Romi seemed to understand that instinctively as well, as she looked around his personal space with dazed eyes that slowly cleared.
She moved to the photos gracing one of the built-in bookshelves. “Oh, my gosh…this is you as a little boy. With your mom.”
She reached out and touched the photo with the same delicacy her hands showed on his body.
Pleasure shuddered through him. “I told you I was a child once.”
“And an adorable one at that.” He wasn’t sure what the wistfulness in her voice was about.
“Mama thought so.”
Romi threw him a smile over her shoulder before going back to the pictures. “This man, he’s the one isn’t he? The one that went away?”
He knew the photo she was talking about. It was of Natalya, Maxwell and the man he had called Batya for three years. They were on a harbor tour about a year after Batya had come into their lives.
Maxwell could remember Batya pointing out the landmarks and telling his eight-year-old self things the guide didn’t mention. It had been a magical day.
“I’m surprised you have it out.” Romi’s voice was soft, her sympathy not grating like it would be from someone else.
“It is part of my history.” A part he had never allowed himself to forget. Not the good times, not the way he’d felt when Batya simply wasn’t there any longer, nor the years that followed.
“And putting it away wouldn’t change that.”
“No. Besides, it was a good day.”
“Have you ever spoken to him since he left?”
“He died. No one told us. Why would they? Mama saw the obituary and told me. He was barely fifty.”
“Oh, Max.” That look on her face. It should have been like sandpaper on a raw wound, but he felt something warm unfurl inside him instead.
She crossed to him and walked right into his embrace, no sexual overtones to her actions, just a pure compassion that could only come from a pure heart like hers.
Romi’s hands locked behind his neck, her head tilted back. “Do you know how old I was when Maddie and I decided to be sisters?”
He shook his head, strangely reluctant to speak, shocked at the fact he wasn’t kissing her despite their positions. No other woman could derail his libidinous nature to something softer.
She said he was dangerous to her, but really, the opposite was just as true. He might never have the honesty to admit it, but he wasn’t a fool to hide from reality, either.
“Five,” she said, answering her own question.
“That is a long time ago.” His voice came out oddly scratchy.
“Yes.” Guileless blue eyes met his. “Almost twenty years.”
He nodded.
“When I care about someone, I stay in his or her life. I don’t give up because it’s uncomfortable, or inconvenient.” Those same blue eyes compelled him to believe in something other than the past.
He found himself wanting to and that only made him more wary. “She did not have another family she had to give you up to keep.”
“No, but if you think living with my dad the past few years has been a picnic, you’re wrong. Or even being best friends with Madcap Madison. That girl scares the crap out of me sometimes, but I will never just walk out of her life.”
Maxwell opened his mouth to tell her that their relationship wasn’t the same, but closed it again without speaking.
One year ago, Romi had turned down his offer of a liaison with a time limit, but not once in the past twelve months had she tried to avoid him. If she saw him at an event, she spoke to him. She answered the phone when he called, though she’d made it clear it wasn’t easy on her when he did call.
The queen of avoidance didn’t avoid people.
It was an important realization to make.
“You are very special,” he told her.
Her smile was luminescent. “I’m just me, but I’ve got to tell you, Max, I’m learning more about you in an afternoon than I have in all the time I’ve known you.”
“You’re going to marry me. You should know me.”
“Arrogant much?” she mocked.
“We’ve already discussed this.”
She sighed, but didn’t look annoyed. Just accepting. “Make love to me, Max. I want to know what I’ll learn about you then.”
He didn’t think there was much more for her to learn, but he wasn’t about to turn her down.
He’d only said no in the car because in no dimension of time was one night going to be enough between the two of them.
Romi gasped out a laugh as Maxwell lifted her into his arms to carry her through to the bedroom.
“What are you doing?” she demanded breathlessly.
“My patience is at an end and we are going to do this right.”