breath and said, “Me too.” I don’t know what good thing I did in a past life to deserve a shot with this man, but I was taking it. As we lay there, he absently ran his finger up and down my spine making me shiver and reminding me of one very important thing. “Roman.”
“Yeah?” he asked in a groggy voice.
“We need to go to the store.”
“I just said no unnecessary shopping trips.”
“I know, but it is necessary, we have to get condoms.” I held up the small bottle he’d discarded earlier. “And lube…lots more lube.”
We took a shower. Together. That was a first for me. I’d never showered with another guy before. There were touches and kisses, and lots of laughing. Once we were dressed, we made our way to the kitchen and finally found some food. We decided to just go with sandwiches because they would be quick and easy and something we could both manage.
“You know if we keep doing this, one of us is going to have to learn to cook,” I said as we made our way to the table.
“What? You don’t like the cook and serve meals we’ve been buying?” he asked, taking a huge bite of his sandwich.
“They’re okay, but I can’t see eating them long-term.” I could see other things being long-term, though. I was trying not to get ahead of myself, but we fit perfectly, and it was hard not to.
“Hmm, maybe we’ll just get really good at ordering takeout.”
“Every night?”
“Sure, we could have a schedule you know, like Italian on Monday, tacos on Tuesday, pizza on Wednesday, pasta on Thursday...” He paused and thought for a minute. “We’d have to get both steak and seafood in there somewhere. Maybe surf-n-turf Saturday. And lasagna, we can’t forget lasagna.”
“Roman, I’m pretty sure like four of those nights were Italian.”
“Three, pizza is not Italian.”
“If you say so.”
“I say so,” he insisted. “Then every other Sunday, if we aren’t on a job, we have linner at my mom’s.”
“Linner?”
“Yeah, it’s like brunch, but instead of breakfast and lunch, it’s lunch and dinner. Usually around three PM or so.”
“Linner?” I repeated.
“Hey,” he said, pointing his sandwich at me. “Rand wanted to go with lupper, so we don’t complain about linner.”
“Your family sounds pretty awesome.”
“They are. I’m never going to hear the end of this, though, I can tell you that right now.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I shouldn’t have been the one who came here to be your bodyguard. I wasn’t up in the rotation. My brother, Rand, was. But he got caught with a client's daughter, and I assigned him to surveillance duty as a punishment.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re the one who came, but that seems fair to me. You have to have some kind of policy against that kind of thing…oh,” I said, cringing. “Yeah, I guess this”—I motioned between us—“is probably against the same policy, huh?”
“There isn’t an official policy, not because there shouldn’t be. We just never thought to make one. But yeah, pretty much the same thing. I may have even said something like I would never do something like that.”
I covered my mouth with my hand and tried not to laugh. “You didn’t.”
“I did,” he said ruefully. “I really did.”
Chapter 15
Roman
Trey had stayed in the family’s main house while I made the trip to the store. He wasn’t thrilled with being cooped up, but no one would’ve been. He didn’t fight me on it, though. He was still shaken up from what happened yesterday and agreed it would be safer for me to go alone. Aside from the shooting incident, yesterday had been almost perfect. We’d ordered pizza, watched a couple of movies, and tried to decompress from the events of the day, both good and bad. We’d checked to make sure the doors and windows were locked and then went to bed—together. I hadn’t slept that well in ages, which surprised me considering the morning we’d had, but having him safe and in my arms made everything feel right.
I spent the entire drive to the store trying to decide who to call and what to say. This Sunday was a family lunch day, and while they wouldn’t expect me to come because I was on a job, I wanted to go. I wanted to bring Trey to meet my family. I’d never brought anyone with me before, but I needed them to meet him. It was important to me that they see this wasn’t just some reckless fling with