Since I Fell For You Part 5

His face was often a mask that she couldn't read, but in that moment, she saw what looked like empathy for her past. Maybe even commiseration, as if his own childhood hadn't been a bed of roses either. Yet again, she wanted to shift from patiently waiting for him to open up, to asking direct questions that would help her better understand all of Roman's many intriguing layers.

One of his teenage fanboys brought over their pizza. "Here you go, Roman. Hope you like it."

The kid kept standing there until Roman took a bite and said, "Best one I've had in years."

"Thanks, man." The smile on the kid's face made it look as if he had just won the lottery. He scooted back to tell the rest of the staff.

"They really do love you here."

"They're good kids, but they've heard too many stories." She wanted to ask him to tell her those stories, but before she could, he said, "Not like with your employees. Today, when you were working with them, you were the sun everyone was revolving around while you made magic happen with the servers."

His compliment made her insides feel all warm and fuzzy. "My team is great. Super smart. Nice too. Any one of them could start their own company. It's an honor to have them working for me. Especially when we're tackling difficult puzzles like we were today."

He studied her as if he was confused about something. "The puzzle of what you were working on appealed to you despite the reason for the extra work and how angry you were about it, didn't it?"

Most people could know her for years and not understand this. But Roman had gotten it inside of one day. She couldn't help but think back to what he'd said, about how the last guy she'd dated hadn't understood her. Roman clearly did.

"I'm not at all happy about the attack, of course, but figuring out how to thwart the bad guys is always interesting. It's part of the reason I decided to focus on digital security as opposed to building other kinds of software applications. That, and the fact that I want people to feel safe whenever they're online."

Somewhere in there, she realized what a terrible job she was doing of seducing him into breaking his bodyguard rules. She should be talking about anything but software applications. If only her female cousins were here right now to give her a refresh on their flirting lessons from all those years ago.

What was it they had said? Lean in close, then flatter him. And if that didn't work-Pretend he has something on his mouth and reach over to help him clean up.

Scooting her chair closer, she looked deeply into Roman's eyes. "I know this may come as a bit of a surprise, but you make me feel really safe." She'd meant to say it as mere flattery, but as soon as the words left her lips, she realized she meant them. She still didn't need a bodyguard, but that didn't mean she hadn't noticed feeling extra secure whenever Roman was near.

He didn't say anything for a long moment. Finally, he replied, "I'm glad."

The moment hung between them, heavy with exactly the kind of sparks she'd previously told herself were integral to succeeding in her plan to make him quit. Only, it didn't feel so much like a plan anymore.

No, the heat between them felt real.

Real enough that she instinctively reached up to touch his jaw, and not because there was anything to wipe away. As her fingertips made contact with his warm, tanned skin, she was a hairsbreadth away from kissing him.

Before she could, he shoved his chair back from the table and stood up. "If you're done, we should go to your meeting."

Disappointment rang through her at the way he'd leaped up to get away from her. Even though he was right. Her fake-seduction plan was supposed to lead to a kiss-but not a real one.

He'd just narrowly saved her from s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up her own plan.

"Right." She pushed away from the table too. "Let's go." She forced a smile for Jerry and his teenage staff. "Thank you for the great pizza."

"I hope to see you two again soon."

Keeping the smile frozen on her face, she nodded. "Bye."

Roman hung behind for a few moments as Jerry said something to him in a low voice. By the time Roman hailed them a cab, his face had returned to looking like thunder. And the truth was that Suzanne's insides suddenly felt just as stormy.

Because though she had absolutely no intention of falling for the bodyguard she'd never wanted in the first place, she couldn't help but wonder if she was really as in control as she'd originally planned to be.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

Don't let this one slip away, Roman. She's perfect for you.

Was Jerry nuts, saying that right as they'd been walking out of the restaurant? Clearly, the man had taken one look at Suzanne's pretty face and lost his mind.

Couldn't he see that she was as untouchable as they came? And not just because she was too smart and successful for a guy like Roman, whose only teenage refuge had been working in a pizza joint. Suzanne deserved a guy who could give her a solid relationship. A guy who had grown up learning how to love from two parents who were happy together.

Roman would never be that guy.

It shouldn't matter that he wasn't. He was her bodyguard, not a blind date set up by her brothers. But after spending an entire day being more impressed with her by the minute, for the first time in a very long time, he found himself wishing that things were different. That he was different.

At thirty-six, Roman was old enough to be brutally honest about who he was. He'd enjoyed the company of plenty of women. But he never let things get serious with any of them. Huson men didn't do serious. Not after Roman's father had made the mistake of falling in love with a woman with a white-collar upbringing who'd slummed it with him for long enough to have Roman, then she got bored, cheated, and left. Tommy Huson never missed an opportunity to hammer these facts home, and he insisted that his son not make the same mistake. Roman had made other mistakes in the past three decades, but trusting a woman with his heart wasn't one of them.

Their taxi ride was a silent one, as Suzanne also seemed to be brooding. He enjoyed talking with her more than with any other woman, but this silence was better. Safer. For both of them.

They soon arrived at Drake's loft. "Remind me, what's this meeting for?"

"Rosa has recently launched a foundation to fight online bullying, and I'm helping her out in my spare time."

"Spare time?" He nearly laughed out loud at her even using those words. "When do you get some of that?" After only one day, he could already see how tightly she was stretched. No wonder her brothers wanted someone to take care of her. Roman wasn't sure she would ever take the time to take care of herself-not when others needed her.

The door opened before she could reply, and she was swept up into a hug. "Sorry I'm late, Rosa."

Of course, he recognized the woman hugging Suzanne. Rosalind Bouchard was unarguably the most famous reality TV star in the world. He'd heard she'd recently left the business-he supposed it had come in the wake of her nude-picture scandal. He didn't know much about her beyond the headlines that popped up on the Internet, but he felt for anyone who'd had to go through that kind of unwanted exposure.

He knew all too well how much it sucked to have someone peddle you out for their own gain-especially when the last thing you wanted was to be used that way.

"I'm glad you were able to squeeze us in at all, Suz." Rosa held Suzanne at arm's length. "Wow, you look amazing in that dress. Do you have a date later tonight?"

"Dates? What are those?" Suzanne joked, but by now he knew the different tenors in her voice well enough to recognize the tiny bit of sadness that hung behind the humor when she spoke about being single.

Rosa suddenly noticed him. "Oh, hi!"

"Rosa, this is Roman." Before the other woman could make any wrong a.s.sumptions, Suzanne added, "He's my bodyguard. I'm sure Drake told you all about what they did behind my back, right?"

"He did, and I was really mad at him." She scowled. "I told Drake they shouldn't have hired a bodyguard without your permission."

"I agree. But as you can see"-Suzanne nodded toward Roman-"what's done is done."

"You're being much nicer than I'm afraid I would be," Rosa said. She turned again to Roman. "In any case, it's nice to meet you. Come on inside and make yourselves comfortable. There's plenty of food and drink. Let me introduce you both to everyone."

Five minutes later, Roman had memorized another half-dozen names and faces. He'd make sure to look them all up tonight to ensure that none of them posed a potential threat to Suzanne.

Drake wasted little time in taking him out on the patio so that they could speak in private. Roman made sure to stand where he had a clear sight line to Suzanne.

"So, how's it going with Suz? You're still here at the end of day one, so that's something."

"She's not happy about having me around, but she's been so busy today at work that I don't think she's had time to do much about getting rid of me."

"She's smarter than all of us combined," Drake said, obviously immensely proud of his sister.

"No offense to you and your brothers, but I've got to agree with you there," Roman said. "I've never seen anyone's brain work so fast. Her colleagues are constantly racing to try to keep up."

"I'm not much of a computer guy, but the stuff she works on is really interesting, isn't it?"

"It is. Everyone in her company is young and energetic and undaunted. Most of all, your sister." Which was why Roman needed Drake to know something. "There was another server attack this afternoon. A bad one, from what I could gather."

With a low curse, Drake turned to look with concern at Suzanne, who was already knee-deep in planning with the others around the coffee table. "I'm a.s.suming that since she's here, she's already fixed the problem?"

"She did."

"I know she's convinced it's just a little unimportant funny business, possibly from one of the many companies whose buyout offers she has repeatedly turned down-"

"Don't worry," Roman a.s.sured Drake. "Even if she's willing to look at these server attacks as more of a challenge than anything else, you can let Alec and Harry know that I'm not going anywhere until we've gotten to the bottom of things. I won't let anything happen to her."

Drake seemed to weigh his words for a few moments. "Alec said you're the best."

"I am." Roman might not be proud of some of the things he'd done in his life, but he was proud of the way he ran his security business. No one had ever been hurt on his watch. No one ever would. "I promise you, she's safe with me."

By the time they left Drake and Rosa's, Suzanne was way too exhausted to even think about putting on her "s.e.xy" act. Heck, she couldn't even bother to put on her shoes at this point, carrying them instead as she tried to stay awake long enough to get into the cab.

She curled up on the seat, rubbing her feet and yawning. "I've got a six thirty a.m. meeting tomorrow, so I'll be heading out an hour before."

"Do you always move this fast?"

Her eyes had fallen closed and she couldn't muster up the energy to open them as she replied, "You mean sloth speed?"

She didn't hear his response, or remember the rest of the taxi ride. Only that she woke up to Roman's hand on her arm. "We're home."

Years ago, she had learned how to catnap during a nonstop day. She'd obviously just done that in the taxi. It always took her a good sixty seconds to come fully awake again, so she was really glad Roman was there to help her out of the taxi and into the lobby of her building, his hand on the small of her back to make sure she stayed on course in her sleepy state.

It was a little weird coming home with Roman like this. Not like being walked in by a date. But not as if he was just someone working for her either. In any case, she was too tired to make sense of her feelings right now.

As they rode the elevator up to her floor, she said, "Having you around today wasn't as bad as I thought it would be." Clearly, she was also too tired to keep her mouth shut.

The deep resonance of his unexpected laughter moved through her body like a sip of good red wine. Like he had the night before, he did a quick search of her apartment. But unlike last night, she wasn't irritated with him. Instead, a part of her wished he would stay a little longer.

"Good night, Suzanne." The way his voice wrapped around her name made her feel the same way his laughter had-warm all over. "I'll be waiting here in the morning."

"Are you sure five thirty isn't too early for you?"

"Any time you need me, I'll be here."

She understood that as her bodyguard he had to say that. But a secret little part of her couldn't help but wish he meant it as something more. Her family had always been there for her no matter what, but none of the guys she'd dated had ever wanted to step up like that.

He waited in the hall outside her door until she was inside. After putting her bag on her kitchen island and dropping her heels on the floor, she headed straight for her living room couch. The bed was too far tonight.

She'd fallen asleep in the taxi, but only because she knew Roman wouldn't let anything happen to her under his watch. Now, as she lay sprawled on the couch still wearing her purple dress, her brain slid back to that moment in the pizza place when they'd been close enough that she could feel his warmth radiating through to her.

When she'd touched his face, his eyes had gone so dark. So s.e.xy. So intense. She would have bet money on his kissing her then-he'd seemed to want to devour her mouth as much as she wanted him to do it. But his control had been too good, too solid, and the moment had slipped away.

She'd lost her chance to see her plan through to its final conclusion tonight. But it was losing her chance to find out how Roman's lips would feel brushing over hers that she regretted most of all.

Had she been less tired, that realization would have shaken her to the core. It should have shaken her awake so that she could make even better plans to ensure that he'd resign soon. Because what she was feeling for Roman was crazy. And Suzanne didn't do crazy emotions with men. After all, look what had happened between her parents when they'd let crazy emotions get the best of them. Her mother had killed herself and her father had become a recluse.

But with all of Suzanne's defenses currently down tonight, she didn't have more energy to think clearly about how to protect herself from falling for a man who made her feel so many confusing, heated, conflicting things. All she could do was drift off to sleep dreaming of his kisses.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

"Good morning, Suzanne."

She'd awakened more than a little horrified by the dreams she'd had about Roman. Just as sweaty and acrobatic as her dreams had been the night before...but also emotional now. In her dreams, they hadn't just been having a one-night stand. They'd been having a relationship.

Now, all it took was hearing the low rumble of her name on his lips for that familiar warmth to move through her.

Mustering up the energy for day two of her master plan to get him to resign as her bodyguard had been even more difficult than she'd antic.i.p.ated. It wasn't the long hours she'd put in yesterday. She was used to keeping that kind of schedule.

No, it was the fact that she wasn't at all looking forward to trying to play the seductress again today. She was used to being herself, not pretending. Which was why she had barely been able to force herself to put on another s.e.xy outfit this morning, when her T-shirts and oh-so-comfortable flats were calling to her.

Still, even if the off-white dress with the red pinstripes was neither as body-skimming nor as short as yesterday's dress, she had a strong enough will to make herself wear red heels. In flats, she would have been dashing around the way she normally did, without a single thought for s.e.x appeal. In heels, she'd at least have some swing to her hips as she walked.

And she needed to stick to her plan, d.a.m.n it. No matter how much she liked seeing Roman first thing in the morning...and last thing at night.

Knowing that cranky and grumpy wouldn't get her any closer to completing her plan, she made herself smile as they stepped into the elevator. "Are you a morning person?"

"No."

His concise and rather heartfelt response made her laugh. Honestly, it was a relief just to let it flow through her. Maybe, she told herself, if she let herself relax a bit this morning, it might help her get things moving in the direction she needed them to go. Because she did still need to get him to step over the line with a kiss...

"You could have fooled me," she replied, laughter still in her voice. "Alec always stomps around in a p.i.s.sy mood for a couple of hours if you wake him up early. Whereas you're quite pleasant this morning."