Cousins (Cousins #2) (22 page)

I know that guy is probably someone like Jagger, but I can't make myself want him. Not in the way that I want Roman. Although I just don't know if I'm ever going to be ready to own up to my feelings for Roman. I don't know if I'm brave enough.

The doorbell rings and Sloan looks over at the door in surprise.
 

"Who the hell could that be at this hour?"
 

I hear her walk up to the door and say under her breath, "Shit."

"Who is it?" I ask still munching on crackers.

"Did you drunk text him, Bitsy?"

"Who?"

"Your damn cousin!"

We both become startled at the two heavy raps at the door.

"No." I shriek. "Don't answer the door, Sloan. He can't see me looking like this."

"Are you serious right now? How does he know where I live anyway?"

"I don't know. I didn't tell him, but I didn't know it was a secret either."

"So you did tell him where I live?"

"I told you no, Sloan."

"Jesus Bitsy."

Another loud knock and a curt, "Open the door, Sloan."

Shit.

Sloan looks at me silently and widens her eyes as if to say,
“
What do you want me to do bitch?
”

"Answer it. He's probably not going to go away."

When Sloan answers the door, Roman is standing in the doorway in all his magnificence. He's freshly shaved, dressed in all black, and has a look on his face that I'm not sure I've ever seen before. It's a cross between relief and annoyance … I think.

"Glamazon." He nods.

"Black Knight. I didn't realize you were coming over or I would have tidied up." Her words dripping in sarcasm.

"Wasn't planning on visiting, but plans change."

Roman saunters inside and over to me.

"What's this?" He asks me.

"I was hot." I say.

"Hot and drunk."

"Whatever." I wave him off.

"What's wrong with you, Elizabeth?"

"She didn't get the money." Sloan speaks for me.

Roman kneels down in front of me.

"I'm sorry baby."

I get a strong whiff of Roman almost immediately. He hasn't been drinking his usual Jack Daniels. Tonight he smells like a heavenly mixture of cognac, chocolate, leather and musk. Just like the night we met. It's a heady combination that's making me wish we were alone in his apartment, or his car, or any frackin' place other than here.

"It's fine." I say. "I'll figure something else out."

"Come on. I'm going to take you home."

"She can't go home like that!" Sloan exclaims.

"I got this glamazon."

"She was going to stay the night here, Roman. There's no need to take her anywhere. I've got her."

Roman stares me directly in the eyes and lifts my chin with two of his fingers.

"You want to stay here and eat those dry crackers with the glamazon or come with me? I'll get you a nice turkey burger."

"Mmmm," I moan. A turkey burger would be fantastic right about now.

"From my favorite spot?" I ask excitedly.

"Yep," He answers me smiling.
 

"Where are her things?" He asks Sloan.

Sloan stares at me for a moment, sucks her teeth and goes to the bedroom to grab my overnight bag and my shoes.

"Here. You're a real credit to women everywhere, Bitsy." Sloan says sarcastically.
 

Roman grabs the bag then swiftly lifts me up and slides me around on his back.

"Hold onto my neck, Duchess."

"Oh brother." I think I hear Sloan mutter.
 

In fact that's about some of the last words I hear, as I drape the weight of my body completely on Roman's back and shoulders and fall fast asleep.

***

I awaken to warm sunlight and my completely nude body swaddled in eggplant purple sheets. Roman's purple sheets … but no Roman.

There's a bottle of spring water, a bottle of extra-strength Excedrin, and a folded note on the nightstand table next to me.

Take two pills. Drink the entire bottle of water. Don't move. I'll be home soon with your lunch.

Lunch? Oh crap, it's frackin' one in the afternoon.
 

After I follow Roman's explicit instructions, the next thing I do is look for my cell. I think it may be on the kitchen counter, so I get up wrapped in the sheet and make my way to the living room where I stop dead in my tracks. I don't know how I didn't hear them, but Jade, Cutter and Camden are all sitting in Roman's living room. And now they're staring, slack-jawed at me.

"Excuse me." I apologize. "I didn't realize you all were out here. I waaaaas–" I begin to stutter. "I waaaas drunk last night. I must have passed out in here."

"You got drunk with Rome?" Camden asks curiously.

"No with Sloan."

"So where is she?" Cutter asks looking around the room.

"She's not here. I think … I think that Roman brought me here from her house."

Camden and Cutter's smiles are growing wider and Jade's face stonier, as my story simply gets worse and worse. I just want to throw this sheet completely over my head and pretend that I'm invisible like I did when I was five. Where is an invisibility cloak when you need one Harry Potter?

All four of us turn our heads when we hear a key being inserted into the front door. Roman enters the house with two bags full of diner food and my stomach growls as a salutation.

"Morning glory. You hungry?" He asks me.

"Yes," I admit quietly.

"You may want to change first." Jade says to me.

"Right." I say on my way back to the bedroom totally embarrassed.
 

Gratefully Roman has access to his master bathroom from inside his room, so I don't have to do yet another walk of shame in order to take a quick shower. I know that I probably smell like vodka, gin, and hell. But before I go in, I decide that it wouldn't hurt to eavesdrop a little on what they're saying. I know it's about me.

"What the fuck Rome? Are you banging your cousin?" Cutter asks.

"That's none of your business." Roman replies.

"Well you invited us here for a meeting knowing good and well that she was here wrapped up in one of your sheets. So I think you've now made it our business." Jade says.

"Let me first apologize and say that I'm sorry if I misled any one of you into believing that my personal fucking life was up for discussion. It's not."

I think I hear the other brother Camden laugh out loud and speak next.

"So you want us to pretend that we didn't just see what the fuck we just saw?" He asks.

"That's right. Same way I pretend not to notice you staring at Jade's ass every time she walks by. Same way I pretend not to notice that Cutter has been Googling Elizabeth's glamazon friend like some pervert. Same way I pretend that Jade–"

"All right that's enough!" Jade cuts him off abruptly.

Then there's some additional laughter followed by silence.
 

I take that as my cue to go take a well needed shower and leave the friends to their standoff. I just pray that they are all gone by the time I finish. My stomach is grumbling, and I want that damn turkey burger.

After thirty minutes of lathering and scrubbing myself to death, I throw on the pair of black leggings and plaid blouse that I packed in my overnight bag, and sit on the edge of Roman's bed and brush my hair. Again and again and again.

I'm killing time.

I don't want to go back out there, because I'm not sure that they're gone, and I'm not ready to face them. There's a brief knock on the bedroom door and then Roman walks in with a plate of food.

"Your turkey burger is probably cold as ice. Do you still want it?"

"Are your friends still here?"

"Is that why you're hiding out in here?"

"Yes, Roman! Why would you tell them to come over for a meeting when I'm naked in your bed? I can't believe you."

"My business stops for no one, not even your pretty little ass." He kisses me hard on the lips.

"Roman." I mouth.

"All right let's talk real shit Elizabeth."

"Okay."

"First take your food." He hands me the plate. "Eat it."

I take a bite of my burger and miraculously it's not freezing cold. It's still warm and at this point tastes like a lobster dinner.

"Good?" He asks.

"Yes." I moan.

"Good. Now for some real talk."

"All right."

"Do you enjoy my company, Elizabeth?"

"Yes."

"Do you enjoy the way I fuck you?"

"Oh my God, Roman … your mouth."

"Do you?"

"Yes okay?"

"Do you want more of the two? Spending time with me and fucking me?"

I'm taken aback at how very crass this
real
talk is.

"I'm pretty sure I do."

"Pretty sure? I want a hell yes or a hell no."

"Roman–"

"Not going to ask twice, Elizabeth."

"Hell yes." I mutter with more burger shoved in my mouth.

"Good we're on the same page then. I want the same. Which means that there are going to be times that my friends and business partners will be here and that you may also be here at the same time. You have to accept it and deal with it. They're not going anywhere and neither are you."

"Have they accepted it? I heard them talking about me out there. They didn't really sound like the were on board."

"They were just surprised."

"Jade too?"

"Jade is Jade. She just wants what's best for me, but she'll come around, and when she does she'll see that being with you is what's best for me."

"Does she have a thing for you?" I ask a little concerned that I've blindly wandered my way inside a love triangle.

"No," he chuckles. "I'm pretty sure she has a thing for Camden. Not me, Duchess."

"Oh?"

"And what about your people?"

"What people?"

"Glamazon. Tiny. Jagger?"

"I talked to Jagger if that's what you mean. He knows that all we can be is just friends."

"Did you tell him it was because of me?"

"You know I wouldn't say anything about us. I haven't told anyone. The only one who thinks she knows everything is Sloan, and that's because I find it very difficult to hide anything from her. She knows me too well."

"Yeah that and the fact that she gets you drunk to get the rest of the info."

"Whatever." I roll my eyes.

"You know you didn't need to get drunk last night."

"Why not? I was sad. I wanted to wallow in it for a little while. That's what girls do."

"You didn't need to get drunk, because I'm going to give you the money. I'm your Plan B, and I don't want to hear shit else about it. When I saw you drunk and slumped on the ground like that last night, Duchess, I didn't like it. I don't want to ever see that shit again."

"Awww you were worried about me."

"Be quiet and give me your account number."

"I said I won't take your money."

"Calm your tits. I'm paying you for the work you did on the computer network. We'll talk about the other money later. In fact, you can give me the account info later."

"Why?"

"Because you've got a punishment coming baby."

I smile and put the rest of my burger down.

"Yes sir." I say as I give him a mock hand salute.

"Shut up and strip."

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

ELIZABETH

Elizabeth's butter soft thighs are straddled across my face, my hands palming her plump ass, and my mouth front and center on her pussy. When I tilt my face up, I notice the filtered sunlight pouring in my bedroom and hitting the side of her in a way that is making the thin layer of sweat on her entire body shimmer.

She's so fucking pretty up there, I start imagining crazy shit like her riding my face just like this but wearing nothing else but a long, lace wedding veil and a fucking smile.

What. The. Fuck.

Just when my tongue starts giving her clit a few rapid flicks and she starts hitting her stride, someone's cell phone starts ringing.

Nonstop.

Whoever the hell it is that's calling one of us, keeps calling back, and it's distracting the fuck out of me. But Elizabeth either doesn't hear it or chooses not to hear it because her hips are still moving at a steady back and forth pace and her almond eyes are still blissfully locked on mine like the obedient sexy ass she is.

As if a fog has been lifted from my brain, it hits me that the ringer tone on the phone doesn't belong to me. It's an old phone tone that some use on their iPhones, but I never select that ring; and I didn't think Elizabeth did either. But maybe she's changed ringtones recently.