Jessa

The door to Xander’s office flew open, and I jerked in my chair, sending it rolling backwards. In the short time it took me to put my feet on the ground to stop myself before I banged into the wall, Roman had crossed over to me. With an arm wrapped around my waist, my feet lifted right back off the floor when he picked me up until we were nose to nose. “Grab your things. We’re leaving.”

“Things? Leaving?” I echoed softly, shaking my head.

“Now,” he ordered, setting me on my feet and giving me a soft slap against my butt that made me stumble forward.

“Eep!” I yelped.

“Fuck it,” he growled before yanking me against his side and dragging me with him to my desk. My jaw dropped open when he went straight for the drawer where I kept my purse, grabbed it, and shoved it into my arms. Then he hefted me up and over his shoulder and stormed out of the office. I lifted my head before the door shut behind us, only to find Xander and Calista leaning against each other near my desk. Xander smirked at us, and Calista offered me a small wave.

“I don’t understand what’s going on,” I finally whispered after Roman set me into the passenger seat of his truck. But he buckled me in and shut the door without offering an explanation.

“Roman?”

He reached over and slid his palm against mine. “It isn’t safe here. I’ll explain when we get to your grandmother’s house.”

“Oh, no,” I groaned, my stomach tying itself up in knots. I could only think of one reason why he’d think it wasn’t safe for me to be at the office. I squeezed my eyes shut, refusing to look at him, and he tightened his hold on my hand. Neither of us said a word during the short drive, and I found myself wishing it was longer when he pulled up to the curb. That feeling didn’t last long, though, because too soon I was being nudged into my bedroom by Roman.

It bore repeating—I was in my bedroom with Roman.

“What the heck is going on?” I squeaked out.

“I don’t want to scare you—”

“Too late,” I mumbled.

With one long finger, he tilted my chin up and searched my face. “I must have seemed like a crazy man when I dragged you out of the office, but I swear that the only reason I did it was to get you somewhere safe as quickly as possible. I would never do anything to hurt you, beautiful.”

“I know,” I sighed.

“Good.” His blue eyes filled with relief. “Because I’m going to need you to trust me.”

Staring up at him, I lost track of what we’d been talking about. “Huh. Why?”

“You may want to sit down for this.” He led me over to the bed—the bed!—and settled us next to each other on the edge of the mattress. “A package was delivered to the office for you today. It had some pictures in it.”

“Pictures? Of what?”

A muscle jumped in his jaw, and his expression hardened. “You.”

“Me?” My brow wrinkled in confusion. “What kind of pictures?”

He pulled a manila envelope out of the inside pocket of his jacket, pulled out two photos, and handed them to me. I glanced down and heaved a sigh of relief. “I don’t understand. These are just of me going about my day.”

“On the surface, they don’t seem that bad,” he conceded as he yanked a third out of the envelope, flipped it over, and showed me the note on the back side. “But the person who’s behind these knows your routine. He’s been close enough to you to get this package on your desk. And not only does he know where you live, he made a point to let you know that he knows where to find you.”

“Oh,” I puffed out. My hands trembled so hard that the pictures I was holding started to shake. Roman took them from me, tossed everything onto the bed, and then took my hands in his.

“It doesn’t matter what he knows about you, if he tries to get to you, or what he hopes to accomplish. I’m not going to let anything bad to you, Jessa.”

“Okay,” I gulped.

His hold on my hands tightened. “Can you trust me to do that?”

My mind was swirling in confusion, but I had no doubts about Roman. “Uh huh.”

“Then go pack a bag, beautiful.” He helped me to my feet and moved towards the doorway. “I’m sure Xander or Calista will fill your grandmother in when they pick Maddie up, but I’ll leave a note for her with my number so she can reach you since I want you to leave yours behind.”

“You do?”

He turned back to look at me. “Yeah, if this guy gets a hold of your phone number, then he might be able to track it.”

My eyes got big as his explanation registered. “Oh.”

“Oh, what?” he asked, taking a couple of steps back into the room.

“Um. Well. You see—”

“You keep acting like you’re afraid to talk to me, and I’m going to think you’re lying about trusting me.”

“It’s not that!” I sputtered. “It’s just that I get...well...a little nervous around you. That’s all.”

“You’re the last person who needs to be nervous around me, beautiful.”

“Okay,” I whispered.

“But I do need to know what went through your head that had those pretty brown eyes of yours as wide as saucers.”

“Oh, yeah. That.” I took a deep breath and blurted it out. “I’ve gotten a couple of strange notes. One at work and another in the mailbox here. Nothing scary. Just a little weird because they weren’t signed. There was a voicemail message, too. It wasn’t a voice I recognized, and they didn’t say much. Just my name, really. And then last night, I got a hang-up call in the middle of the night.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he grumbled, stalking forward until he stood right in front of me. The anxiousness I felt at the frustration on his face must have been obvious because he gentled his expression and sighed deeply. “You’ve kept this all to yourself, haven’t you?”

I nodded.

He rubbed his palms over his face in frustration. “You’re employed by the best security company in the Atlanta area, Jessa. Why in the hell didn’t you tell anyone at work what was going on?”

“I thought about telling Calista, but I didn’t want to be a bother.” I shrugged. “And I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, not until you showed me the note on the back of that last picture. I swear that if I’d gotten something like that in the mail, I would have said something. Right away.”

Bending low, he dropped his forehead against mine. His blue eyes were serious as they gazed into mine, and I was incredibly flustered by his closeness—but also more aware of him than I’d ever been any other person in my entire life.

“I want a promise from you, Jessa. You have any problems that are worrying you, from now on you come to me with them. Can you do that for me?”

“But—”

“Don’t,” he rasped. “I know what you’re going to say, but the last thing you are is a bother to me. I’d be fucking honored to be the man you turn to when you need help.”

I wasn’t sure exactly how it happened, it was like my lips had a mind of their own. Instead of giving him the promise he wanted, one I was more than happy to provide, I found myself rising up on my toes to press my mouth against his in a soft kiss. It must have been answer enough for Roman, though. He quickly took control of the kiss, and it went from soft and gentle to hard and demanding in the blink of an eye.