Read Online Roman Holiday: The Complete Adventure (2-Book Bundle: The Adventure Begins and The Adventure Continues) by Ruthie Knox - Free Book Online Page B

didn’t want to see his throat bared as his razor scraped a path through his shaving cream, or to imagine his brown arms pushing into the sleeves of a starched white shirt.
    She didn’t want to know how much better, how much more
settled
he would feel with his jaw gleaming, his clothes clean, his neck smelling of aftershave. Perfect again.
    She didn’t want to know him.
    She wanted her grandmother, and her bed at Sunnyvale, and for none of this to be happening.
    Ashley closed her eyes, and her tears tried to come up, but she pushed them down deep into a dark well where she had learned to keep them long ago. She piled all her hateful thoughts in on top of them, and when the well brimmed over, she put the wooden cover on and closed her eyes.
    She slept.
    She woke to the sound of his voice outside the driver’s window. The door opened and brought the cool, moist air with it, and a cacophony of wind.
    He wore the gray suit she’d first seen him in, with a white shirt open at the collar. He looked exactly as she’d expected him to. He leaned into the car but didn’t climb up to his seat.
    “You said so this morning.” He spoke into his phone. “I haven’t forgotten.”
    A pause. “Yes.”
    “No.”
    “I’ll take care of it.”
    And then, after another pause, “Give Heberto my best.”
    “All right.”
    A flash of white teeth.
    “I’ll do that, kitten.”
    He disconnected the call and opened the back door to toss his briefcase and suitcase behind the seat, then climbed up into the car and started the engine.
    “Ready to go?”
    Never let them see you sweat
. It was the only truly useful motto Ashley had adopted from her father.
    She straightened her legs, pushing her toes back into the thongs of her flip-flops. “Did you just call a woman
kitten
?”
    “If you need to use the facilities, now’s a good time. Or you can wait a bit. I’m going to stop for gas just up the road.”
    “Does she like that? Because I have to tell you, I’ve been called a lot of things, but if somebody called me
kitten
, I’d laugh in his face.”
    “I’m going to take that as a ‘No, Roman, I don’t need to use the facilities.’ ”
    “What does she call you?
Tiger?
Ooh, no, or
Tomcat
?”
    He looked at each mirror and put the car in reverse.
    “What’s her name?”
    But then she remembered. Earlier, she’d dreamed of Roman poised above her and awakened to the sound of another woman’s name. “Carmen,” she said. “It’s Carmen, isn’t it?”
    “None of your business.” They pulled out of the lot and headed toward the highway.
    “What is she, your boss?”
    He said nothing, but his mouth did this sort of tightening, locking-down thing, like he was mentally screwing his lips shut to keep from speaking.
    A good sign, if her goal was to rile him up. Which apparently it was. What other ammo did she have in her arsenal, after all? If she got him annoyed, she might be able to make him tell her things he wouldn’t otherwise. She
had
to keep pestering him if she wanted to learn anything worthwhile—anything she could use against him in this war of theirs.
    “You really shouldn’t get sexually involved with your boss,” she said. “It’s such a bad idea. This one time, I was working at a swim-with-dolphins place, and—”
    “She’s not my boss.”
    “But you
are
sleeping with her.”
    No response.
    “Or maybe you just want to be? If so, I’d lay off the
kitten
thing. You’ll never get her to give it up that way.”
    “Don’t be crude.”
    “What, you’re not trying to get her to give it up? You are straight, aren’t you?”
    “None of this is open for discussion. It’s private. My private business.”
    It was. And her heart was pounding, her head full of imaginary versions of Roman’s Carmen. Long, thick black hair. Lush curves packed into a designer suit.
    Killer high heels.
    She didn’t like these visions—this physical reaction—but if Roman’s locked-down mouth was any indication, he