Roman stood, ignoring his brother. “Let’s head over. I’ll give you a tour.”
“Seriously, dude,” Jase tried again. “You need to reconsider how this is going to affect the rest of us—”
“Knock it off.” Roman finally broke his monotone. “Before I kick your ass.”
“I’d like to see that.” Jase didn’t seem to think that Roman could do it.
Sadie wasn’t really sure who she’d put her money on. They were evenly matched when it came to size and height, but Jase seemed a little spunkier, while Roman was certainly more serious about his commitment to kick butt.
“Sadie, you might want to back up,” Zach suggested, standing and moseying over near her. “Sometimes it gets bloody when these two start in on each other. No one wants to have to get blood out of cotton.”
No, Sadie did not want to get blood out of cotton. She took a step back. She’d witnessed one Jase-versus-Roman brawl in her lifetime, and that was plenty.
Come to think of it, that one had pretty much been a draw once their mother got involved.
“I’m not gonna kick his ass right now. I’ve got an office to show.” Roman strode past Jase and gave him a friendly little shove in the center of his chest. “I’ll save it for later.”
Jase shoved back. Hard.
Roman shoved back. Harder.
Okay, so clearly this was a thing between brothers. Sadie wouldn’t know since she only had the one. Plenty of sisters though. The Howards weren’t really a push and shove kind of family.
“Later,” Roman said. “C’mon Sadie.”
Roman held the door as she slipped through the opening. Now that he was close, it only took one burst of Roman’s masculine scent for Sadie’s breasts to suddenly feel heavier. Her skin itched to reach out and touch him, and her breaths were shallow. To top it all off, there were totally unnecessary butterflies flitting through her body and finally settling in her belly.
This was ridiculous. Her body was responding to him and he wasn’t even touching her.
“I really appreciate you showing me the space,” she said, ignoring her body’s response.
“No problem,” he replied.
He didn’t say anything else.
She trotted beside him, keeping his pace.
“It was nice hanging out with you last night,” she said, a strange need to fill the silence taking precedence over her desire to keep distance from him.
“I like Luke.” He shrugged and kept walking.
She gulped. “Your favorite Howard?”
He shrugged and his voice took that middle-of-the-night quality that soothed her so well. “Depends on the day.”
He moved double-time, but Sadie kept pace. He’d been muscular before. She hadn’t thought it would be possible for him to become more muscular, but here he was, proving her wrong.
Age agreed with Roman.
The little crinkles that fanned beside his eyes gave him an air of experience. The black T-shirt he wore stretched over his broad chest and covered part of that new tattoo she’d noticed before.
Louise.
The vines that traced up his arm wrapped around the artistic ink of Louise.
Sadie gulped down the ridiculous jealousy she felt toward his camera. He could get tattoos of whatever he wanted. It was no longer her business.
Truly, it’d never been her business.
