Page 3 of Romi

I stopped dead in my tracks as our eyes met, and the world around me fell away until it was just the two of us staring at each other across the carpark. I gazed at Romi, completely enthralled. My legs felt suddenly weak, trembling like those of a newborn foal, and I was thankful for the handle of the suitcase, which kept me from sinking to my knees in front of him. Geez, the thought of doing just that did special things to my insides. Hmm, that was something to explore in the future if I got the chance. I gulped as my stomach did a little flip at the thought.

My eyes scanned him from top to toe, then slammed back into his gaze and held as if pulled by an unknown force. I couldn’t look away. What a fantastic specimen of man he was. At around 6’2” with bulging muscle, cool amber eyes, dark brown hair that he kept short at the sides and slightly longer on top, and neatly trimmed facial hair, he was absolutely gorgeous.

Stop staring!Stop drooling!I chastised myself, forcing my gaze away from his mesmerising eyes.

My hands shook as I grabbed the handle of my suitcase and took a shaky step forward. Heck, I needed to get myself under control before I made a fool of myself. I had to come across as a sophisticated young woman, not a silly little girl drooling over her first crush.

Keep cool! Remember you’ve practised for this. You can do this!I gave myself a quick pep talk and took a deep breath to get my libido under control. Then, I pushed my shoulders back and schooled my features into what I hoped was a cool and confident smile. It was time I made my man notice me.

I sauntered towards Romi with a slight sway of my hips, and my smile grew bigger as I saw him beaming back at me. I was so happy to see him, but the grin on his face showed me he was happy to see me too, and my insides melted. His smile made me giddy with joy. I’d always had a soft spot for Romi, even before I noticed him as a man, and I had missed him so much. Not just because of my feelings for him but because of our lifetime of shared memories.

He took a few steps toward me, and instinct took over. Unable to stop myself, I ran toward him, laughing, and threw myself into his arms, just as I used to when I was a little girl. He picked me up and twirled me about just as he always did, and it was great.

“Hey, cuz,” he said, and I froze, frowning as I realised what I had done. My high spirits came crashing down. I had shown him his little cousin again, instead of the sophisticated woman I wanted him to see me as.

Shit, I was blowing this. I quickly jumped out of his arms. My cheeks burned with embarrassment at my faux pas, and I could no longer meet his eyes.

“Welcome home,” he said before turning abruptly away from me to chat to his men.

Oh no, this was not going how I had planned it.

Feeling foolish, I started fiddling with my phone, suddenly finding a generic text I had received from the network very interesting. Anything to keep from looking at Romi while I desperately sought to get myself under control.I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. How had I managed to let my cool, confident, sophisticated woman act slip so soon?

I had planned my first meeting with Romi almost to the last detail. Of course, I had always pictured one of my brothers being here with him, too, which would have helped keep me focused, but I was so disappointed with myself.I glanced at him and was glad to see he was still chatting to Rolan and Armen. Maybe my faux pas hadn’t been so bad. I rallied my thoughts, remembering my affirmations, and squared my shoulders again. That little slip was simply a minor setback in my plan and nothing else. I could still do this. I would do this!

Putting my phone away, I walked over to Rolan and Armen, just as they were saying goodbye to Romi. They were going straight to the airport to catch a flight to spend the summer in Russia with their families. I quickly hugged them and waved as they headed off towards the taxi rank.

“Where are my brothers today?” I asked Romi as we walked to his vehicle, desperate to open up a conversation and get my plans back on track.

“They are all caught up with various things. We have a situation, but they will no doubt discuss that with you at some point when they see us later at dinner,” Romi told me, but I noticed he wasn’t looking at me as he spoke.

“Is it bad?” I questioned, chewing on my lip.

“Miki will tell you what you need to know later, Sonia,” he said firmly, his voice sounding almost strained.

Something was different; the atmosphere had changed between us. I wondered why. Romi seemed delighted to see me initially. Had I embarrassed him by jumping on him like a silly girl? Or by acting embarrassed afterwards? Or was it this situation, and he didn’t want to tell me something that Miki might not want me to know about? I hoped it was the latter and that he hadn’t noticed how awkward I’d acted.

As I climbed into the SUV, I wondered about what the situation he had mentioned could be.

My oldest brother, Miki, had been the head of the Bratva here in the UK for the last five years, ever since he took over from our father after our parents were murdered by the Albanian Mafia. Those brutal bastards had always been our enemies because they were absolutely crazy, but they had never done anything so awful to us until then.

They had also killed Glowacki’s oldest son a couple of days before, too, in an attempt to weaken both us and the Polish so they could take over our territories. They hadn’t succeeded. Instead, we had forged an alliance in our mutual grief and took the bastards down, avenging the deaths of our family members, Mafia style.

The Albanians were almost wiped out at the time, but I knew they had been trying to rebuild. I might have spent the last few years mainly away at University, but I always caught up on the family gossip when I returned for the holidays or when I spoke with my other brothers on the phone. While Miki and Ash often kept me in the dark about a lot of things, Marko, the youngest of my brothers, always filled me in after some prodding.

I wondered if they were the cause of our new situation. I didn’t think they had grown strong enough to take us on again, but if they had, then it would be very bad. I really hoped it wasn’t anything to do with them, but I had no idea what else it could be. As far as I knew, we didn’t have any other enemies capable of causing us any real problems. Minor issues, yes, but anything beyond that, no.

Not that I would know. My brothers rarely discussed what they deemed to be Bratva business with me. Being a woman, I was often kept in the dark. I hated that. I always found it worse not knowing what was going on because my imagination took over, and I had a very active imagination.

My libido livened up then as she was more than aware of how active my imagination had been of late, especially regarding the gorgeous male sitting next to me. I decided to put my worry about the situation behind me and concentrate on making some real headway with my plans instead. I needed Romi to start interacting with me again if I was going to manage to ever convince him I was the woman for him. I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be as easy as I would have liked.

Sneaking a glance to the side, I checked out his profile as he drove. He seemed tense; his hands gripped the steering wheel a bit too tightly. Something was definitely going on with him. I knew that look; he was brooding. I took a deep breath. I needed to get him talking.

“How have you been, Romi?” I asked.

“Fine,” he said. His one-word answer clipped and sounded very much like the end of a conversation instead of the start, as I desired.

Pursing my lips, I waited to see if he would say anything else. When he remained silent, I frowned. This wasn’t like him. We didn’t usually have any problems chatting.

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