Janie Crouch - Cease Fire

He let go of her waist and pulled her to the door.

Chapter Three

They didn’t leave the suite for the next day and a half.

They hardly left the bed except to grab what they ordered from room service.

Keira couldn’t stop smiling. She came back out of the bathroom midday Monday after brushing her teeth and attempting to do something with her hair, hardly recognizing the woman she’d seen in the mirror.

Spending the weekend in bed with a man she hardly knew really wasn’t part of her MO. She may have been an exotic dancer, but that hadn’t meant she’d allowed men close to her. As a matter of fact, stripping had been the furthest thing from intimacy for her.

While onstage, she’d known exactly what moves to do to make the most money and gather the most attention. And even offstage she’d always been confident and capable, her thriving salon business now proof of that.

But when it came to intimacy with a man, Keira was much more wary. Her confidence much lower. She could thank Jonathan Cunningham for that. After her disastrous sham of a marriage, she’d been afraid to get close to anyone.

She could count on two fingers the number of relationships she’d had since her divorce six years ago. And that was including whatever was going on with Roman right now.

He’d already taken her phone’s calendar and scheduled her to have dinner with him every night this week, so evidently he planned on them seeing each other again after they left here.

And she couldn’t stop smiling. Not her fake-but-sparkling stage smile, but her legit, bubbling-from-somewhere-deep-inside smile.

“I like that look on you,” he said, as she crossed to him with the sheet wrapped around her.

“Sheets are all the rage this season.” She twirled as if she was on a runway, then let out a yelp as he grabbed the sheet and pulled it off her.

“That’s even better,” he murmured, using the sheet still wrapped around her hips to pull her closer. His lips melded to hers and she melted into him.

“You know we have to leave this room sometime,” she finally said against his mouth.

“How about if I quit my job at Omega and you close the salon?”

She giggled. “I’m pretty sure they’d kick us out of here soon, when we run out of money.”

“Argh. Damn consumerism in the US.”

His phone buzzed again on the nightstand. Hers had been doing the same thing for the last few hours.

The real world was calling.

It was late Monday afternoon. The salon was closed on Sundays and Mondays, so it had worked out fine to be here with Roman. But she had paperwork to do and the salon involved much more than just cutting and styling hair.

But she hadn’t explained any of that to Roman yet. Even though he was law enforcement, she still wasn’t completely comfortable sharing the Fresh Starts salon’s true purpose. Those secrets weren’t fully hers to tell.

“I’ve got to get back to the salon.”

“I thought it wasn’t open today.”

“It’s not. But paperwork and shipments and handling stuff all keep going no matter what day it is. The glorious life of a small business owner.”

“And I guess I’ve got to go back to Omega and sit at a desk all day.” He gave the most adorable pout, lying there against the pillows.

“Aw.” She trailed her fingers down his cheek. “Poor little SWAT team member frustrated by having to use his brain?”

She joked, but the burn scars he had across his chest and shoulder from his close call with death two months ago were anything but funny.

He spun her around and had her pinned under him in a second flat.

“I’ll admit I’m much more prone to action than I am profiling or researching.” He bent down to kiss her and shifted his hips so they were more fully pressed up against each other. Keira couldn’t stop the moan that escaped her as his lips worked their way across her jaw and down her neck.

His phone rang again. This time the music from the movie Jaws . Keira laughed. It wasn’t the first time that person had called.

She pushed at his chest to stop his lips from going lower down her shoulder.

“Okay, I’ve got to know who that is. The Jaws theme.”

Roman propped himself up on his elbow and rolled his eyes. “My mother.”

Keira threw her head back and let out a laugh. Until Roman took advantage of her exposed throat and soon had her gasping for breath.

But when the shark theme came again from his phone five minutes later, Keira knew she had to get him to answer it.

“Roman, it’s your mother.”

“She’ll call back.”

“Uh, yeah, in another five minutes. You said she doesn’t like your Omega job. She’s worried about you.”

After what had happened with that explosion that had almost killed him, Keira didn’t blame his mom. She nudged him. “Just answer it so she won’t be worried.”

He didn’t look thrilled, but he did it. Probably because he knew his mother wasn’t going to stop calling until she knew he was safe.

“Hello, Mother.”

Immediately, Keira could hear his mother talking at a rate and pitch that had to be barely discernible even to Roman. Keira couldn’t make out a bit of it and she was only six inches away.

Roman kept the receiver at his ear and bent down to kiss Keira again. A luscious kiss that almost made her forget the other woman on the line. But all too soon, he ended the kiss and pushed back.

“Of course I’m listening.”

He winked at Keira and got up from the bed, walking naked across the room toward the window. “I left the wedding early with a friend.” He glanced back at Keira and smiled. “Yes, someone I met at the wedding, and that’s why I left. Well, met again. We have mutual friends.”

Keira didn’t think she’d ever get tired of looking at Roman’s naked form. Hard to believe those six-pack abs and firm buttocks were what he looked like now, during recovery. Him in top physical form just might kill her.

“Keira Spencer.” He waited patiently while his mother said something else. “I tell you what, why don’t I check with her and see if she’s available to join us all for lunch next Sunday?”

Keira’s eyes flew to Roman’s. Did he really want her to join his family for lunch? He was smiling reassuringly at her. Maybe this wasn’t as big a deal as she thought.

Regardless, she got up while he was finishing with his mom. She needed some sort of fortification right now. Clothes seemed like a good start.

She dressed, glad she had grabbed her change of clothes and toiletries from the hotel room she’d booked but hadn’t used. She was putting on some makeup when he finished his conversation and tapped on the door.

“You okay in there?”

She opened it. “Dinner with the family? Does that mean I get to wear your letterman’s jacket, too?”

He stole a kiss. “Smart-ass. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to. Sunday lunches with my family are sort of a networking event. Everybody brings someone if they want. I don’t always even go.”

Was he backpedaling? Did he not want her there? She didn’t know him well enough to know how to respond. “Oh. Well...”

“I tell you what. Have dinner with me every night this week and then if you still like me, you can come hang with the family. They’re pretty overwhelming.”

She laughed and shook her head at his crazy proposal. “I can’t have dinner with you every night this week. The salon is open late some nights.”

“I’ll bring takeout.”

It was nice to be wanted, and by someone not only so damn attractive, but trustworthy also. He was a friend of Andrea and Brandon’s and worked for one of the top law enforcement agencies in the country. Pretty damn trustworthy.