“Out?” She reached up and touched her fingertips to his cheek. She wasn’t sure she wanted to get out anytime soon.
12
Roman
The feel of Bex’s fingers on his cheek sent a thrill racing to every corner of Roman’s body. All he could think about was kissing her. She was right there, inches from him. He’d just have to bend his elbows a bit, and his lips could be on hers.
Was that what she wanted? As her fingers ran along his jawline and paused at his chin, her breath catching, her fingers tapping twice lightly, he thought maybe so.
“I finally found you!” Enoch’s face appeared under the blanket next to them, a flashlight in one hand and the video camera in the other. He let out a huge breath of air. “That wasn’t easy. I swear that mannequin was still trying to attack me.”
Now that he could see Bex’s face, he saw amusement. They both shifted to where they were on their hands and knees, and worked their way to a spot where the blankets had pulled apart and they could see light. Once they made their way out, Bex ran her hands over her hair, which was looking rather staticy from all the blankets rubbing on it, and straightened her shirt. He did the same, figuring he probably needed it as much as she did.
She surveyed the damage as Enoch panned the camera around at the destruction. With her hands on her hips and the camera on her, she said, “Well, I guess as is the outcome of all blanket forts, they eventually have to come to an end. Some a little quicker than others.” She reminded them about subscribing, getting notifications, and to not miss their next interview, and then they both said goodbye.
He bent down and picked up a blanket and started folding it. She gave him a strange look, like she hadn’t expected him to help, but then she grabbed the other side of the blanket and started folding it with him. He wasn’t about to leave this big mess to her, though. Even if his mom hadn’t taught him to always show good manners, he’d have wanted to stay and help just to be around her for longer.
She gasped. “The ice cream!”
“I’ve got this,” Enoch said, dropping the blanket he was folding, and made a show of diving into the pile of blankets. A minute later, he re-emerged holding two pints of ice cream and two spoons. “Only a little bit got on the hardwood floor—none on the cushions or the blanket.” He looked at the pints in his hand. “Are you going to still eat these?”
Bex laughed. “Consider them your reward for rescuing them.”
“Yes!”
Then the kid rushed over to Bex’s desk and started eating them at a speed that pretty much guaranteed brain freeze. Roman shook his head. Enoch might be impressively professional behind the camera, but he was still a twelve-year-old boy.
Once they got the blankets folded, the ice cream off the floor, and the furniture put back into place, Bex walked him out to his car.
“Thank you, Bex. Even with the fort crashing down on us, I quite enjoyed myself. That wasn’t something I thought I would do again anytime soon.”
“And thank you for being game for it. Now tell me, Roman Powell, when you were a kid, what was it about blanket forts that was so magical to you?”
The sun had set long enough ago that it was dark, yet the moon was bright enough that he could see the same look on her face that she got whenever she was filming. Like she experienced her own kind of magic every time she had the camera on her.
They reached his car and he leaned his backside against it, trying to remember back to what he had loved so much about the forts they made. “I guess part of it was that we only made them when my dad was away on a business trip. And the other part was the games my brothers and I would play in it. More often than not, we played business owner and employees.”
“Was that really what you played?”
He chuckled and looked down, shaking his head. “That’s what we called it, even. I was always the business owner, since I was the oldest, and I got to boss my brothers around.”
“I see why it was your favorite game.”
“My dad likes to control everything. So I guess a big part of why we loved it was that we could make all the decisions ourselves without my dad stepping in to tell us what to do.” It had never occurred to him before that he had walked right into a situation as an adult that, as a kid, he had worked to stay away from.
“Well, it looks like all that practice being a business owner as a kid really paid off.”
He really wanted to kiss her. But then a look crossed her face that made him think that maybe she was unsure. Or flat-out didn’t want to kiss him at all. He was, after all, just a stuffy businessman, which seemed to be her least favorite type of guy. He needed to convince her that he was right for her. She stepped closer to him, and his chest lifted at the thought that maybe the moment they had shared under the collapsed blanket fort hadn’t been lost.
But then, just as he was thinking about how much he wanted to close the gap between them, a car pulled into the driveway, and he wanted to curse its driver. Its headlights shone on them, and Bex took a step back, turning toward it with her hand shielding her eyes from its lights. “Oh. That’s my sister, Kenna, here to pick up Enoch.”
He hoped that Enoch would see that she pulled up and run out to the car. But her sister pulled to a stop just in front of him on the curved drive and got out. “Hey, Bex! Can I grab those frames you picked up for me?”
“Yeah. Just...” Bex met his eyes, and then turned back to her sister. “Go in the inn, and I’ll be right there.”
As soon as Kenna was inside the door, Bex turned to him. “Sorry about the interruption. I believe you were about to tell me I’m pretty.”
“And talented and a fairly solid blanket fort maker. And I believe you were about to tell me that I’m devilishly handsome.”
“And a natural on camera when you let your guard down, and an excellent kisser.”
He quirked an eyebrow and drank in the brilliant smile on her face. “I know you have a rule of not endorsing products you haven’t personally tried. I think I better help you not break that rule.”
“Don’t let anyone ever tell you that you only look out for your own interests.”
This time, he moved toward her.
They were only inches apart when he heard a meow and looked down to see that a cat was rubbing up against Bex’s leg, and then forced herself in the space between Roman and Bex.
“Skittles, go back home,” Bex said. “I don’t have any food for you, but I bet Carol does.”
Roman shook his head. First her roommate, Peyton, interrupted them at the pickleball courts. Then Enoch in the blanket fort. Then her sister Kenna. And now the neighbor’s cat. “Except it seems as though the universe is conspiring against us kissing.”
Bex closed the gap and moved her hands up to either side of his face. “Then we need to show the universe who’s boss,” she breathed. She met his eyes for a moment, then, like she was afraid something else would stop the moment if she didn’t hurry and seize it, she brought her lips to his.
Chills went up Roman’s spine and he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer, loving the feel of her body so close to his. He had never kissed someone so strong and decisive before, and her kiss was every bit as powerful as she was, seeming to shake him to his core. He broke from the kiss just enough to whisper, “You are amazing,” his lips brushing against hers with the words before they met her lips again.