by Alexis Gold
They all shook hands, the Senator and his wife left just as Denise was hurrying toward them, but she wasn't fast enough, and they left before she could get to them. She stopped beside Roman and Allen, and pouted ferociously.
"I can't believe she left without saying goodbye!" Denise whined. The men turned to look at her, all of them with scarcely hidden distaste.
"I can't believe you left her side for a single minute," Roman said, almost under his breath to her while the other two men walked away.
Denise watched them leaving and frowned. "Well, Carmen said she thought I sat in something, because there was a stain on the back of my dress and she just knew everyone would notice it. She said I should go to the restroom to see if I could wash it off. I looked and looked and couldn't find anything, and by the time I gave up on it and came back out here, they were gone!"
Roman hid a chuckle behind his champagne glass as he lifted it to his mouth for another drink, realizing that Carmen had only said it to escape Denise, and Denise just didn't understand that at all.
"Perhaps you could attend to your other guests now. Look, isn't that your friend Amanda over there looking at us? Why don't you go talk to her?" He turned and grabbed a bottle of champagne, and then headed downstairs to the belly of the boat to the Master Stateroom. It encompassed a large area, almost from the middle of the boat, to the outside edge of it, and was nothing short of regal.
He needed to get away from the crowd upstairs. It was becoming loud and boisterous, and he had no interest in it. He didn't know many of the people, and he wasn't in the mood for Denise's efforts to outshine everyone and be adored by all of them.
He settled himself on the bed and began drinking champagne right from the bottle, foregoing the crystal flute he left sitting on the bedside table. It had been a night of success, he felt, showing the boat to Edward and Carmen. They seemed to love it, although he could see that they, like him, were quietly reserved people when it came to shiny expensive things being shown to them.
They withheld their truest thoughts on all of it, but enjoyed looking at it. He felt that as long as Denise left them alone, there was a good chance that the couple would buy the boat.
He chuckled to himself over the rapport between Jonathon and Edward. It was a stroke of luck that they hit it off as well as they had. He hoped that their shared love of the sea and their service to their country would be enough of a sway that the sale would go through. More than that, he was genuinely pleased to see the two men becoming friends. They had a lot in common, and it's always good to have a deep connection with others like that.
Roman finished off the bottle and closed his eyes, letting all the bubbles go to his head. He knew it couldn't have been long, but he wasn't sure of the time when he heard a soft noise and opened his eyes, looking around. He was shocked to see Denise's friend Amanda standing beside the bed in nothing but some miniscule underwear. Her body was bare and her smile was wide as she crawled onto the bed and straddled Roman.
"I saw you come down here and thought you would want some company,” she purred, leaning down toward him. He stared up at her in shock. She had dark brown curly hair and blue eyes. Her skin was olive toned and her body was extremely fit. She bent down to him and grasped his hands, pulling them to her small breasts, covering the soft curves and hard nipples, as she planted her mouth firmly over his.
He was stunned for a moment as she kissed him passionately, amazed that his hands were placed over her breasts, and that she was astride him. He turned his head away from hers, pulling from her kiss and gasped, "What are you doing?"
She began to gyrate her hips over his, slipping her hand down to massage his crotch. "I'm just here to have a little fun with you, Roman. I've wanted you for a long time, and here we are, sneaking away from a boring party, and there's this bedroom right here... handy, isn't it?" She grinned at him and tried to kiss him again as he pulled his hands from her breasts and tried to reach for her hand which was working hard to stimulate him.
"You can't do this! Get off of me!" he snapped at her, his shock turning to frustration.
She unzipped his pants and curled her fingers around his body, manipulating it to make him hard. "Sure we can! It's okay. I know you and Denise have an open relationship. She certainly makes good use of that, so there's no reason that you shouldn't as well." Her eyes grew wide and she tried to kiss him again as he angled his hand to pull hers from his crotch.
Her words stopped him short and he looked at her in horror. "We do not have an open relationship!" he spoke, aghast.
She laughed at him and planted her mouth on his once more, kissing him hard as she stroked him and her eyes grew wide. "Roman! You're huge!" she grinned, wrapping her arm behind his neck and holding herself close to him.
He'd had enough. He pushed hard and rolled her off him, but her legs and arm were wrapped tight around him, and she wound up underneath him, clinging to him.
"Amanda," he raised his voice as he tried to pull away from her, "we do not have an open marriage, and I am not interested in sleeping with you! Now let go!" He pushed himself away from her again and she reluctantly let go, but then climbed up on her knees and reached out to him as he climbed off of the bed.
"Come on, Roman, just because you don't know you have an open marriage doesn't mean it isn't that way. She's screwing around, so you might as well do it too. Come play with me!" she begged him, moving toward the edge of the bed where he stood. "Come have a good time. It's a party! We're supposed to have a good time. What kind of a host are you anyway, leaving me wanting you like this? I'm not looking for a relationship, Roman, I just want to rock your world once or twice." She grinned at him as he turned and stared at her.
"What do you mean she's having an open relationship?" He stared at her in disbelief.
She laughed at him. "Oh, come on! You must know. She has tons of affairs! Come on! Come have one with me." She reached her arms out to him and he stepped back away from her.
"Get your clothes on and get off this boat. Now." He spoke in a low and commanding tone, narrowing his eyes at her. Then he turned and walked out of the room and went up to the bridge, where Jonathon was sitting with a plate of food and a tumbler of whiskey.
The party seemed to have died down some, and Denise was running around talking to everyone. He bade the good Captain farewell and told him he would talk with him soon. He warned him that there may be people below deck, and Jonathon said he'd double check it when the party was over.
Roman slipped off the boat unnoticed and headed for the house, his mind whirring in consternation. Thoughts of Amanda's words and their cold meaning crept through his mind. He knew that he had no room to be angry with her; he'd slept with another woman and as a result, was now a father, but in all the years he had been married, it had only happened once. The way that Amanda spoke, it sounded as if it was a regular occurrence for Denise. If it was true, the thought made him sick. She hadn't so much as touched him in any intimate fashion in ages, yet it seemed that she was willing to sleep with other men.
He wondered at all of it. How many other men? When was she with them? How could she be regularly unfaithful to him like that and ignore their own marriage bed? He thought about how she had turned so cold to him and moved into her own bedroom, and wondered if that was when she had begun cheating on him.
He almost had himself worked into a traumatic state by the time he got home, when he realized that Amanda was probably lying just to get into bed with him. He was often the subject of feminine desire for many women, but he hadn't had an experience like the one he'd had with Amanda, not since he'd been married.
He was fairly ruffled when he went into the house. He showered and went to bed. He let his thoughts go to Emma, and just in doing that, all the worry and stress of his day washed away, and he fell into thinking about her and how their life would be together as father and daughter.
Chapter Four
Three days after the party, a new week had started and Allen had been talki
ng with Edward and Carmen. They wanted to see the boat again, and Edward was keen to visit Jonathon. Allen walked into Roman's office and sat at his desk to talk with him about another trip to the boat with the Senator.
"Allen, you've done great work with him and I appreciate it. I think if you continue to help him the way you are, he may very well buy that boat from us. I do want you to know, though, that Denise is headstrong about spending time with Edward and Carmen as well. She's bent on being Carmen's new best friend," Roman told him with a sorry sigh.
Allen glowered slightly. "I know. They left the party because Carmen was so annoyed with Denise."
Roman nodded. "Yeah, I figured that. I think you should know that Denise is planning to have a dinner on the boat with them. You aren't the only one contacting them. She's been hard after them to meet up with us again, and we're going to have to work with her to make it happen."
Allen bit his lip and shook his head. "That's why..." he said softly, as if he was realizing something.
Roman tilted his head and looked at the man before him curiously. "That's why what?"
Allen looked up at him. "That's why they have been torn between seeing the boat again and waiting on it. I think Edward is the one who is bent on getting to the boat, but Carmen is delaying their visit because she doesn't like Denise. I don't think she wants to see her again."
Roman leaned back in his chair and sighed. "She better not ruin this for us." He rubbed his forefinger over his lip thoughtfully. "Listen, let's do this. Plan a lunch on the boat for Edward, Carmen, Jonathon and us, and have all of the details ready to go. Tell Edward that we're going to have a meeting here at the office and ask him to bring Carmen.
“Don’t tell him that it's on the boat until the morning of the lunch. Then we say that we have moved the meeting to the boat at the last minute. Then maybe we could have him there with his wife and my wife won't find out about it in time to join us."
Allen sat up straight and clapped his hands together. "Perfect! I'll get right on that." He left Roman's office, and Roman hoped that his plan would work. He called Janine in and she sat down in front of him to talk with him.
"I wanted to ask you how things are going with Cami? Did you find a place for her? Is she getting taken care of?"
He had been texting Cami now and then, and he had talked to her on the phone once since she was in his office. He was trying to navigate the waters of reformed friendship with a woman who was his lover and consequently the mother of his child, and it was awkward at best for him.
Janine grinned. "I did find a place for them; they're moving in this week to a condo and I got her a nice car and some pieces of furniture that she didn't already have. I put an appointment in your calendar to go with her tomorrow to open bank accounts, and I have your accountant taking care of all of her bills."
Roman nodded and smiled at her. "You're the best, Janine. I really appreciate it. Thank you."
Janine stood and walked to the door, then turned and looked at him. "You are a lucky man to have Cami and Emma in your life, however they are in your life," she said and winked as she walked out. He knew it was true, and he felt a warm happiness spread through him just thinking about them.
The next day he picked Cami and Emma up from their hotel and took them to the bank. He opened checking and savings accounts for them both, as well as some investment deposit accounts, adding a healthy amount of funds to all of them.
Cami was quiet and relieved. She felt as though he didn't need to do as much as he was doing, and she had told him so. He absolutely wouldn't take no for an answer, and it was honestly a great weight lifted from her. She agreed to it, and was truly grateful for everything he had done for them.
They would be moving into their new home the next day, and she was excited for that.
She was anxious to have all of the transition between Los Angeles and San Francisco finished soon, as it was beginning to wear on her. She could tell that it was wearing on Emma as well. Everything around them seemed like it was constantly changing and unfamiliar, and she wanted a stable environment for Emma.
They finished at the bank and Cami asked Roman to come up to the room at her hotel so he could feed Emma. He jumped at the offer, anxious to help with his daughter, and a half hour later, they were walking into Cami's room at the hotel.
He looked around at her room, pleased. "I see Janine had you moved into one of the suites here. This is nice. I'm glad you're in a bigger place. I couldn't stand to think of the two of you in the smaller rooms for an extended stay." He walked from room to room. It was essentially an upscale apartment, by all rights. She went to the kitchen and pulled a small bag of breast milk from the freezer, and began to warm it up. "I like it here. It was really nice of you to help us with this suite, but I am ready to be in my own place again." She laughed and shook her head. "I'll miss the maid service, though. It's nice not having to do the sheets and towels."
She winked at him over her shoulder and for a moment, his heart turned over in his chest. The light in her eyes and the glow of all her inner happiness warmed him so much when he was with her. It was like a night and day difference from the world he was so used to, every day.
He did his best to keep thoughts of his time with her out of his mind, thoughts of their intimacy, the feel of her arms around him, her lips pressed to his, and her body connected to his. Those thoughts had to be pushed away. So did the feelings that bubbled up in him when he spent too much time looking at her beautiful face or listening to her soft sweet voice and her lilting laugh.
He walked over to the sofa and sat down with Emma, who smiled at him and patted his face with her little hands. Cami brought him a blanket and helped him situate his daughter in his arms. Emma was excited to be fed and wiggled quite a bit as he lifted her bottle to her mouth. She took to it hungrily and they stared at each other as she ate.
He could not take his eyes from her, loving her beautiful face and incredible sweetness. She drank quickly at first and Cami tried to help Roman slow her down, but she was anxious to eat, and her appetite didn't slow until she reached the end of the bottle.
Cami took it from him and said, "She needs to be burped now. I'll go get you a burping cloth." She got up from the sofa to take the bottle in the kitchen and Roman picked Emma up and laid her on his chest, rubbing and patting her back.
Just as Cami was coming back into the room, Emma threw up all over Roman's shirt, and though Cami rushed to take the baby from him and hand him a towel, it was too late by the time she got to him.
He groaned a little and laughed, and Cami bit her lip. "I'm so sorry!" she said, taking Emma and cleaning her up. "Sometimes she eats too fast and then it comes back up. Poor thing." She got the baby situated and nursed her from her breast just a few minutes longer, as Roman looked on, watching them incredulously.
"It's okay. I'm not worried about it." He shrugged, and he tried to clean it up. Emma fell asleep at her mother's breast, and Cami put her down in her little bed and then walked over to Roman, who was failing at cleaning his shirt.
"Come on,” she said, waving him into the kitchen. "You'll need to get that rinsed quickly."
He followed her into the kitchen. She dampened a cloth and handed it to him, but he only seemed to make it worse as he rubbed away at it, and finally Cami shook her head and said, "Take your shirt off. I'll wash it for you. Come on, before it dries."
He paused a moment, looking up at her from the mess all over the front of him, and hesitated before unbuttoning his shirt and pulling it off. She looked away from him as she filled the sink with warm water and soap. She took his shirt and washed it out for him as he stood there watching her.
Roman was unaccustomed to having anyone take care of him, and it was refreshing to him. Standing near her was more than refreshing; it was warming, almost as if he was standing in sunlight on a cool day.
She soaped up his shirt well and then wiped her hands on a towel and looked down at the shirt sitting in the water in the sink. "
We'll let it soak for a few minutes, just to be sure. Then I'll rinse it out and blow dry it for you."
He nodded and she turned to look up at him. Her thoughts vanished from her mind as she stood beside him, looking at him standing there with no shirt on, so close to her. His brown eyes were holding hers in a steady gaze, and her heart flipped over as the scent of him took her back to their time on the boat together.
"Thank you for spending this time with me and letting me help you take care of her," he said quietly, watching her. His eyes were focused on hers, but it felt like he was being pulled into her, and he didn't want the feeling to stop.
"Sure," she answered in a similar soft tone. "You were wonderful with her." She smiled a little at him and his eyes dropped to her lips. His heart began to speed up and he could feel blood rushing through him.
"I'm really sorry about your shirt, though,” she almost whispered, feeling the air between them warming considerably.