Roman: Book 2 (The Hunter Brothers Series) (4 page)

‘Four days in a house with Roman Hunter, imagine what could happen –
woohoo!’

I don’t know where
my mind dwelling horny little pixie had sprung from, but I could do to squish
it before I brought a whole heap of trouble on myself. I could barely believe
my eyes when he’d walked through that door, the prodigal son with the dangerous
glint in his eye, and my reaction had been no less extreme than it had in that
graveyard. Then there was Charlie to think about; and I was – endlessly.

I gasped suddenly,
pushed by firm hands into a darkened room that looked like a lounge. The
outline of the furniture was bathed in soft moonlight as my back hit the wall.
Heat radiated from the tall, dark figure standing over me and pinning me in
place with his hands at either side of my head.

“Are you looking
for me?” he asked, the low deep voice cutting through the darkness and sending
those familiar shivers through my skin as I gazed up at him, swallowing hard.

“I was looking for
Charlie,” I said, my breathy voice barely recognisable as he pushed his body
closer, drowning me in his masculine scent as my heart somersaulted in my
chest.

 
“It’s not Charlie you want, Chastity,” he
said, soft firm lips moving closer to mine as my brain raced along with my
heart and I tried to gather my wits and my senses. Right now, if this man
asked, I doubted I’d have known my own name.

His face was
millimetres away and I was melting under the dark, intoxicating spell of Roman
Hunter, being driven by a desire that was laced with a lust so powerful I
couldn’t ever remember feeling this way before. I’d laughed at Jess and her
thunderbolt theories, but this had to be close.

 
“You should know I came back here for you,” he
said, his voice dripping with seduction as I shivered in anticipation. Roman
was an enigma, a complex puzzle that had every cell in my brain screaming for
me to run, while my body stood captivated by that mesmerising gaze, pulling me
in, even as I tried to step away. He was unreachable, unobtainable,
untouchable, only he wasn’t. He was centimetres away, and right now touching
him was all I longed to do. Put my lips to his and see just how good that
forbidden danger tasted.

It wouldn’t last,
I knew that. Even here, where the bonds were unshakable and the love for him
was so palpable you could feel it, he was distant. But those incredible blue
eyes were calling to me so enticingly that I couldn’t look away.

 
“We will happen, Chastity,” he said, with such
forceful conviction that I knew he was right, whether I wanted to accept it or
not. Ordinarily I’d be coming back with a cutting one liner, belittling his
enormous ego or undermining his efforts. It was my speciality. But just as it
was in the graveyard, my mind was blank, my tongue rendered incapable of
response and sticking to the roof of my increasingly dry mouth.

I didn’t want to
argue. I wanted him to be right, and every inch of my shivering skin was only
betraying just how much. My palms were sweating, my heart hammering through my
chest in an autonomic response I was powerless to control. All thought
evaporated as I closed my eyes and held my breath, waiting for the inevitable train
wreck I knew I was inviting into my life. When I finally opened them, he was
gone.

I looked around
me, stunned. How long had I leaned against that wall with my eyes squeezed
closed, waiting for a kiss that never came? It only felt like a second, maybe a
millisecond, but he’d disappeared silently, like vapour, and I hadn’t heard a
thing.

“There you are,”
Charlie laughed as I jumped in the darkness and he looked down at me, puzzled
and bemused, stroking a soft finger across my forehead as I tried to steady my
breathing. “What are you doing in here?” he asked, casting a bemused frown over
my trembling body.

“I was looking for
you, I needed to know that you’re okay,” I stammered.

“You’re sweating,”
he said as a shiver ran through me, my body unable to decide if it was too damn
hot or too damn cold.

 
“You don’t look great, Chas. I think you might
be coming down with something,” he said gently as I shook my head, trying
desperately to think of an excuse to explain away my erratic behaviour,
wondering where the hell Roman had gone.

“I’m fine. I was
trying to find you, to see how things went with Scarlett. I came in here, but I
got spooked. I think this house is scary,” I said as he laughed. That should
work.

“Of course it is;
it’s a stately home, Chas. The original part of the house dates back over three
hundred years. There have been at least four murders and a handful of suicides
here. It’s only right and proper that we have a few ghouls to share the old
place with,” he said as I stared at him in shock.

“Really?” I gasped
as he nodded his head, laughing.

“Sure. I haven’t
seen them, but other people have,” he smiled, flashing his eyebrows.

“I can’t sleep
here then,” I muttered as he frowned.

“Don’t be
ridiculous,” he laughed as I shook my head.

“I’m not. I’ll
drive back.” What was I saying? This little fib was spiralling out of control.
The pixie had won the battle for now. There was no way I was going anywhere.

 
“You won’t, Chas, you’ve had more than a
couple of brandies. Listen, the lodge is set up for guests if you really don’t
want to stay in the house,” he smiled, putting a comforting arm around me.

“I bloody don’t,”
I said, wondering if my white lie had just come back to bite me on the arse. I
didn’t fancy the house much now, but being alone in the lodge by the lake had
‘Midnight Massacre’ written all over it.

“What did Scarlett
say?” I asked, opting for a change of subject. He stared at me momentarily
before walking away and looking out of the huge bay window onto the gravel
drive and the low lit fountain.

“I’m going to see
her, to talk,” he said as I frowned deeply, thinking back to what Lucas had
said and worried that he might be acting rashly.

“Be careful,
Charlie. Can’t you sleep on it and go in the morning?”

He shook his head
ruefully. “She wants to see me now, Chas, and I owe her that. I think she’s
waited long enough for an apology.”

“If she loved you
as much as you said she did, then she might want you back. You buried your dad
today and you’re vulnerable, Charlie. Take your time to decide what you want,
because if you sleep with her, it might mean a whole lot of trouble that you’re
not prepared for. Think things through and make sure you don’t stay over unless
you are absolutely certain that you want to get back with her. Anything else just
isn’t fair on either of you,” I said as he sighed deeply.

“I know, babe. I
doubt she’d want me back after what I did, but she deserves an apology and I need
to do that face to face,” he said, pulling out his phone and calling his driver
to come to the house.

“I mean it,
Charlie. Make sure you think about it from her point of view and don’t get
carried away unless you’re certain what your heart wants. Things are different
when you have a past with someone, and I know you, Charlie Hunter. A
forgiveness fuck won’t be just that, at least not for her. Just be careful,” I
smiled as he hugged me tightly, laughing gently.

“You don’t have a
very high opinion of me, do you, babe? I
can
keep it my pants you know! I’ll go and tell the others. They probably won’t be
too happy with the news.”

I followed him out
of the dark lounge and into the study, taking the chair by the fire, basking in
the warm glow and feeling the piercing eyes of Roman Hunter all over me. My gut
was churning and I wasn’t sure why.

“I’m going over to
Scarlett’s,” Charlie announced as the brothers turned to look at him.

“Think about what
you’re doing,” Lucas said as he nodded curtly. It didn’t look like he wanted
any more advice.

“Chas won’t stay
in the house, I’ve told her she can sleep in the lodge. She’s afraid of the
ghosts,” he grinned as Jess raised her eyebrows.

“Since when are
you afraid of anything, Sis?” she quipped as I turned to look at her, noticing
the smirk that was playing on Romans face and it took all my strength to look
away.

“Since I stood in
that haunted room down the hall,” I said as Charlie nodded.

“Seriously, she
was sweating and shivering,” he laughed as Tyler looked up from his brandy and
Romans smirk broadened. ‘Cheers, Charlie’, I thought. If Roman was in any doubt
about how much he affected me, he wouldn’t be now.

 
“Roman’s staying in the lodge,” Tyler
announced as Charlie’s face fell.

“Why?” he asked as
Roman looked up at him.

“Because I fucking
hate this place,” he said firmly as Charlie cast a glance at Lucas.

“There are two
bedrooms in the lodge, it will be fine,” Lucas said as Charlie frowned at me.
Concern and sadness washed across his features before he was distracted by the
sound of wheels on the gravel outside. I wondered if he was worried about
something happening between me and Roman. Part of me was undeniably worried
about how things would go with Scarlett. We were friends, and we were close,
and I guessed it was a natural reaction. He left the room looking like the
weight of the world was crushing his shoulders and a strange silence ensued.

Tyler was the one
who eventually broke it. “Do you think he’ll come back?” he asked, turning to
Lucas who sighed deeply.

 
“I hope so Tyler,” was his only response. I
risked a glance at Roman who seemed to be watching me intently as my cheeks
flared involuntarily. My sister caught it and smiled to herself. Ordinarily she
was the flusher in the family, not me, and she looked particularly smug.

“It might be a
good thing,” she said, turning to Lucas as he squeezed her hand, laughing
gently.

“Nothing about
Scarlett Everett is ever a good thing.”

“Hey, stop dissing
my sister,” Roman chuckled, but he was the only one who found that little
remark
 
amusing, and it was clear his
brothers were still reeling from his earlier revelations. “Jesus, lighten up,”
he said, pouring another brandy and coming to stand by the fire, looking down
at me. He placed his firm hand on the back of the leather chair, next to my
head. I was trying desperately not to reveal to the rest of the room just how much
his presence bothered me.

“Is she that bad?”
Jess asked as Tyler nodded.

“She’s worse than
that. You wouldn’t know it if you met her, she’s extremely skilled at hiding
her natural disposition if it suits her. If it doesn’t, you’ll know about that
too,” he said as I glanced up at Roman who was smiling, no doubt knowing just
exactly how I was feeling right now as I squirmed under his gaze.

“She’s
manipulative, devious, a compulsive liar with an unshakable ego and a blind
conviction that she’s right about absolutely fucking everything. If she wasn’t
adopted, I’d assume it was genetic,” Roman laughed and this time Tyler laughed
too.

“Jeez,” said Jess
as the room fell silent again.

“She did adore
Charlie though,” Tyler said, sighing deeply. “And whatever we might think of
her, he always maintained that she was really good to him.”

“Where did you go,
Roman?” Lucas asked suddenly.

“Why?” he replied,
switching his lingering gaze from me to his brother.

 
“Because I’ve had a private investigator
trying to track you for months. This guy is really good, but it was a dead end
at every turn, as if you vanished from the face of the earth,” Lucas said
seriously.

“It’s my job to
disappear. Good to know I’m doing well at it,” he smiled with satisfaction as
Lucas held his gaze. “I was in Bosnia, then Serbia and then I had some business
in Syria,” he said as Tyler raised his eyebrows. “I learned he’d died when I
checked the website. Luckily you high profile bastards are easy to keep track
of,” he grinned as Lucas laughed gently. “And I saw your new single on MTV,
Tyler, it’s pretty good,” he said as Tyler smiled broadly.

“Really?” he asked,
the praise from his older brother lighting up his features and I couldn’t help
but smile.

“Yeah. I’m proud
of you, kid,” he said as Tyler bounced up from his chair, hugging Roman tightly
as he put his arm around his neck, wrestling him and ruffling his hair as Jess
and I laughed. Even Lucas was smiling and it was good to see. The events of the
day had taken a huge toll on everyone, but my mind was racing.

Roman Hunter was a
mystery. What the hell kind of job made you need to disappear to Eastern Europe
for months on end? I was desperate to ask, but there was something about the
man that made me stop. He was hardly an open book, and even his brothers who’d
paid a P.I. to try and trace him weren’t asking. I felt sure they would if they
could. From the snippets I’d picked up from Jess, no one really knew what Roman
did and I wasn’t certain it was altogether above board. There was something
dangerous lurking there, and right now it only added to the sexual appeal. I really
needed to get this thing under control.