Page 29 of After The Storm

Instead of saying something, like an apology for treating her like some kind of subservient child who needed his permission, he stood up and began walking across the room. Kate watched in a mixture of confusion and fear as he came toward her. For as much as she believed every single word she’d said, she didn’t truly know this man or how he’d react to her impromptu declaration of her own independence.

Would he force her to obey him now? Or would he just walk out and go back to his boss to report that Kate Sheridan was definitely not a woman who needed their kind of help.

All of this raced through her brain as he slowly moved closer.

Roman stopped just inches away from where she stood and stared down at her with a look in his eyes she couldn’t place. For a moment, she thought it could be admiration or appreciation, but she couldn’t be sure. She waited for him to say something, frozen there as she tried to imagine what his response would be.

He opened his mouth to speak but then his face twisted into an expression of anguish and he reached out for her, grabbing her shoulders. Kate’s thoughts immediately focused on his injury, but before she could ask him what was wrong, he fell back onto the bed behind him, taking her down with him.

They landed on the bed with her on top of his chest and their legs entwined. For a moment, she wasn’t sure if he’d passed out from the pain or something else happened. Roman’s eyes were closed, so she couldn’t be sure.

“Roman? Are you okay?” she asked, touching his face to check if he was conscious.

His eyelids fluttered open and he winced. “I’m fine.”

“You aren’t fine. You just fell over in pain from that cut on your side. That’s not fine,” she said before she realized in horror that she might be pressing against his side. “Oh, my God! Am I hurting you?”

She tried to pull away, but he held her to him. “You’re not hurting me.”

He felt so strong against her that she didn’t want to move. They lay there with his arm around her, Roman holding the two of them to one another. “Just give me a second and I’ll be fine, Kate. Could you stop being angry with me for that long? I promise you that as soon as I’m up on my feet you can tell me how much you don’t want my help all you want.”

All the worry and guilt she’d felt earlier washed over her and exhausted her suddenly. Resting her head on his chest as she had when she felt asleep the night before, she closed her eyes.

“I’m sorry I’ve been so difficult. I am. I guess I’m just more independent than most women.”

He didn’t respond, and as she listened to the sound of his breathing and felt his chest rise and fall beneath her head, she decided she didn’t need him to say anything.

But she did want him to know she had no regrets about who she was.

Opening her eyes, she lifted herself off him and leaned on her elbow as he looked at her with those dark eyes of his that never seemed to give away his feelings about anything.

“I’m not sorry for being that kind of person, Roman.”

While that was true, she felt the need to add something else. “I am sorry for a lot of things you’ve had to go through because of me, though. When you look back on this job, I hope you’ll remember that.”

He smiled and looked up at the ceiling before returning his focus to her. “Kate, I’m not going anywhere, so I won’t be looking back on this job as if it stopped here. Just as you don’t plan to have anyone tell you what to do, either do I. Maybe we can come to some agreement that lets us both be who we are without making the other person be something they aren’t?”

“Was that what you were going to say before you collapsed?”

“Something like that, yeah.”

Kate took a deep breath in as she thought about his question, inhaling the scent of his shirt and his skin that smelled so uniquely him. Clean and masculine. She did like having him around, even if he tried to make her do things she didn’t want to do.

And as much as she didn’t want to admit it, she needed his help. The police still had her on their radar, and they would find her if she didn’t get out of the city soon. Without Roman, she might be forced to contact her friends and family for some way to escape, and she didn’t want to do that. He’d likely have an idea on how to get away safely.

She did owe him for all he’d gone through to help her. True, it was his job, but unless he was getting hazardous duty pay, he likely didn’t expect to get cut up crawling out a cheap motel bathroom window.

“Okay, I think I can agree to that. No more you telling me what you’re going to let me do, right?”

Roman smiled and nodded his agreement. “Right. And no more fighting me on every little thing. I meant what I said when I promised to protect you, Kate. I would never do anything that would make me go back on that pledge.”

Maybe because she’d never had anyone who wanted to protect her the idea of someone like Roman wanting more than anything to take care of her just sounded unbelievable. She didn’t know why she fought him on everything he’d tried to do, but she could try to change that part of her since he wouldn’t be ordering her around anymore.

“It’s a deal,” she said and then sat up next to him. “I admit I’d like to stay here and just lie around for the rest of the day, but we need to get moving if we’re going to get to my office building before everyone starts to come into work.”

Roman nodded once more and slowly sat up. “Then I guess we better get moving to your office, but you need to promise me you’ll follow my lead. It’s not me telling you what to do. It’s just that I’m more experienced with breaking into places in the middle of the night.”

Intrigued, she chuckled at the idea of him on the wrong side of the law. “Really? Now this is a side of you I hadn’t expected, Roman.”

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