Roman’s body felt sticky with sweat, but she felt good wrapped up in his arms. As good as he had imagined.
“So what was it you wanted to talk about?”
Roman blinked. Talk about? Oh.
“That, uh… thing you mentioned? And I said I thought I knew who was responsible?”
“The text message?”
“That’s the one.”
“What about it?”
“I know who was responsible.”
“Oh.”
“And I’ve dealt with the problem.”
“Is that right?”
“I reached a compromise.”
“What’s that?”
He let out a long breath. “I want you.”
“Well, I guess you’ve got me, at least for now.”
“I mean it. I’ve been looking for you for years. Not hard enough to make it count for anything, but…”
Mary stiffened in his arms. “Why?”
“I wish I knew.”
“Then why look so hard?”
“I just did. For now, that’s all I’ve got for you. You stood out to me.”
“I bet you say that to all the girls.”
“Oh, of course. That’s what half the songs I write are about.”
“So you admit you’re just sweet-talking me?” She had a hint of teasing in her voice, but he wasn’t stupid enough not to know that he was on rocky ground even for jokes.
“Well, to be fair, all the most recent ones were about you. The other ones were… well, those were about you, too. Just didn’t know it yet.”
He looked down at her. She looked up at him with a dubious expression.
“What?”
“Bit sappy, don’t you think? Even for you.”
“Wow. That hurts.” Roman’s smile widened.
“I think we got off track at some point.”
“You’re right. Off-track.”
“So?”
“So I found the leak.”
“Okay, I’m waiting. You’ve got yourself a captive audience.”
“Apparently, my manager is… concerned for my emotional well-being, I guess. If you wanted to be charitable towards him.”
“You don’t want to be, I take it?”
“He doesn’t particularly deserve it. I’m not aware of him ever being concerned for anyone’s anything, unless it was their money, and he was concerned that it was soon going to become his money.”
“So what, then?”
“He probably thinks you’re some kind of distraction is my guess. Which is why, even though I was expressly promised a break, he’s got me working again.”
“What about that new album everyone’s whispering about?”
“Whispering? They’re practically shouting it from the rafters.”
“Well, you know. You say tomato, I say tomato.”
“There was supposed to be one, eventually, maybe. But now we’re working on it four, five months ahead of schedule, because Tommy’s got to be a bright boy.”
“And where to I fit into that?”
“He wants to skip town, and I’m tempted to let him.”
“And you’d be going with him?”
“I would.”
“So… what’s that mean for us?”
“I’d like you to come down with me. It doesn’t have to be anything long-term. But it’ll get you out of this cold.”
“It’s not that cold.”
“I know, I know. You’ve been through a thousand blizzards and it’s not cold until your eyeballs freeze on the walk to the car, and so on and so forth.”
“What am I supposed to do with Pete?”
“Bring him along too. Make a vacation out of it.”
She leaned her head against his chest and let out a long, slow breath.
“What’s the problem?”
“I just don’t know.”
“Don’t know what? What’s there to know?”
“It seems like a mistake.”
“Come on, you must have wanted to come to California at some point. I’ve got a great place down there, you’ll probably love it.”
“‘Probably’?”
“Well,” Roman said, laying his head back against the pillow. “I mean, I don’t know. It’s not like I love it, either.”
“So you’re saying that neither one of us loves it, but we should definitely go down?”
“That’s precisely what I’m saying.”
“Won’t your manager, Tommy or whatever…”
“Be pissed? You bet your sweet little ass he’ll be pissed.”
“And that’s… good?”
Roman smiled down at her. “That’s the best thing that I’m going to be doing all year, far as I’m concerned. He’s earned the chance to be pissed off by me, the way he’s been acting lately. He’s lucky I don’t do something even worse.”
Mary’s eyes dropped and she laid her head down on him again. Whatever she was thinking, she was keeping it to herself. Roman didn’t bother to ask her about it. He wasn’t sure that he wanted to.
“Remind me never to piss you off,” she said. And then she kissed his chest, and shifted her weight until she was leaning over him. Her breasts were bigger than he’d remembered them. Full and soft and topped with large, delightful nipples. He couldn’t stop himself reaching up to palm one of them. It felt heavy in his hand.
“What’re you doing?”
She raised an eyebrow, leaned down to kiss a little higher on his chest, and then looked back up at him.
“What does it look like I’m doing?”