Rome: A Marked Men Novel (30 page)

each of my abs and curved her hands over the dip on each side of my hipbones. She gave me a saucy grin

and lifted herself up only to slide back down excruciatingly slow.

“You know you’re going to have to work twice as hard when that hood piercing comes out.”

I grunted my response because she was squeezing me with delicate flutters all along the inside. If it was

possible, my cock got even harder and throbbed even more violently. I curved a hand over one of her

breasts and tapped the puckered nipple none too gently with my thumb. I saw her suck in a breath and her

pace picked up as she rocked back and forth on top of me.

“You can put it back in later, though, can’t you?” I swore loudly because she worked a hand between us

and raked her nails lightly across my balls. Like I needed any more stimulation. I threaded my fingers in her

hair and pulled her down so I could suck her bottom lip into my mouth.

“Like it, do you?” She whispered the words against my mouth and I chuckled back at her. Every guy

should be able to find a girl who made him this happy in bed and out.

“I like everything about you.”

She arched her back and put her hands over mine where they were kneading the tender mounds of her

breasts. She threw back her head and gasped my name, which turned into a moan as I moved my legs a

little farther apart, stretching her out and giving her movements more friction. Sometimes the difference in

our size totally worked to my advantage. Pulling her apart, filling her up, made it all the better for me and I

could tell by the cloudy haze of desire in her eyes that it totally worked for her, too.

The drag and pull of soft and hard, the rubbing of her ring against turgid flesh, the flash of her flowers

against my scarred skin was too much to hold out against and we both broke over the pinnacle together. I

wanted to scream that I loved her, to tell her that she was the best thing to ever happen to me, but I didn’t

want to scare her any more than I already had today. She collapsed on top of me and kissed the place on

my chest where my heart was starting to settle into a steady rhythm. I rubbed a hand up and down her spine

and felt her quiver along me.

“You’re trouble.” The laughter in her tone was contagious and I chuckled, which made both of us suck

in a breath since we were still joined intimately together.

“I’m worth it.”

Her eyes flashed all those colors at me when she looked up at me. She dropped a bunch of little kisses

along my jaw and hooked her pinkie finger in mine.

“It’s about time you realized it. Now tell exactly how you ended up owning the Bar.”

We stayed naked and sprawled together while I tried to explain Brite’s madness and my good fortune to

have so many people determined to save me from myself. By the time we got around to dinner, it was ice

cold but it was still the best thing I ever ate because she made it and because soon I was going to have her

all to myself in a place all our own. Happiness wasn’t something I remembered bright and clear, but this

feeling, it was powerful enough that I understood why men went to war over it, fought to the death for it.

CHAPTER 13

Cora

I was running late. I had already called the guys at the shop to let them know they would have to open

the doors without me. I was scrambling to pull on a pair of cute, glittery flats and tame hair that was all

spiked up and out of control from Rome’s hands. He had risen with the sun and gone running with Ayden.

I don’t know how he did it, because after his startling declaration, a drab dinner, and about five minutes of

TV, he had decided that was enough and took me back to bed for the rest of the night. I was sore, totally

worked over, and scared out of my ever-loving mind.

He had taken Ayden up on an offer of a ride so that he didn’t have to wake me up. Well, that’s what he

said, but I was pretty sure he would rather ride a mule to and from places than ride in the Cooper. It was

just one of the things about him I was pretty sure I loved right back. I just couldn’t tell him that.

Love had broken me once. It gave me unrealistic expectations and had changed me on a raw and

fundamental level. What I felt for Jimmy didn’t hold a candle to the emotions, the wealth of feeling, Rome

Archer evoked in me. The big, gruff soldier had worked his way into places I didn’t even know existed. I

was filled right up to the top with him and I was really afraid if I told him how I felt, all those emotions

would overflow and neither one of us would know how to clean up the mess. I didn’t want to be without

him, but I wasn’t ready to hand my heart over to him carte blanche either.

Having a man like Rome use the L-word was a heady thing. All the great things that made him who he

was, his strengths, his loyalty, his care, his unwavering conviction that I was who he wanted for the rest of

forever … it would be so easy to just give myself over to him completely. I was so scared about what

would happen if it didn’t work out that I just couldn’t do it. I could only hope the big guy would be patient

with me while I tried to unravel it all in my head. There was a lot going on up there—the baby, moving in

together, him taking over the bar, and being totally sex drunk on him and his ridiculous body. A girl needed

a minute to catch her breath; only I didn’t get one.

Just as I was running out the door my phone rang and I couldn’t ignore it because it was my dad. I

stopped and took a seat on the front step of the house. I kicked my legs out in front of me and steeled

myself for the typical interrogation I got when I hadn’t talked to him in over a month.

“Hey, Daddy.”

“You staying out of trouble, sunshine?” My dad was a gruff, take-no-crap man, but I never doubted for

a single second his undying devotion to me.

I looked at my boobs, which were way bigger than they had been a month ago, and at the round swell

of a belly that I had never, ever had before.

“Not exactly.” I wasn’t quite sure how to break the news to him. When I had fallen apart after Jimmy,

my dad had done his best to put me back together, but there were just some things a girl’s dad couldn’t fix

for her and a broken heart was one of them.

I heard him sigh. “So you saw that the wedding is off?”

I was clicking the toes of my sparkly shoes together and patting my tummy and only listening to him

with half an ear.

“What wedding, Daddy?”

“Cora, are you even paying the slightest attention to me?”

“Yeah, I just have a lot on my mind. Things have been crazy here. You should come visit.”

He laughed and it sounded like rusty pans banging together.

“There’s no air there, baby girl.”

He wasn’t wrong. So I smiled and trapped the phone between my cheek and my shoulder.

“I met a guy, Dad.”

“Oh, Cora.”

I laughed at him. “No, Dad, you’ll like him.”

“I doubt it.” He huffed and puffed like any good dad who never wanted to admit his daughter ever had

sex did.

“He’s different. Not like Jimmy at all. He was in the army.”

“You’re dating a soldier?” He sounded so incredulous I debated being seriously offended.

“I’m dating an ex-soldier, but more than that, I’m dating a really good man. He’s special, Daddy.”

“That’s all I ever wanted for you. And with Jimmy calling the wedding off to that girl, I’m happy you

have someone so you aren’t tempted to contact that piece of shit. Let that dog lie exactly where you left

him.”

I almost dropped the phone. I had been so busy with Rome, so caught up with the baby and trying to

figure out what I was going to do next, that I hadn’t given Jimmy or the wedding a single thought, let alone

spent a single second Internet-stalking him.

“What?”

I heard my dad sigh and swear under his breath.

“Apparently the little chickie he was stepping out on you with took a page out of his book. He caught

her stepping out on him with one of the other artists at the shop. He tracked your aunt down looking for

you. I told her to tell him it’s been too long, too much water under the bridge. Next time I’ll let him know

you’ve moved on to someone else.”

I had moved on. Jimmy was very much a part of my past, but that didn’t stop my heart from thudding

hard and heavy in my chest and my ears from ringing. I must have made a noise of distress because my dad

demanded to know if I was okay.

I had to rapidly shake my head to get my thoughts ordered back together.

“I’m fine, Dad. That was just a blast from the past I wasn’t expecting.”

“But it doesn’t matter because you’ve moved on, right?”

“Right.” Only I didn’t sound nearly as confident about it as I wished I did. I took a deep breath and let it

out slowly. “Dad, I’m pregnant, so air or no air, you need to come to Denver when this baby gets here.” He

was my only family and I needed him here for the birth.

Echoing silence met my declaration. I knew he wasn’t going to give me a long-distance high five, but

the absolute quiet wasn’t expected either.

“Daddy?”

He cleared his throat and sounded even rougher than usual when he decided to speak. “You happy

about it, sunshine?”

“I was surprised and I freaked out, but I’m happy about it. Like I said, he’s a good man, Dad. He isn’t

going to let either of us down. He tells me that he’s all in and I believe him.”

“That’s a lot of faith you’re handing over to him after what you’ve been through, Cora.” My dad,

always the über-pragmatic sailor. I wish I could tell him I hadn’t really handed anything over yet because I

was too scared to let go. He would tell me to stop being such a sissy and just give it up.

“I know. But I do trust him.”

“Well, I’m proud of you. I might not tell you enough, but the way you rebuilt your life, it was

something else. I know I never knew how to handle all that girly shit with kid gloves, but you make me

wish I had been a better dad, and I know you’ll be a terrific mom.”

I choked up a little and climbed to my feet. “No one is perfect, Admiral Ass Hat. I turned out okay and

you did what you could. I should’ve been a boy.”

He snorted at me. “Be glad you aren’t, because then I would have to kick your ass every time you call

me that. When is that baby due? I need to buy a plane ticket.”

I told him around the end of March and he swore he would be there. He asked me a million questions

about Rome and about how I was feeling, and I didn’t realize that I was crying silent tears until I got off the

phone with him. My dad and I had a complicated relationship, but I loved him and I forgot how much I

missed him until times like this. Family was important, that’s why I was going to make sure this baby had

as much of it as I could. I rubbed my palms over my face and raced to the shop.

When I barreled in the door the guys were already busy with their clients, but Nash was the first one to

look up and frown at me.

“You and Rome at it again?”

I made a face at him and threw my stuff on the desk and sat down.

“No. I’m pregnant and emotional. I’m going to cry and it isn’t always going to be Rome’s fault, so chill

out.”

He grunted at me and went back to his client while I fired up the computer. I told myself I wasn’t going

to look, that I shouldn’t look, but sure enough, the first thing I did was log onto Facebook and pull up

Jimmy’s page. Of course all the pictures of him and the tattoo tramp were gone and his status had switched

from engaged to single. I couldn’t get my head around how that made me feel. Not happy, not sad, not

vindicated … I just felt weird and I didn’t like it. I was going to flip back over the appointment page and

start weeding through the private messages on the page we used for the shop when one caught my eye. It

had my name on it and it had been sent a couple days ago.

I felt my body still as I clicked it open and saw Jimmy’s smiling face in the sender space. I needed to

erase it, needed to get away from the computer. It had been too long for him to try and reach out to me, too

much damage had been done, but despite all of that, I was compelled to read it.

Cora: I know it’s been years and I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but I want you to know that

I understand now how badly I hurt you. It’s hard to ignore when the exact same thing happened to

me. Everyone in the shop knew Ashley and Drake were hooking up behind my back while she had

my ring on her finger and no one said a word. I just wanted to try and make it right. You were a

great girlfriend and I should have treated you so much better. Your aunt said you moved to Denver

and I figured you would have hooked up with Phil. The shop looks nice. If you are open to it, give

me a call. I would really like to make amends. I’ve missed you.

He left an e-mail address and a phone number, but I hit delete and just stared at the monitor. Well,

wasn’t that all kinds of a mind fuck?

“Now what? You look like you’ve seen a ghost?”

I spun the chair around and met Nash’s curious gaze.

“Have you ever had your heart broken, Nashville?”

He growled at me, which made his client laugh.