordered room service the night before but because Ivan had talked to Kane.
On the phone.
He stalked over to me and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Who talked to who? What are you talking about?”
“Ivan,” I said, looking up at Roman. “He talked to Kane, said I need to call him.”
If Ivan thought I needed to call Kane, then I most definitely needed to call him, which was the exact opposite of what I wanted to do.
“Guess he got my message. Did he leave you his number?”
I nodded. “Ivan texted it to me.”
“Call him.”
“Now?” What the hell? I’d just had one of the best nights of my life, and he expected me to potentially ruin everything with a phone call to the man who wanted me dead?
“Yes. Now. I think it’s time to have that in-person meeting he’s been wanting.”
“Are you sure? ’Cause that doesn’t sound like a good idea. Actually, that sounds like a horrible idea. Maybe your worst one yet.”
“Nothing’s a good idea at this point, but we’ve poked the bear. Let’s at least see what he has to say.”
I bit my bottom lip as I stared down at my phone. It was almost noon. I was still naked, wearing only a bed sheet. I was sure Kane was up for the day, dressed to the nines and ready to take on the world like a southern Dr. Evil.
“Hey.” Roman reached out, placing his hand underneath my chin and tilting my head to look up at him. “It’s going to be okay. You know I’m not letting anything happen to you, right?”
At this point, I wasn’t so sure even he could stop this. “Yeah,” I sighed.
“I mean it, James. All I’m asking is that you call him. You can use my house-issued phone if you want to, but you’re the only one he’ll talk to. Let’s see what he has to say.”
In my mind, the plan had always been to take Kane down.
The problem was I couldn’t just give my men orders to risk life and limb, storming onto Kane’s property like it was the invasion of Normandy, without solid evidence that he’d single-handedly been the person responsible for my dad’s death.
Just a strong suspicion didn’t work in this industry.
It worked for me, but there still had to be some form of underlying mutual respect… until lines were physically crossed.
Unfortunately, Kane thought I’d crossed those lines, and once he stuck me on his radar, my ass was as good as grass as far as he was concerned.
“God, I hope you’re right,” I mumbled under my breath, half to Roman, half to the powers to be, because I needed all the encouragement and support I could get.
With shaky hands, I grabbed Roman’s phone and dialed the number in Ivan’s text.
Kane answered after only a few rings. “I got your…message,” he droned, his voice laced with amusement. “Nice shot, if I do say so myself.”
“Thanks.” As much as I would have loved to have taken credit for it, too bad it wasn’t mine.
“Did you keep his finger as a consolation prize?” he laughed. I didn’t respond. But I did wonder what ever came of his finger. I didn’t want to find it in the corner of my office later. “That was a bold move. I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“You’d be amazed what a woman will do when pushed to her limit.” I put the call on speakerphone so Roman could hear.
“Still, I’m impressed.”
“I wasn’t trying to impress you,” I deadpanned.
“Well, as much as I appreciate your gift, there’s just one minor problem.”
I rolled my eyes. “There’s always a problem, is there not?”
“You returned that unlucky man to the wrong sender.”
He’s bluffing.
I swallowed down the lump in my throat, trying to steady my voice. “What are you talking about?”
I glanced up at Roman. He just stared down at our clothes haphazardly tossed on the floor, his face void of any emotion or expression.
“He wasn’t one of mine.”
Suddenly, everything made even less sense than it already did with him. “Then enlighten me. Who was he working for?”
“Don’t know, don’t care. And it’s not my job to find out. He came for you, not me.”
I was speechless at this point, my mind reeling. Someone else had sent that man to me with a message to stay away from my dad’s estate?
“I don’t believe you.”
“Seems like you have a lot more enemies than you realize.”
“Lucky me. Except I don’t go around pissing people off on purpose. It’ll be easy to figure out,” I lied. I didn’t have the slightest fucking clue who’d sent that man if Kane wasn’t the one who did. I didn’t even know where to start anymore.
“Maybe it’s time we have our long-overdue in-person meeting you’ve been putting off,” he drawled in a thick Southern accent that made me want to puke. “Have a little one-on-one chitchat. Don’t you think?”
“Yeah,” I reluctantly agreed. “Let’s.” As in, let’s hurry up and get this shit over with.
“How’s tomorrow work for you?”
How about never. “Next week,” I pressed, hoping he would catch my hint since I already knew he had a hit out on me that he planned on having carried out this weekend.
He laughed. “Oh, you’re just full of jokes, aren’t you? So cute. Tomorrow,” he stated again, this time with less amusement in his tone.
I looked at Roman for guidance. He mouthed the word today.
I covered the mouthpiece of the phone and held it away from us. “What?” I whisper-yelled. “Are you insane? We ca—”
He covered my mouth with his hand, again silently mouthing the word today.
I threw his hand down.