“Roman, what on earth are you—”
“We’re leaving.” He tossed a few bills onto the table and took her hand.
She yanked it from his grasp. “I am not leaving, and I do not comprehend your—” She stopped speaking abruptly as Victoria sidled up to the table.
“Mind if I join y’all?” Victoria asked.
“I’m sorry, Miss Langley, but we were just leaving,” Theodosia said. “Roman?” She took his hand and dragged him out of the restaurant. Once outside, she started for the hotel.
“Wrong way,” Roman said, pulling her in the opposite direction.
“But earlier you said you wanted to eat in the room.”
“Well, now I want to eat outside!” Clutching her hand, he escorted her into an open field that edged the town. There, he sat her down in a cool mound of bluebonnets and tossed the bulging napkins down beside her.
Theodosia looked up at him. “Would you care to divulge the reasons for your anger, Roman?”
“I amnotangry!”
She leaned against the cluster of large rocks at her back and opened the napkins. “Then would you care to eat now?”
“I’m too mad to eat!” He gave her his back, stuffed his hands into his pockets, and stared at the dusky sky. “I told you what would happen, Theodosia. But did you listen? Hell, no. You didn’t listen!”
“What happened?”
“What happened?” He spun to face her. “Didn’t you see all those—” He paused, trying to remember the name Theodosia had called the man who had attacked her in Wild Winds. “Didn’t you see all thoselackivating meaflarantsback there, for God’s sake?”
“Lackivating meaflarants?What—oh.” She smiled a secret smile. “I believe the description you seek islascivious malfeasants.”
“Call them whatever you want! They were lined up wall-to-wall, just waiting—”
“Roman, they were doing no such thing. Granted, one man approached the table, but you dealt with him. The second man was Reverend—”
“Look, Theodosia,” he said, pointing his finger at her, “I’m your bodyguard. In order for me to do my job, you have to follow my rules. Rule number one is that you don’t wear what I tell you not to wear. Rule number two is that you never forget rule number one. Rule number three is—”
“I do not appreciate your domineering attitude.”
“Yeah? Well, I don’t give a damn whether you like it or not!”
Calmly, Theodosia removed the skin from a piece of chicken and ate the meat. She then picked up a strawberry.
Still scowling, Roman watched her bite into the ripe fruit. The contrast of the crimson berry against her cloud-white skin fascinated him. She kept the berry between her soft full lips, and he could tell by the way her cheeks moved that she was sucking the juice.
Desire slammed into him with such force, he began to sweat.
“Roman, aren’t you going to eat?”
“What? Uh, yeah.” His loins aching fiercely, he sat down beside her, then noticed the vivid contrast of her peach skirts, the thick emerald grass, and the brilliant bluebonnets. God, she looked so pretty sitting there eating her strawberry.
“Here.” She handed him a slice of watermelon. He bit into it and felt juice dribble over his chin.
Smiling, Theodosia dabbed at it with a napkin.
Her caring gesture tempered his desire. In passion’s place rose that same tender something she often managed to rouse within him.
“Have you ever had a friend, Roman?”
The sound of her voice brought him out of the daze her beauty had led him into. Mentally shaking himself, he laid down the watermelon and bit into a chicken breast. “I’ve met some people here and there,” he slurred.
