A Fare To Remember_ Just Whistle_Driven - Vicki Lewis Thompson [40]
His grin, warm beneath her touch, pooled her insides into melted goo. She yanked her hand away. Despite her threat, the only lethal one in the room was Roman.
“If you kill me,” he warned, “I won’t be able to return to you tonight.”
She rolled her eyes, determined not to show her emotional hand. What fun would that be? “I’ll live.”
“Yes,” he agreed, running a strong, callused finger from her lips, down her neck, to the slightly moist crevice between her breasts. “But without me, what quality of life would you enjoy?”
Despite her ire, she laughed at his unstoppable ego and swatted his hand away. He chuckled and started rummaging through the clothes scattered about the room for his pants, shirt, tie and jacket. He’d find them all. And they’d be impeccably unwrinkled when he did. She wasn’t sure how he managed that feat, but it annoyed the hell out of her.
Lots of stuff about Roman annoyed the hell out of her, even while concurrently thrilling her right down to her curled toes. With his choice television-consulting job that took him to the four corners of the world on a regular rotation, Rachel never knew when he’d show up on her doorstep, his blue eyes rich with desire, the hard muscles in his arms and chest tense with need, his perfect Armani suit and custom-made Dege & Skinner shirts practically begging to be ripped free from his body. That’s how he’d shown up tonight just after midnight—and similarly every night this week. Such regularity was downright weird, but who was she to complain? The sex was great. The conversation witty and quick. Yet now, at nearly five o’clock on a Thursday morning, she found herself once again in the unenviable position of either pretending his inevitable departure didn’t bother her in the least…or confessing that she wished he’d stay and risk looking needy and clingy.
She frowned. She’d keep her mouth shut. As always. God forbid that she exhibit vulnerability. She’d learned long ago that putting her heart on the line might make her feel empowered in the short run, but in the long run, she’d end up just like all the women in her life—her mother, her sisters, her roommate, Jeannette…hell, all the chicks she knew from the gym and the various offices she worked in—lonely and bitching about all the men who’d broken their hearts.
Not Rachel. She’d come to New York City from Miami with one thing and one thing only on her mind. Her career. Okay, two things. She also wanted to travel. Come to think of it, math was not her strong suit. Her third most important goal revolved around having lots of hot sex with all the intriguing, international and successful men she’d inevitably meet in the famed Big Apple or wherever her passport took her in between freelance gigs as a graphic designer. And yet, for the past four months, she’d only been having sex with Roman. She wasn’t complaining, of course. Not, at least, until his annoying pager went off.
“Any idea when you’ll be back?”
She delivered the question with the right combination of vague interest and cool boredom. Or at least she hoped so. She practiced hard enough every time Roman prepared to disappear.
He turned, his ice-blue eyes warmed by a simmering desire that never seemed to cool when they were together. From the first moment her attention had flashed on his hypnotic gaze, she’d been snagged. Caught, like the tarpon her stepfather used to fish for off his yacht. And just like the mighty silver game fish, she’d fought and flailed against the hook.
Well, she’d struggled at least until she’d found a way to justify that flirting with a consultant was not the same as coming on to a boss. Technically, for the duration of his contract at the network—and hers, since she freelanced—he’d been her superior. He’d supervised her work, but he didn’t sign her paychecks. He didn’t even write her performance reviews. Armed with those facts, she’d thrown caution to the wind and succumbed to a potentially destructive affair with a colleague.
She’d been working for A&E at the time. Or maybe Bravo. Encore? She couldn