Page 47 of More Than Nothing
He grunted and shot them another look.
“Some of Ty’s other friends are in the booth next to them,” she continued. “I can’t see him or Dean.”
She tapped nervy fingers against her glass and Roman covered them with his own. His thumb drew calming circles on the back of her hand. “That’s no bad thing. Better they hear about it, rather than see us and kick off in person.”
Now he knew who Craig was, he was aware of the Brit looking over in their direction every now and then. When he next caught him doing it out of the corner of his eye, Roman made a point of brushing one of Elenie’s curls out of her face. She drew in a sharp breath but threw him a flirty smile over her shoulder.
He closed his eyes as his groin tightened and bloomed with heat.
Not the place, dammit.
Roman shifted his position and rested a casual hand on Elenie’s thigh, the butter-soft cotton of her dress catching on his rough fingers. If only they were anywhere else but here, somewhere else alone. But those wishes were not his to make. Elenie wasn’t his to claim.
He focused hard on the performance of the band’s lead guitarist. This secondment was an opportunity to get himself steady again. If he did his job right in the meantime, he might leave Pine Springs in a little better shape than before. Those were his goals. And he couldn’t let a gray-eyed woman from a family of criminals disrupt them.
The next hour passed slowly.
They did their best to chat and act like a normal couple on a normal date. An enamored couple on a normal date. They ordered more drinks and listened to the music. Roman tried to make Elenie laugh; he was delighted when he succeeded. She leaned tentatively against his chest. He held her loosely, the seam of his jeans skimming either side of her thighs. The tension gradually eased from her body and she relaxed in his grip.
Zena wasn’t a fan of public displays of affection but she’d also complained he was too uptight when they attended social gatherings or work events. He’d never been quite sure what she wanted from him. And he’d always thought himself too private to ever want to make out in public.
If this was a proper date, Roman realized he wouldn’t much care who was watching.
When Elenie laid a cautious hand on his leg, the heat in his body climbed a few degrees. He rubbed the stubble on his jaw against her hair. She drew in a breath and held it.
“You make it difficult to remember why we’re here,” he growled in her ear. The words forced their way out, even as he tried to hold them back. She immediately lifted her hand from his thigh. Roman caught it, mid-air, and placed it slowly back where it had been. “Leave it there.”
Electricity sparked between them. He could feel it crackle in the humid air, like a summer storm waiting to break. Elenie’s fingers curled against his jeans.
Behind him, someone pushed someone else who collided with Roman’s back. He jostled Elenie, automatically tightening his grip around her so she didn’t tip off her stool.
“Easy, buddy.”
A gangly young man, wearing far too much aftershave, wilted under his ferocious stare. “Sorry, dude—my bad.” He held up both hands in apology.
Roman let him off with a nod and put a little distance between himself and Elenie. She didn’t return her hand to his leg.
Tyson’s friends played drinking games. Rowdy jeers and back-slapping accompanied each round of shots. Someone knocked over a beer. The band moved into their final song of the evening. Last call rang out and people flooded the bar to refill empty glasses.
“Let’s move out of the way,” Roman suggested.
He led Elenie away from the band, toward the opposite end of the bar, where they leaned against a wall just behind Craig’s booth. Roman looped a casual arm around her shoulders, fingers tapping a deceptively relaxed beat against her collarbone. As the last chords of music died away, the noise level began to drop.
They gave it another quarter of an hour or so, each pointing out people they knew by sight, relating stories they’d heard about them or experiences they’d had dealing with them. Roman found her observant and funny, as always. It reminded him of the afternoon at the fair. Talking to Elenie was easy.
Finally, their conversation tailed off. There was no delaying the next step.
He turned her to face him and gave both of her shoulders a squeeze, wanting to pull her closer and whisk her out of the bar. Instead, he smiled and the moment belonged to just the two of them.
“Best fake date I’ve ever had,” he said.
Elenie tilted her head. “Been on many?” she asked.
“None.”
She huffed out a laugh. Her smile flashed bright, then faded.
“Ready?” Roman’s hand closed over her own, removing her denim jacket from her fingers. Elenie’s mouth twisted. She nodded. “OK, then. It’s showtime.”
