Eve got out of bed before sunrise because she couldn’t sleep for the second night in a row. Roman’s scent, her favourite cologne, was all over the bedding and her mind had somehow made it feel as though he had been in bed with her. At some point in the night, she’d even had to fight off the urge to go downstairs to him.
This was why she needed to put space between them. She would always feel like this even though she thought he was an entitled asshole. Maybe he had broken her. Maybe her mind would forever be warped and no one else would ever be enough for her.
But she already knew what type of relationship was based on sex, and she would be completely insane to even consider it again. Roman had given her her freedom now. Things would get back to normal before she knew it. Maybe once she’d made sure her parents were settled in a proper house, she would go back to school and become too busy to give Roman any more thought.
After a quick shower, she wore the clothes she had stuffed into her bag when she’d rushed out of the restaurant. They were wrinkled from being in her bag all night but she had no other option. She was willing to bet Roman had never worn a wrinkled thing in his life. Not that she was trying to impress him. That ship had sailed the night she saw him with another woman and then discovered the contents of her contract.
But she couldn’t go to work like this so her first stop would be home for a change of clothes. And to find a hat. She couldn’t do anything about a new coat right now, but maybe she could buy one before she went to the restaurant. If Pam had recognised her because of it, there was no telling how many others had, too. She folded her uniform and put it in her bag along with her phone and charger before grabbing her coat and tip-toeing down the stairs. If Roman was still asleep, she wouldn’t have to see him ever again.
And if she was lucky, that guy at the gate had got bored of waiting and gone home. Her first shift was at the care home so hopefully, by the time she went to the restaurant, they would have moved on to another story, too.
When she got down the stairs the room was completely dark and the fire was off. She turned towards the kitchen and heard voices, immediately crushing her hopes of sneaking off. Of course she couldn’t be that lucky. She would have to look Roman in the eyes after imagining him in her bed all night.
She slowly walked into the kitchen and was surprised to see Phillip in there, looking over Roman’s shoulder at the newspapers on the table.
Roman was the first to see her. He pushed the papers away from him as he stood up, and her eyes were immediately drawn to them.
“Morning. You’re up early,” Roman said as he walked over to the coffee maker. “Would you like some coffee?”
Something was wrong.
“I… No, thank you. I just wanted to check if that car is still outside,” she said, going closer to the table. “I need to get to work.”
Phillip gathered all the newspapers and then moved them away before she could take a look. He did that on purpose. He didn’t want her to see them! She knew immediately that it was about that picture.
“What’s going on?”
Roman returned to the table with two mugs of coffee even though she had declined. He looked terrible like he hadn’t slept at all like he had said he would. And he was still wearing the same suit he’d had last night, though he had discarded the jacket. He looked just as wrinkled as she did.
“Maybe you should sit down,” he said.
Panic filled her. Was it her parents? Had the reporters found them after all, despite Phillip’s efforts?
Her eyes widened as she looked at Phillip still standing at the other side of the kitchen with the newspapers in his hands. Wasn’t he supposed to be watching them?
“Are my parents okay?”
“They’re fine,” Roman answered quickly. “But I think you really need to sit down.”
“Just tell me, please.”
Roman bit his lip and looked at her for a moment before he turned to Phillip and gave him a nod. The driver then came forward and put the newspapers back on the table. They were the dirt-rags, the gossip papers, and on the front page of one of them were pictures of her getting out of her car last night and then Roman standing at the door in front of her.
This was not going away as she had hoped. And they could have taken a picture of her face when she had gone out to get her bag.
Her knees went weak as shock sapped the strength from her body. She lowered into one of the chairs and pulled the paper towards her.
Roman’s face was so clear, and he looked completely smitten. So in love. She knew it was the angle of the shot because she would have remembered if he had looked at her like that when she’d arrived.
The shot was so believable, and it matched the headline.
‘Ashfield’s Love Nest.’
Her hand was shaky when she pulled the next paper and read that headline.
‘Property Tycoon’s mystery woman.’
‘Eternal Bachelor Finally Tamed.’
In all of the stories, they only had clear shots of Roman, but were shots of her face just around the corner? It was only a matter of time until they revealed her identity and disrupted her parents’ life. Again. She would never get her relationship with her father back on track. This would tip her father deeper into his depression.
“Are they… Are they still outside?”
Roman grabbed the TV controller and switched it on. The crowd at his gate immediately filled his screen. They had cameras in their hands, ready to take a picture of any movement outside the house. The sun hadn’t even quite come up yet but they were already circling like vultures.
“I know you don’t want to be here, Evelyn, but I think it’s safer if you stay here until this blows over,” Roman said. “I’ll get you everything you need.”
She looked up at Roman who was still standing over her. There was so much concern in his blue eyes that for a moment she forgot who he was. All she saw was the man in her dreams, the one who always declared he loved her and would do anything for her.
But that was stupid. Roman didn’t believe in love. He believed in contracts and keeping women in houses that may or may not have surveillance to watch their every move. He believed in snatching people’s dreams away just so he could control them.
And he was still the only person she could turn to.
She looked away from his gaze and nodded. She had no choice now.