by Crespo, Nina
“I like that.” She looped her arms around his neck. “Can we start with that and figure out the rest as we go?”
“Sounds good to me.”
Rome kissed her, finally satisfying some of the hunger she’d battled all night. For him.
He led her through an entryway that opened to his bedroom. A small bed with a simple black spread that looked awfully small for two sat in the middle of it. Nothing more.
As he started unbuttoning her shirt, she couldn’t take her gaze away from the bed, and not for sexy, passionate reasons.
“Rome…” His lips sweeping down her throat as he parted her shirt wider almost distracted her. “Can I add one more little thing to our list of conditions?”
“What?”
“You mentioned that you were planning on buying bedroom furniture. Can that happen sooner rather than later?”
He chuckled. “Yeah, as wild as you are when we have sex, we probably do need a bigger bed.”
“What? Me?” She laughed as he playfully nuzzled and kissed her neck. “You’re not exactly tame, either. I still have marks on my butt from the last time we were together.”
He kissed her on the lips. “Tell me what kind of bed you want, and I’ll take care of it.”
“Okay, but right now…” She unbuttoned his shirt and kissed his chest. The warmth emanating from him heightened the need for them to be skin to skin. “I’d like you to focus on taking care of me.”
He unfastened her jeans. “I can definitely take care of that, too.”
Chapter Twenty
“We’re going to be late,” Rome called out to Natalie in the kitchen from where he waited in the entryway of his condo.
“I’m almost done. I just need two more minutes.” Natalie sat in a fawn-colored chair at a white kitchen table just next to the island.
The table was one of the many additions to the condo that Rome had decided to splurge on over the past ten days since she’d returned from California. She’d also helped him pick out a new beige-and-navy couch with a side chair, a rug, and new wood coffee table. And he’d invested in a nice, king-sized bed.
Natalie scanned through the last pages in the design concept file for the Gull Beach Boots campaign that Jack had uploaded in the team’s shared cloud collaboration space. The test photos of just the boots had solidified what they already knew. Normally, Gull Beach showcased just the boots in their advertising—no models. After the L.A. office’s blunder, the Gull Beach execs wanted to get back to that, but it wasn’t a good idea. This boot, on its own, became lost in the background. They needed test shots with models. Olivia had a fashion background. They needed more of her insight on this.
Natalie typed notes in a separate doc, outlining her thoughts. She’d share them with Olivia and Jack on Monday. After saving the document, she closed her laptop and stuffed it into her brown leather work tote sitting in an empty chair. She hurried to Rome, who waited by the front door holding a blanket and a green canvas grocery bag.
Natalie slipped on a pair of baby blue tennis shoes that went with her matching top and jeans. “What’s in the bag?”
Grinning, he nudged her out the door. “You’ll see.”
As they exited the high-rise, he stuffed his keys into the front pocket of his jeans, then took her hand.
Date night had officially begun.
When Rome had suggested seeing a movie on his rare Friday night off, at first, she wasn’t sure she could go. Gull Beach Boots was the primary concern, but she and her team still had other campaigns to complete. But when frustrations started to surface within the group, it was clear they all needed a break. She’d insisted that everyone leave at five thirty. That had left plenty of time for her to make the seven o’clock movie with Rome.
He held her hand as they walked down the semi-crowded street lined with eateries and specialty shops to the large patch of grass in front of the big screen overlooking the Potomac.
They found a spot in the midst of the crowd, spread out the blanket, and sat down.
The date night theme had attracted mostly couples, but a few had brought young children.
Natalie scooted closer to Rome. “What’s playing?”
“The reboot of The Mummy. I haven’t seen it yet. Have you?”
“It’s been forever since I’ve been to the movies.”
On their Friday girls’ nights, she, Alexa, and Cori used to watch movies or a series on HBO or Netflix, but they hadn’t gotten together since the Bash almost three weeks ago. She really needed to call them, especially Alexa. She was leaving for Seattle soon…but Natalie wasn’t ready to tell her best friend goodbye. Sadness crept in. If only Alexa would change her mind.
“Hey.” Rome kissed her temple. “No thinking about work. Here.” He handed her the bag. “This should keep you preoccupied.”
She looked inside at the bottled water, bags of miniature candy bars, and boxes of jelly beans.
Natalie couldn’t stop a laugh. “Junk food?”
He winked. “Can’t watch a movie without it.”
The movie started, and she leaned against the arm he propped behind her and fed him a few jelly beans. Soon she was lost in the twists and turns of the two-hour film. At the end, the lead character’s poignant sacrifice wasn’t a surprise, but the scene still tugged at her heartstrings.
The credits rolled on the screen.
She and Rome stuffed their empty bottles and candy packages back into the bag, then stood, joining the dispersing crowd.
Rome was limping slightly as they walked back to the high-rise.
She took his hand. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good. My muscles are tight from sitting for too long. I just need to stretch my legs.”
Were both of his legs bothering him or just his right one? After a double shift at the club last week, he’d come to her house, favoring his left leg. She’d given him some extra-strength pain reliever. She’d also noticed some prescription pills for pain in the cabinet in his bathroom, but the bottle remained full, as if he didn’t take them.
Later that night in the bathroom, dressed in her gray “Naughty, Nice, I tried” sleep shirt, she washed her face using one of the two white sinks in the counter.
Rome walked through the open door.
As sexy as he looked in his boxer briefs, her attention was drawn to the lines creasing his forehead and the grim set of his mouth.
He opened the bathroom cabinet on the wall next to the other sink and reached for the prescription bottle. At the last minute, he grabbed the over-the-counter pills instead, took two, and downed them with scoops of water from the faucet. The tops of the deep scars grooved into his hip above the waistband of his underwear, along with the ones on his back, stood out even more in the bright light.
If she asked him if he was okay, he’d just tell her yes. Helplessness and compassion drove Natalie to wrap her arms around him from behind. A part of her wanted to know how he’d gotten his scars, but asking questions just to satisfy her own knowledge gaps about him wouldn’t benefit Rome. What could she do to help him with the pain now? She kissed just below his shoulder, where scars peppered his skin.
Rome laid his hand over hers. “You know you can ask me.”
She laid her other hand on his taut stomach. “About what?”
His gaze held hers in the mirror. “My scars.”
…
Rome interlinked his fingers with hers on his chest. In his mind, he could easily catalogue what stood out to her: the long scar on his arm and the ones on his hip where shrapnel had sliced into him. The scattering of puckered skin caused by superheated fragments that had burrowed into his back. The railroad of scars on his leg caused by a combination of the explosion and a knee operation.
The entire time they’d been together, she hadn’t asked about them, but every now and then, her gaze would linger on him when his clothes were off and her expression would become curious and pensive. Or, like a minute ago, she’d kiss the scars on his back, on
e by one, not conveying pity, but as if she wanted to soothe him and let him know that she cared about him. Especially when he was hurting, like now. But maybe it was too soon to tell her the truth about him. Maybe she’d leave him once she’d heard what he’d done or, more accurately, failed to do.
Natalie rested her forehead on his back, hiding her eyes from him. “You’ll tell me someday. Not tonight.”
If that’s all she wanted, he’d give that to her, but he needed to see her face. He didn’t want her pity or for her to be afraid to know more about him. Rome released her hand and faced her. Tension gathered in his gut as he waited until she met his gaze, not sure what he’d see in her eyes. “Are you sure?”
Inches separated them, but the rise and fall of their breathing was in sync.
She cupped his face and kissed him. “Yes. Like I said, someday, but not tonight. You’re in pain, and that’s what concerns me right now.” Natalie released him and took his hand. “Come to bed. I’m going to give you a massage.”
He should have refused, but the prospect of her loosening his tight, hurting muscles was too good to pass up. “Are you sure?”
As they went into the adjoining bedroom, her gaze strayed to her work tote lying on the floor near the nightstand on her side of the bed. She’d obviously planned to work before she went to sleep.
“I’m sure. You just lay on your stomach and let me perform some magic.”
He did as he was told.
She grabbed a medium-sized container from her overnight bag and joined him on the bed.
As she rubbed her hands together, the faint scent of coconut filled the air.
Natalie started with his left calf, rubbing and pressing into the muscle, then slowly worked her way up the back of his thigh.
It felt so good. When his right knee or hip bothered him, he tended to compensate with his left, fatiguing that side of his body. He groaned as tension released from his muscles. “That feels so good. Where did you learn to do this?”
“I went to a basic massage workshop with a friend in college. He was considering becoming a therapist.”
He probably just wanted a reason to put his hands on her. “I bet he was.”
“Sshh. No talking. Just enjoy it.”
When Natalie finished with that side, she worked her way to his right, adjusting the pressure when she got close to the back of his knee.
Rome relaxed and sank into the mattress. She’d promised him magic, and she was delivering it as she kneaded away the strain and stress. At some point, he must have dozed off, because suddenly the lights were off and she was spooned against him.
He held Natalie a little tighter. How had he gotten so lucky to have found her?
Chapter Twenty-One
“I prefer to do it first thing in the morning.” Natalie rearranged the pillows resting behind her on the wood headboard of Rome’s new king-sized bed. Before she sat back against them, she pulled the hem of his white pullover shirt that she was wearing farther down her thighs.
Rome lay beside her, stretched out on his side, shirtless, in a pair of faded jeans. He gave her a sexy grin. “I’m flexible. I’ll do it all day long.”
“We are talking about what time of the day we purge our email accounts, right?”
His grin widened. “Oh? Is that what we’re talking about?”
“You know it is.” She feigned annoyance as he swooped in for a kiss that held desire and something that had developed between them since they’d met four weeks ago. It was elusive but yet still tangible enough to make her gravitate toward him, yearning for his kisses and caresses, or just one of his slow, sexy smiles, any time he walked into a room.
As Rome lay on top of her, he deepened the kiss, and passion heated up quickly, as it often did between them. That morning, they’d actually made it to the shower, gotten dressed, and were in the process of making the bed when a playful swat to his butt had led to a chase that had landed them tangled up in the snowy white sheets.
Now, it was the afternoon, and as much as she wanted an entire lazy Saturday with him, she had work to do—a forgotten budget report that she wanted to get out of the way. After that, she could turn her attention to him and the best thing happening tomorrow. Betsy would come home. The budget report wouldn’t take long, but she’d never get to it if she kept kissing Rome.
She nudged him back. “I thought you said you had laundry to do?”
“Yeah. Guess I better get on that.” He snuck in another kiss. “Especially since you’re wearing my last clean shirt. Any chance I can get it back?”
“As in, right this minute?”
Humor and lust gleamed in his eyes. “No time like the present. Need some help taking it off?” He reached for the hem of the shirt.
Laughing, she swatted his hand away. “I’ll bring it to you after I’m fully dressed and you’re in the laundry room.”
His face fell. “I don’t see the fairness in that at all.”
“Life isn’t always fair, mister.”
“Tell me about it.” Chuckling, he rolled his legs to her side of the bed.
His foot knocked over the shoebox containing a pair of the Gull Beach men’s boots she and her team were responsible for helping introduce to the world. Or at least a slice of the world, once they nailed the right aesthetic for the campaign.
He picked one up. “So, this is what’s eating up all of my time with you?”
“Let me guess.” She sat up, looking over his shoulder as he examined the boot. “You hate it.”
“No, actually, I’d wear it.”
“You would?”
“Yeah, it has some of the outer qualities of the type of tactical boots I used to wear sometimes as a security specialist. Sturdy, decent tread on the sole, and it looks waterproof, but its appearance is more casual. Almost like the ones I like to run around in now. They’re kind of in-between.”
“Like a hybrid?”
“Yeah, exactly.”
A casual boot with an edge… Suddenly, an idea popped into her mind. “Would you try them on?”
He checked the side of the box. “I think I can squeeze into them. Do I have to put on socks?”
“No.”
He put them on and loosely laced them up. “Here you go.” He stood, held his arms out to his side, and gave her a three-sixty view of the boots.
But her eyes were also drawn to him.
On Rome, the boots were transformed into something eye-catching, not lost in the background. A seamless display of full-on masculinity and sex appeal. Or was that just her libido talking? She grabbed her phone. “Would you mind if I take a few pictures?”
“Of the boot? Sure, if it helps you.”
“It does.” She snapped photos of the boots. “But I also need some of you, too. Photos of someone modeling the boots will help support an idea I have about where we should go with the campaign.
“Hold on.” He propped his hands on his hips. “I’m not a model.”
“I know.” She snapped photos of him and the boot. “We’re working on finding models now, but these photos will help me give the team a bit more direction. Do me a favor? Step back so I can get a really good shot. Perfect.”
A man who easily owned his space and was naturally confident in his own skin—that was what he looked like through the lens.
“Those photos are just to help you. They’re not going up anywhere in public. Are they?”
As he came closer to the bed, she couldn’t resist snapping a few more. “I promise. They’re only for me.”
“You’re right. It is only for you.” As he unfastened his jeans, his grin translated into hot as hell through the lens. “Like what you see?
“Very much. I really like the way you look in those boots, but I love the way you look wearing nothing at all a lot better.”
He took off the boots. Then stripped off his jeans.
She set her phone on the nightstand. As she unbuttoned the shirt she was wearing and slipped it off, she held his gaze.
Rome’s nostrils flared with a look of sexual hunger as he crawled onto the bed and followed her down to the mattress.
The brush of his chest over her breasts, the graze of his fingers as he pushed down her bikinis, his slow, deep kiss—they held her suspended in longing and anticipation.
She pressed herself against him. Please don’t let me ever grow tired of kissing him…holding him.
With each slow drift of his tongue over hers, every worry, every care evaporated, transformed into pure want.
When he sheathed himself and glided inside of her, his gaze was so intense and self-assured, she just wanted to stay in that perfect moment with him filling her, loving her. No. Not love. What they shared didn’t have forever feelings attached to it. But the way he held and caressed her, studied her face to know what pleased her and made her want to hold on to him that much tighter felt like so much more.
A seed of panic started to sprout, warring with forever feelings. She’d fallen for Rome. Honest-to-goodness fallen for him. When had it happened?
He thrust deeper, filling her, driving home a sudden fear of a future and feelings for Rome she could no longer define.
Rome’s gaze narrowed as if he sensed she was about to look away. “No, stay with me.” As he grabbed hold of her thighs, urging her to wrap her legs around him, he rolled his hips. “Don’t look away.”
Every glide in had her clutching his shoulders and wrapping her legs higher on his waist. Completely losing herself in him. And as scary as it was to lose control, she couldn’t help herself. She couldn’t stop.
The uncomfortable feeling stayed with her the rest of the day and lasted until she snapped awake for no good reason at four in the morning.
Natalie slipped out of Rome’s arms and bed and crept to the bathroom.
She flipped on the light and glanced over her shoulder at him asleep on his back. A full morning beard covered his cheeks, but underneath the tough masculine appeal was an alluring innocence. He shifted his legs, and the sheet rode lower, exposing the scar on his hip. He really was gorgeous. Did he know that?