The moment I entered Roman’s office, he walked right toward me, cupped my face, and kissed me so sweetly, so thoroughly, I couldn’t breathe right.
I moaned against his mouth.
“Damn it, I’ve missed you,” he said and kissed me again. Everything melted away. “You ready to go celebrate?”
After my talks with Bill and Paige yesterday, no, I wasn’t really in the mood to celebrate.
“Thank you,” I said. “I’m so happy the funding came in for the new center.”
He stepped back and looked at me. “You’re thanking me, but you look sad.”
“No,” I said quickly. “I’m not. I just…I didn’t get the job.”
He scowled. “What? That’s impossible.”
“No, it’s okay.”
“No, it’s not,” he barked. “I happen to know for a fact that you’re the most qualified. You spearheaded the whole goddamned thing.”
“And you pushed for the funding.”
“Amy, I wrote it down and the house approved it, but you are the one who’s been pushing.”
“But your anti-drug stance over the past couple of months—”
“Has been largely due
to you.”
I took a deep breath. He was fighting for me. He was on my side, without question, and I loved him for it. Loved him more than I’d thought possible.
The doubt that had been circling my brain for the last twenty-four hours started to drift away, because I had Roman. There. Ready to defend me, even to myself.
But this wasn’t about me. This was about him. I gave my best smile.
“I’m happy that the center is being built. That’s what’s important.” He examined my face as if he didn’t believe me, so I followed with, “Besides, it wouldn’t look good if I headed up the project, being your girlfriend and all. So it’s a good thing.”
I truly believed that. Paige and Bill were right. Roman worked hard, and I wasn’t going to be the cause of anything that could spur an assumption otherwise.
He crossed his arms. “What do you mean, ‘it wouldn’t look good’?” he said. Something in his voice was very, very scary. “Where did you hear that?”
“I…I just thought—”
Shit! I tried to backpedal. But when his eyes widened and his jaw clenched even harder, I knew he’d pieced it together.
“Fucking Bill!” he growled and yanked open his door. “Get Bill in here now,” he barked at his secretary, then slammed his door shut again and stomped toward me.
“Roman, don’t. It’s not him.”
“The hell it isn’t. I specifically told him to stay out of this. Now he has you thinking the same shit he does. It’s doesn’t matter that you’re my girlfriend, Amy. You are the right person for that job.”
“I disagree,” Bill said, entering the office. “Amy’s involvement in any way with the state funding you initialized would reflect poorly on you and your campaign.”
Roman opened his mouth, likely to yell at his chief officer, but I grabbed his hand.
“I agree with Bill, Roman,” I said.
His gaze snapped to me. It hadn’t been my intention to tell him about Bill’s maneuver, but I obviously couldn’t have lied to him and said I’d gotten the job. He’d have found out either way and if I’d lied, it would have jeopardized all that trust we’d built.