“Roman!” She shrieked and fought to push his hands away when he tugged her robe belt loose. “Stop!”
“Why?”
“We’re outside-”
“And?” Succeeding with the belt, he pulled it free of the robe and tossed it outside her reach. “Do you think anybody’s watching?”
“No, but-” Braids flew across her shoulder when she scanned the yard. “We’re outside...”
Roman pulled Imani down to his lap.
“Roman-”
“Shush,” his hand vanished inside the open robe. He slapped her hand when she tried to pull his away. He cupped her breast, weighing it gently before working the nipple between his thumb.
Imani melted, curling into him when his lips closed over her earlobe and suckled it.
“Imani,” he murmured as his tongue bathed the fleshy spot.
“Yes?” her response was a sigh.
“Who am I?”
“Wh-what?”
“Who am I?” He sucked harder on the lobe while rolling her nipple between his thumb and index finger.
“My husband...” Her answer flowed on another sigh.
“And what else? Who am I to you, Imani?” He stopped then, withholding all the wondrous stimuli he had subjected her to.
She blinked. “The man I love.”
Roman put a hard kiss to her cheek. “However much you like what we do together in bed doesn’t make you any less a lady-not when you’re with the man you love-the one who loves you back. Got it?”
“Got it.”
“Good,” he stood and took her up with him. “Let’s go back to bed.”
“Roman,” she bit her lip.
“What?” He gave her a bounce to prompt her reply.
“Last night,” again she cleared her throat, “were you...pleased?”
His expression scraped a new layer of softness. “You better believe I was, Mrs. Tesano.”
“Roman I-” she said when he started for the bedroom, “I don’t think I can...yet. Do that, I mean.”
He smiled again, activating the striking indentation along his mouth. “Don’t worry about it. We don’t have to do that.”
“We don’t?”
“We don’t.” He kissed her cheek again. “I know all kinds of ways you can feel unladylike.”
She was about to laugh, but his expression stopped her. “What?”
“There’s a condition,” he said.
“Okay.”
“Stop listening to your cousins.”
Imani dropped her head to his shoulder and laughed all the way back to bed.
~18~
“Mr. and Mrs. Campagnone?” Stone recognized the Tesano board member and his mother’s top fabric merchandiser.
“Stone Tesano,” he crossed the corridor and offered Rubius Campagnone his hand to shake, then he squeezed Delia Campagnone’s arm. “How’s Rosella?” He asked. “I guess she told you we had dinner a while back?”
“We were sorry to hear that there wasn’t much of a spark between you,” Delia Campagnone shared.
“Rosella’s a beauty, Mrs. Campagnone. Mr. Campagnone and very smart. My mother sees a daughter in law, but she’d be even better on staff here. You agree?” He asked, noticing the looks that passed between the couple.
“Your mother had the same idea it seems. She’s got Rosella off training for that very thing.”
Stone’s green eyes blazed with confusion. “What’s she doing?”
