Love Found Me (A City Love Novel, Book 1) (11 page)

Things have changed. A lot has changed and still is changing. I don't know if I'll ever meet the man of my dreams. If he's even out there, I mean. And how, by some mind-blowing miracle--he'll ever find me, or if I'll ever find him?

Chapter Nine

Roman slid his keys off the table to sprint downstairs and grab a couple spiced lattes from the local coffee haven on the corner. His brain hadn't quite clicked on yet, even though sirens discoed at six, before the sun woke.

Roman planned to slide out of the apartment before Danielle noticed he was gone. But, at the very moment he flung the door open to leave, his eyes widened like saucers, "Mindy, what are you doing here?"

Roman shuddered as he backed into the door. The woman was poised at the threshold with one hand on her hip, and the other finessed a barricade walling off his exit.

"How 'bout we take our coffee in this morning," the woman said, licking the outline of her lips, as she tantalized his charm.

The light tan covering her freckled complexion made her bright blue eyes stand out even more. Her bottle-blonde bob faded into her beige velour tam, but her orange gloss popped off the optic white scarf swiped atop caramel leather.

He'd forgotten all about their breakfast date, but his on again off again girlfriend and mostly client had been on the fence rather than riding it. If things had gone differently, he knew he would have whipped the crooked grin off her face well past breakfast.

Only after meeting Danielle, Roman couldn't whip naughty even if he tried. Even with an illumed fading starlight sparkling her intense blue eyes.

Mindy's eyes were smoldering full desire as she looked up at him. "How 'bout I give you," she purred in her sultry sex kitten voice as she traced the outline of his lips with her carroty orange fingertip, "a little morning massage and we--" Her eyes suddenly darted toward the bedroom hall, as her fingers poised and drew away from his face.

She smoothed back her honey-colored highlights to their most glorious luster. While her fishnet stockings tongued,
I'm easy. Come and take me
.

"Who's she?" Mindy called over his broad shoulders.

Mindy's eyes were wide as she looked behind him and sharpened her easy smile. Obviously, surprise had frozen her in place at his doorstep as it took her a minute to focus her eyes on the woman slinked in a silky robe to her hips.

The dimness had masked Danielle's beauty until she flipped the light on, "Roman--" Danielle paused. Stunned by the woman's presence, she clutched her robe to her chest gingerly backing toward the hall back to the bedroom.

Roman's eyes darted from the bottle-blonde to Danielle's svelte poise like a beautiful opalescent angel. The way the fading moonlight danced across the open rafters, radiating her dreamy bronze afterglow, caressing its glimmer from her curvy hips to her toes.

Her hair was just as luscious as the day before, riding down her bosom in soft, silky loose curls. He'd only vision her naked sultriness swelling his desire, undulating his pearlescent passion.

Roman was still intensely focused on Danielle. He couldn't take his eyes off her when she'd paused at the foot of the hallway. She'd looked sexy in pearl silk-- a fact he knew Mindy was all too quick to notice the shameless and brazen attempt to tantalize him.

Before he could think fast enough and get Mindy out of there, she burst past him in her sky-high heels to the living room with last year's designer handbag and matching patent leather boots repeating, "I
said
who is
she
?" Mindy froze as her eyes darted between the two of them.

"I don't owe you an explanation," he said, as frustration with himself and for her busting into the privacy of his quarters made the words sharpened. Mindy looked irritated. Her heel tapping was muted by the fir under toe as she daggered her eyes.

As he looked back and forth between the women, he waited for the backlash. It wasn't long for Roman to guess that Danielle would begin the sparring match.

Danielle folded her arms and asked the woman, "So... who are you, Roman's girlfriend?"

Circling closer, Mindy's eyes roved Danielle from head to toe, "I see your tastes have improved Roman." Mindy gave Roman a slanting glance as she cocked her brow and formed a slightly impish grin.

He moved back across the room to Danielle, "Ah... ladies." But before anything had a chance to stir, he cleared his throat-- heaving heavy dramatic sighs in between.

All of a sudden bursts of laughter clanged the rafters of the apartment. Both Danielle and Mindy watched him recover from the anticipated angst. Roman wouldn't have guessed he could've aroused a smile in Danielle, just like the one that melted his heart when he first saw her.

"I'm Mindy," the woman held a hand out to Danielle as she replied, "Nice to meet you, I'm Danielle."

"I'll just go back to--" Danielle spoke softly.

"No," Roman countered, "Don't leave. Mindy was just leaving." He daggered a look to Mindy that said--
Get out now
. Roman peered at Mindy curiously. Intelligence lurked in those guileless blue eyes, but obviously she hadn't the shrewdness to realize the welcome mat was long overdue.

"Huh?" Mindy asked, startled. Her eyes widened before she even realized what had happened. The way she was leaning on the sofa arm perfectly poised one minute, and out the door the next.

"How'd you like the way her heels glided right off the carpet before I slammed the door behind her--" he gave Danielle a wry smile, as he moved toward her nearing the foot of the hall.

"I bet she's not the first you've had to--"

"What--"

"I mean, I bet you've got a slew of women, waiting to--"

"Waiting to what?" He asked as if he was startled to see her brazen audacity to label him. He couldn't stand the thought of being pegged a party boy. Although, life to him was just that-- It was one big party-- Nothing serious, as far as Roman was concerned. Not that his engine stayed in park. But, he just wasn't ready to turn his sports car into a van for four.

Roman raised his voice another octave, "What'd you mean," his voice demanding. "Waiting to what?" He repeated his question and her gaze flew to his scowling face.

Sounding impishly brusque she said, "You know. Rock your world. Quiver your bones." She'd barely stalled. She could feel herself mounting tenseness the longer she spoke.

But it had all flooded through her-- she'd barely had a chance to process the filter that didn't seem to be at all present. "You want to get all R-rated about it. Huh? You want to get all mature about it--fuse your balls with their naked flesh--mature about it."

He gasped in a choked voice, "Balls?" As he asked, "Is that you talking Danielle?" He drew a deep breath, "Did I hear you correctly?" Suddenly, his attention whipped to her silky tie belt that was inching its way open, gaping through to her shapely thigh--that already poised a figure--she needn't worry of any feminine opposition, as far as his eyes were concerned.

"Let's just say your little female friends would rather bite and lick their way up your--"

"Danielle!" He bolstered from his silken preoccupation, and was caught by her eyes again, hardly ever reaching a breath of resistance. He could still see the beauty in her, whether she was scowling.

Danielle wasn't surprised, that women were a magnet to his rich, sensual prowess, and his revved up engine gave exactly that impression-- attracting fast, faster, curvy, beautiful and expensive. But, he was no fool to fall for all that glitters. He wasn't a ticket to ride, nor would he ever be. Even if he were ready for love-- he'd know true love once he'd found it.

Danielle barely caught her breath as she went on, "I bet it's wild... purring on your pillow, all sorts of--"

Given the fact that Roman had a thing for a revved up, supercharged engine, it was no surprise he'd wanted his women the same way.

Roman came towards her, when she'd almost backed into the wall. He fought to focus on whatever was driving her utter impulse. Knowing it wouldn't help the situation; he'd just about had enough when his scowl suddenly rose to match the tonality in his voice. "Danielle, stop. Just stop it. That's enough!"

She'd simply looked at him. And then she continued in the next breath. "I bet you just
love
," she echoed, "a little late-night massage with a bucket of ice down your--"

He could feel her warm breath tickling the little hairs on his chest, all but starting to tantalize him, as if he hadn't had enough going on at the moment.

"Danielle!" He wiped the sweat off his brow. "You have such a vivid imagination-- animated is more like it." He swallowed at the look in her eyes, at the fact she was hell bent on rocking his nerves with sobering accusations.

"God, sometimes I just don’t get you." Roman paused, as he threaded his fingers through his hair with a long sigh, he went on, "Why must you probe such delicate matters of the heart."

"Roman. You're joking." There was a long pause when she'd simply stood with mockery still in her eyes. She was focused. She wasn't laughing, but clearly calibrating her frustration.

"Seriously," she asked, as her frustration suddenly shifted to a smirk when he'd tipped his head back and briefly closed his eyes. Her cheeks turned crimson to his silent response.

His gaze narrowed, as he'd tucked his hands deep into his jean pockets.

Danielle went on, as if he still hadn't had enough. "Yeah, I bet you would've been all over that had I not--"

A slight quake came over him as he'd remembered the way she'd looked at him when she thought he'd had another woman. And the fact she'd doubted him before.

His husky voice was a little gentler, softer in fact. When finally he'd said, "I care about you Danielle. Not her. Why won't you believe me," he replied, with perfect honesty, as he drew his hands from his pockets.

Amazingly, after last night's brawled intrusion, the apartment was breathtakingly spotless. But, even still, after he'd defended her honor, she stood to question his motives. If Roman didn't know better, he'd wonder about his own qualms. But he knew himself too well-- his virtuous character and noble generosity to ever be anything but a more than ample suitor. Although in his mind, he'd wonder what it would take to please her.

Danielle all but considered the love she'd been denying herself far too long, to revisit that conversation from yesterday...

Danielle, there is more to life than your career. Love is what you've been denying yourself for far too long. Love can find you, if you keep an open mind to find it.

Her mind fell short of recalling the risk she'd had to take to love-- the vulnerability of heartbreak was all-consuming.

But, in spite of it all, she'd managed to pull herself down to earth the second she saw his hazel eyes sparkling daylight. She watched him try to grin, looking down at his wallet cupped to his pocket. Rays of sunlight had already started to pour into the apartment, prickling the height of his stubble chiseling a lightly hairy armor.

"You were going to pick up some coffees... for us... for me weren't you?" she asked. She moved closer towards him, as she looked straight up into his eyes. Her expression drew languid.

She put her hands on his chest before adding in a softer voice, "That's sweet but believe it or not, I don't think there's really anything going on between you two." Her voice held a spry note of hesitation. "But sometimes I wonder though, a man as handsomely gorgeous as you could have his pick of women. And I'm certain they lust after you like hungry animals. Sultry felines sashaying their sassy butts like voracious volcanoes wanting one thing-- and one thing only."

"Seriously, you know you could have any woman you want?" She told him in perfect honesty.

"But I don't--" Roman put his hand on her shoulder for a moment.

The next minute, he had trailed his hand down her arm, and grabbed her hand weaving his fingers in and out of hers. As he pulled her toward the sofa, his hand never left hers for a minute. All that mattered was assuring her, she had no cause for suspicion.

Crossing her legs, Roman's gaze flew to the silky tie belt rolling against her thigh with every beat of vibration her tongue thrust between breaths. She pushed her hair out of her face, as she felt his hand tighten around hers.

And shouldn't she have been feeling something other than caution stirring every cell in her? He'd barely had a chance to utter there was no one else in his life but her. But would she have even considered anything otherwise?

She'd had yet to cut through her gripes. Clearly, honesty hadn't completely poured outside of her. But, when would she have discovered how wrong she was-- well, at least when it'd came to his choice in women.

He could see that she was anxious again, when he'd felt her hand shaking in his, as it slowly glided from his. The instant she'd paused to take a deep breath, she said, "I've seen women, out of desperation that'll do anything to please a man. Whether they came from sordid pasts--none of us are perfect--but I just know their souls couldn't possibly spark the love they need in themselves."

Danielle quickened a vision of his syrupy flirtations and charming sophistication that would boost a girl off her feet and into his luring wiles in a split second. She could just imagine his suave persona chatting it up with a flock of gorgeous women just waiting to take off with him--women on parade like a floral bouquet of exotic delicacies.