Hired Love
Chapter 26

Next, they were at the Mini basketball. Two junior-sized basketball stands were placed at the rear end of the booth. The rules were players gets three shots. If she made all three shots, she got a big prize and if she made only two, she got a small prize, nothing if she didn't make any.

Roman had terrible aim and Stacy teased him with it. She's happily beaten him at the ring toss and when she said she wanted to play basketball, he'd humbly stepped aside.

Stacy made a two out of three shots, earning a kiss on the lips from Roman. She only got disappointed when the man in charge of the booth gave her a small plastic doll. It looked horrible. Even Olivia hadn't wanted it. "What on earth is this?" She asked the man. "It's frightening. Give me something else."

"No can do, ma'am," He replied, his face straight. "You made only two shots, so you get a crap prize. That's how it works."

"Unbelievable."

She stormed off, Roman and Olivia on her heels.

"Calm down," Roman grabbed her hand from behind.

"Okay, I'll buy you a smoothie. You'd like a smoothie, don't you?"

"What flavor?" She asked with narrowed eyes, feeling her anger dissipate.

"Any one you want."

"Me too! Smooothiee!" Olivia added.

They ended up on the Ferris Wheel after getting banana-flavored smoothies for themselves and strawberry for Olivia. It was already evening, and the sun was going down. From the top of the Wheel, Stacy could see the horizon of their town. They'd grown up in a small town just miles from Los Angeles. After finishing high school, she had decided to go to NYU for college. Living in New York had been foreign but when you got the hang of it, it was actually quite nice.

Grace had made it all the better, being the free spirit that she was. Stacy wondered if Grace had mentioned her cousin when she wasn't paying attention.

"You're Grace's cousin on what side?"

"Mother. My mom and her dad are siblings." He replied, helping the straw that hand escaped from Olivia's small lips back into it.

Hm. She supposed she shouldn't have been surprised. Grace's father, Mr. Damien, was handsome. And Roman looked like a Greek god. She wondered what his mother would look like.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked her as the wheel began to move again.

She relaxed back against his arm stretched over the seat. "Just how ridiculously hot you all are in your family."

He laughed, steadying the cup Olivia held with his other hand. "That's weird."

She glanced to him. "How so?"

"What are you doing, picturing us naked?"

"Roman!" She scolded but she was laughing so it wasn't really strict. "That's disgusting."

He chuckled. "So you only picture me naked?"

"Mm-hmm." She nodded, looking at Olivia. The girl was so engrossed in the smoothie in her hands that she wasn't paying them any attention. That was good, Stacy thought. At least she wouldn't ponder on 'naked' like she usually did to bad words. Stacy didn't understand how she could ignore all other words and pick up only the bad words. It had to be a skill.

"Yeah? What do you picture?"

She looked at him intensely, aware that they weren't joking anymore. "You, on top of me."

"Are we both naked?" His eyes turned dark.

She nodded. From the corner of her eyes, she saw that his grip around Olivia tightened as the girl shook steadily from the forceful pull of the wheel's rotation. "What am I doing?" Roman's voice dropped several pitches.

She paused, wondering if it was the right place for dirty talk. "You're kissing my neck, licking my skin."

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She imagined the words happening as she spoke, imagined him doing all those wicked things to her. The way his smoldering eyes darkened, she knew he was imagining the same thing too.

"Now's neither the place nor time, baby." He murmured, shaking his head as though he was pulling his thoughts back together. "Soon."

"So what's your guilty pleasure?" Olivia needed to wipe a spill on her lap, so he helped her with a napkin. When he was done with the task, he dragged his eyes back to Stacy.

"Guilty pleasure?” She thought about it. "Hm. I guess I don't have one. Or maybe I just haven't really thought about it."

"What? That's impossible."

She shrugged.

"There has to be something you love doing that you're embarrassed about."

"What's yours?"

"Uh...Don't laugh," He threw at her with a fierce look. "I love to sing in the shower."

She took a deep breath. "Like Usher or some shit?"

"Something like that." He muttered, looking elsewhere.

Stacy couldn't help it; she burst out laughing.

"You said you wouldn't laugh,"

It sounded like a squeak, and it only made her laugh harder. "Don't be a drama queen. I think it's cute."

"There's nothing cute about me and you know it."

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She rolled her eyes at him, recognizing the innuendo. "I think my guilty pleasure is that I like to mix my custard and ketchup together and use it as a dip for my chips. I don't like how they taste separately." He gave her a blank look. "What?"

She laughed at the look on his face. "I'm serious."

"Stacy, that's disgusting." He blew a breathy laugh, holding Olivia as the wheel began to move anti-clockwise. "Was that why you requested for the hotdog?" She nodded, laughing harder when he scrunched up his face. "Come on. It's not that bad."

"It's weird."

"Yeah, sure. This is coming from a man that sings in the shower. What else do you do, receive a Grammy Award?"

Roman chortled. "And an AMA too."

She laughed, feeling her evening air on her face. All was well with the world and Stacy didn't remember the last time she'd wished for a day to continue forever. "Are you happy, Stacy?" Roman suddenly asked, and when she turned her head to him, he was already staring at her.

A rush of energy swarm through her.

Love. The warm feeling that spread throughout her body and came to rest at the top left part of her chest, she could only describe as love.

She was in love with him.

Fuck.