Page 66 of Sugar & Ink
Rome snorted. “You thought I slept next to my bike?”
“I thought there was a chance.”
“There is not.”
“Disappointing.”
A grin tugged at his mouth.
I liked that I got to see his smiles now. The first day I met him, I wasn’t sure the man knew how to smile. Now I knew better. Now I knew a lot of things.
And I knew I was falling for him. That thought should’ve scared me.
Instead, standing in his kitchen with rain falling outside and Rome looking at me like I was the only thing in the room worth paying attention to... I felt safe.
Rome came around the island and I watched him walk toward me.
Tall. Broad shoulders. Dark hair. Tattooed arms.
A man who looked intimidating to everybody else. A man who had never once scared me.
His hands landed on either side of me, caging me in without trapping me. “You got quiet,” he said.
I shrugged. “Thinking.”
“Dangerous.”
I smiled. “About you.”
That surprised him. I could tell by the way his eyebrows lifted. “Good things, I hope.”
“Mostly.”
“Mostly?”
I looked down, because suddenly I felt shy.
Which was ridiculous. I was thirty-six years old and somehow one tattooed man could still make me nervous.
Rome hooked a finger beneath my chin. “Hey.”
I looked up. “What?”
“What’re you thinking?”
I swallowed. “That I don’t understand you.”
His thumb brushed my jaw. “What’s not to understand?”
I laughed softly. “You look like trouble.”
“I am trouble.”
“But you’re...” I searched for the word. “Good.”
Rome frowned.
“What if I told you I rob old ladies on weekends?”
