Since I Fell For You(19)

She’d barely finished composing her first email by the time he stepped back out of the bathroom, looking and smelling deliciously clean. Not to mention as drop-dead gorgeous as always in his white shirt and dark suit. Her jaw was going to dislocate soon if she kept letting it fall open like this.

“Your turn,” he said, and even the way he turned his left wrist so he could button his cuff with his right hand made her melt inside.

She tried to play it cool and unaffected as she headed into the shower, but it didn’t help that the room was all steamy and smelled like Roman. Her skin felt extra sensitive as she ran the bar of soap over herself. He was right that it had been a long day already, and not just because of the back-to-back meetings and server attack. What had mixed her up the most were all those hours with his dark eyes on her, especially when she couldn’t quite seem to rein in how much she liked having him so close.

The problem was, letting Roman stay would mean her brothers won. And since she absolutely couldn’t allow that to happen, she needed to stick to her game plan without letting a foolish attraction derail her.

Still, she had to force herself to put the skimpy dress back on. She wasn’t looking forward to having to wear another super-sexy outfit tomorrow morning—if she wasn’t able to convince him to kiss her and resign by then, that was all the more reason to work harder to get to her plan’s finish line.

“Do you have a jacket?” he asked when she emerged from the bathroom. “The temperature outside is bound to have dropped by now.”

She did, but she couldn’t risk covering up now and blowing her chance to tempt him over the line. “I’ll be fine.”

But she hadn’t counted on how hard the wind was blowing when they headed outside to catch a cab. By the time a taxi pulled over to the curb, it was impossible to hide how cold she was.

Warmth suddenly enveloped her, along with the scent of clean male, as Roman draped his jacket over her shoulders. She knew she should give it back to him, but couldn’t resist wrapping it around herself like a blanket instead.

“Thank you,” she murmured as he opened the taxi door and she slipped into the backseat.

She gave the driver the address, then told Roman, “Looks like we’ve got just enough time to get to Rosa’s if traffic isn’t too bad.”

Her growling stomach nearly drowned out her last few words. God, she was starved. She really hoped Rosa wouldn’t mind her raiding her kitchen. Suzanne felt a pang of guilt as she realized that if she was this starved, Roman must be desperate for food, given that he had to have a good fifty pounds on her. All of it muscle. Seriously sexy muscle…

“You need to eat,” he said, clearly expecting her to argue with him.

But even if she could go without food a little while longer, she knew he couldn’t. “We both do.” She got the driver’s attention. “Change of plans. Can you pull over at that pizza place on the corner?” Turning to Roman, she said, “It’s a hidden gem. They make this one pizza that’s the best I’ve ever had. It’s called the—”

“New York Classic.” His unexpected smile made her heart temporarily stop beating. God, he was good looking. Especially when his man-of-stone mask fell away.

“You know it?”

“I used to work there. In high school.” He almost looked a little bashful as he admitted, “I came up with the toppings for that pizza.”

It was one of the first personal things he’d told her about himself without her pushing him to share, and the knowledge was strangely sweet.

“Amazing,” she said, not quite sure at the moment if she was talking about the fact that he’d created her favorite pizza…or about the connection that seemed to be growing between them by the second. “You grew up in the city?”

“The Bronx. But a friend’s uncle owned the place, and all the free pizza I could eat was a big lure.”

She couldn’t quite put her finger on why it felt like there was more to his story than just a high school kid working to earn some extra money. Maybe it was the hint of emotion he hadn’t quite concealed when he’d mentioned his friend’s uncle. Or maybe it was the interesting mixture of anticipation and dread on his face at the thought of getting pizza with her there tonight.

Given that she was supposed to be working on a plan to get Roman out of her life as quickly as possible, she shouldn’t be so intrigued by him. Shouldn’t be trying to figure out what made him tick. But she’d never been one to turn away from something that didn’t quite add up.

Especially when that something looked as good in a suit as he did.