Roman: Book 2 (The Hunter Brothers Series) (30 page)

I curled up,
watching him as he sat on the chair by the window. He was opposite the bed and
crossing his foot casually over his knee and assessing me closely. “Are you mad
at me?” I whispered as he nodded silently, pulling his ringing phone from his
pocket. Suddenly he looked livid.

“You might have
mentioned the fact you’d bought the record company, since my brother is now
your biggest asset,” Charlie snapped. He hadn’t even said hello. “Fuck embargos
and NDA’s, Scarlett, this is family.” He was listening hard, shaking his head
angrily and still staring at me.

“I assume you knew
that Lucas and I were set to sign this deal.” His voice was calm, but the
undercurrent of his tone was uncharacteristically stern and I wondered if this
was the shark in Charlie coming out. The thought did nothing but turn me into a
horny quivering mess, and before I knew what I was doing I was on top of the
sheets, lounging sexily in my underwear as he stood up, turning away and
staring out of the window.

“Lucas thinks I
told you about the deal and you undercut us deliberately.” He paused for a
moment. “Yeah, I know I didn’t, but it’s too much of a coincidence, Scarlett,
and he doesn’t believe it.” He was listening again, blowing out a huge deep
sigh. “Roberta told you? Did she tell you about Elite as well?”

I stretched out,
moaning softly as his head snapped around and he threw me an icy warning glare
to be quiet as I stilled instantly. This was a side to Charlie I had never
seen.

“It was nothing.
We’ll discuss this tomorrow,” he said angrily, ending the call and turning to
face me. “Get in that fucking bed now. I swear to God the women in my life are
conspiring to put me in an early grave. NOW,” he shouted as I dived under the
covers.

He pulled the soft
cotton sheets up until they were nestling under my chin and I couldn’t help but
giggle as I glanced down to see the huge erection that was tenting in his
jeans. “Why are you so mad?” I asked as he made his way back to the chair.

“I think you know
why, now go to sleep,” he said in a voice that brokered no argument. I didn’t
care.

“I don’t want to
go to sleep, I want you to come here,” I pouted. The three per cent of my brain
was telling me I sounded like a five year old. Unfortunately the vodka addled
ninety seven was having none of it.

“What for?” he
asked and suddenly he was grinning, which for some reason absolutely incensed
me and I threw the covers back, climbed out of bed and stormed over to him with
my hands on my hips.

“Why is Roman a
deal breaker?” I asked as he sat back in the chair, regarding me with amusement
and running his gaze all over my body.

“We’ll have this
conversation when you’re sober.”

“No, let’s have it
now.” I was trying to stay upright and focus on the middle of the three
Charlie’s that were sitting in front of me. He laughed again.

“You want me to
fuck you, Chas, which I won’t do because I’m fucking someone else. She may not
be my girlfriend, and I may really, really want to do this thing, but I am not
a cheat. On top of that you fucked my brother. If I didn’t care about you, that
wouldn’t matter, but I do. As a guy, I’ve got to tell you, baby, that’s a major
headfuck,” he said as I stumbled backwards.

“I said don’t stay
the night unless you want her back. You stayed the night. You act like you want
me, but I wasn’t good enough to risk a relationship for, yet you’ll have one
with her. You think fucking Roman hurts, try swallowing that pill,” I shouted
as he stared at me for a second, shocked and confused, still holding my gaze as
I desperately tried to focus.

“In vino veritas,”
he said, rising from the chair and picking me up, tucking me back under the
covers.

“I don’t know what
that means,” I said as he laughed softly, but his eyes were as pained as I had
ever seen them.

“It’s Latin, look
it up,” he said and it was the last thing I remembered.

Chapter Twenty Four

He was beside me
when I woke. On top of the covers and fast asleep as I lurched towards the
bathroom with my head in my hands, crouching at the toilet bowl and wondering
what the hell I had done. I had flashbacks of the night and little more, but
there was a cold dark clawing in my gut that was telling me I would live to
regret this.

My stomach heaved
as I wretched, putting my hands on my forehead in an effort to stop the
incessant banging as I emptied the meagre contents of my vodka soaked gut into
the toilet, still in my underwear. I pulled myself up on the basin, utilising
one of the cellophane wrapped toothbrushes and toothpaste to clear my mouth of
the horrible taste of vomit. I gasped loudly with a mouth full of foam as I saw
Charlie lounging sexily against the doorframe, still fully clothed and smirking
at me through the mirror.

I was in the most
vulnerable position of my adult life, and acutely aware that my butt crack was
covered by the tiniest scrap of material. “Charlie, turn away,” I gasped,
spitting toothpaste all over the sink as he laughed loudly and didn’t move.

“I saw it all last
night, baby, when you were writhing seductively across the bed and trying to
tempt me into cheating on Scarlett,” he said as the colour drained from my face
and I collapsed in a wave of nausea that was not entirely physical. Fuck. “I
just came to check you were okay,” he smiled as I shook my head.

 
“Well I feel like a prize fool for throwing
myself at you when you are neither available nor interested, and I feel like my
brain is about to thud its way out of my skull. On top of that, I’m sick as a
dog, but simultaneously starving.”

He laughed gently,
watching me closely. “You need bananas and water,” he grinned as I shook my
head. Was he kidding?

“No, Charlie, I
need coke and something deep fried. Anything; I don’t care what it is. I need
copious amounts of saccharine and saturated fat.”

“You’ll feel
worse,” he smirked and I wanted to slap him.

“No, I’ll feel
better,” I snapped as he disappeared and the door to the room slammed shut.

I flopped back
down on the bed for what felt like an eternity, until Charlie came up empty
handed, except for a can of coke and I was gutted.

“Before I ball you
out, like I’m about to do – let me precede this bollocking by saying; thank you
for the lovely hotel. Thank you for looking after me. Thank you for not
recalling in every horrifying and mortifying detail everything I said last
night; and thank you for knowing I can be an idiot and standing by me anyway,”
I smiled up at him as he handed me the coke.

I was about to
continue with a chastisement for the lack of food when a veritable army of
waiting staff descended on my almost nakedness. I pulled the covers over me
quickly.

I was staring in
astonishment at the rows of silver platters lined up, crawling out from under
the covers at the strong waft of bacon as Charlie walked away, returning with a
huge fluffy robe that he wrapped around me, tying the cord tightly.

“That’s better,”
he said as I looked up at him, somewhat offended, but deciding not to challenge
him, removing the largest silver dome and eyeing up the fried delicacies as
another wave of nausea washed over me and I ran to the bathroom.

I heaved and
heaved as Charlie held my hair, laughing gently as I stood up eventually and
caught sight of my drawn, pale face in the mirror. I was ghostly white. “Do you
want me to get rid of the food?” he smiled as I nodded. “You clean your teeth
and have a glass of water,” he said as I did just that, making my way back into
the bedroom, glad the silver domes had disappeared, taking the stench of fried
food with them.

Charlie was
holding the covers back on the bed, smiling as he gestured me inside. He sat
down beside me, handing me a cup of sweet tea and peeling the skin from a
banana, feeding me piece by little piece. The second I’d finished he smiled
gently. The last thing I wanted to do was talk about last night, so I opted for
a change of subject with another little snippet I’d remembered.

“Did I dream it or
did Scarlett buy Tyler’s record label?” I asked as his smile faded and he
nodded silently.

“Yes, she fucking
undercut us at the eleventh hour, and I have no idea how she knew exactly what
price to pitch. That was a done deal,” he said the anger evident on his face.
“She says she bought Elite to compliment that purchase because they do a lot of
events with the artists, and two marketing based internet start up companies to
give her some promotional power,” he said. She was right about Elite, but I
still couldn’t help but think this was somehow personal. Maybe it wasn’t.

“Oh” I said,
wishing I’d never brought up the subject. Judging by the look on his face he
wasn’t remotely happy that I had.

“We need to talk
about last night,” he said as I flushed crimson. Oh God. I could remember
little, other than I’d tried to unsuccessfully seduce him and that he’d told me
Roman was a deal breaker.

“I don’t usually
drink that much, Charlie, I can’t handle it. You have to forget what I said and
did because I can’t even remember,” I said as he chuckled.

“So you don’t
remember stretching out in your underwear on top of the bed, wriggling around
sexily while I was on the phone to my non
girlfriend
?”
he asked, raising his eyebrows as he held my gaze. I did now. I put my head in
my hands as he laughed gently.

“It looked like
you wanted to be more than friends last night,” he said as I swallowed hard,
cringing in mortification. I still didn’t want an outright rejection from
Charlie. That alone could threaten our friendship. He’d made it clear more than
once that he wasn’t available for anything else and I needed to salvage this
thing. The last thing I wanted was Charlie to feel uncomfortable or awkward
around me, and the thought of losing him altogether from my life strangled my
insides.

I sipped on my
tea, glancing up at those incredible blue eyes and my heart was hammering. “I’m
sorry, Charlie. I was drunk and from what you just said it looks like I took
our flirting up to a whole new level. You’re my friend, and you’re hot. I was
messing around. Can we just forget it?”

I seemed to be
saying that a lot lately. There had been the almost kiss in the tree house, the
birthday tequila shots, the morning after he’d stayed over at my place and now,
last night. I seemed intent on pushing my advances where they weren’t welcome
and if I didn’t stop, one day soon I’d go too far, or he would, and there would
be no way back.

“I don’t want to
forget that incredible visual, Chas,” he smiled, his eyes twinkling
mischievously as he smiled and I leant my head against his chest.
 
“So you didn’t really want me to make love to
you then?” he asked as I swallowed hard.

I was as confused
as ever with his words and his actions and swimming in a sea of uncertainty.
There was no easy way out of this and I decided ambiguity was the only option I
had.

“What do you
think, mate?” I smiled. Any other answer and he’d have known I was lying. He
could read into that what he wanted.

“Good,” he smiled
as I shook my head. His none answer was as infuriating as mine. Was it ‘good’
that I did, or ‘good’ that I didn’t? Well that would serve me right for trying
to be evasive. Now I was more intrigued than ever.

Charlie was
chuckling; a deep, sexy, gravelly laugh that I felt between my thighs and I was
knew that would be written all over my face. There was no way I’d walk away
with the uncertainty of that particular word hanging over me. I’d wind up
obsessing over it endlessly. We were cuddling closely and all I wanted was more
closeness, more intimacy. I felt his touch in every cell of my body and I knew
that he felt it too. He was playing it cool, but the attraction between us was
as unmistakeable as ever. I needed to get to the bottom of this without making
an even bigger fool of myself. Doing it drunk was one thing. There was no going
back if I did it sober.

“How do you mean?”
I asked as he chuckled again and I looked up at him as he returned my gaze with
a casual, smug smile as he quirked his eyebrow at me.

“What do you
think, mate?”

Charlie had just
played me at my own game and won. I wasn’t pushing it any further. When I was
with Roman I’d wanted him, perhaps because I knew I’d lost my chance with
Charlie, or perhaps not. He was intriguing and captivating and the lust was
undeniable. But Charlie was something else. I’d known it from the start, hoped
for more, but we’d always been looking for something different, our timing
somehow off. The sun and the stars had never been aligned for us and after his
revelation last night, it was doubtful they ever would be.

In the last two
weeks I’d been fucked, ditched, burgled and fucked again. Carpe Diem had played
havoc with my senses and I’d lost my way; a complicated mess of feelings that
even I was struggling to unravel. I’d felt vulnerable, uncertain and beyond
confused. I’d abandoned my list and my sanity for the last time, and I was damn
sure I wouldn’t be writhing semi-naked trying to tempt a man into fucking me
again, any time soon. I needed to refocus and reboot, embrace my independence
and move on with my life. He needed to move forward with Scarlett, and we needed
to move forward as friends. I glanced up to catch him smiling at me.

“Let’s go home,
Charlie.”