by K. M. Scott
Thankfully, the woman seemed lost in her own world and didn’t say a word to them as they rode up to the second floor. They got out, leaving her alone in the elevator, and began walking to their room at the far end of the hall.
Alone in the very elegantly designed hallway that resembled the downstairs lobby but had deep burgundy and gold carpeting on the floor, Roman said to her, “I’m not sure what you were going for with all that, but it didn’t make you any less conspicuous. Just so you know.”
Not that he helped one bit with that whole making her less conspicuous. Furious at him, she walked through the door as he opened it and found herself standing in a gorgeous hotel room decorated in what she assumed were the hotel’s colors of deep gold and burgundy. If only she could enjoy all this opulence.
All at once, the vision of her face right there next to the news anchor’s head rushed back into her mind. She began to pace again as she had at the Bayou Motel, flailing her arms.
“My face is all over the news. The cops put my face on the news, for God’s sake! That’s why I kept trying to hide my face.”
“Don’t worry. Assuming that woman didn’t wonder why you were acting like a bitch in heat, I think you’re fine,” he said as he sat down in a chair near the window.
The way he referred to her made her fall speechless for a moment before she snapped, “I’m sure she did wonder since you were such a cold fish! She probably felt bad for me stuck in the gorgeous hotel with such a cold fish of a man.”
He looked up at her blankly but didn’t react to her attack, so she stormed toward the bathroom. “I’m taking a bath to wash off the layer of skeeze from that motel room. Unless someone shows up to kill me, don’t come in.”
Slamming the door behind her, she stormed over to the tub and turned both the hot and cold water fully on. Kate looked around at the toiletries the hotel supplied and found a tiny bottle of bubble bath, so she poured the entire thing into the water before laying the white bath mat down on the floor.
She needed this bath. Of all the things she needed in life at that moment, if this bath was the only one she could have, she’d be happy. All she wanted to do was recline in the water up to her neck and hope the bubbles took away the stress of the past day. She didn’t want to think about Jonas, Samuel Darnell, or how their killer might very well be out there looking for her right at that moment, wanting to kill her for what they thought she knew.
Which she didn’t.
No, she wanted to let her mind go blank and not think of a thing. Not even the sexy man who had appeared in her life an hour ago and now sat just outside the door in the hotel room they shared.
Definitely not him. But at least she now knew his last name. Madson. Roman Madson. It had a strong, masculine sound to it. It matched him well.
But she didn’t want to think about that right now. All she wanted to do was get lost in that bubble bath behind her.
Kate stripped out of her clothes and tossed them on the vanity before sticking her toe into the bathwater. Perfect. Not too hot and not too cold. As the bubbles multiplied and grew higher, she stepped in and sat down in the tub.
Sliding down into the bubbly water until every part of her but her head was submerged, she reveled in the feel of her muscles slowly pushing the tension and stress out of her body. With every moment, the hot water and bubbles cleaned her of the grime from that awful Bayou Motel. She’d have to tell Eve she was right about that place.
As thoughts of Eve rolled through her mind, she began to think about Jonas and his client. When Samuel Darnell came to the office that first time, he’d been so jittery and seemed terrified of everything he wanted to talk to Jonas about. She’d thought he’d been overreacting to whatever it was that scared him, but now she felt stupid for minimizing his concerns in her mind. God, she and Jonas had joked about how nervous he’d seemed that first day. How cocky they’d been.
And now the two of them were dead, murdered by some unknown killer who likely thought as his assistant Kate knew all about the case too. For all her bravado in front of Roman, she knew the truth. She was terrified. Hiding her face in her hands, she tried to understand how her life became such a mess.
Just as misery threatened to take her over, the bathroom door opened and Roman walked in, startling her. She hurried to cover herself with bubbles as he took a good long look into the tub.
“Take a picture. It’ll last longer,” she snapped, still trying to cover her body with bubbles that seemed to dissipate as soon as she moved them.
Then she suddenly remembered what she said earlier about only coming in if someone was there to kill her. “What’s wrong? Is someone here?”
“No,” he said, still looking down at her as she lay in the tub.
“Well, then why are you standing over me, gawking at my body?”
He remained silent for a long moment before he said, “I’m going down to the restaurant, so I thought I’d ask you if you want something to eat.”
She pointed at the door as bubbles dripped off her arm onto the floor next to the tub. “Get out!”
He didn’t leave, and she realized his gaze had moved from her face down to her chest. She looked down to see her breast only half covered with bubbles. Quickly, she covered her chest with her arms and barked, “Just go and leave me alone!”
He turned to leave, but then she stopped him. “Wait. Get me a cheeseburger and fries. Please.”
“I’m not sure they’ll have that since it’s breakfast time. Do you have a second choice?”
Kate thought for a moment. God, she just wanted something to fill her stomach. Why did this man have to make her life so difficult?
“French toast.”
Roman smiled and nodded before leaving the bathroom. “I’ll lock the door, but lock this one behind me too.”
He closed the door behind him, leaving her there with her nerves on their last edge. Her world had come crashing down around her, somebody might very well want to kill her like they had done to her boss and his client, and this man who’d been sent to protect her made her even more uneasy.
In the middle of everything, she didn’t want to think about incredibly sexy Roman was with his dark eyes that seemed to always be watching her and his muscular body she’d only felt through his clothes but knew must look fantastic without them. He did have a way of moving like a predator that she couldn’t help find intriguing and sexy.
Swift, decisive, and lethal. That’s what he looked like when he approached her. It made her wonder what he was like when he wasn’t on a case.
“If only I’d met him before I became a woman on the run. He probably thinks I’m wrapped up in all of this anyway,” she mumbled, disgusted that it took her life falling apart for a man like him to finally show up.
She let herself slide under the water and wished she could forget everything outside that tub.
Chapter Six
Roman closed his eyes and tried to push the image of Kate lying there in that tub barely covered by bubbles out of his mind. He didn’t want to think of her like that. Christ, the last thing he needed was to start thinking of her as anything but just another client.
This is just another job, Roman. Nothing more. All you have to do is find out who’s behind her boss and his client’s murders and make sure they aren’t after her and then you’ll be done with this assignment. Just focus on the case.
That he needed to talk himself into what he should already know signaled how far he’d let himself go with her. He couldn’t even explain it either. Kate Sheridan had given him nothing but grief from the moment he met her. Her insistence on arguing every point and asking a million questions had made this case more difficult than it had to be from the beginning.
For all those reasons and his cardinal rule never to let himself feel anything for clients, he shouldn’t be thinking about how sexy she looked lying there in that bubble bath. Or how much he wanted to stay in that bathroom and run his hands over every inch of her soapy body.
; Shaking his head, he hoped to get rid of all those thoughts and get back to what he should be focusing on. The job. Protecting her from whoever was out there and may want to hurt her. Fulfilling his duty as a member of Project Artemis charged with this woman’s safety.
He took a deep breath and headed out of the hotel room, happy to put some space between Kate and himself. The problem was he couldn’t stay away from her for long and still do his job.
This was why he didn’t let himself get too close to any client or any other person, for that matter. Keeping people at arm’s length had served him well for years. True, it ensured he was always alone, but he’d grown used to that.
Better to be alone than to let himself care about another person. He knew what could happen if he let that happen.
The bar downstairs didn’t seem to adhere to the hours the desk clerk had claimed, so after ordering their food at the restaurant, Roman sat down and ordered himself a whisky. He didn’t make it a habit to drink for breakfast, but he wanted something to take the edge off. As he sat there staring at the bottles behind the bar and letting the drink warm his insides, a blonde wearing a red dress and dozens of sets of beads around her neck sat down on a barstool near him and ordered a gin and tonic.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her looking at him and smiled. Not normally someone who needed or wanted to talk to strangers in a bar, Roman felt the desire to strike up a conversation with her. Maybe it would take his mind off Kate upstairs naked and half covered in bubbles.
“Were you in town for Mardi Gras?” she asked, leaning over toward him so her plunging V-neck dress showed nearly all her breasts and causing the beads to tap against the bar.
He preferred when a woman left a little to the imagination, to be honest, though he had to admit that she had a great body to show off. The breasts may have been bought and paid for, but he didn’t really care. It’s not like they would be spending the rest of their lives together.
Turning toward her, he smiled. “No. I’m in town for work.”
A man trying to get her into his bed would have bothered to ask what she was doing in town, but Roman didn’t bother. All he wanted he could get right there in that bar.
“What kind of work do you do?” the blonde asked before taking a sip of her drink.
“Security. I protect people,” he answered, okay with that half-truth he’d just told her.
Technically, that’s what he did. One of the most important parts of working for Project Artemis was not talking about it. Sort of like Fight Club but without all testosterone flying around all over the place.
Roman’s mind went back to the estate full of men and Xavier and Gideon watching sports twenty-four-seven in the game room. Okay, maybe it was like Fight Club with the testosterone but without all the bashing in of people’s heads.
Lost in thought about back home, he didn’t hear the blonde ask him a question about who he protected and didn’t notice her move so she could sit next to him. When he stopped daydreaming, he saw his casual conversation had moved to a different level with her, if the way she was looking at him and licking her lips was any indication.
Some women you had no problem figuring out what they wanted. This one practically wore a neon sign around her neck. She wanted to be fucked.
“What’s your name?” she asked in a voice that had almost a purring quality to it.
He imagined being talked to like that on a regular basis could sound nice. Even better when she was naked and underneath him.
“Roman,” he said before drinking a mouthful of whisky. “Yours?”
“Cheri,” she answered with a smile as she fingered one of the sets of beads hanging between her breasts.
For a moment, he wondered if Cheri was more than just a good looking woman sitting at a bar at seven o’clock in the morning. Any big city had its fair share of prostitutes, although she didn’t look like she had enough miles on her to be a hooker.
Curious to see if he was correct, he asked, “Were you in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, Cheri?”
She nodded and giggled as she lifted the beads up as evidence. “Yeah. My friends and I come every year from D.C. for the party. They all decided to turn in early, but I wasn’t tired, so I came down here instead of sitting around the hotel room. We’re here for another two days, so I’ll have time to sleep then.”
“What do you do for a living?” he asked, truly curious now that he’d decided she wasn’t trying to sell herself to him.
Not for money anyway.
Cheri smiled and lifted her glass to take another sip of her gin and tonic, never taking her eyes off him. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
Roman couldn’t help but be intrigued. More than once, he’d wanted to say that in response to the question of what he did for a living. Who was this Cheri woman?
He leaned over until his mouth brushed against her long hair and whispered, “Try me.”
She licked her lips and answered, “I work for the Government Accounting Office in D.C. A very boring desk job that makes trips like this one a must so I don’t go out of my mind.”
“I can’t believe someone who looks like you do works a boring desk job,” he said, intentionally flattering her. He honestly hadn’t pegged her for a pencil pusher, so it wasn’t a complete lie.
It’s just that he didn’t care as much as he made it seem.
Cheri took another sip of her drink and put the glass down on the bar. When she lowered her arm, she grazed his chest before letting her hand land gently on his thigh. He had to give her credit. She didn’t leave any doubt as to what she wanted.
And if he didn’t have a job to do that involved protecting a much different and far more argumentative woman, he may have taken Cheri up on her unspoken but definitely clear offer. It had been a long time since he’d been with anyone, and parts of him liked where she wanted to go with this little thing they had going between them there in the bar.
Especially the parts between his legs, which had already decided the whole idea was a go and enthusiastically waited for the rest of him to join in.
But his brain and heart weren’t in it. He’d always been a man who had to care about someone enough to stick around after sleeping with them, which explained why he rarely had a woman in his bed. He just couldn’t promise he’d ever be there after they finished making love.
“So are you here alone, Roman?” she asked in that purring voice he had to admit he liked.
He shook his head and saw the bartender hold up the bag of food he’d ordered from the restaurant next door. “No, and I have to head back up to the room to get back to work.”
Cheri’s hand slid up his thigh toward his crotch to stop him from leaving. “So soon? I won’t have anyone to keep me company once you’re gone.”
Standing, he angled his hips away from her and grabbed the bag from the bartender. “Sorry. Wish I could stay, but duty calls.”
Roman tossed two twenties on the bar and turned to leave, but Cheri touched his arm to stop him. “Wait.”
He turned and saw her push a napkin toward him as she smiled. Taking it, he glanced at it and saw her name and her room number 515. He couldn’t say Cheri didn’t make the effort until the bitter end.
“See you later, Cheri.”
“I hope so, Roman.”
As he walked back through the lobby toward the elevator, he silently thanked her for helping him take his mind off the woman who waited upstairs. Cheri had successfully distracted him at least for a little while and helped him remember that he needed to push down whatever he was beginning to feel for Kate and forget it.
Forever.
It was the only thing he could do. She didn’t need any more problems in her life. She had enough to deal with right now, and he couldn’t offer her or any other woman what she deserved.
When he reached the second floor, he checked out the exits on each end of the hallway and the stairwell just in case they needed to get the hell out of there in a hurry. No one odd o
r suspicious looking lurked near their hotel room. In fact, he saw no one at all after leaving the bar.
Satisfied they hadn’t been found out yet, he returned to the room to find Kate sound asleep on the queen size bed wearing the white robe he’d seen hanging on the back of the bathroom door when he went in there. She lay on her side with her left leg peeking out from under the robe, the tan skin a stark contrast to the pristine whiteness of the fabric. Just seeing her wearing it brought back the memory of how sexy she’d looked in that tub with too few bubbles to cover her.
Christ, he didn’t want to think about how her body looked all wet and slick as she lay there.
Staring at her as she slept, he tried to think of anything but how much he’d wanted her. He needed something to distract him or he’d spend the rest of the day thinking about Kate and how much he now wanted to climb into bed with her and run his hands over her body to see if what he’d thought as he looked at her in the tub had been true.
Focus, man. This is a job. Not to mention that the woman is a huge hassle. She argues with you constantly. Who needs that shit in their life? Think about Cheri. She wouldn’t argue. She’d never argue. Cheri is all about giving men what they want. Think about her and eat your damn food. Forget about that woman in the bed right there.
This was the second time he’d had to give himself a talking to about Kate. He sat down in the chair and pulled the coffee table toward him to make a table so he could eat his hamburger and fries. Anything to keep focused on the job at hand.
Looking over toward her, he thought about waking her so she could eat her cheeseburger but decided against it. She needed sleep more than she needed a greasy burger at that moment.
And he needed to stay away from her and focus on his job.
He kept telling himself that as he turned on the TV and tried to get into some basketball game he found on ESPN College. He hated basketball, so it didn’t exactly help to keep his mind off the woman who lay fast asleep just a few feet away.
The hamburger and fries tasted like something that Bayou Motel might serve up for its guests, surprisingly. Roman ate his meal because it had been nearly a day since he had any food, but for the amount they charged, he’d expected better than a greasy beef patty on a stale bun and soggy fries.
