Chapter Seven

When I finally come back to myself, he"s on top of me, his heart thundering against my chest. He"s a hot, sweaty mess. So am I. Every muscle in my body is sore. It feels so fucking good.

"Hi," I whisper when he pushes himself up in his arms to look down at me.

"You good?" he asks quietly.

"Yeah." I nod. "I"m good." Better than good, actually. I"m amazing. I"ve never felt better. He"s been inside me once, and I think I may already be ruined for anyone else.

His gaze travels carefully across my face, scrutinizing and studying me. Once he"s sure I"m okay, he smiles like a little boy who just got everything he wanted for Christmas. His smile is so tender and gentle that I"m not prepared for the warmth it sends shooting through me.

"I knew you"d go wild, but I didn"t know you"d be so fucking hot for me, baby," he says, leaning down to kiss me. His lips are soft against mine, a quick brush. He touches his forehead to mine and then pushes himself upright, groaning when he slips out of me, still half hard.

I blush at his words, not sure how to respond. I"m not sure what that warm feeling in my chest is all about. I"m not sure I like the way it feels when his big body no longer covers mine, either.

God. What is he doing to me?

I lay there for a protracted moment, just watching him as he grabs a washcloth out of the drawer beside the sink and then turns the hot water on. He"s still completely nude, and moves like that fact doesn"t bother him in the least. He"s confident and sexy. My claw marks are all over his back and shoulders. Heat unfurls low in my belly at the sight of them, but there"s no way I can go another round right now. I"m not even sure I can stand up.

He crosses back to me and uses the washcloth to clean me up.

I blush again at the intimate act.

Once I"m more or less clean, Roman holds a hand out to me and pulls me into a seated position. He surprises me when he steps up in front of me and wraps his arms around me. I"m unsure what I expected, but it"s not this gentleness or sweetness. He seems relaxed and content as he holds me. I don"t think I"ve ever seen him so still. I find myself liking the way being in his arms feels, maybe a little too much.

I push away, gently untangling myself from him.

He looks down at me, but if he sees the fear suddenly whispering through me, he doesn"t comment on it. "You hungry?" he asks instead.

"Starving." My stomach growls loudly as if to punctuate my words.

He laughs. The sound rolls over me. It"s deep and dark, and I realize that I"ve never heard him really laugh before. When I"ve spent time around him, he was always quiet, always observing and studying. In all the time I"ve known him, I can"t remember us ever having an actual conversation either. We spoke in brief snippets or through Tahani, rarely to one another directly. Yet, I"m fairly certain he probably remembers every word I"ve ever spoken around him.

I contemplate this revelation as he yanks his sweats up over his legs, washes his hands, and then strolls to the fridge and pulls it open to look inside. I"m not sure why he never talked to me. Was he avoiding me, or did he simply prefer to stand back and observe?

"You know we"ve never had a real conversation the entire time I"ve known you?" I ask him as he pulls ingredients out and places them on the counter beside him.

He shoots me a questioning look over his shoulder.

"Are you always quiet, or were you avoiding me?" I ask point-blank.

He tenses for a moment, and I think he isn"t going to answer me, but then he relaxes and goes back to prowling through the fridge. "I was avoiding you," he mutters before depositing a handful of vegetables on the counter and pushing the fridge door closed with his foot. "You"re my daughter"s best friend. I didn"t think it was smart to spend any more time with you than was necessary when I already wanted to do fucked up shit to that sexy little body of yours."

Oh.

Well, okay then.

I clear my throat. Shift around.

"Like what?" I try to ask casually, but the question comes out sounding breathless.

His eyes meet mine. The intensity in those hazel depths sends my heart into overdrive. "I know you can still feel me inside you, baby. You really need me to tell you?"

"I…" I shrug instead of finishing that sentence.

"Didn"t think so," he says before turning back to the food.

He works quickly, pulling bowls, plates, and pans out of the cabinets. Once he"s gotten everything he needs, he starts chopping vegetables for omelets.

I watch him work for several minutes before hopping down to help. My legs feel like rubber beneath me as I lean over to grab my shirt out of the floor. His hand comes down on my bare ass, making me jump. Before I can even blink, he"s stolen my shirt from me.

"I was going to put that on," I say, glaring at him when he tosses it on top of the fridge so I can"t reach it.

"No, you weren"t," he mutters before picking me up and plopping me right back down on the island. "Sit your sexy ass down and stay there."

"Don"t tell me what to do, Roman."

"Then don"t be a pain in the ass, Mila."

I growl at him, annoyed.

He cocks a brow at me.

"I was going to help you cook," I mumble.

"I appreciate that, baby, but you need to stay off that foot, and you need food before I fuck you again." He leans forward, pressing his lips to my cheek, right beside my ear. "And if I see that ass in the air again, I"m going to fuck you from behind whether you"re starving or not. So sit there and behave." He nips at my ear before turning around and walking back to the other side of the kitchen.

I glare at him, trying to think of a retort as another wave of heat blasts through me, but nothing comes to mind. So I sit there and watch him make me breakfast instead. He looks like he knows what he"s doing. Within minutes, the kitchen smells amazing, and my stomach is rumbling.

"There"s no way I can eat all this," I say when he sets an omelet before me. Piled high with veggies and cheese, it"s almost the same size as the plate it"s on.

He just smiles at me before pulling two bottles of water out of the fridge and setting them on the island beside me. Then he grabs his plate, which has just as much food as mine, and leans back against the counter across from me.

"Eat," he says.

"Can I have my shirt?"

He shakes his head instead of answering me.

I huff in annoyance, pretend I don"t see him smirk, and dig into my food. It"s so good my mouth waters. Before I know it, I"ve eaten half of my omelet, and I"m pretty sure I am actually going to finish the rest of it.

"You can cook," I say.

"Surprised?"

Am I surprised?

"No, not really." To be honest, I don"t think anything about him would surprise me. He"s a mystery to me, yet I feel like I already know everything I need to know about him. I don"t, though. Not really.

"Do you like your job?" I blurt out.

He stops eating, his fork hovering near his mouth. He narrows his eyes at me.

"I"m just curious," I say defensively.

"I"m not talking to you about my job, Mila." He speaks quietly, but his hard-ass-cop tone leaves no room for confusion. He"s dead serious.

"Why not?" I push, though I"m not really sure why. I know he works for the ATF and that he spends a lot of time dealing with gangs and cartel members, trying to stop them from getting their hands on guns. I assume he"s good at his job. And I know he doesn"t even talk with Tahani about what he does. She"s told me before that every time she asks him about it, he tells her he"s not telling her anything about his job and then changes the subject. I expect him to do the exact same thing to me.

"Because there are some fucked up people in the world," he says instead, tension pouring from him. "And I work with some of the worst of them. You don"t need to know anything about that shit. It"s dark, and it"s ugly. It"s exactly the opposite of what you are and has no place in your life. Ever."

I swallow hard, caught off guard by the intensity in his voice. I want to pry for more, but he suddenly seems different. He seems to know a little bit too much about the dark, the ugly, and bad people. That makes me ache for him. I can"t imagine doing what he does, dealing with criminals all the time.

"You think I"m the opposite of dark and ugly, huh?" I say instead. It"s the only thing I can think of to lighten the mood.

"You"re fucking beautiful, Mila." He shakes his head, his expression serious, far more serious than the teasing question demands. "I"ve thought so since the day I met you, and you"ve only gotten more beautiful since."

His emphatic response sends another little bolt of warmth through me.

Two weeks, Mila,I remind myself. He"s only yours for two weeks.

That reminder makes me feel almost…sad. I shy away from the emotion and the little niggling doubt that comes with it. There"s no way I"m going there. This is just a fling. Two weeks of amazing sex, and then we go our separate ways.

"Why"d you leave your ex?" he asks a few minutes later, watching me eat my omelet. His is already gone. He finished it in about two seconds flat. I don"t know how he has a body like that if he always eats so much.

"He asked me to move in with him until I found my own place but conveniently forgot to mention that he was fucking my boss. I walked in on them the day I was supposed to move in." I set my fork aside, my appetite gone. "I guess he wasn"t as good with waiting for me to be ready as he said he was."

"Jesus," he says.

"Yeah."

"He"s a fucking idiot. You"re worth the wait, Mila."

"I don"t even know what I was waiting for, honestly." I stare down at my plate, trying to figure that one out. I didn"t have a strong attachment to my virginity or anything. I just…I don"t know. It just never seemed right with Damien for some reason. I guess now I know why, right?

"Deep down, you knew he didn"t deserve that part of you," Roman says.

"Maybe," I sigh, veering back on track. "My boss fired me on the spot."

"What the fuck?" he growls, sounding as pissed about that as I am.

"It"s all kind of funny, though."

"What is?" He takes my plate from me and sets it to the side before tipping my face up to his. He looks at me like he really wants to know, so I tell him.

"I miss my job more than I miss Damien. As soon as I caught them together, I walked away. It didn"t even hurt. So maybe he did me a favor," I say, watching the play of emotion across his face. "Hell, maybe they both did me a favor. I"m pretty sure if you"re meant to be with someone, you"re supposed to miss them when they aren"t in your life anymore. I"m angry, but I don"t miss him. That tells me that maybe it wasn"t him I wanted. Maybe all I wanted was the stability he offered."

"What do you mean?"

"With my dad being the way he is, I didn"t have a whole lot of stability growing up. I had a roof over my head. I even had food in the fridge if I did the shopping. Not even he could blow through the money my mom"s parents had. But affection? Safety? Someone who cared? I never had much of that. Damien was safe and predictable, and there was never any drama between us. I thought that was what I wanted, something completely different than how I grew up. But now? Well, now I can"t help but wonder why I was with him in the first place."

Actually, I"m not sure that"s entirely true. But the truth is too messed up to admit, so I"ve carefully avoided thinking about it too closely. I was with Damien for all the wrong reasons, and every single one of them leads back to the man standing in front of me right now. But that"s a little bit more profound than I can safely deal with right now. So I"m simply not dealing.

"Jesus," Roman whispers. He seems speechless, like I said something he didn"t expect. His hands actually shake against my skin.

That unnerves me for a thousand reasons I don"t want to think about. So I don"t think about them.

Instead, I lean forward and press my lips to his.