Since I Fell For You(20)

The cab stopped, and Roman gave the driver a twenty before she could take care of it. “You don’t always have to pay,” she said. “In fact, you never should, since technically you work for my company.”

But he acted like he didn’t hear her as he opened the door to the restaurant. When, she wondered, was the last time she’d been with a guy who had held the door for her to any room but a bedroom?

Not, of course, that she was with Roman. She needed to remind herself of that, because coming here almost felt like a date. None of the guys she’d been out with would have considered this little hole-in-the-wall pizza place up to their standards—not when they were all trying so hard to impress everyone with their fancy suits and expensive watches. Didn’t they realize that it was guys like Roman who truly impressed, in large part because he didn’t have to try at all?

Seriously. She needed to stop letting her hormones get the best of her. But it wasn’t easy to stop feeling all the feelings when the guys behind the counter saw Roman and couldn’t contain their excitement.

“Roman, dude, it’s you!” The kid at the register yelled back to the kitchen, “Roman is here!”

A gray-haired man in a white chef’s cap came out of the kitchen, his face split in a wide smile. “Mr. Huson, it’s been too long.”

The two men did the one-armed, shoulder-to-shoulder hug Suzanne had seen her brothers do a million times. In an instant, she could see that they were more than friends. They might not be related by blood, but they were clearly family. Again, she wondered what the full story was.

“Jerry,” Roman said, taking a step to the side, “this is Suzanne.” She recognized the gleam in Jerry’s eyes. It was the one every matchmaker had when they thought they were looking at a happy couple. Evidently, Roman saw it too, because he quickly added, “I’ve recently begun working with her.”

Jerry’s face fell slightly at the news that Cupid hadn’t struck Roman with an arrow, but his smile was still completely genuine as he shook her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Suzanne.”

“I absolutely love your pizza,” she said, hoping that would help take the sting out of the fact that she and Roman were most definitely not a couple. “When I was in high school, my friends and I always used to be late back from lunch because we couldn’t stand to waste even a bite.”

“Beautiful and with great taste.” No one could have missed the look Jerry shot Roman. One so obvious that she found herself blushing.

“Suzanne has a meeting in a few minutes,” Roman said in a more brusque tone than he needed to, given that everyone in the restaurant clearly thought the sun rose and set on every move he made. “Is there any way you can fast-track a New York Classic for us?”

“Sure thing.” Jerry turned back to her. “Don’t let him fool you, Suzanne. All that growling is just for show. And we’ve renamed that pizza.” He grinned. “It’s the Roman Classic now.”

Suzanne was pretty sure Roman might have growled if Jerry hadn’t hightailed it back to the kitchen just then. “Why don’t you go say a few words to your fan club while I grab a table? I’ll barely be a few feet away, right in your line of sight.”

Before she even sat down, he was surrounded by a handful of teenage boys. They were all talking to him at once, and while she could tell that he was listening, she knew he was also keeping perfect track of where she was and what she was doing.

No man had ever been so aware of her—and she’d definitely never been this aware of a man. Unfortunately, while he was being paid to pay attention to her, she was simply exhibiting a serious and pathetic lack of self-control.

A few minutes later, he sat down. “Sorry about that. I’ve known Jerry for so long, and he’s desperate for me to be hap—” He cut his sentence short. “I apologize that he thought you were my girlfriend.”

Suzanne tried to ignore the twinge of longing for that to be true. “You don’t have to apologize for anything. He’s very sweet. He obviously wants you to find a nice girl to settle down with.”

He frowned, looking even more uncomfortable than he had just seconds before. “He knows better.”

“Why would you say that?”

Her too-intimate question sent Roman’s impenetrable mask falling right back into place. “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

Of course she wanted to know. She was dying to push. To poke. To dig until she got answers. Until she uncovered the man behind the always professional bodyguard. But she’d lived with her brothers long enough to know that a direct hit was rarely the way to get what you wanted. It would be better to try to loosen him up again before fishing for more.