Read Online Marked by Bonnie Lamer - Free Book Online

have thought my appetite would be gone for a long time.  But, I am also completely wiped out.  How am I going to stay awake long enough to eat?  My eyelids are closing on their own accord and as much as I fight to keep them open, they simply won’t cooperate.
     
     The Tylenol™ that Roman found in the packed medicine cabinet has taken just the tiniest edge off from the pain, thank god.  I crack my eyes open to see that he is now wandering around Brielle’s apartment looking at her stuff, which is annoying the hell out of her.  She keeps telling him not to touch things.  He touches them anyway.
     
    He has also decided to make himself more comfortable.  The white jacket is gone.  The tight, chocolate brown collared shirt he has on does nothing to hide the bulging muscles underneath.  Whatever connection I have to this Malik guy isn’t affecting my enjoyment of Roman’s muscles sliding under his shirt like a stalking cat.  My eyes open wider as I watch him move around the room.  He looks casually at me, expecting to see me sleeping, but instead catches me staring at him and one side of his lips turns up in a knowing smile.
     
    With a body like that, he probably gets stared at by women a lot, but I don’t need to be one of them.  That’s it.  I don’t need to embarrass myself like this.  I’m taking a nap.  I finally give in to my drooping eyelids and I’m almost immediately asleep.
     
    It seems only an instant later when the smell of bubbling cheese and marinara sauce dances around my nostrils.  I wake up to find Brielle holding a plate right in front of my face.  “Eat,” she says, dropping the plate on my stomach.
     
    “Did your parents beat you?  Is that why you act like this?” I ask in a sleepy voice, sliding the plate onto the bed so I can try to sit up.
     
    “Only when I begged them to,” she replies before biting into a slice of hot pizza. 
     
    “Let me help you,” Roman says.  He pushes pillows behind my back so I am at least half sitting and won’t choke on my pizza.
     
    “Thanks,” I say, trying not to look at him below the neck.  Since he’s standing, that’s a little difficult.  I’m relieved when he walks away.  However, that relief is short-lived when he returns only seconds later with his own slice of pizza.  He tips over a milk crate of clothes, dumping them on the floor and then sits down on it next to the bed.
     
    “Hey!  Those were clean,” Brielle says, trying to bore a hole through his head with a death stare.
     
    Roman picks up a t-shirt that has an obvious coffee stain on it and raises his brows in her direction.  “Clean enough,” Brielle grumbles.  Roman chuckles and lets the shirt fall to the floor.
     
    We eat our pizza in silence until Brielle’s computer starts to beep.  A lot.  She swings around in her chair to look at her monitors.  It doesn’t surprise me when she says with a mouthful of pizza, “Damn it!” and slams her fist on the desk.  Her fingers start flying on her keyboard.
     
    I really want to ask what’s going on but I know she’d just take out her anger on me if I open my mouth.  I stay quiet, hoping she’ll share what’s going on without being asked.  Roman is scowling in her direction, but he seems to be abiding by the same philosophy.  It’s several minutes before she deigns to enlighten us.
     
    She spins around to us.  “Do you want the bad news or the really f-ing bad news first?”
     
    “You pick,” Roman says.  Personally, I think both things she’s going to tell us are going to end up being really f-ing bad.
     
    “Jack’s lead on a set of copper tea pots fell through.”
     
    I’m confused why that’s bad news.  “Not quite sure how that affects us.  If we get out of this alive, I’ll buy you a copper tea pot.”
     
    Brielle crosses her arms over her chest.  “Really?  Will you?  You’ll find me a copper tea pot that’s actually made out of copper instead of a copper alloy