The coffee is gone too soon, but it’s too early to be without it, so I get another.

Roman bursts into the office halfway through cup number three, scaring the living shit out of me. The coffee in the mug sloshes up to the edges. “Oh my God—”

He doesn’t hear me. “We have to talk.” He’s at my desk in two steps, his hands on the surface, leaning over me. “About the social media accounts.”

My stomach drops into the hot core of the earth.

“The Instagram,” he says meaningfully.

This is it. This is when he fires me. He did notice that the photos were subpar, and I’m going to lose my fake job and probably my real one, too. Oh, Jesus. I’m going to have to go crawling back to Connor—

This is the worst.

“I’m working on the Instagram,” I tell him, trying to keep the jittery caffeine shake out of my voice. “The photos—”

“The photos don’t do this place justice.” His eyes blaze into mine.

“I can do better—”

“I didn’t give you good enough material.”

I’m…stunned. And he didn’t even swan dive into the pool in front of me. “What?”

“I didn’t give you the best of the Bliss Resort.” Roman stands up straight, a determined smile lighting up his face. The heat is back in his eyes, like it was in yoga class. “And tonight’s the perfect night to show you.”

“To show me what?” The laugh that escapes me sounds almost like a giggle. “Another yoga class?”

“Hell, no. I’m going to show you the best.” He turns to go, and I realize I’m on the edge of my seat.

“What’s the best?”

He stops just outside the office doorway and burns a trail down my skin with his eyes. “You’ll see.”

10

Roman

I gave it the old college try.

That’s what I keep saying to myself, though in college I would have pressed her up against the wall in the dive bar we used to go to on the main drag. They probably should have been shut down for health code violations, but nobody ever cared—we were more than buzzed when we walked down the rickety staircase from the street level, and more than a few guys had to be carried out.

That was never me.

But I was the kind of guy who made a move. If I have to go another day in this office without doing anything, I’ll perish from the fucking earth.