All of Jessica’s clients usually left seemingly very happy and satisfied with her work. This was a bit different and caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up. Well great, this day is off to a weird start, she thought as she stood outside the room. Although, she couldn’t ignore the fact that she also felt pretty damn good considering she’d been up now for just over 24 hours.

Over the next few hours and clients, Jessica tried to be more intentional with her work. She always listened to her customers, but now she paid more attention to what their bodies were telling her. Mrs. Sisko was not the only client to leave in tears of relief. With every person that she treated, she also felt re-energized and calm.

Throughout the day, whenever her thoughts shifted to Roman and started spiraling, they would stop as soon as she started with another client and her anxiety melted away. Instead of feeling drained when it was time to go home, she felt restored.

But at the end of the day, when all she had left were thoughts of Roman and realizing she’d probably never see him again, she settled back into a familiar feeling of depression wrapped in confusion.

Guess it’s time to have it out with Gran, she thought as she headed out to Uber home.

CHAPTER 5

“Hey old man, did you get enough rest after you pussied out last night?” Vance started in on Roman before the meeting had even started. “I bet your wrist is just as sore as your shoulder now. You really missed out on the females; Leighton didn’t seem to mind fucking me instead.” Vance gave Roman a wink and elbowed him in the side.

Roman didn’t have a chance to respond before Tanner cut in. “Wait. I thought I saw you wandering around last night outside The Venetian. You seemed pretty fucking cozy with that human woman you were with.”

“What? A woman? What’s he talking about?” Xavier asked, concern and curiosity mixed in his voice.

Roman thought about denying it and would have if it had been Vance who’d said he’d seen him, but Tanner wouldn’t be easy to discredit. He was the same rank as Roman and also their best scouter so everyone would believe he was telling the truth—which he was, unfortunately.

He met Xavier’s dark brown eyes and said, “Uh, yeah. No big deal. Just a woman I ran into on my way to my room. Thought she might be fun.” He hoped everyone would drop it, but there was no chance in hell. If the situation was reversed, he’d be grilling them in return.

“What the fuck, man?” Xavier was the only one concerned while the others took this bit of news as open season.

“Well, was she? Fun?”

“Come on, man, don’t hold out on us. Give us some details.”

“Was her pussy as tasty as Leighton’s?”

“Yeah, you seem pretty rested, so did she take one look at your cock and split?”

“No way, Roman probably rode her so hard, she’s likely passed out in the room.”

“Perfect! She’ll be ready for a real vampire next. I call dibs after the meeting.” Vance was laughing right up until Roman punched him so hard in the face that he fell to the ground, nose bleeding. The atmosphere in the room changed abruptly. Roman jumped on top of Vance who looked genuinely wounded and confused by his behavior aside from the broken nose. He didn’t even try to fight back, just got into a defensive position until Xavier and Ashford pulled Roman off him.

“Let go of me!” Roman shouted.

“Hey, man. What the fuck? Calm the fuck down,” Xavier said. “We’re all brothers here. Let’s take this shit down a notch, alright?”

Roman tried to settle his breathing. It felt like he was seeing red at the edges of his vision. As he calmed down, he took another look around the room. Vance was holding his nose with a napkin, slapping Tanner’s hands away from him, saying, “I’mb fineb, I’mb fineb,” sounding odd as he choked on a little blood.

What did I just do? That was… I’m… Son of a bitch! Roman realized the room was still incredibly tense and waiting to see what he was going to do next.

“Hey, Vance, man, I’m sorry. That was… I’m not sure what happened.”

Vance stared at him for a minute, but then dropped his shoulders and waved him off. “It’s not like I don’t usually deserve a punch in the nose for one thing or another. It’s cool, man; we’re cool.” Everyone let out a collective breath. They razzed each other a lot and there were hardly ever mean-spirited physical altercations between the group; they really were like brothers.

Xavier was eyeing Roman closely. “Right then,” he said, “lets everyone take a beat before the meeting.” The crew, The Knights of Darkness, took their seats around the room and other vampires began to filter in.

Taking the seat next to Roman, Xavier leaned over and said, “I think you might have a bit more explaining to do, but we’ll wait until after the meeting.”

Roman didn’t want to agree, but he knew there was no way to avoid this, especially not with Xavier. God dammit! Why did I have to lose my shit like that? Well, I know why, but fuck! This is exactly what I didn’t want to have to deal with. When he said goodbye to Jessica this morning, he meant it. He was hoping that getting some distance would change things, and he could go back to normal, pretending he hadn’t found his mate, bonded with her, then left.

But that thought was also like torture to his soul; it went against every fiber of his being. He didn’t feel like “just Roman” anymore but joined with Jessica. How can I possibly leave her? But how can I possibly live with her? And what if the others find out what she is? More so than just my mate; that’s bad enough. But the other thing? Jessica could be in serious danger. Roman didn’t like this train of thought in the least; he was sure this day could not get any worse, but he was so lost in thought over his Jessica turmoil, that he didn’t notice who’d taken the seat on his other side: Arabella.

Roman was thankful the meeting started promptly, so he didn’t have to speak to her. Quinn started the session with a recap of the recent mission, highlighting all of their successes and naming each vampire they rescued, a couple of whom were in the room.

“I cannot thank The Knights enough,” one of them was saying. “You reunited me with my mate, and I will be forever in your debt.” At that moment, Arabella brushed her nails along Roman’s thigh, and he shifted in his seat to cause her fingers to fall away. Roman felt disgusted; he didn’t want anyone besides Jessica to ever touch him again. Thinking about her touching him immediately started to arouse him. Unfortunately, he saw that Arabella noticed as well, and she gave him a satisfied smirk. God dammit!

Roman received a sharp jab in the side from Xavier. He looked up at him, and Xavier motioned with his head to the front of the room, snapping Roman’s attention back to the moment and his blood back to his brain. How long have they been looking at me? He tried to filter back through the last few minutes to get a sense of what was going on.

“Roman?”

“Yes. My apologies, Quinn.” He stood up and made his way to the speaker’s podium. “Right. So as Quinn mentioned, we had an unexpected encounter while neutralizing the Lucem Diem’s trafficking ring. One of their soldiers was somehow enhanced. It wasn’t just a suit he was wearing; he seemed more agile in every way, stronger and faster than he should have been for a human. I was barely able to overcome his attack and…” Roman paused. He knew he should tell them all about his odd wounds that wouldn’t close and lasting soreness but since they were now all miraculously healed, this would be problematic. They would want—no, need—to know why and how. Unfortunately, the how and why would cause him to implicate Jessica, to out her to a room full of vampires.

Roman made eye contact with Xavier who hadn’t taken his god damned observant eyes off him since the incident before the meeting. Someone made a small coughing sound, and he could hear Vance heavily breathing through his mouth.

“And well, the ah… the fight… I… It took a lot of me, and I was surprised.”

“Yeah, but the fucker is now missing an arm, eh, Roman?” Vance said, all hostility forgiven. There were a few light chuckles throughout the room. Roman felt a little worse about punching him in the face; he knew Vance idolized him as a big brother.

“Yeah, that’s right, Vance, and we were successful. But we need to re-up and expand our efforts on intel. I think, based on what we saw, the humans are developing something big which might actually give them an advantage.” The room felt heavy as Roman left the podium and instead of returning to his seat, took a stance at the back of the room.

Jessica could not have happened at a more shit time for Roman—for The Knights in general. They needed to know about what the soldier did to him. Roman was going to have to find a way to tell them what happened and quickly. This was technology the humans already had; who knew when they’d run into it again, probably soon. They had to be ready and by not sharing everything that happened, Roman was putting their lives in danger.

Roman was elated when the meeting was coming to a close. He couldn’t wait to get out of there. He knew Xavier was going to be on his ass for some answers, and if he could escape without having to speak to Arabella, he would personally thank whatever gods existed with whatever sacrifice they demanded.

Luck was not in the cards for Roman today as Arabella followed right behind him into the lobby area of the meeting room.

“Roman, there you are. I was hoping to have a word.”

“Not now, Arabella. I’ve had a shit day, and I’d rather not add to it.”

“You can’t ignore me forever, Roman. Besides,” she placed a hand on the side of his face, fingers lacing through his hair, “we’re inevitable. That’s what it means you know, our arrangement.”

Roman kept his hands in his pockets and stepped out of Arabella’s reach. “I think you already know exactly what our ‘arrangement’ means to me.”

“Oh, Roman, why must you be so difficult? You’ve already agreed to what our fathers have set in motion. I don’t understand why you resist setting a date. I can assure you, I’m the best you’ve never had.” She leaned in close to Roman, placing her palms on his chest and bit her lip, little beads of blood coming to the surface. “Don’t you want a taste?”

Roman grabbed her wrists, removed her hands from his body, and pulled her ear to his lips. “No, I don’t. You’re nothing to me, Arabella. More so now than before. Go home to Daddy.” He let go of her and finally made his escape. She did not follow.

All day long Roman had tried to talk himself out of running straight to Jessica; he reasoned that the further he stayed away, the better it would be for everyone, especially her. But his traitorous heart took him straight to his waiting driver and car.

“Where to, sir?”

“Same apartment complex as yesterday, Winston.”