Marcus briefed us on the last few details before departing for the night. Now, it was just me and Roman in the quiet house. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

I was ecstatic, and maybe it was a naive way to be. Yet, it had felt like it had been so long since we had experienced a win, that it only felt right to rejoice in it. The FBI had a warrant out for Jared’s arrest! I couldn’t help but think how much good that would be for the world, for the ring leader of a major human trafficking circuit to finally be put behind bars. We would all eventually be able to move on from this. Roman and I could go on to live a quiet life, Ed and Marcus would be reassigned to new cases, and maybe Kristin would go on to start her own advocacy group.

"This calls for celebration," Roman announced as he took my hand and guided me to the kitchen.

I watched as he reached into a cabinet and produced a bottle of red wine. "Oh really?" I chuckled, raising a brow at him.

"Just a little night cap," he assured me. His arm was around my waist then, still holding the bottle in his other hand. "You, me, this bottle of wine, and just being together, talking about the future."

"Sounds like a dream," I purred, unable to stop smiling. Maybe I should have been agitated with the way he melted me with so few words and such little touch. But I never was. In fact, I drank it in with glee. If I was going to be weak for anyone, I was thankful it was someone as kind and brave as Roman Thaddeus.

After he snagged a couple glasses, we retreated up to our bedroom. He put on some soft music and lowered the lights before pouring us each a stiff glass. We clinked our glasses together, earning a laugh from each of us.

"So, what is it you think the future looks like for us?" I asked him, leaning back against the headboard as he propped himself up to rest the back of his head on my chest.

"Hmm," Roman pondered as he drank down a satisfying gulp. "Vermont, farmhouse, white picket fence, two and a half kids, dog-cat."

I chuckled. "How does one have two and a half kids, exactly?"

"The half is actually just a really needy dog," he replied.

We both laughed and took sips before I playfully slapped his shoulder. "Come on now, be serious. What do you see our future being?"

Roman swirled his wine and gave a modest shrug. "I don’t know, really. It’s all been... so fast and all-consuming, you know? There’s still a million directions that this case could go, and who knows where we will end up."

The mood shifted a bit with the dose of reality that lingered in his words. He turned to me then, though, and peered up into my eyes. "But any direction it takes me, I know that it’ll always land me with you, and I think that’s right where I need to be."

I combed my fingers through his hair and tried my best to suppress the emotion swelling in my chest. "I love you, Roman."

He turned his body to the side and lifted his head so that he was looking up at me when he replied, "And I love you, Hannah. More with each passing day, no matter how impossible it seems to love you more than I do at any given moment."

Before my brain could let his romantic words seep in, Roman closed the gap between us and pressed his lips to mine. I kissed back earnestly. A shiver crawled up my spine as I felt his tongue flick across my bottom lip. With that slight action, I knew exactly where the night was going to lead us, and it excited me more than I could put into words.

Roman was already deepening the kiss and moving our wine glasses to the side table when I spoke through our kisses, "Aren’t you going to ask what I see for our future?"

"Of course," he nodded, moving to lay over me. His lips peppered kisses over my shoulders and chest. "What do you see in our future?" he asked between kisses.

"How do you expect me to answer with a clear head when you’re doing that?" I asked breathlessly. He only continued. My mind became clouded, but I tried my best to hang onto the conversation. I wasn’t sure why I was in the mood to drag it out, to tease the both of us, but I was. My fingers combed through his hair again, but this time more sensually. I slowed each motion, occasionally tugging at the strands and keeping my touch light.

"I think you’re right. It’s hard to say where we will end up totally," I began, trying to put my thoughts together. "But I see us at a house on a secluded beach somewhere in the fall. Relaxing away from it all. All this. All the business stuff. Just, you, me, and the ocean."

"Are you plotting another honeymoon?" Roman teased.

My response caught in my throat as he began licking my neck. "Maybe I am. I think we’ll need another vacation, once this is all said and done."

"I think you may be right," Roman said. He continued kissing and licking, his hands busying themselves by finding the zipper on the side of my dress.

I could feel the wetness growing between my legs. It was only a matter of time before he found it and made it impossible for me to keep up my little game. I was turned on by his attempts to capture my attention and the anticipation for what was to come. "I heard about this meditation technique," I blurted out, desperate for distraction as he began biting my shoulder. "It’s something to do when wanting to reach a goal or relax."

He tugged on my hips, so that I slid down from the headboard, and hovered over me. "What technique is that?" he asked, his eyes locking onto mine for an intense moment before he returned to his mission of seduction.

"You envision a relaxing place," was all I was able to get out before he was discarding my dress and began kissing down my body. "Really get immersed in the fantasy of it. They call it a mental vacation."

"Fascinating," he murmured as he hooked a finger around the fabric of my thong and moved it to the side.

I was a goner. His tongue ran up the length of my lower lips in a long, deep drag. Instinctively my fingers dug into his scalp. He continued the slow, delicious strokes. Whimpers sounded from my throat as he carried it out a little too long. I needed more, my body was begging for it.

"Tell me more," he said.

"W-what?" I moaned.

"About this meditation method," he explained. I peered down to see him grinning ear to ear.

"It’s supposed to be a good tool when you’re overwhelmed," I muttered. He began drawing circles over my clit. My hips bucked toward him and a moan passed my lips.

He paused. "What else?"

Just like that, he had turned my little game on me. I had to spew every d*mn thing I could remember from that seminar I had gone to back in high school to earn the pleasure of his tongue. By the time I had run out of little facts, I rolled us over and undressed him in record time. Only, I took his tie and secured it around his eyes.

"What’s this?" he questioned.

"Tell me about your relaxation place," I said as I hovered over him.

"I don’t have one," Roman replied.

"Are you sure?" I asked as I sank down onto his dick, but only the tip.

He let out a shallow breath. As I slowly rode him, he described the beach house I had mentioned down to the paint colors and flooring type. Roman talked about the view from the deck, the wine we would drink, and that we would have a hot tub where I could ride him just as I was right then. At some point, I had closed my eyes too.

Suddenly, we weren’t in his mansion, worried about possible hits out on him or an Auction House. We were in the future, in that beach house, in a hot tub at sunset. My hips grinded into his desperately as my tongue got lost in his mouth. It was intimate, hot, and so personal. We may not have talked much about our future, but we had certainly made love in it—even if it was all just in our heads.

When he squeezed my breasts and toyed with my nipples, I could feel my body reaching its heights. I rode him harder, allowing my moans to escape me freely. Roman guided my hips with his hands. Soon, we were both cumming, grunting, and kissing one another passionately.

It took every ounce of energy I had. I collapsed onto his chest. I could hear him discarding the tie before he wrapped his arms about me. He kissed my head and there we remained.