He nods, stepping into the space behind me. “This is where you go if anything ever happens. You take Sasha here and wait.” He points to a button next to the door inside of the room. “This shuts and locks the door.”
He presses the button and the door slides shut. A metallicclickdeep inside the walls lets me know it’s sealed. Then a small red light illuminates above the button.
“Red means locked. When you’re in here, you open the door for no one but Andrei or me.” He points to a feed on one of the monitors which shows the area right outside of the room we’re in now. “That’s the footage you check. Open the door forno oneother than us.”
I scan the room. “No secondary exit. That’s a problem.”
“You don’t need one. That door could survive a battering ram, and that’s assuming any invaders would even be able to find it. As I said, if anything happens, you come here with Sasha, lock the door, and let no one other than Andrei or me through. Understood?”
“Yes.”
“Say it. Repeat my instructions.”
“Here with Sasha. Lock the door. Only open it for you or Andrei.”
He nods with approval. Part of me wants to ask if he really believes there’s a chance his home might be invaded. But I realize instantly that’s a silly question. Why would he build a room like this if he didn’t think it was a possibility?
When he turns his eyes to me, narrowing them slightly, the room seems to get hotter. His voice lowers. “You ran from me last night.”
Shit. We are doing this now.
Heat blooms deep in the pit of my stomach. “You gave me a reason to.”
“Did I?” He flashes me a faint, but dangerous smile. “Or did you give yourself one?”
“Roman…” His name comes out in the tone of a warning.
He leans in, just enough to push into my personal space. “You’re already blushing.”
Without thinking, I raise my hand to my cheek. “It’s not?—”
He tilts his head, eyes dark with restrained amusement. “Last night shook you.”
“Yeah. It did. Especially your honesty about certain subjects.”
“Like my attraction to you?”
My pussy clenches. Part of me wants to push him out of the panic room with a shove and close the door.
“No. The other stuff.” I make a finger gun with my hands. It’s probably the most immature way I can think to insinuate killing people, but I can’t bring myself to say it out loud.
He considers that for a beat. “Yet you stayed after I told you.”
“Barely.”
He laughs. “It counts.”
He steps just a bit closer, testing me to see if I’ll move back. I don’t. I’m not sure if it’s because his nearness turns me on or because I don’t want him to see how shaken I am. Maybe both.
I’m painfully aware of every nerve in my body, all of them tuned to his proximity.
He reaches forward. I gasp when his hand finds my waist, tugging me flush against him. The heat of his body seeps through my clothes along with his hardness.
Fuck.
I tilt my chin up in defiance, but my shallow, quick breaths give away just how turned on I am. “Roman?—”
The protest vanishes as soon as his mouth crashes into mine. His tongue finds my own, stroking along the side, the invasion of his body blasting away any rational thought along with my resistance. I kiss him back fiercely, my fingers twisted into his shirt, pulling him closer. The taste of him, the smell of his musk, ruins me.
