Summer Heat (The Storm Inside #5)

by Alexis Anne

  “Shit!” Marie’s hand flew to her mouth. “What do we do?”

  My eyes flew to Roman’s looking for an answer. If Jake was here then Eve was with him. We’d brought Roman’s car so there was no outward sign that I was also here. We could duck in the next room and hide.

  Or we could face the firing squad.

  I really didn’t know which I preferred.

  “You really love me?” Facing the angry older sister had to be one of the truest tests of love. If he survived this.

  “Forever,” he said without a moment’s hesitation.

  “Then I guess we face my sister like a real couple.”

  He was at my side in a flash, kissing me lightly as he wrapped his arm comfortingly around my waist.

  “See?” Greg said. “Fucking adorable. I love you guys.”

  “Sorry to barge in but we were on our way home from dinner and saw you had company—” Eve froze mid-step as she pushed into the kitchen in a beautiful blue cocktail dress. “June! What are you doing here?” And then she looked at the man standing beside me. “Who’s this?”

  Yep. She recognized him

  In the matter of a second her eyes rounded, her mouth fell open, and she jerked backward, right into Jake, who placed his hands on her shoulders. “Careful, darlin’. Let them explain before you explode.”

  Her entire face turned red but she didn’t move.

  I took my chance while I had it. “Eve, Jake, I’d like to introduce you to Roman . . . my boyfriend.”

  Roman stepped forward and offered his hand. Eve stood frozen staring at him with her mouth hanging open the whole time, but Jake reached around her and shook his hand. “I’m June’s brother-in-law, Jake. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

  Eve made a strangled sound in the back of her throat but still didn’t move or form a real word—just noises.

  Roman took it in stride. Actually he did better than that. He surprised the hell out of me by returning to my side and tucking me against him. “It’s nice to finally meet you, too. June loves you both very much and I don’t want our relationship to come between any of you.” Then he kissed my temple and squeezed my hip.

  “Oh . . . my . . . God . . . ” Eve finally said. “You . . . and you . . . and oh my God.” She turned into Jake and buried her face in his chest.

  He wrapped her up. “I think what she meant to say was that she’s in shock because this was so unexpected but also because you two are clearly very happy.” His voice rose up an octave at the end like he was asking a question.

  Even nodded and held a thumb up.

  “Yes. I translated properly. She’s going to need a few minutes to figure out how she feels but I can assure you she’s not armed.”

  She must have punched him in the stomach because he grunted and she glared up at him.

  “Maybe you two should move to the living room,” Marie offered. “We’ll stay in here until she’s ready.”

  “Good idea.” Jake led my sister out of the door they’d just entered.

  We all stood around staring at each other.

  “Well I didn’t expect the night to turn out like this,” Marie whispered.

  “That makes all of us,” I whispered back.

  But Greg didn’t say anything.

  “Or did we?” I had a sinking suspicion there might have been some planning involved in this unexpected turn of events.

  Greg swirled his wine. “I may have, possibly, suggested to Jake that if they wanted to swing by after their dinner they might run into a family controversy.”

  “That’s not your decision!” Marie hissed.

  I stared up at Roman. “Did you have anything to do with this?”

  He gave me a look that left no question as to how he felt. “Hell no. I would never go behind your back like your overbearing big brothers.”

  “Exactly,” Greg said. “We are her big brothers and we decided you two were taking too damn long.”

  “It’s not your choice!” We both yelled at Greg who had the good sense to look ashamed.

  “I’m sorry. Okay? I am. I just don’t agree with all this hiding and sneaking around.” He took Marie’s hand and squeezed. “You need to make the most of the time that you have together. Don’t waste it.”

  His heart was in the right place. I could never fault him for that. “I appreciate your concern. But next time maybe talk to me first?”

  Because while I fully understood why he saw our situation differently, he wasn’t the one who had to deal with Eve.

  He scratched his chin with his thumb looking a little lost. “Fuck. I just realized Natalie’s going to hate me when she does this. There’s no way I won’t scare the piss out of whatever guy she brings home.”

  Marie patted his shoulder. “We know, honey. We know.”

  “You didn’t scare the piss out of Roman.” I smiled up at the man standing calmly beside me. “You two became friends.”

  “It takes a rare man,” Greg replied.

  Roman was rare indeed. And he was all mine. “You have no idea.”

  There were a hundred unasked questions in his eyes as he held my gaze. Mostly he was just confident and steady, providing me an anchor in the storm that the evening was becoming.

  Before I could ask, Jake cleared his throat in the doorway. “I think she’s ready.”

  “How bad is it?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “I actually think this might go better than you think.”

  Well that made no sense, but then again nothing had made much sense since Roman came back into my life. I might as well throw caution to the wind and see what happened next.

  With Roman’s hand locked inside mine in a death grip, we all moved from the kitchen to the cozy living room by the fireplace. Roman took control of the room by going directly to Eve, offering me the coffee table as a chair while he kneeled down on the plush rug.

  “Before we say anything,” he began, “I want you to know that I am in love with June.” My sister looked back and forth between us with wide eyes. “I’ve been in love with her for nearly six years. We didn’t rush into this. Our relationship is real and it’s forever.”

  My heart pounded in my chest and I wished we weren’t in the spotlight so I could throw my arms around his neck and kiss him.

  “Huh,” Eve murmured. Her focus had shifted past us. “And have you been in love with him for that long?”

  I nodded.

  “So this started in college? When Dad and George lost it at Super Regionals . . . you two were together? You were a couple?”

  I nodded again.

  “Oh God.” She looked genuinely pained as she rubbed her temples. “Were you two always like this?” Her gaze dropped to his hand holding mine.

  Had we?

  Roman answered. “Yes. From the moment we met.”

  Eve whimpered, turning her focus to him and narrowing her eyes just like I always expected my big sister to do with the man I eventually brought home. “Tell me what you love about June.”

  My heart kept pounding harder and faster. I was honestly pretty surprised it hadn’t started beating outside of my chest like a cartoon character. Was my sister . . . being understanding? It kind of, possibly, seemed like she was.

  “I love everything about her, even the way she puts her bare feet all over everything.”

  Eve grinned. “It is disgusting. Go on.”

  “It’s like she sees the whole world at once. She sees all the pieces that work together to make something possible, whether it’s her athletes, her family, or me. And because of that she cares so much, which means she worries. I don’t want her to have to worry anymore.”

  “Well that’s sweet. Misguided, but sweet.”

  She turned back to me. “I am so angry right now. I’m hurt, frustrated . . . I’m a lot of things. But I won’t direct any of it at you because I would have to be blind to not see that you two are in love.” She glanced over her shoulder at Jake with a smile. “And I know better than to mess with love.”
I had a feeling he’d been slipping in a few pearls of wisdom since learning Roman was part of my life in some way. I needed to remember to thank him for that. “But we have to talk.” She grew very serious. “Mom and Dad are going to explode and they won’t see the love or think about how it affects you.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Roman said, his hand tightening around mine.

  “It is,” she agreed, “but from their perspective—and trust me on this one, I’ve spent entirely too much of my life overhearing their conversations—they won’t believe that you could possibly love June. Ever. Their first instinct will be that this is an act.”

  Every muscle in his body went taut. “Why would I ever do that?” he gritted out between clenched teeth.

  “To hurt June. To hurt all of us,” she said simply, as if it were the most obvious thing to say.

  Which of course it wasn’t. “That’s disgusting.”

  “I’m sorry, but that’s how they’re going to see things.” She smiled sadly. “At least at first. The most important thing is that you don’t surprise them like you did me.”

  “In our defense it was Greg who did the surprising.” I shot him another look of frustration.

  He shrugged. He really didn’t care because he got the result he wanted. I was talking to Eve and she wasn’t trying to murder Roman.

  “Still, having it thrown at them without any groundwork would be the worst. They’ll see red. Their anger will overtake any reason you may have been able to introduce and Dad will probably throw a chair through a window.”

  Roman raised his eyebrows but he didn’t say anything.

  “Okay wise one, how do you suggest I start the conversation?”

  “Well,” she smiled. “Start with telling them you’re in love. Don’t tell them who and or when or any details. Just let them get used to the idea that you’ve met someone special. After a couple of weeks you can start in with what he does or something sweet he’s said. Mom will eat that stuff up. Dad will appreciate that you’re happy. Once they’ve formed this idea that you’ve met a great guy, then take the leap. They’ll still be angry and unreasonable, but after they cool off they’ll remember all the wonderful things you love about Roman and maybe they’ll give him a chance.”

  Roman was frowning by the end of Eve’s explanation. “Maybe they’ll give me a chance? I love her and she loves me. Why can’t that be enough? Don’t they want June to be happy?”

  “Will you make her happy?” Eve cocked her head to the side, waiting.

  “Of course I will,” he said at the exact same time I said, “I already am.”

  She grinned at us. A real, genuine smile of happiness. “Then be patient. And for the love of God, don’t surprise them.”

  21

  “I ’m exhausted.” And all I could think about was slipping between the sheets with Roman’s arm over my hip and dropping off into a deep sleep.

  He led me half-dazed through my front door and up the stairs. Zoe’s door was still open and she was at her desk. “Hold on.” I poked my head inside. “How are things?”

  She rubbed bleary eyes. “I’m on a roll. I think if I can stay awake another hour I’ll be done. Done!” It was the final book in her new self-published romance trilogy. She’d been holed up in her room for nearly two weeks and her answer was the same every day: I’m on a roll.

  I was a little worried she was going to need help getting outside again. “We won’t disturb you. Good luck.”

  “Have a nice night, you two!” She called a split second before she popped headphones over her ears and forgot all about us.

  Well at least we wouldn’t have to worry about being noisy.

  “Bed,” Roman murmured, guiding me into my room and closed the door. “I want to undress you.”

  So I let him. I was too tired to work the zipper and clasp anyway. Besides, it was so much nicer when he did it. His hands slid along my skin and dropped kisses behind my ear, on my belly button, inside my thighs.

  “Eve is happy for us.”

  He paused, then lifted my leg over his shoulder. “I’m not surprised.” Then he kissed my clit.

  I gasped. “Why?”

  He breathed me in, nuzzling against my sex before resting his cheek against my thigh. “Because I love you so much even your angry big sister could see it. They’ll all see it eventually and you and I,” he stood, taking my face in his hands, “will only have to worry about being in love. Nothing else.”

  I rose up on my toes and kissed him. “So in love.” I grabbed onto his hips. “I’m not tired anymore.”

  “No?”

  “Nope. I don’t think I can sleep with so many thoughts. Perhaps you could find a way to distract me?”

  He looked up thoughtfully. “I might have a trick or two.”

  Yeah he did. But he also still had his clothes on. That simply wouldn’t do. One button, then two slid free between my fingers, and then he was shirtless and lowering me backward onto the bed.

  It hit me. Eve knew. She knew and the world didn’t end. We walked away happy and now we were home. In a minute we’d make love and then drift off to sleep together.

  This was really happening. Some of my worry slipped away. Maybe it wouldn’t be as devastating as I’d made it all up to be in my head. “You really believe it, don’t you?”

  “Believe what?” He unzipped his pants and dropped them to the floor.

  “That they’ll understand.”

  “We’ll never have one big happy family, babe, but I believe we can find peace with each of our families . . . eventually.” He stood sexy and confident at the foot of my bed. “Fuck, you’re so beautiful.”

  I positioned myself to look appealing with my long hair down around my breasts. “And you’re handsome. Get over here.”

  He grabbed a condom from my bathroom then crawled in behind me, pulling my back flush to his front, arranging my hair so that he could kiss my neck. “I don’t want to talk about them anymore.” Then he squeezed my hip on his way to my clit. “I would much rather discuss the way you gasp when I touch you here.”

  He got the exact reaction he was hoping for.

  “Or the way you whimper my name when I nibble you here.” He rolled me toward him and kissed his way across my breast, ending at my nipple.

  “Roman . . . ”

  “Yes. Exactly like that. You know I still remember the first time I heard it?”

  “Do you mean your lessons or our first time together?”

  “I remember them both as clear as a bell, but I meant that first time we made love.”

  I shivered. I loved it when he told me the way he felt at the same time he touched me. It turned me on in every way possible.

  “I waited because I knew,” he kissed his way up to my lips. “I knew I didn’t want to just have sex with you. I needed more.”

  And I gave him more. Somewhere between those first lessons and the night we finally gave in to it all, he’d convinced me that we were more than attraction. He was sneaky like that.

  He rolled on top of me, settling between my legs and resting my thigh on his hip as if we’d done this exact maneuver a million times before. “I want to hear it again, June. Right now.”

  “Roman,” I whispered. “Make love to me.”

  He watched every reaction, listened to every gasp as he entered me slowly. My pleasure was his sole focus and pleasing him was mine.

  How could I have ever thought that this was wrong? Of course Roman and I were going to fall in love. We were too good together.

  His thick cock stretched me inch by inch, each stroke a new level of pleasure that heightened my arousal until he filled me completely.

  He paused, panting and shuddering. “How do you feel?”

  “Good, Roman. So good.”

  “Are you ready for more of me?”

  I pulsed around him. “Always.”

  “Say it.”

  “Faster, Roman.”

  He reared back and slid home once, twice, a third tim
e, each one a careful test of our limits, before he slammed into me with a deep guttural moan of absolute pleasure.

  “Faster.”

  The night had been stressful and I wanted to see Roman let it go. I knew he was holding it all in, afraid that if he showed his feelings it would scare me. Maybe this was a safe space to let some of it out.

  He complied immediately, pounding me into the mattress with abandon. The grunts a turn-on as he lost himself in the moment.

  “Tell me what you want,” I whispered in his ear. I wanted his fantasies.

  He shook his head—which could only mean that he thought what he wanted was too much.

  “Tell me.”

  He slammed into me and rolled his hips. “I want to fuck you so hard that every time you move, you remember that it’s my dick that made you come. Mine. I want to memorize your face when you come around me. And then I want you to open your eyes and look up at me like I just blew your mind.”

  “So do it.”

  His eyes flashed with hunger. “You said you wanted me to make love to you.”

  “Maybe tonight, that’s what making love looks like.”

  He moved down and kissed my breast. “Tell me what you want.” He slid further, his cock moving with him. “Do you want me to make you come with just your nipples? With my mouth between your legs? How do you want me?”

  I always wanted him every way, and ways we hadn’t discovered yet. “Tonight I want to see you let everything go. I need to feel you lose control.”

  “Why?”

  He kept moving south until his head was between my legs and his fingers had replaced his cock.

  I bucked. “Because it tells me that you feel safe with me.” I grabbed a fistful of his hair and guided him to my clit. “It makes me very hot to know that you can let everything go. That I can give you what you need.”

  He looked up. “Hold on, Beautiful. We’re both about to go on a wild ride.” Then he grinned and dropped back between my legs. He very attentively stimulated my clit and folds until I was swollen and needy. It was only then that he spread my legs with his knees and sank back inside me with a sigh.

  Even though it had only been a couple of minutes, and in that time his fingers had pleasured me in many ways, it still took my breath away to be filled all over again. Maybe it was because I was so aroused that I could feel everything this time. Even the shift in the air was too much for my sensitized skin.