Chapter Seven
Alex glanced across the dining room table. Last night, she kissed her husband, and this morning, he hadn’t been anywhere to be found. She hadn’t gone looking for him, and Millie had told her that Roman, Lucas, and Liam headed out early, so she spent the day sewing.
Tapping her fingers on her leg, she didn’t have a single thing to say to break the awkward silence.
Her father had come home and ordered her to go to dinner with Roman. This was a ruse. Liam wanted to see how far the threat went, and even though he hated using her as bait, she was the intended target of whoever was after her. She had been told time and time again that his men, as well as Greco’s men, were everywhere.
The restaurant was fancy, the kind designed for lovers.
Not for the first time, she licked her lips, and again, her mind flashed to the moment Roman kissed her. She didn’t understand why it was constantly playing a loop in her mind. It was just one kiss. The only kiss she’d ever experienced.
There would come a time when she would have more kisses to compare them to. Even as she thought that idea, she knew it was laughable. At twenty-one years old, Roman, her actual husband, was the first and only man to kiss her. It was pitiful.
She had to wonder if other women felt this way.
“How was your day?” she asked.
“You’re thinking about it,” Roman said.
“What?”
He smiled and leaned back in his chair. “You’re thinking about our kiss last night.”
Her cheeks immediately felt way too hot. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“In the past five minutes, you’ve licked your lips five times, and each time you do, you look at me. You’re thinking about our kiss.”
“I could be licking my lips for any reason. You don’t have to be the cause.” She didn’t know why she tried to evade the question.
“And there you go again.”
“I wasn’t thinking of you that time.”
“So you just admitted that the other times, you were.” He smiled, and Alex didn’t know what to make of it. It seemed … genuine.
“Yes, okay, fine, I was thinking about …our time together. Is that so hard to believe?”
“I’ve thought about our kiss plenty of times.”
“I doubt that.”
He leaned forward, and before she could stop him, he’d captured both of her hands. “I’ve thought about how good your lips felt against mine. How I want to feel them all the fucking time. When I kiss you again, I’m going to hold you, feel you against me.”
“Who says there is going to be a next time?” she asked.
“We are because we’re going to make this work.”
“You want to make this work?”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t I believe you?” she asked.
He chuckled and clicked his fingers for the waiter to bring them the menus. When they first arrived at the table, he’d ordered wine. She had no choice but to quickly change her order to water. He’d tried to get her a sparkling water, but she hated that stuff and asked for still instead.
“Is it hard to imagine me wanting a nice marriage?” he asked.
“You didn’t want to be married to me.”