Sadie took his outstretched hand and, tethered, followed him through the crowd to his car—an unremarkable, very respectable sedan with a rental company sticker on the back window. He held the door as she climbed inside, their gazes briefly melding together as the unspoken promise of what they’d both agreed to simmered between them.
Settled in the car, she shot a quick text to Eli so he’d know where she’d gone and that she was fine. More than fine.
Roman’s hand found hers as they made their way to her apartment near the University of Denver. A heady buzz of adrenaline and lust wrapped around them in the confined space.
“Hungry?” he asked.
“Nope.” She’d eaten before she went to the party. Even if she were hungry, she had many, many other things on her mind. “You?”
“No.”
“You leave Monday?” she confirmed.
“Early.” He tapped a beat along with the music, his thumb brushing against the fleshy spot at the base of her thumb.
“Big mission?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t usually know where I’m going until I’m halfway there. This one’s an aid mission though. Not classified. They need a photographer to track their progress for evidence. Should be an easy one while I get back into the swing of things. Time off always screws with my head.”
“What exactly is a hard one?” She cleared her throat. “Mission. I mean.”
“Anytime bullets are coming at me, it’s not an easy one.” The words were serious and said without emotion—flat—but they were accompanied by a flash of dimples and relaxed shoulders.
“You like those, too, though, don’t you?” she asked.
“Yeah.” He kept his focus on the road, moving his hand away from hers to turn onto the street leading to her building. “Keeps things interesting.”
Bullets? Nopers.Interestingwas not the word she’d use. “Do you get to come home often?”
“Not a lot of time off for me. But I like what I do. Like that it’s never the same thing twice.”
She fidgeted with the zipper on her handbag. “I’m with you. I like to be moving forward. Toward something.”
“Exactly.” He looked her way, a camaraderie sparking between them at their mutual understanding.
“Next left, last building.” She pointed at the gray building that housed her teeny tiny apartment.
Roman walked behind her as they climbed the stairs to her front door. They didn’t touch—the promise of what was to come taunted her, making her skin tingle and her mouth water.
This was just one of those one-night—maybe two-night—things. Nothing serious. Nothing more than sex between two overachievers both waiting for the next move.
But once they were inside and Roman’s hands landed on her hips, things felt a whole lot more serious than they’d ever felt for her before.
Palm against his jawline, she ran the tip of her nose against his.
He grinned, moving in. Sadie’s body instinctively moved with his as he pressed a feather-light kiss to her forehead and then her temple before moving down to kiss her cheek, ending with her lips.
Sadie knew there were all kinds of kisses—the fast kind, the slow kind, themehkind, the holy-crap-this-is-good kind—but Roman’s kiss was unique in its ability to turn her legs to applesauce.
She gripped the muscles of his shoulders for support as his mouth moved in tandem with hers, his tongue sliding with hers, his body pressing against hers.
She led him to the bed, kissing him the entire way—heat and flesh and the carnal need to be with him propelling her forward.
“Sadie,” he whispered as they fell against her bedspread.
God, he said her name like she was special. And that was the kind of moment a girl wanted to put a pin in so that she could come back to it over and over again.
The kind of moment when nothing would be the same.
