by K. M. Scott
When he finished, he tossed the wrappers in the bag and tried to busy himself with flipping through the channels to find something—anything—interesting to watch. He watched some early morning television with its shows created to amuse and dull the senses, but this morning, it wasn’t accomplishing either goal.
He’d gotten some sleep on the plane to New Orleans, so he wasn’t tired yet, and until Kate awoke and they could talk about who she thought would want to kill her boss and his client, he couldn’t even start on the case.
That left sitting there in that chair next to the bed and doing everything humanly possible not to let his gaze drift over toward Kate as she slept.
As he started to give himself the third pep talk since they got to the hotel room, Kate began thrashing around, kicking her feet and flailing her arms at the air like she had when she first saw him back at the other motel. He watched as her face grew dark, and then she sat up and began to scream in a way that made his blood run cold.
He hurried over to her side and sat down next to her on the bed. Wrapping his arms around her shoulders, he tried to calm her. “Kate, it’s okay. You’re okay. I’m right here.”
She turned to look at him, her eyes wide with pure fear. “Where am I? What happened?”
“We’re at the Allton in the French Quarter. We came here after we left the motel you were at. You’re okay. You just had a nightmare.”
Kate took a deep breath and looked around the hotel room. “The Allton? And you’re Roman Madson, the guy who’s supposed to protect me, right?”
He smiled at her mistake with his last name. Of course she would have assumed that was his real name since he’d used it to pay for the room. Just one of his aliases he used on the job.
“Yes, I’m Roman. You don’t have to be afraid. I’m here and you’re safe.”
She stared up at him for a long moment and then nodded. “You went to go get food, right? My cheeseburger? How long have I been asleep?”
“Not long. I just got back from getting the food. Your cheeseburger and fries are over there on the table.”
Looking around him toward where he pointed, she searched for the burger and then covered her face with her hands. “This is all a mess. Someone wants me dead. I know it. They killed my boss and his client, and now they’re out there wanting to kill me. Jonas told me to not trust the cops, so all I have is you to keep me safe, and I don’t even know you. If it wasn’t for the desk clerk saying your last name, I wouldn’t even know that since you wouldn’t tell me.”
The way she said that sounded so sad that he couldn’t lie to her about his name anymore, even though it shouldn’t have meant anything to her and he would be breaking one of his cardinal rules telling her his real last name. None of that mattered as he listened to her sound so unhappy.
“I gave the desk clerk an alias. Madson isn’t my real last name.”
Kate dropped her hands into her lap and turned to face him. Frowning, she asked, “Will you tell me what it is, at least to make me feel like I know something about the person who just showed up at the Bayou Motel claiming to want to help me?”
Something about seeing her frown after hearing her sound so dejected made his chest hurt. For as difficult as she’d been from practically the minute they met, Kate Sheridan wasn’t a bad person. She wasn’t even that difficult, if he was being honest.
She was just a person forced into the middle of something she had no business being involved in. Roman couldn’t even say for sure he believed someone wanted to kill her, but he wanted to protect her, nonetheless.
So even though it broke the number one rule he lived by, he told her the truth about his last name. “Gregory. My name is Roman Gregory.”
Her eyes grew wide, like the very fact that he’d told her surprised her. “Is that the truth? Or are you lying to me just to shut me up?”
Chuckling, he had a feeling more than one person in her life had lied just to shut her up or at least to stop her from asking so many questions. Something about her need to be so inquisitive began to charm him, though.
“No, I’m not lying, and I doubt it would make you shut up anyway. My name is Roman Gregory.”
The smile he received in return for telling her his real name lit up her beautiful face. “Okay. Well, thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
The happiness quickly faded from her expression, and she frowned again. “You know, I’m trying to be tough and strong, but I can’t pretend not to be terrified that someone may be out there who wants to kill me like they killed Jonas and Samuel,” she said sadly. “I don’t know what to do. I’m just a legal assistant, or at least I was. Now I’m wanted by the police, who I can’t trust, and I might have a target on my back. God, my life’s a mess.”
“Don’t think about that now. I’m here, and I won’t let anyone hurt you. I promise, Kate.”
She tried to force a smile, but she couldn’t. He understood. He knew what being afraid felt like, and he didn’t blame her for not being able to pretend to be happy.
“I hope you aren’t making promises you can’t keep.”
With a sigh, she lay back down onto the bed and curled up next to him. He knew he should move back to the chair. Better to let her just be.
But he didn’t.
He sat back against the padded headboard and didn’t push her away when she rolled over and rested her head on his chest. Then he watched as she fell back to sleep all curled up against him. He couldn’t help think that beneath all that sharpness she showed, behind the endless stream of questions and bravado she put on, she was as sweet as she was beautiful.
For Roman, his job with Project Artemis forced him to come to terms with his desire to use the skills he’d learned in the Army for something other than fighting. He’d always leaned toward protecting those who needed help, but he’d made sure to keep the women he helped at arm’s length, never letting them in as he did his job. He knew himself well enough to know that decision ensured no one got hurt because of him losing focus.
People died when you lost focus. He knew that better than most.
But Kate roused a protectiveness in him he thought he’d pushed so far down inside that he’d never feel it again. He’d never looked at a client like he looked at her. She made him want more than just to help her.
Shaking his head, he looked down at where her head lay on his chest and thought he didn’t know if he could let himself feel that again. He didn’t know if he could let himself feel anything for a woman again.
Whatever happened, he’d keep his promise, though. He wouldn’t let anyone hurt her if he had anything to say about it.
Chapter Seven
Opening her eyes, Kate looked around the dimly lit room for any sign of Roman but didn’t see him there with her. She stretched the sleep from her limbs and worked on waking up. As she slowly came around from what felt like the deepest nap she’d ever taken, she remembered bits and pieces of the last time she saw him.
He’d been next to her on the bed. Or at least she thought so. Had she been dreaming?
It didn’t feel like a dream, but she couldn’t tell. Hell, she couldn’t be sure of anything at that moment other than she felt more rested than she had in years and the white robe she wore was very possibly the most comfortable thing she’d had against her skin in her entire life.
She ran her hands down the front of the robe as she tried to make out whether she’d been dreaming or not when she thought Roman had held her as she fell asleep. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed she’d dreamed the whole thing.
Damn.
It had been months since she fell asleep in a man’s arms. She missed that feeling of being held by a strong man as she drifted off with nothing to worry about because she knew he was there by her side.
Now all she had were worries. And even worse, she didn’t even have anyone to hold her, except in her dreams.
Her mind drifted back to the feeling of Roman next to her and she remembered
him saying he would protect her. The guy really had that protector thing down pat. Not that she didn’t like it. She did. Kate had never met a man like him. He walked into her life out of nowhere and in less than a day she’d come to find that she wanted him around.
Maybe it was just because her life had turned into a shitstorm. She’d never been the type of woman who needed a man. It just wasn’t who she was. She’d been single for long enough that a man didn’t really figure into her life.
That’s why this feeling of wanting Roman around confused her. He certainly didn’t fit the mold most of the men she’d been with fit into. Sure, he had that whole Alpha male vibe she loved. Any man who couldn’t hold his own in the world turned her off instantly.
Even more, any man who couldn’t handle her immediately became someone she didn’t want to be with. Kate had often been called difficult. She wore that insult like a badge of honor. For her entire life, people had bemoaned how eager she seemed to fight every point tooth and nail. It wasn’t that she loved to fight everyone. She never wanted it to be her against the world. It just always turned out like that.
If they could see inside her heart, they’d learn that she wanted nothing more than to find someone to lean on who would be her knight in shining armor. That she’d love to have someone standing beside her who could make the fight even the tiniest bit easier.
Or even better, someone who would fight for her so she didn’t have to do it alone all the time.
Shaking her head, she let that fantasy recede to the back of her mind where it belonged. Roman was merely a man doing his job. While that may have been honorable, it didn’t mean he could ever be that man she dreamed of one day finding and settling down with for a happily ever after.
Then she remembered how right before she fell asleep in his arms he told her his last name. Such a tiny detail but it meant so much to her that he’d finally relented and given her that.
An honorable Alpha male who cared about making her happy. Maybe it hadn’t all been a dream after all.
Whatever Roman Gregory was, she needed to figure out what to do now that the police were after her. Kate grabbed the remote from the nightstand and flipped through the channels as a tiny voice in her brain told her not to. But the inquisitive side of her overruled everything else and she continued to search for the local station to see if they’d found Jonas’s killer.
She knew the likelihood of that came in somewhere around impossible, but hope sprang eternal with her in moments like this. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, none of the local stations had any news on.
Maybe it was for the best. She’d probably just freak out again when she saw her face positioned next to some perky newswoman’s head.
The sound of the door opening made her freeze in place, but then Roman walked in and her entire body relaxed. He stopped at the dresser and slid his large gold watch off his wrist before placing it and all the change in his pockets next to the TV. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a folded napkin and gave it a quick glance before he crumpled it up into a ball and tossed it into the small wastebasket next to him. Finally, he pulled his backpack off and set it down on the floor.
“Feeling better?”
“Yeah. I don’t think I’ve felt this rested in years. How long was I asleep?”
With a chuckle, he said, “A while. You must have been tired.”
“What time is it?”
“Three in the morning.”
Stunned that she’d slept for so long, she swung her feet off the bed and adjusted her robe so she didn’t flash him as she stood up. “Three? Oh my God! I slept for nearly twenty-four hours. Why did you let me sleep for so long?”
A slow smile inched up the corners of his mouth and made him far too sexy for someone she had just been fantasizing about. “I didn’t see any reason to wake you up. You looked so content there, so I let you go.”
God. How could she be angry at a man who let her sleep uninterrupted for nearly a whole day? Then she realized that meant that the cops hadn’t found them yet either.
“Any news on the manhunt for me?” she asked, choosing to be flippant to hide how terrified being wanted by the police made her.
Roman shook his head. “Nothing yet.”
Why had he returned to saying little again? Kate had thought they had a sort of breakthrough once he told her his last name. Now she wondered if it had only meant something to her.
“Did you get that cheeseburger from the restaurant?” she asked, feeling awkward suddenly.
He pointed toward the coffee table where a white bag with grease stains sat. “I got you a cheeseburger and fries, but they must be ice cold and hard as rocks by now. Do you want me to go down to the restaurant and get you something hot?”
“No, that’s okay. I bet they’re not too bad. I’m not really hungry anyway.”
The truth was she didn’t want to be alone in that hotel room anymore.
“Okay. Let me know if you change your mind. I’m going to grab a shower, and then I want to sit down with you and talk about what needs to happen next.”
Then he turned and walked into the bathroom without giving her a chance to ask about exactly what he meant. What were the choices as to what should happen next? Did one of them involve finding a way to make the police understand she had nothing to do with her boss’s murder and his client’s while at the same time protecting her from those very same police?
Because if not, she didn’t know what they’d be talking about because those were the only things she worried about.
The sound of her stomach grumbling reminded her that she really did want something to eat, so she padded across the floor and grabbed the bag of food. Reaching in, she touched the French fries and cringed.
Ice cold, just as he’d said. Well, beggars couldn’t be choosers, and how bad could cold, greasy French fries be?
Two bites into one and she knew the answer. Very bad. Disgusting bad.
Had he brought her a drink? She scanned the hotel room but saw no cans of soda.
Maybe the room had a little refrigerator with some water. She walked over to the dresser that held the TV and opened the doors on the bottom. Inside, she found a refrigerator.
“Please let there be even a single bottle of water. Just one will do the job,” she said as she pulled open the door.
Before her eyes, she saw two bottles on the center shelf. Never before had she been so thrilled at the sight of a bottle of water. She grabbed one and quickly twisted off the top before drinking nearly the entire thing.
“Thank God for water.”
Her need for a drink satisfied, she tossed the bag of gross food in the garbage and picked up Roman’s watch. Heavy in the palm of her hand and real gold, it fit him to a T. She positioned it next to her arm and was impressed by how it dwarfed her wrist. Then she noticed the numbers on the face were Roman numerals.
“Just Roman who likes Roman numerals.”
Something about the fact that he chose that watch impressed her.
She set it back on the dresser as her gaze dropped to the wastebasket on the floor near her feet. Next to the bag of cold food sat that white napkin he’d taken out of his pocket and looked at for a moment before throwing it away. Her curiosity got the better of her, and she reached down to pick it up.
A dab of ketchup had dropped onto it, along with a piece of yellow American cheese stuck to it, which made it disgusting, but she still lifted it out of the garbage. It looked like any other cocktail napkin in the world, but turning it over, she saw writing on it.
Cheri Room 515
She didn’t know why, but that made a pain form in the pit of her stomach. Had he been with this Cheri person in her hotel room three floors up all day while she slept in this room alone?
Tossing the napkin back into the garbage, she mumbled, “Nice job protecting me, Roman. How nice that you could fit in Cheri in Room 515.”
Why did she feel anything about that at all? What right did she have to be jealous? She
’d only known him for a forty-eight hours, and nearly twenty-four of that had been filled with her sleeping, so she actually only knew him for a day.
A single day.
One day and she hated the idea that he had spent time with some woman up on the fifth floor.
Kate knew what spent time meant. That made her even more jealous. Had he been upstairs having sex with a woman while she slept?
So what if he had? She had no claims on him. None at all. But how long had he known this Cheri woman? Had he called her to come over once Kate fell asleep? Or had she been someone he met downstairs at the restaurant when he went down to get her that cheeseburger?
That meant he knew her even less than he knew Kate, yet he’d slept with her?
Kate’s mind raced as jealousy began to eat her up. Jealousy she felt childish even admitting to. But jealousy nonetheless.
Consumed by it, she walked over to the bathroom door and threw it open. Then she stormed into the steam filled room and stared at the closed shower curtain as a million things to say ran through her mind.
“Roman, I hope I’m not inconveniencing you in any way.”
She listened for him to answer but heard nothing but the sound of the shower running. Had he heard what she said?
“Roman, if you have something better to do, you don’t have to stay here in this hotel room with me.”
Still no answer.
Then the white shower curtain slowly opened and he stuck his head out. Water dripped off his black hair and down over his face and neck, and he stared out at her with a look of complete confusion all over his face.
“What’s wrong, Kate? Did someone come to the door? Did something happen?”
“No. I just wanted to tell you that if you have other things you’d rather be doing, don’t feel like you have to stay here with me.”
Roman ran his hand over his face to wipe away the water and the shower curtain fell away to reveal his entire upper body. Kate tried not to stare, but she couldn’t tear her gaze from his muscular chest and washboard abs that led to the defined V that angled in toward…
