Page 99 of Guarded King

When I told myself I’d deal with the fallout of my time with Roman, I was obviously still drunk on sex. Because here I am, a week later, and I haven’t dealt with it. Not very well, anyway.

Pretending such an incredible sexual experience never happened has been the worst kind of torture for me.

Roman, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be having any issues with it at all.

The minute the plane landed, he switched it all off. All the passion, all the tenderness. He locked it away as if his control had never been tested at all.

Yes, I agreed to that, but it turns out experiencing it really sucks.

He opened my eyes to what sex should feel like. Knowing him, though, it was probably nothing special. I can only imagine all his sexual interactions are that intense.

For days now, I’ve struggled to work through our encounters, and he’s likely already filed them away in histhat was fun but forgettablememory bank and moved on.

“Chloe?” Lola asks. “Are you okay?”

Swallowing past the tightness in my throat, I nod. “Things with Roman got a little… complicated.”

“I knew it!” she shrieks, startling Christopher, who promptly bursts into tears.

I stand and hold him high in the air, pretending he’s an airplane, until he’s squirming and giggling again. Though I hateto see the little guy upset, I’m thankful for the excuse to delay the inevitable commentary from Lola.

But when I sit and brave a look at her, her eyebrows are arched high.

“So what happened? Did you two actually get jiggy with it?”

I let out a choked laugh. “Getjiggywith it?”

“Yeah, you know. Do the horizontal tango, make the beast with two backs, knock boots, jump bones, bump uglies, play hide the sausage?—”

I hold up a hand. “I’m sorry, what is happening right now?”

“Jamie and I have been trying to figure out what our code for having sex is going to be once Christopher can talk and really understand what we’re saying.”

“You could probably just spell it out for the first few years.”

She waves her hand in the air. “Back to the question. Did you and your hot-as-sin boss have S-E-X while you were in France?”

Lips pressed together, I lower my head. “Yes. Also on the plane on the way home.”

She slaps a hand to her chest. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me the minute it happened.”

“It has to stay a secret. I really shouldn’t be telling you at all, but I need someone to talk to about it.”

She frowns. “You’re keeping it a secret? That doesn’t sound good. Does that mean you’re sneaking around now? Or was it a one-time thing?”

My heart sinks. “A one-time thing.”

With a narrowed stare, she sits back. “And you agreed to that?”

I can’t help but let out a long sigh. “It seemed like a good idea at the time. He has good reasons for not wanting it to continue. And for keeping it a secret. It’s just… I thought I’d be fine with it. But it turns out, maybe I’m not.”

Her expression softens in sympathy. “You want more?”

I bite my lip so it doesn’t wobble. “It’s silly. I agreed to all of it. I just didn’t expect my feelings to get involved so quickly.”

“Oh, Chloe.” She sits next to me and envelops me in a hug. “I think your feelings were already involved, otherwise you wouldn’t have slept with him.”

I shake my head, sniffing back the emotion still begging to be released. “It was just a crush.”

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