Page 83 of Prelude To You

And with that, a wall the length of the entire place soundlessly folded up like an accordion, until the rooms transformed into one massive area. There was a glorious king-size bed on the far side, and a double door to a bathroom that could hold my entire apartment with room to spare. All complemented by a ninety-degree view of the shimmering night outside. To say I was impressed would be the understatement of the year.

“My God,” I managed. “This is incredible.”

Suddenly, Nina Simone’s rich voice drifted through the still air. I closed my eyes, trying not to lose it. “You remembered.”

“Of course,” he said. “How could I forget?”

His gaze was fixed on me but I refused to meet it. Desperation washed over me. There was no safe way out of this. Someone was going to get hurt, and it was going to beme. I should walk right back into that elevator because this was heading for a Category-Five catastrophe.

I stared at the bed, imagining that this was where Roman woke up when he stayed here. My mind was roaming, trying to hold onto a coherent thought. I could definitely see myself in that bed. With Roman. Doing all kinds of things.

I needed to sweep my head clean of those thoughts.

One thing I couldn’t do was figure out what made Roman tick.Who was this man?In a few hours, I got to know two different people.

One who bravely entered the curious realm where he allowed an ordinary woman to capture his attention. The other a very wealthy man who had to control everything around him, and was left out of sorts when that control slipped through his fingers like mercury.

“A penny for your thoughts,” he said.

I veered my gaze toward him. “I think I understand now. We’re from two vastly different worlds. And never the twain shall meet. We should order that dinner before my coach turns into a pumpkin and I have to hitch a ride home to the normal world.”

It wasn’t nearly as funny to him as it was to me. In fact, he couldn’t even manage to crack a smile. Instead, his jaw muscle flexed. “Believe me when I tell you, you’re the lucky one, Isabel.”

I stifled an incredulous laugh. “Oh don’t you dare. Don’t you dare play the poor little rich boy.”

An amused gleam settled in his eyes, and he contemplated me for longer than was absolutely necessary. Then he moved closer, drew a lazy finger over my arm and whispered in my ear. “I resent that. There’snothinglittle about me, Isabel. As you know.”

My breathing faltered, my pulse fluttering in response. His mouth hovered over my cheek. What happened next would bemy decision. I felt my spine crumple at the thought of our naked bodies entangled on that bed and him inside me. And it was all still possible right now if I surrendered. It was up to me. All I had to do was lift my mouth to his.

But I didn’t.

He took a courteous step back, his burning gaze blazing over me, the same thoughts clearly plaguing him. But I knew he wouldn’t act without my say-so. At a fair guess, Roman’s word was his bond. I was the only one who could break that promise for him tonight.

Brewing frustration threatened to wipe out my good intention to be nice and calm. “Well, that took all of five minutes.”

“What’s that?” he asked.

As if he didn’t know.I couldn’t look at him.“Reminding me why coming up here was a bad idea.”

He stepped toward the brown bags and carefully pulled out the box containing the French letters. “Our entertainment tonight,” he said quietly. “How lucky I am to have you here to translate them for me.”

As if he wanted to remind me that this was what I was doing up here. I dived into some netherworld of exasperation. “Please tell me all of this is strange to you too,” I said.

He clung to my gaze. “I was hoping you could make more sense of it and explain it to me.”

I blinked back my frustration. “But like you said, it’s just a fleeting distraction we can throttle into submission…right?”

“I said, Ihopedit was just a fleeting distraction… But at this point I think we both know it’s probably not. We should order dinner.”

I fidgeted at the idea that this might be more than a fleeting distraction to him. It made this all so much more bewildering.What the hell was keeping this man from sweeping me off my feet and suggesting we see where all this goes?

“Yes, dinner,” I finally said. “Where do they keep the room service menu here?

He smiled, embarrassed. “You’re not going to believe this, but I don’t know.”

“You’ve never ordered room service from here?”

He seemed baffled by the question. “I always have Kayla do that. It just never seemed that important.”

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