Page 63 of After The Storm

He had an idea what she meant and liked the way she thought.

“It might be better if I stay out of sight for a few hours anyway. The cop might still be out looking for us,” he said with a smile.

Lying back onto the pillow, she looked up at him with need in her eyes. “Then you definitely should stay here for a while.”

The way she looked so sexy and beautiful and wanting him made him forget how awful that tiny motel room was. He crawled into bed and kissed her with all the need he felt for her. When he saw her standing there planning to leave, all he could think of was how much he couldn’t let her go. She might get hurt, but even if she was able to take care of herself, he didn’t want to lose her from his life.

He hadn’t let himself feel this way about a woman since before he left for basic all those years ago. Then he’d been so young and naïve about life and the world. He believed in the concept of love and when he asked Emily to marry him, he thought his life had been planned and they’d live happily ever after.

That’s how it was supposed to be. Then events beyond his control took over and ruined his perfect life. The woman he thought he’d spend the rest of his days with was gone, and suddenly he had no one but himself to rely on.

At first, he saw being alone as his punishment for not being there for Emily when she needed him most. Then after a while, it became a way of life for him and he couldn’t imagine ever wanting another person to mean that much to him ever again.

The risk was too much. He might lose another woman he loved again, and he simply refused to let that happen.

So he remained alone.

Life in the service made it almost easy to never put down roots or let someone in. He could always justify not settling down by reminding himself of the danger he lived with every day. Better to be alone than leave a woman who loved him a widow to grieve him.

By the time he left the Army, being single had become a part of him. It was just who he was. Or more correctly, who he’d become over the years.

But the need to protect those who needed his help had remained and become a central piece of his personality, so when Nick offered him the chance to join Project Artemis, he didn’t think twice. Whatever he doubted about Persephone Gilmore’s desire to spend her millions on the idea, he never questioned how important that goal was and how much he believed in it.

He threw himself into each assignment he received, and as he had in the Army, he excelled. Not having ties served him well as it always had, but every so often he wondered how it would feel to have someone to love again. Protecting someone was one thing, but loving them was completely different.

That never happened in any assignment before he met Kate. Maybe it was because he never let himself fall for anyone, or maybe because he kept clients at arm’s length and they couldn’t imagine him as someone who could care for them like a man in love.

He could, though. No matter how far down he pushed the desire to love another woman, it always existed inside him. He acknowledged it sometimes when he lay in bed alone staring into the darkness of wherever he stayed. That recognition that he still secretly hoped that someday he would meet a woman who could love what he’d become after all that time didn’t change the fact that he simply didn’t believe he should let another one in.

Then Kate came into his life and all those reasons he had told himself over the years began to sound like excuses to not let himself be happy. He fought against letting those reasons go because they’d been part of him for so long that they were who he was.

How she broke through a wall he thought had become impenetrable he had no idea, but she had. Slowly at first, knocking a hole in it here and taking a few blocks down there. And then, without warning, that wall came tumbling down, leaving his heart exposed for the first time since Emily’s death.

Now he couldn’t imagine life without Kate. He didn’t want to either. Just as everyone had warned him, it took the right woman and he fell head over heels before he knew what happened. He’d never believed them, never believed it could happen to him because he’d always made sure it couldn’t.

Or at least he thought he had. He wasn’t sure of much of anything anymore since he met Kate, other than he didn’t want to live without what she made him feel ever again. And he’d do whatever it took to keep that in his life.

He watched her as she curled up next to him, her naked body pressed to his, fitting like she was made just for him. Wrapping his arms around her, he held her close and closed his eyes. That burner phone could wait a little while longer.

For now, all he needed in this world he had right there.

Chapter Twenty

Just as shefinished dressing from her shower, Kate heard the door to the motel room open. Peeking her head out, she saw Roman walk in and toss a bag on the bed.

“I’ll be right out,” she called from the bathroom as she tried to make her hair look at least presentable.

This whole living on the run lifestyle did nothing for her look. Clearly, she wasn’t a ride or die type of chick.

Staring into the mirror, she mumbled, “You’re more of a can we stay somewhere nice chick.”

Her hair had decided that flat with a dash of frizzy would be the way she’d look that day, and it didn’t matter how much she tried to give it some volume. Nope, it would just stay like it was, so no point in fussing with it any more.

She found Roman sitting on the bed with the phone in his hand as he activated the burner cell. She’d never seen this before, just like she’d never been on the run from the law before, so she watched intently.

Looking over his shoulder, she asked, “So who were you when you bought this? Roman or that other name?”

“Michael Trenton,” he said flatly, as if she should know that name.