Page 53 of Iron Shield
She focused on the food in front of her. “I’m going to lose my job.”
“Better than losing your life.”
She bowed her head. “Can you at least see about getting my things moved out of my apartment into storage? I don’t want to lose everything.”
Her request hurt him. He hated that she was going through this. “I’ll see what I can do. Anything else?”
She whirled. “Yes. I’m allowed to talk to whoever I want. Rivers included.”
In one stride, he closed the distance between them, trapping her against the counter, hemming her in with his body. If she stepped backward, she’d only find him blocking her way.
The intoxicating scent of her shampoo lured him closer until his nose practically brushed her curls. “You’re free. But only I get to taste your sweetness, Stina.”
She sucked in a sharp breath, a satisfying shiver rippling through her entire body. She still held a knife, but he wasn’t worried about anything except someone walking in on him while he fucked her on the counter.
Her chest heaved as she fought for air, and he leaned closer until his lips met the silky shell of her ear.
Her spine snapped stiff. “This is a bad idea, Rome.”
“What is?”
“You standing this close.”
Drawn closer, his lips almost grazed her ear. “You’re the one who came looking for me yesterday.”
“I came to clear the air.”
“You still ended up in my bed.”
She jerked her head, piercing him with those eyes that sparked with more than anger.
“Keep looking at me like that and I’m going to forget we’re standing in a kitchen.”
The breath left her in a rush.
For one long second, neither of them moved.
Then Rome pushed away from the counter before common sense abandoned him completely.
* * * * *
Stina drove the twenty-pound slam ball into the rubber gym floor. She bent to heft it into her arms and slammed it down again.
By the fifth rep she was breathing harder, and by the tenth, her arms were jelly. “I thought those trays at work were heavy,” she gasped out.
A few feet away, Jolie was sprinting at an incline on the treadmill. “No kidding. You should see the guys in here. They throw the sixty-pound ball around like it’s a frisbee.”
Stina’s brain filled with a fantasy of watching Rome working out and almost dropped the ball.
She shook herself. Her entire reason for coming to the gym was tostopthinking about Rome. But every time she heard footsteps in the hall, her gaze shot to the entrance, hoping to see the man walk in.
She placed the slam ball where it belonged and moved to the shoulder press equipment. When she tried to do the exercise, she couldn’t even budge the weight.
“What do these guys have this thing set to? Three hundred pounds?” She got up and adjusted it from the entire stack of weights to the lowest setting.
Jolie huffed out a laugh and slowed her sprint. “I saw Rome in here early this morning on that machine.”
She issued a nonchalant snort and settled again in position. “What kind of name is Rome anyway?”
