by Janie Crouch
Even with her heels she barely came up to his chin. She knew this sort of closeness should make her feel uncomfortable, and waited for that tinge of panic to assail her.
It never came.
One song led into a second as they moved slowly together, in perfect rhythm.
“Why are you hiding in the shadows, Roman Weber?” Keira asked as the second slow song ended and the band took a break for the bouquet and garter toss.
“I’m dancing in the shadows with a gorgeous woman,” Roman replied.
“Not hiding from the garter?”
He smiled. And still hadn’t slipped his arm from her waist or released her hand from his chest.
“No. Although I will admit, shamefully, since I’m a grown man, that I’m trying to avoid my mother and her nagging agenda at events like this.”
Keira smiled. “Mom’s not a big fan of you working at Omega Sector?”
“Oh yes, believe me, she is not happy about my chosen profession.”
She couldn’t blame a mother for being concerned about her son’s well-being. Keira could feel the muscles of the chest beneath her fingers, the light balance he had on his feet. Roman was definitely an active agent. Probably regularly in the line of fire. A mother could be forgiven for nagging about that.
“I understand the hiding. Even if I wasn’t trying to avoid the bouquet, I generally avoid crowds like this.”
He eased back so they could see each other’s eyes. “Law enforcement agents?”
“No.” She shook her head, smiling. “The other ones. Rich and privileged, with an agenda of their own.”
Roman studied her for a long moment in a way she didn’t really understand.
“What?” she finally asked.
“Nothing.” His gaze turn into something softer, more inviting. “You’re trying to get away from these people. I’m trying to get away from these people. What do you say we just get out of here together, right now? I have a suite upstairs.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“It can just be for more dancing. I promise.” That smile again that took her breath away. “All I’m trying to do is save you from the plant-damaging violence of the bouquet toss. Although I agree, you could definitely take out most of the women here.”
Despite what some people might think of her because of her past profession, giving in to an instant attraction wasn’t Keira’s normal way of doing things. Letting a man get close to her was difficult. Hell, given her previous marriage, even being attracted to someone was a novelty.
But the attraction between her and Roman Weber was something fierce. She couldn’t deny it even if she wanted to.
And she didn’t want to.
For the first time in her life, Keira threw caution to the wind. “What if I’m interested in more than just dancing up in your suite?”
His grinned widened. “Then I would ask why the heck we’re still here talking about it.”
He let go of her waist and pulled her to the door.
Chapter Three
They didn’t leave the suite for the next day and a half.
They hardly left the bed except to grab what they ordered from room service.
Keira couldn’t stop smiling. She came back out of the bathroom midday Monday after brushing her teeth and attempting to do something with her hair, hardly recognizing the woman she’d seen in the mirror.
Spending the weekend in bed with a man she hardly knew really wasn’t part of her MO. She may have been an exotic dancer, but that hadn’t meant she’d allowed men close to her. As a matter of fact, stripping had been the furthest thing from intimacy for her.
While onstage, she’d known exactly what moves to do to make the most money and gather the most attention. And even offstage she’d always been confident and capable, her thriving salon business now proof of that.
But when it came to intimacy with a man, Keira was much more wary. Her confidence much lower. She could thank Jonathan Cunningham for that. After her disastrous sham of a marriage, she’d been afraid to get close to anyone.
She could count on two fingers the number of relationships she’d had since her divorce six years ago. And that was including whatever was going on with Roman right now.
He’d already taken her phone’s calendar and scheduled her to have dinner with him every night this week, so evidently he planned on them seeing each other again after they left here.
And she couldn’t stop smiling. Not her fake-but-sparkling stage smile, but her legit, bubbling-from-somewhere-deep-inside smile.
“I like that look on you,” he said, as she crossed to him with the sheet wrapped around her.
“Sheets are all the rage this season.” She twirled as if she was on a runway, then let out a yelp as he grabbed the sheet and pulled it off her.
“That’s even better,” he murmured, using the sheet still wrapped around her hips to pull her closer. His lips melded to hers and she melted into him.
“You know we have to leave this room sometime,” she finally said against his mouth.
“How about if I quit my job at Omega and you close the salon?”
She giggled. “I’m pretty sure they’d kick us out of here soon, when we run out of money.”
“Argh. Damn consumerism in the US.”
His phone buzzed again on the nightstand. Hers had been doing the same thing for the last few hours.
The real world was calling.
It was late Monday afternoon. The salon was closed on Sundays and Mondays, so it had worked out fine to be here with Roman. But she had paperwork to do and the salon involved much more than just cutting and styling hair.
But she hadn’t explained any of that to Roman yet. Even though he was law enforcement, she still wasn’t completely comfortable sharing the Fresh Starts salon’s true purpose. Those secrets weren’t fully hers to tell.
“I’ve got to get back to the salon.”
“I thought it wasn’t open today.”
“It’s not. But paperwork and shipments and handling stuff all keep going no matter what day it is. The glorious life of a small business owner.”
“And I guess I’ve got to go back to Omega and sit at a desk all day.” He gave the most adorable pout, lying there against the pillows.
“Aw.” She trailed her fingers down his cheek. “Poor little SWAT team member frustrated by having to use his brain?”
She joked, but the burn scars he had across his chest and shoulder from his close call with death two months ago were anything but funny.
He spun her around and had her pinned under him in a second flat.
“I’ll admit I’m much more prone to action than I am profiling or researching.” He bent down to kiss her and shifted his hips so they were more fully pressed up against each other. Keira couldn’t stop the moan that escaped her as his lips worked their way across her jaw and down her neck.
His phone rang again. This time the music from the movie Jaws. Keira laughed. It wasn’t the first time that person had called.
She pushed at his chest to stop his lips from going lower down her shoulder.
“Okay, I’ve got to know who that is. The Jaws theme.”
Roman propped himself up on his elbow and rolled his eyes. “My mother.”
Keira threw her head back and let out a laugh. Until Roman took advantage of her exposed throat and soon had her gasping for breath.
But when the shark theme came again from his phone five minutes later, Keira knew she had to get him to answer it.
“Roman, it’s your mother.”
“She’ll call back.”
“Uh, yeah, in another five minutes. You said she doesn’t like your Omega job. She’s worried about you.”
After what had happened with that explosion that had almost killed him, Keira didn’t blame his mom. She nudged hi
m. “Just answer it so she won’t be worried.”
He didn’t look thrilled, but he did it. Probably because he knew his mother wasn’t going to stop calling until she knew he was safe.
“Hello, Mother.”
Immediately, Keira could hear his mother talking at a rate and pitch that had to be barely discernible even to Roman. Keira couldn’t make out a bit of it and she was only six inches away.
Roman kept the receiver at his ear and bent down to kiss Keira again. A luscious kiss that almost made her forget the other woman on the line. But all too soon, he ended the kiss and pushed back.
“Of course I’m listening.”
He winked at Keira and got up from the bed, walking naked across the room toward the window. “I left the wedding early with a friend.” He glanced back at Keira and smiled. “Yes, someone I met at the wedding, and that’s why I left. Well, met again. We have mutual friends.”
Keira didn’t think she’d ever get tired of looking at Roman’s naked form. Hard to believe those six-pack abs and firm buttocks were what he looked like now, during recovery. Him in top physical form just might kill her.
“Keira Spencer.” He waited patiently while his mother said something else. “I tell you what, why don’t I check with her and see if she’s available to join us all for lunch next Sunday?”
Keira’s eyes flew to Roman’s. Did he really want her to join his family for lunch? He was smiling reassuringly at her. Maybe this wasn’t as big a deal as she thought.
Regardless, she got up while he was finishing with his mom. She needed some sort of fortification right now. Clothes seemed like a good start.
She dressed, glad she had grabbed her change of clothes and toiletries from the hotel room she’d booked but hadn’t used. She was putting on some makeup when he finished his conversation and tapped on the door.
“You okay in there?”
She opened it. “Dinner with the family? Does that mean I get to wear your letterman’s jacket, too?”
He stole a kiss. “Smart-ass. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to. Sunday lunches with my family are sort of a networking event. Everybody brings someone if they want. I don’t always even go.”
Was he backpedaling? Did he not want her there? She didn’t know him well enough to know how to respond. “Oh. Well...”
“I tell you what. Have dinner with me every night this week and then if you still like me, you can come hang with the family. They’re pretty overwhelming.”
She laughed and shook her head at his crazy proposal. “I can’t have dinner with you every night this week. The salon is open late some nights.”
“I’ll bring takeout.”
It was nice to be wanted, and by someone not only so damn attractive, but trustworthy also. He was a friend of Andrea and Brandon’s and worked for one of the top law enforcement agencies in the country. Pretty damn trustworthy.
And although they hadn’t gotten into each other’s financial background in the hours they’d talked in between bouts of lovemaking over the last two days, Keira felt safe in assuming Roman wasn’t part of the high society group she’d left behind six years ago. Nobody born with a silver spoon and aspirations of power became a member of SWAT, putting his life in danger every day.
Roman Weber was pretty close to damn well perfect.
He finally wore her down, and she agreed to having dinner with him two nights and the meal with his family on Sunday.
It was crazy and scary and oh-so-exciting.
For the first time in six years, Keira could actually imagine a relationship with someone. Maybe not marriage—she wasn’t sure she’d ever be ready for that—but something long term. Permanent.
There were still obstacles, of course, Keira very definitely wasn’t naive. One utterly fabulous weekend did not necessarily mean they’d have something going on long term.
But it was a hell of a start.
Chapter Four
When Sunday rolled around and Roman picked her up for the mid-afternoon lunch with his family, Keira was still on cloud nine.
She’d thought that Roman would pull back, try to play it cool this week. To maybe ease out of their meal-with-family plan.
Actually, Keira was surprised she hadn’t pulled back herself. It was all a little scary.
And although they’d toned it down a little physically, both of them wanting to reset and ease more gently into whatever was happening between them, she’d seen or talked to Roman every day this week.
She felt like Cinderella waiting for the clock to strike midnight and everything around her to turn into a pumpkin. Things couldn’t continue to go as well as they’d been going.
Fresh Starts continued to thrive also. Not just the salon part, although Keira could admit she was damn good at styling hair, but its fuller purpose: providing women who had nowhere else to go a shelter. Apartments where they could stay as long as they needed. And then training in cosmetology, so the women had a way of supporting themselves.
Keira had sunk all the money she’d had left of her inheritance—money she’d desperately needed when she was younger, but that her parents had thought they were being so wise in putting into a trust fund untouchable until she was twenty-five—into the shop, the equipment and the building. She owned it all, free and clear. No debt, which allowed all the earnings from the salon to funnel back into the shelter.
And she would use it all to help as many women as possible. Help them get out of abusive or trafficking situations. Help them learn they had other choices, other options, than what they’d grown accustomed to. She had three women living there now.
She still hadn’t told Roman about the safeguarding aspect of the salon. It was too soon. That wasn’t something you told someone you’d been dating for only a week.
Dating. She grinned at the word.
“What are you smiling about over there?” He reached out and grabbed her hand with one of his, keeping the other firmly on the steering wheel.
“Just at what a difference a week makes. If you had asked me a little over a week ago what I would be doing this Sunday, I would’ve put a million dollars on anything but this.”
He gave her a crooked grin. “Yeah, this week was pretty unexpected for me also.”
“I’m not trying to rush things.”
“Me, either. Let’s just have this lunch with my parents to get my mom off my case, and then we can take things at our own pace.”
“Sounds perfect.”
He looked her up and down and wagged an eyebrow. “As long as our own pace means I can take you back to my place tonight.”
She ran her hand through his thick brown hair as he drove. “I think that can be arranged. So are we going to your parents’ house? Do your brother and sister both come over every week?”
The thought of a mom cooking for her family even though the kids were all out of the house was pretty heartwarming.
“We don’t get together every week. Usually it’s more like once a month. Daniel is off at college. Angela comes if she can be bothered and sometimes brings her fiancé, Brock.”
“I think it’s great.” For someone with no siblings and dead parents it all sounded sort of lovely.
But a few minutes later, when Roman made a turn into the entrance of the Colorado Springs Country Club, Keira’s good feelings started to ebb.
“The country club?” She tried to give a light laugh, but it came out sounding as brittle as she felt.
“Yeah.” Roman smiled at her, unaware of her tension. “I guess I should’ve mentioned that my mother doesn’t really cook. All our family dinners or lunches are here.”
Keira tried to squash the panic bubbling up through her system.
Just because they were at a country club did not mean that Roman’s family was anything like Jonathan’s family. A country club membership did not necess
arily mean power and privilege. Lots of people were involved in a country club. Regular, happy, kind people who also happened to have money. Or liked to play golf.
The words didn’t settle the panic in her system.
Keira remained silent as they drove up to the covered portico of the clubhouse. What could she say without sounding completely ridiculous? That country clubs threw her into a panic because of what had happened to her in her past?
She and Roman hadn’t gotten into any of that. It wasn’t anything she wanted to talk about. Wasn’t anything she’d thought she’d needed to talk about.
The valet opened the car door for her and she automatically stepped out, thankful she’d worn a nice knit dress coupled with heeled boots for this casual meal she’d thought she’d be attending. What if she had worn jeans? Would they have let her in?
Even Roman coming around the car and putting a hand on the small of her back in a protective gesture couldn’t stop her sense of foreboding.
“The most important thing to remember is just not to take my family too seriously.” He smiled at her again and still didn’t seem to realize how panicked she was, thank goodness. “I surely don’t.”
Keira didn’t answer as she studied the people around her. This country club was no different than the ones she’d gone to in Denver when she’d been married to Jonathan. Everyone was still chatting, shaking hands, slapping backs, congratulating themselves on being masters of their universe. It was a typical Sunday afternoon at a place like this.
Keira knew she was being unreasonable, that it was unfair to judge everyone on the actions of the few, but she couldn’t help it. She felt like she was going to throw up. She had to get a grip.
“There you are!” A woman in her midsixties, with perfectly styled brown hair in a bob, rushed over to them. “I thought you said you’d be here at one o’clock.”
“I didn’t think I needed to bring Keira for mimosas, Mother.” Roman leaned down and kissed the woman on her cheek as she offered it up to him. “Family lunch is quite enough.”
