Star of His Heart - Brenda Jackson [39]
Rome studied her as his heart thundered deep within his chest, and a funny feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. “You’re not sick or anything like that, are you?”
Jada lifted a surprised brow at the seriousness of his question. “No, it’s not about an illness or anything like that.”
Rome released a deep sigh. He had lost one woman he loved and he didn’t want to lose another one. And a part of him knew that he loved Jada. He’d known that he’d fallen in love with her the first moment he had seen her less than a week ago. He wasn’t amazed by that fact. The same thing had happened between him and Kimmy. He had known from the first, and hadn’t been interested in another woman since Kimmy’s death, until now.
Rome continued to study Jada and he saw her increased nervousness and tenseness as she shifted back and forth under his steady stare. He really didn’t care about these issues she was talking about. They didn’t matter to him. However, they seemed to matter a great deal to her. “Do you want to talk about these issues?”
She thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Yes. Then you’ll understand why I won’t be seeing you again.” She inhaled deeply. “You wouldn’t want to see me again, anyway.”
Rome’s gaze slowly drifted over her, and he wondered why she would think such a thing. There was nothing she could tell him that would keep him away. He took another chance and reached out and took her hand in his. He ignored the deep trembling he felt in it. He grasped it firmly but gently. “Come on, let’s sit down and have that talk, all right?”
She nodded and let him lead her over to the sofa.
Netherland drove along the busy highway heading home. Traffic was bumper-to-bumper, which was unusual for this time on a Friday night. She then remembered a rock concert was being held in town.
She yawned, feeling sleepy. It was early yet but the day had been rather busy getting things prepared for tomorrow night. She needed to go home and get a good night’s sleep. Things would be even busier the next day. She glanced at her watch. It was a little past eight. She couldn’t help wondering if Ashton had arrived back in town. She hated admitting it but she had missed him something fierce. She had spent her nights tossing and turning in bed, waking up thinking, hoping that she would see him standing at the foot of her bed to turn her heated dreams into reality. The longer she went without seeing him, the more her mind and her body longed for him, his touch—every single thing about the man.
Making a quick decision and refusing to think about what it meant, she exited the highway and took the road that would take her to Ashton’s hotel.
Like a dam bursting beneath the huge force of a tidal wave, words poured out of Jada’s mouth, from deep within her soul as she told Rome about those days that she had been married to Tony, as well as his kidnapping of her. She lifted her head and met his gaze and said quietly, “So, as you can see I have some things I need to deal with before I jump into a relationship with anyone.”
The anger that had consumed Rome while listening to Jada slid into oblivion when her words suddenly consumed him with something else. Compassion. He had compassion and respect for a woman who had gone through what she’d gone through and survived with her self-respect and dignity still intact. He would like to have some private time with Anthony Roberts for hurting her both physically and emotionally. No woman deserved that type of treatment, and no real man would have done that to her, especially the man who had vowed before God to love and protect her for the rest of her life.
“After listening to what you’ve just shared with me, Jada, I think you’re one remarkable woman,” he said, soft and low, sensing she needed to hear that but more importantly she needed to believe it.
She laughed shortly, harshly. “Remarkable? What’s remarkable about being too afraid to stand up for yourself? I stayed with him for two years and let him use me like a punching bag because I was too weak to leave.”
Rome shook his head. “No.