Bishop's Pawn

by Suzanne Halliday

  All but running out of the room, she darted into the bathroom and leaned on the sink. She had to think. Get her head straight before…

  “What’s wrong?”

  Two strong hands landed on her shoulders and started a slow, firm massage. Tension rushed from her body. She turned slowly and moved straight into his arms.

  “I wish you weren’t part of this.”

  “By this, I’m assuming you mean Liam.”

  Nodding her head, she hid her face in his chest. He smelled so good, and she liked the way it made her feel to cuddle against him.

  She felt his long, deep inhale and exhale under her cheek. He had her firmly around the waist, and his other hand gently smoothed her hair in long strokes.

  “I’m overwhelmed.” Her voice sounded small, frightened and childlike. Not what she intended, but some things couldn’t be helped.

  His arm tightened. The rest came out in a pained groan. “And Matty likes you better than me.”

  He chuckled. She felt his amusement and heard it rumble from deep in his chest. “You have nothing to worry about, Carina. He adores you. The rest? It’s a guy thing. A boy needs a man in his life.”

  She hugged him around his waist and put her chin on his chest. He cocked his head and looked down at her, expectantly. He knew she had something to say.

  “Are you that man or are you just standing in until the other one can swoop in?”

  “Nobody is swooping in, and I think you know the answer. He’s a great kid. You’ve done a fantastic job.”

  She didn’t say anything right away and ended up being glad for the hesitation when he added, “I’d be honored to help you with him, Kelly. But you’re the decider where Matthew is concerned.”

  Damn straight she was! Snickering, she ended the hug and jostled him with her elbow as she moved away. “Ha! The little shit. He’s playing with you. You do know that, right? Making you call him Matthew. The apple didn’t fall far.”

  He enjoyed her tease and let her know by swatting her butt as she sidled by. “Smart ass.”

  “My mouth or my butt?”

  He grabbed her so fast she yelped and crashed into him with a thud. Then he claimed her mouth with his lips and tongue while rubbing her bottom.

  “Kiki,” a little voice giggled a minute into what ended up being a voracious kiss. “Ewww.”

  Pushing off with her hands on his chest, she tried to pass off the fact that she’d been giving the big man a throat exam with her tongue.

  “It’s little boys wearing dinner in their hair and marker ink on their fingers who are ‘ewww.’ Run and get your jammies and I’ll put smelly bubbles in the tub.”

  “Hey! Roman. Ya’ wanna take a bath with me? I’ve got boats and dinosaurs to play with.”

  “Sounds awesome big guy, but Kelly is frowning, see?” He was laughing at her! “And besides, I’ve got to make a phone call. Maybe next time.”

  She glared at his answer. Matty squealed. “Okay,” and off he ran. Roman took her by the neck as soon as he left and pulled her face to his.

  “Hey! Carina,” he teased using Matty’s exact delivery. “Ya’ wanna take a bath with me? I’ve got something you can play with.”

  If he planned on kissing her he was in for disappointment because she laughed so hard there was a real danger of her peeing herself.

  “Oh my god,” she whined playfully and with loads of mock exasperation. “You’re impossible. Go make your stupid call and let me get Matty ready for bed.”

  “I’m still hungry,” he growled.

  “Yeah? Well, you ate half a cow for dinner. Cut me a break.”

  “I wasn’t talking about food.”

  “Oh.” She swallowed and took a deep breath. “Is this where I say I’m hungry too?”

  Roman’s knowing leer and sexy eyes almost reduced her to a puddle. “So I figured, Carina. Your eyes have been singeing my dick all night with heat. A little curious, hmm?”

  There were questions she wanted to ask. Like, how does that whole oral thing work? After all, he’s quite a handful, and her mouth didn’t seem like much of a match against an anaconda. And what was the deal with ball fondling? Is it an extra or part of the ground game?

  “You make me think dirty thoughts,” she laughed. “It’s all your fault. Now be good and go away.”’

  “I like this bossy thing you’ve got going on. We might need to unleash some of that under the covers.”

  “Roman,” she bit out. Crossing her arms, she gave him the look. “I’m serious. Go. Away.”

  His shit eating, very pleased with his bad self grin was way too cute, and she needed to get him out of the small space before she did something stupid. Popping his sexy balloon was a good place to start.

  “Oh, and by the way. You’re on the sofa tonight.” With a very pointed look, she ended with one word, “Matty.”

  Yep. That totally threw him. A stunned, disbelieving expression shot onto his face. Her announcement took just enough of his alpha away to give her five seconds of upper hand.

  “Now, out. Shoo!” she demanded with a hearty shove. “Don’t you have a call to make?”

  He was in the hallway, still gaping at her with his mouth open, when Matty dashed down the hallway waving his pajamas.

  “Ready,” he squealed.

  Kelly shut the door on Roman’s astonished expression, blowing a kiss at the last second. Matty was chattering on as he ditched his clothes. She sat on the edge of the tub and adjusted the water temperature as a cloud of strawberry scented bubbles grew bigger and bigger.

  She glanced at the closed bathroom door and choked off a giggle remembering his face. Did he really think she wasn’t going to use him like a jungle gym later? Sheesh. Men!

  Roman juggled the phone between his shoulder and chin as he rifled through the ready-bag he always kept stashed in his vehicle. Good thing too, because he had a thing about fresh clothes and man-grooming. Another of his quirks; the result of having spent way too much time at the other end of the spectrum.

  He’d grabbed the bag from the truck after being dismissed by a girl younger than him. How the hell did she do that? Wield the upper hand with such ease? He suspected she had no idea of the power at her command. Teaching her a few ways to get maximum benefit and pleasure out of her drill sergeant ways could be hella’ fun.

  “And of course the motherfucker rallied,” he heard Liam grumble through the phone.

  The raw anger in his friend’s voice didn’t bode well for the rest of the conversation. The guy was already on fire and Roman hadn’t managed to tell him much.

  “Is Rhi there? May I speak to her for a minute?”

  Dead silence greeted his request. And then Liam barked, “Are you trying to fucking handle me?”

  The outraged, stupefied tone made Roman grimace. And sigh. And rub the back of his neck. “Yes. Now shut up and put her on.”

  “I should fire your ass,” Liam complained.

  “Yeah, yeah. Tiny violins. Put the female on the phone, Liam, and nobody gets hurt.”

  It was just the right amount of levity, enough to get a chuckle from the man on the other end of the call.

  “Suck my balls, Bishop.”

  Two seconds later he heard Rhiann’s soft voice come over the wires. “He’s being a handful tonight,” she chortled as soon as she got on. Liam was griping about something in the background. Roman smiled. “Say it again Mr. Ashforth, and you’ll go to bed with no dessert.”

  More griping and a few of Rhi’s eye-rolling sighs later she came back and huffed. “You owe me. He hates being outmaneuvered.”

  “Sorry,” Roman quipped. “No time for deft handling I’m afraid. We’ve got an issue,” he told her with a good deal of hesitation.

  “Is it serious?”

  He growled. “Fuck, yeah.”

  “Hang on.”

  He went back to pulling shit from his bag while halfway listening to Rhiann lower the fiancée hammer on Liam by telling him to scram. Beat it. Be gone. I
magining his boss mumbling and scowling as she dismissed him was pretty funny.

  Hmmm. Isn’t that what Kelly just did to you, dumbass?

  “Okay. I gave him a toy to amuse himself with. It’s your dime, Roman. Tell me what’s up.”

  He yanked on the ridiculously long and stretched out phone cord and walked to a spot where he could peer down the hallway. The bathroom door was still closed. Good.

  For a few seconds, he took the phone away from his ear and pressed it to his forehead while a jumble of thoughts bounced around in his mind. Liam was going to freak when he learned about Matty. Plus, telling him that he was going to end up with no say whatsoever in how things went from here was not going to be easy. Which is exactly why he wanted to talk to Rhi.

  “You might want to sit down,” he told her. “Okay. Here goes. We’re going to do this like a band-aid. Quickly. Please wait five seconds to react.”

  “Understood,” she murmured.

  He took a deep breath. “Kelly has a brother.” Rhiann’s shocked gasp didn’t surprise him. “He’s a full brother, Rhi. Not a half.”

  Five.

  Four.

  Three

  Two.

  One.

  “Please tell me you’re kidding. You’re just messing with me, right? Roman? Oh my god. Oh my god. Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

  “Yes. Liam has a half-brother too. And Rhi? Brace yourself. He’s only four years old.”

  “Ho-ly shit.”

  “There’s something else. Something that um, Liam isn’t going to like. Don’t get mad, please.”

  Rhiann knew him well enough to pick up on the seriousness in his tone.

  “What did you do?”

  “Um, shit. Rhi, I need you to stay calm, okay? I mean look, I’m freaking out big time, so that should tell you a lot.”

  “I can’t imagine what you could possibly do that warrants such a serious tone.”

  Fuck. She was in for a surprise.

  “Oh god. This is harder than I thought.” He cleared his throat. “The girl is, um…what I mean to say is, Kelly? Yeah. She’s uh…my responsibility.”

  “What?”

  He sighed.

  Rhi asked, “Does she know this?”

  “Actually,” he drawled, “here’s the thing. Kelly James? She makes her own decisions thank you very much, and I’m pretty fucking sure if she heard me claim that she’s mine, I’d be wearing her handprint on the side of my head.”

  “You work fast, Mr. Bishop.”

  He laughed. “Fuck, Rhi. I’d like to think I was half that smooth but the truth is, she did the claiming and just like with you and Liam, I never stood a chance.”

  “This is fantastic,” she giggled. “I can’t wait to meet this girl. And the boy? What’s his name? Is he part of the deal too?”

  “He’s most definitely part of the deal. Kelly has raised him by herself. And in case you cling to doubts, his name is Matthew Liam James.”

  “No fucking way! For real? Oh my lord.”

  “So here’s my question to you, Ms. Baron-Wilde. Do you want me to tell him or would you rather do the honors?”

  “He’s going to…”

  “Yep. He is.”

  The bathroom door cracked open, and the sweet scent of strawberry hung in the air.

  “Look, I have to go.”

  “You dick! Is that your way of dumping this on me?” Rhiann was having a good laugh.

  “Bingo. I’ll owe you one.”

  “Fuck off.”

  Roman grinned from ear-to-ear

  “Wait,” she yelped. “Don’t hang up yet. I want a selfie.”

  “Wouldn’t be able to send it. No signal.” That sounded reasonable, right?

  Rhiann’s amused laughter rang out. “Nice try. Take the damn picture, Roman. At some point, maybe at the airport, whatever…you’ll have a signal. Fair warning. If you show up here before I get a look at my new sister and brother-in-law, I will kick your Semper Fi butt from here to kingdom come. Got it?”

  Rhiann collected selfies the way others gathered smiles. “Yes, ma’am,” he chuckled. “Consider it done.”

  The warmth of the fire felt good on his front as Roman leaned his hands on the mantle. After Matty had surrendered the tub, there was just enough hot water leftover for him to take the quickest shower on record. He thought of the big tiled stall in his Tribeca loft. The one connected to a tankless water heater that gave him all the hot water he could ever need. Certainly enough for one kid, a small female and him.

  That’s right. He was thinking in terms of moving Kelly and Matty into his place. Just to start. It was big enough for a small family, and yes, he knew what using that word meant.

  After Matty’s bath and his shower, the little boy re-appeared in Roman’s face, all scrubbed, brushed and tucked neatly into a banging pair of dinosaur pajamas. He grabbed his hand, dragged him over to the kitchen table, and then made him sit at the head of the table. The dad spot.

  Roman exchanged awkward glances with Kelly when a chair needed relocating for this honor.

  Roman had no choice but to do as instructed when young master Matthew Liam James assigned the seating. So he lowered into the sacred spot while Matty beamed.

  Then it was cookies and milk. And more whiplash conversation. Matty was smart. Real smart. He knew a lot about a lot and was eager to share. Roman was half a plate of cookies dunked into ice-cold milk in, when all of a sudden the kid crowed, “Kik! Roman likes goat milk too.”

  Ah. He thought it tasted somewhat familiar. He assumed fresh dairy from local cows but learning it was goat milk didn’t faze him at all. Hell, he’d consumed his fair share and then some during his time in the middle east.

  He caught Kelly’s tiny nod of approval when he didn’t miss a beat in his takedown of the cookie plate. It was easy to say nothing and stuff his face because Matty was full of information that his little kid motor mouth shared without thinking.

  That’s how he found out that Kelly had never worn a dress. A fact she appeared mortified to hear spoken out loud.

  He offered up a blow-by-blow account of Kelly building the goat shed in the backyard. Part of this tale involved pointing out a small jar on a shelf by the window. It was half full of pennies. Each time Kiki said a bad word, a penny was added to the jar. When it reached the top, she had to take him to the ice cream store.

  More surprising than finding out Kelly was a prodigious fancier of swear words was learning where this ice cream parlor was. In a town called Fairley…where they went every two weeks to check their mailbox and do other stuff.

  So much was starting to make sense. Not only had he been looking for the wrong alias of an alias, it turned out her only interactions in the little town where they lived were to take people’s money over a game of pool at Shorty’s, use the gas station, and from time to time some of the other small town businesses along the main street.

  But it was Matty’s detailed lying out of their grand scheme to leave the woods that left him reeling. Not only did they have every intention of moving, but Kiki was also researching schools and looking at small apartments on Craig’s List. This thing was further along than he was comfortable with.

  Kelly, for her part, said almost nothing as the boy rambled on—only occasionally stepping in with gentle reminders about manners and the right way to pronounce words.

  Cookies and milk were followed by story time and for Matty that meant four or five stories. At the boy’s insistence, Roman joined them in his little bedroom, sitting on the floor and leaning against the bed, listening to Kelly’s exuberant storytelling.

  The whole thing reeked of family. No wonder he was mentally moving the two into his home.

  He left them after a high five to Matty and a promise to still be there in the morning. It did things to his emotions to see her stretched out on the boy’s bed, cradling him in her arms as she kissed his face and hummed a tune to help him drift off.

  And now, here he was, hugging
the fireplace and waiting somewhat impatiently for her to come to him. They needed a serious discussion about the sleeping arrangements. She had another thing coming for suggesting he cool his jets on the sofa.

  Arms slid around his middle from behind. She held on tight and shimmied closer until there wasn’t any air between them. Roman covered her small hands with his. He could make out her cheek pressed against his back. Twice, she turned her face and kissed his torso.

  When she peeked around his shoulder at the fire, he shifted to give her a better view.

  “The heater is on low, so it’s okay for this to die down.”

  She turned him physically and stared up into his face. “Are you okay?” she whispered.

  It was killing him that she kept taking on the caretaking role. Believing that as the man, that was his job, it left him feeling out-of-sorts that Kelly was so naturally nurturing. Especially when that nurturing was directed at him. It was easier to hide from his emotions when he was in charge.

  He cupped her face in his big hands. “You are uncommonly wonderful Ms. James.”

  She beamed at his words and offered her lips. The kiss was short and sweet. Just like her.

  Putting a finger to her lips, she murmured softly, “Shh,” and took his hand. Both of them were only wearing socks, which made tiptoeing silently past Matty’s door easier. He caught the faint sound of classical music as they passed.

  At her room, she opened the door, flicked on the overhead light, led him inside and then pushed him against the door she noiselessly closed. He expected a kiss at the very least, but she leaned into him and whispered, “No noise. He can hear everything. The walls are paper thin. Nod if you understand.”

  Roman nodded.

  Pushing off of him, she hurried to the bed and waved him over. Without words, she gestured with her hands until he finally understood what she wanted.

  In tandem, they lifted the mattress carefully off the creaky bed and lay it on the floor. All the pillows and blankets followed and got hurled into a pile.

  An amusing pantomime ensued as each gesture was mined for maximum entertainment value. Before long, they were bouncing around the room doing absurdly exaggerated slapstick moves for the sheer purpose of trying to make each other laugh.