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“The Founders" Day picnic is in a few days.”

She wrinkled her nose. “I know. I try and miss it most years since I"m

obligated to go and would rather not, but there will be no avoiding it this year.”

“We should go together.”

She stilled and lifted her gaze, reminding him of a small animal that had been

spooked. “I"m not so sure that"s a good idea,” she muttered after a moment.

Rome"s fingers tightened around the fork he held in anger. The moment he

realized what he was doing, he breathed deeply and focused on the woman to the

side of him. “Why not?”

She shrugged. “I just don"t think it"s a good idea.”

“Why?” he gritted out through his teeth. Sela moved closer to him and

shimmied her hips.

“You know why,” she whispered in a breathless voice that despite his best

intentions caught his cock"s attention. He held his plate and stood. Rome was

halfway to the door when Sela called out. “Is there something wrong?”

He turned and leaned against the wall. “Why don"t you want to be seen around

town with me?”

She blinked at him. “I can not believe you, of all people, are asking me that

question.”

Rome stilled. “What are you talking about?”

“You know exactly what I"m talking about!” Sela yelled as she threw the

bedcovers off her and stood.

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“No…I…don"t.”

Sela"s face twisted in anger, and Rome felt his stomach drop. “You, officially,

are an asshole.”

“Damn it, woman. What the hell is wrong with you?”

She strode across the room and grabbed her jacket. He ran after her and

grabbed her arm just before she jammed it into her coat. “You can"t keep running

from me, Sela.”

She laughed harshly, lifted her head, and held his gaze. “I"m not the one

running, Rome. You are.” She said the words simply, coldly, with no inflection in

her tone, as though she was emotionless, before jerking her arm out of his grip. “I

get it. We"re fucking. We"re not dating. I pretty much had to force you to introduce

me to your brother.” She laughed, and it was filled with so much pain, his heart

ached for her. “Of course, I made a fool of myself then.”

Rome stood rooted to the spot, surprised by the amount of anger and pain he"d

glimpsed swirling in her heavenly gaze.

He hadn"t introduced Sela, because he had been struggling with his family"s

issues. Sela thought he was ashamed of her, or worse, using her to satisfy some

twisted need. The shuddering sound of the door slamming snapped him out of his

thoughts. He ran out of the room to find Sela striding quickly down the hall to reach

the elevators. He jogged after her. She glanced over her shoulder and slammed her

palm against the button to request the elevator. The sound of its chime seemed to

echo through his skull. Still holding his gaze, Sela stepped unto the elevator. He

reached it just as the doors closed.

“Damn it, Sela!” he growled before turning and marching to the stairs. Rome

took them two, sometimes three at a time in order to outpace the hotel"s elevator.

Gasping for breath he pushed open the exit door to reach the back of the hotel. He

started to head to the front of the building when he realized that the last thing Sela

would want to do was risk the chance of seeing someone she knew. He ran to the

south exit and found her leaning her against the brick wall of the nearby alley.

He stopped in the mouth of the alley unsure what to say. Sela took it out of his

hands. She turned, eyes red and slatted in rage. Heels clicking, she marched over to

him.

“You can"t keep doing this to me! Its not fair, damn it…it"s not fair to me.”

His heart ached for the pain he saw and the deeper pain he knew she felt. “Tell

me what I"m doing wrong, what I"m doing to hurt you, and I"ll stop.” He reached out

to brush his fingers against her cheek. She snapped back as though she feared he

would slap her.

Rome had never felt so small in his whole life.

“What are you doing wrong?” She chuckled and gave him her back. “Stop

pretending to care. Stop pretending this thing can work between us. Stop

pretending this is more than a week of great sex.” With every hard word Sela spoke,

she took a step away from him.

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“You know I can"t do that, Cupcake.”

“Don"t call me that!”

He strode over to Sela, grabbed her shoulders, and forced her to face him.

“Why? Because it reminds you that what is going on between us is more than just

sex, more than a few nights of fucking? Look, Sela, about earlier, I would love to

properly introduce you to my family, have a dinner, long conversation, the whole

deal. I just wasn"t thinking. I was so concerned about Turin and getting him out of

that house that when you showed up, my brain short-circuited. I"m not ashamed to

be with you, and I wasn"t hiding you from my family.”

She groaned. “God damn it. I feel so stupid. Sometimes I really hate you, hate

the way you make me feel!” she spit out as she tried to break his hold.

“No, you don"t, Cupcake. That"s what makes this thing between us so hard.

That"s why you"re still hurt about what happened that night.” Rome whispered the

words as he lowered his head. He meant to brush his lips tenderly against hers, but

there was nothing tender about Sela"s response.

She pushed hard at his shoulders. For a moment Rome was caught off guard

and stumbled back. “I don"t know what night you"re talking about,” Sela muttered

as she tried to walk away from him.

Rome instinctively reached out and grabbed her hand. “Stop running from me,

Cupcake,” he growled out as he tried to pull her back.

“I said…don"t call me that. I"m not your Cupcake,” Sela screamed as she tried

to fight his hold.

Glancing behind him, he saw the back wall of the hotel. Despite her struggles,

Rome managed to pull her closer to him, closer to the wall. He turned forward just

as Sela pushed him a second time. The emotions he had been trying to keep at bay

broke free at her harsh touch.

Rome grabbed her around the waist and lifted her hard against his chest. She

stared at him in surprise. He gave her what he knew was a hard grin as he turned

around and stepped forward. Sela snapped out of her frozen shock when she felt the

brick against her back.

He lowered his head. Just as his lips were going to brush against hers, Sela

lifted her head and stared into his eyes. “Don"t…you…dare,” she gritted out through

clenched teeth.

Rome moved his lower body closer to hers until his cock was nestled between

her thighs. Holding her gaze he lowered one hand and slipped it beneath her coat.

He quickly undid several buttons. Sela hadn"t bothered to get dressed before

running out of his hotel room. Besides the coat, she only wore her bra and panties.

He rolled his hips forward and watched Sela"s eyes darken with desire when

the swollen length of his cock brushed against her satin-covered sheath.

Rome lifted one hand and threaded his fingers through her thick hair. He

tightened his grip slightly, just enough to force her head up. “You will join me on

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that picnic. We will act like the couple we are, and you will stop fighting me every

step of the way.”

She breathed deeply before her eyes tightened in disbelief. “You want to give

me one reason why I"m going to do any of those things?”

The fingers gripping her thigh tightened, and he leaned his forehead against

hers. The loud, harsh sound of his breathing was the only sound between them for

several moments. It was the symphony to match their emotions.

“I want you to know I had every intention of introducing you to my family.” He

paused. “I"ve dreamed of the moment I could introduce you to my mother, but I

never wanted you to enter the home I grew up in. I never wanted you to see that.”

He lifted his head and looked into her eyes. “We"re going to go to the

Brushwood Family Picnic together because I want every man and woman on earth

to know I belong to you and you belong to me. I want both our families to know that

we"re in this for the long run.”

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123

Chapter Seventeen

Sela"s watched the slow descent of Rome"s face. Inside she was warring with

herself, trying to decide if she wanted to let go of the turbulent emotions she felt

inside. His words had been touching. And then Rome kissed her, softly, tenderly, as

though she was the most precious thing in the world, and Sela found her anger

metamorphose into potent desire. Actions speak so much louder than words, she

thought as Rome"s lips moved over hers, teasing, tempting, and teaching.

Teaching her just how much she meant to him.

“Damn,” Sela groaned as she felt her anger dissipate like smoke in a storm in

the face of Rome"s desire. The thought sliced through her mind as she thrust her

hand between their writhing bodies. They were both trying desperately to get at the

other person. Him, trying to get her fully undressed. She was dying to release him

so she could stroke that long, thick cock of his.

Victory! She laughed softly into his mouth as she slipped her fingers into his

pants and wrapped them around his shaft. She palmed it from root to tip twice,

milking a drop of precum from the turgid head.

“Stop.” Rome growled the word through clenched teeth.

She ignored him and tightened her grip.

Long, determined fingers wrapped around her wrists and lifted her hands high

into the air. She found hard, passion-darkened eyes staring down at her. “I said

stop, Cupcake.”

“Make me.” She bit the words out without thinking. Almost the moment they

were out of her mouth, she regretted them. She was playing with a dangerous man.

Looking into Rome"s eyes she knew he had reached the breaking point of his control.

And her challenge was pushing him past that point.

He glared at her, his handsome face hard with desire. She understood then

that this what she had been missing. This raw, raging need had been missing from

their lovemaking. It wasn"t until then that Sela realized Rome had been loving with

her with kid gloves. As though she was something too delicate that he didn"t want to

break.

He still thought of her as the privileged town sweetheart he could never truly

get to know. Even as a teen she"d known there was something lacking in their

friendship. No matter how close she had thought their relationship was, Sela knew

Rome distanced himself from her.

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But this time, for once, she was determined to see every facet of Rome. She

wanted to be treated as his equal. She lifted her head and brushed her mouth

against his jaw. The rough stubble of his five o"clock shadow tickled her lips. Her

sheath clenched with hunger at the foreign feeling. He"d always been clean shaven

with her. And there had been so few before him.

“I said make me, damn you.” She growled the words against his parted lips

before memorizing the shape of his mouth with her tongue. Sela managed to trace

both his lips before he responded.

He pulled away from her, taking a step back. Sela felt the simple movement

deep in her soul. Once again Rome was placing distance between them. Hands still

held in his, she used the one weapon she had left. Her words didn"t work; she hoped

a combination of her body and her voice would drive him insane.

Sela lifted her hips, pressing her pelvis against the distinctive bulge between

Rome"s thighs. She groaned at the feel of heat that seemed to emanate from him.

“What"s wrong, Rome? Don"t think you"re man enough to make me?” she purred as

she rubbed against him.

“Stop it.”

His hands released her wrists to tangle in her hair. His fingers bit almost

painfully into her scalp, but she relished the slight pain. It let her know just how

close to the edge Rome was.

Just how far she had pushed him.

He lowered his head until his lips were a breath away from hers. And waited.

The air between them pulsed with the power of their dangerous hungers. Just when

Sela thought her heart couldn"t take the wait, Rome pressed his lips to hers. She

sighed his name at the first feel of his mouth moving against hers.

The kiss was unlike any he"d ever shared with her before. And she knew

instinctively that it was one he had never given another woman.

Just me, she thought as she parted her lips for his kiss.

His warm, agile tongue darted into her wet cavern of her mouth, teasing more

than just her tongue. Sela"s whole body was affected by the kiss. Her pussy

moistened, her nipples pebbled, and her belly muscles clenched with every stroke.

He slanted his mouth over hers, increasing the hungry pressure of his kiss