Chapter 69
Eve washed her hands after freshening up and looked at herself in the mirror.
Her face still looked flushed and it wasn’t from the cold. She couldn’t believe she had done that. Having sex outside was just so... common. She doubted Roman’s girl... Vivian would have done anything like that. Roman’s stepmom was right.
She couldn’t bear to look at herself any longer so she concentrated on washing her hands and then drying them. When there was nothing else to keep her in the bathroom any longer, she walked to the door and took a deep breath to prepare herself.
She didn't want to go back into that room with Esther.
When Roman had worried about his stepmother almost miscarrying, this was not what she had expected. There didn’t seem to be any love lost between them. Or at least on Roman’s part. She hadn’t missed the looks Esther had thrown at Roman when she hadn’t been saying horrible things to her. That woman was jealous. That woman wanted to be the one in Roman’s bed, and that was wrong on so many levels.
Her self-pity disappeared and was replaced by something else. Her blood boiled in a way she’d never felt before. She didn’t want any woman looking at Roman like that. A part of her wished Esther had heard her. Another part wanted to kiss Roman in front of her so Esther could see for herself what she could do to him.
But she pushed that stupidness to the side because Roman was not really hers. He could go and be with anyone he wanted, even after making love to her like that.
Had she misread the situation the other night? Or had Roman been more worried about his father than Esther? Charles doted on his young wife and Roman didn’t seem impressed by that, but he clearly loved his father.
She took another breath and then opened the door. Roman stood opposite, leaning on the wall and scrolling on his phone.
“Are you okay?” Roman asked as he put his phone away.
She nodded.
Roman searched her eyes and then his gaze lowered to her lips. She knew what he could see. Her lips were still swollen and anyone could put two and two together even if they hadn’t heard her screaming for the whole world to hear not too long ago.
Her cheeks heated again and she bit her bottom lip. Roman’s lips parted and she knew he was thinking about it, too.
“I think this is going to be a very long lunch,” Roman said gruffly before he took her hand and led her back up the stairs.
She thought so, too. Since the first night she had been back in his arms her body was constantly humming, waiting for Roman to touch her again. Their time in the playroom had been intense. Roman had never made her feel like that before like she was the driving force of their relationship. Like she really could just say what she wanted, no matter what it was, and Roman would bend over backwards to give it to her.
It was the reason she was both looking forward to and dreading their talk.
What if Roman wanted to give her another contract? He had said so much to indicate he was still attached to her as she was to him. He'd said she was important to him. What if he said he didn't want to walk away when the media stuff died down? What if he wanted to set out rules for her again but tell her she couldn’t fall in love with him?
Her biggest fear now was that she would say yes, despite everything.
Roman stopped outside the door and turned to her.
“Don’t let her bring you down, okay?” he said. “I wanted you to meet my father but I didn’t expect Esther to be like this. We’ll go home as soon as we finish eating.”
Home. There he went again. Her heart fluttered but she managed to nod again.
When Roman opened the door, lunch was being served on the large, stylish coffee table and Charles was adjusting Esther’s pillows. William stood in one corner supervising the maids, and he turned to smile at her when Roman led her back to her seat.
Did he know? Had he heard her?
She avoided his gaze and felt her face flush again.
“I hope you’ll enjoy your lunch, Miss Bright,” William said before he left the room with the maids.
"So you're a waitress?" Esther asked.
She looked up to meet the catty eyes of Roman's stepmother. The woman didn't look like she knew what hard work was. She was the last person to judge anyone considering she had been paid to sleep with Roman, but she didn't think Esther had any right to judge, either. What kind of woman showed such lust for her stepson when her husband was sitting next to her?
"Yes, I work for a living," she answered and then turned her attention back to her food, hoping Esther would take that as the insult it was meant to be.
Because she was starving, it was easier than she expected to ignore Esther. Roman's father tried his best to keep the conversation going but even he gave up after a while when he couldn't keep steering things away from Esther's snide comments.
"Wait until everyone hears that your mystery woman is nothing but a gold-digging_"
"Esther!" Charles cut in firmly.
The anger on his face was surprising because he had been nothing but gentle with his wife the whole time they'd been there. It seemed to surprise Esther, too, because she shut up and looked at her husband.
Roman stood up and threw his napkin on the table with his half-eaten food before he took her plate from her.
"I'm sorry. I'll feed you at home," he said as he took her hand to help her up.
And then he threw a look at his stepmother that had her shrinking back into herself even though it wasn't directed at her.
"Rome..." Charles started, standing up, too. "I'll deal with it."
The men exchanged a look before Roman turned and led her out of the room. He didn't say a word until he was helping her into her coat and William came into the entryway.
"What happened, Roman?" William asked.
Not Master Roman. The tone he used and the concern he showed told her that maybe they had a closer relationship than she had first assumed.
"I'll call you later," Roman answered.
They were driving out of the property moments later, and the further they went from it, the looser the knots on her stomach became.
"I just wanted to introduce you to my family," Roman said after a while. "I don't like her but she's never been so fucking out of order."
"Don't worry about it, Roman. I'm sure worse things are being said about me in those articles," she said as she looked out of her window.
"You haven't read them?"
"No. Just headlines," she admitted. "I don't want to feel like shit when I'm already disappointed with myself."
The car slowed until it stopped at the side of the narrow road. What was he doing? She looked at him and found his gaze already on her.
"Are you disappointed with yourself because you're back in my bed?" Roman asked quietly. “Because we can stop doing that. I don’t need to make love to you to show you I...”
Her breath caught when his voice trailed away. What was he about to say?