The Dare Collection: July 2018. Nicola Marsh

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       CHAPTER THIRTEEN

      ROMAN SAW THE exact moment Allie started to shut him out. He’d been pushing it with that question and he’d known it, but there was too much he didn’t know about her. He should be prodding her with questions to help spin things to his advantage, but the only reason Roman had asked was because he genuinely wanted to know.

      He cleared his throat. “I envy you, in a way.”

      “Why’s that?” The distance in her blue eyes retreated, leaving her present and accounted for.

      In for a penny, in for a pound. She’d bared part of herself with that little window into her past—he couldn’t do anything less than the same. “I mentioned before that my parents weren’t around much when I was a kid.” He snorted. “I might have understated it. They were gone more often than they were there. There was nothing traumatic about my upbringing, other than a bit of benign neglect, but when I was younger, I would have given my left arm to have designated time with either of them like you had with your mom.”

      Allie leaned forward, now fully engaged. “Why didn’t they have more kids, if only to give you someone who wouldn’t leave?”

      “My mother didn’t like being pregnant all that much, and she wasn’t a fan of what came after, either.” He made a face. “Hearing that at the tender age of five was eye-opening, to say the least.”

      “Oh, Roman.”

      “No, none of that.” He casually slashed his hand through the air. “I don’t need pity any more than you do. All my needs were met and my parents loved me in their own way. They just loved each other and travel a bit more. I had a whole staff of people who ensured I didn’t turn out a monster, though I wager my nanny, Elaine, would feel differently if she’d lived to see me as a business acquisitions consultant.” At her raised eyebrows, he continued, “She found money to be a necessary evil but always told me that she hoped I’d pick a good honest job that didn’t revolve around it.”

      He hadn’t thought about that conversation in over a decade. Elaine had passed when he was in his first year of college, and by that time he was firmly in his rebellious stage. Too much drinking, too many girls, too many attempts to do something crazy enough to force his parents to acknowledge him. Elaine’s death had snapped him out of it like being thrown into a freezing ocean. He’d taken a good hard look at his life and realized that the only person he was hurting was himself. His parents would never change who they were, and trying to push them to be different was a lesson in futility.

      Roman shook his head. “This got heavy. Sorry.”

      She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “I appreciate your sharing. It’s kind of strange that we don’t know much about each other, but...” Allie motioned between them.

      “We fuck like we were made for each other.” He wished he could recall the coarse words the second they were out of his mouth. He and Allie had bypassed mere fucking days ago. This was something on another level and cheapening it was a shitty thing to do.

      She smiled. “Exactly that.”

      It stung that she agreed with him so quickly, but had he really expected anything else? In an effort to distract them both, he said, “So how did you meet Becka?”

      As she launched into a tale of two broke college students desperate enough to take second jobs at the scary campus gym, he sat back and indulged in watching the animated way she spoke. Allie really was beautiful. He’d known that, of course—he had two eyes in his head, after all—but she was beautiful right down to the core. A genuinely good person.

       Let me help you.

      He couldn’t say it. Even talking about the gym in more abstract forms had caused her to shut him out. Trying to talk more explicitly was a recipe for disaster. He had to play the game within the terms they’d set out. It was the only way.

      “You’re not even listening.” She didn’t say it like she was mad—just stating a fact.

      “I am.” Roman managed a smile. “That boss you had at the campus gym sounds like a real piece of work—though he should have been reported for forcing you to be in those conditions.”

      She raised her eyebrows. “Okay, that’s a neat trick. You were a million miles away, but you still retained everything I said. That’s nuts.”

      “Necessary evil.” Though he’d never once been called on it before now. “I learned early in my career that it’s best to have several options for plans by the end of a meeting with a new client—that means listening to what they’re saying while still thinking strategically to create a game plan. They fill out preliminary information, of course, but until I meet them face-to-face, I rarely know exactly what they’re looking for.” He shrugged. “Some things sound better on paper than they are in reality.”

      Allie bit her bottom lip, and СКАЧАТЬ