Smoke and Sin (The Perfect Gentlemen 4)

“How are you going to do that?” Liz asked. “Roman appears to have you on a short leash now. Or did I read things wrong and you moving into his room is about something other than him crawling back into your bed.”

“He says he’s protecting me.”

And right up to the moment he’d joked about getting her pregnant, she’d felt perfectly happy with their arrangement. In fact, she’d felt something close to precious and protected and content. Making love with Roman had been a revelation. He’d been tender and even a little funny. It had felt so good and right to be with him.

She couldn’t think that way. They’d had sex, period. All Roman had been doing was scratching an itch. Nothing had really changed between them.

“Or he’s watching you. Did you tell him what you’ve discovered?” Liz asked.

“I told him pretty much everything.” She’d given it all up like a girl with a crush on a boy. Didn’t that burn? “In my defense, he threatened to blow up my entire investigation, so I had to play along. He intends to go with me when I follow Kemp, but I think we should definitely beat the agent to the hospital. It’s too coincidental that just when Zack is blackmailed, someone on his security detail decides to visit the hospital where his mother was treated for mental health issues, in the town where she mysteriously died. He’s looking for more dirt.”

“Haven’t they found enough on all of us already?” Liz squeezed her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

Gus waved her off. “Please, a sex tape is so passé. I’m a little surprised that hasn’t happened to me before. I guess revenge porn is all the rage, and you know I can piss off a man like no one else.”

“I wasn’t talking about that. I meant the bombshell about Joy and Roman.”

It made Gus a little queasy to know Roman had given the other woman his heart, which she’d once wanted so desperately. But she pasted on a smile to pacify Liz. “I already knew about that. Joy told me. I’m fine.”

Liz’s eyes narrowed. “The minute you use the word fine I know you’re not. You knew Roman and Joy were having an affair but you never mentioned it?”

“It wasn’t an affair. It was…a flirtation. Zack knew about it, too. By the time Joy admitted to me that she felt much closer to Roman, she and Zack had already been married for a few years. They’d moved into a friendly partnership by then. I thought you might have noticed during the campaign.” Gus always wondered if Zack had ever talked to Liz about Roman and Joy in an attempt to set the stage for their own relationship. Apparently not.

“I knew they weren’t the most affectionate couple, but they liked each other. I guess now that I look back, Joy did prefer to spend time with Roman. They had a lot of meetings and lunches I didn’t quite see they needed, but it wasn’t my place to question. I knew Joy had a lot of pull with Roman. Did you know Roman didn’t want to do the Midwest campaign the last week before the election? He considered it totally lost and wanted to concentrate on Virginia and Colorado. Zack was willing to do whatever Roman thought best. It was Joy who convinced him to reconsider. I sometimes think that if Roman had followed his instincts, she would be alive today.”

Gus hadn’t known Joy had quietly changed Roman’s mind. When her dear friend had discussed Roman, she’d mostly gushed that he was amazing, strong, and thoughtful. But Joy was smart, too. Gus wasn’t terribly surprised she’d influenced the outcome of the election—in more ways than one.

“Joy might have seemed passive, but she wasn’t. She was actually quite ambitious, though not in the same way you and I are. When I met her in college, she went out of her way to be friends with me. I didn’t get her at first, but we were in the same sorority, and I eventually understood that we were just different. She was raised to be a powerful man’s wife. I was raised to be powerful myself. Marrying well was her goal. When she hooked Zack, she knew she’d caught the great white whale. I actually tried to talk her out of it because I knew they didn’t suit.”

“But she shared his aspirations and she wanted the chance to be the First Lady.” Liz sighed. “Then I suppose it’s not surprising she would look for love and affection with someone else. I’m just surprised she gravitated to Roman. He can be intimidating. There’s a reason he’s called the Hitman.”

“Yeah, but he’s always had a thing for quiet, demure women. I remember telling Joy that she would probably be a better match for Roman. I was pissed at the time. So angry with him.”

Liz grimaced. “I can’t see them together at all, if that helps. She would have utterly bored him.”

“Well, Roman could see it, and that’s exactly why I need to be careful with him. I’m not his type. Never have been. Never will be.”

Gus heard a soft knock. The door, which had been slightly ajar, opened wide. Roman stood on the other side. Damn it, how much had he overheard? His expression gave nothing away.

“Hey, let’s go to bed. It’s late and we’ve got a lot to do tomorrow,” he said, his voice soft.

So he wasn’t backing off. An hour before, she’d thought the two of them sharing a room might be a good thing, a way to get him out of her system. Now she wondered. But she couldn’t back out of their deal unless she wanted him to spill everything about her investigation to Zack.

Gus gave Roman a tight smile as she stood. At least she had a plan…one she had to proceed with tomorrow, while he was tied up with Zack and the prime minister. She’d tell him what she found afterward. After all, she’d merely promised to share her information. She hadn’t specified when.

“I’ll see you in the morning,” she said to Liz.

Liz nodded. “See you then. We’ll handle everything beautifully, like we always do. Don’t worry about a thing.”

Liz was telling her that if she needed to leave to investigate the sanatorium before Kemp, she could.

“’Night.”

At the thought of running around the English countryside, retracing the footsteps of a potential killer, Gus wondered what she was getting herself into.

When he held out his hand, she took it and allowed him to lead her into the hallway. He nodded to the dark-suited Secret Service agent stationed in the hall as he tangled his fingers in hers, warming her skin. Then he headed toward his room—and the bed they would share.

“Augustine, I want you to know that I don’t care about the sex tape, but you should understand that I’ll beat the holy shit out of whoever recorded you,” he said quietly. “I’ll do everything I can to make sure it doesn’t get out.”

“You don’t care?” Gus frowned. He expected her to believe that?

He stopped in the middle of the quiet hall and glanced down the narrow space, as though trying to figure out if they were alone and could talk. “I don’t give a damn what you’ve done in the past.”

“Hmm. I’ve done some crazy shit, Roman, and we both know it. It’s always bothered you before, despite the fact that you’re friends with a couple of men who put me to shame in the sexcapades department.”

“Could you allow that thirteen years might have mellowed me? That maybe I learned something in the time we’ve been apart?”

Maybe…but did a leopard really change his spots? “Like I said, Zack should worry about the others. I’ll be fine.”

He dropped her hand, frowning. “But I’m worried. I don’t want you involved in this, and before you accuse me of leaving you out, I don’t want you involved because I care about you. You’re one of my oldest friends and I never want you hurt.”

Friends. Of course he would use that language, even though they’d never really been friends.

Was that entirely his fault? Had she treated him like a friend in return? He’d called her after their breakup. And every time, she’d rebuffed him. She needed to stop being so angry with him for a tragedy he couldn’t apologize for because she hadn’t told him a thing.

Could they actually be friends? They couldn’t if she never tried, never softened even a bit around him. Maybe the better question was, after losing Mad, could she afford

to lose anyone else close to her?

Roman started walking again, his shoulders slumping wearily. She could see how tired he was.

Gus hurried to catch up, her palms feeling cold without his touch. She’d been warmer, felt safer when he’d held her hand and given her his strength. What was wrong with being affectionate? Even if they wouldn’t be together forever, couldn’t they enjoy each other for now? He’d compromised. He’d promised to keep her secret, and she knew how much that had cost him. He was treating her like a true partner. So he’d made a joke he couldn’t possibly have known would wound her. It wasn’t his fault.

She dashed to his side and slipped her hand into his. He stopped, looking down at her in surprise before he locked their fingers together and continued down the hall, past the stoic Secret Service agents.

“I thought we were going to fight,” he said as they approached his door.

“We can do that later. You’re tired tonight. Let’s go to bed and deal with everything in the morning.”

He used his free hand to open the door and usher her in. Once he closed it again, he pulled her close and wrapped her in his arms. His mouth descended quickly. “I’m not that tired.”

He kissed her and she forgot about everything except how good it felt to be with him.

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