Chapter 16 – Crisis Diverted

Deep sea blue eyes watched as the big man carefully led her into the house and towards the kitchen. She noticed he hadn't uttered a word since he'd suggested they go get ice for her arm. He stopped as he turned to face her and lifted her up and set her on the kitchen counter next to the fridge. Her eyes continued to watch him as he grabbed a towel and put some ice in it and came back and stopped in front of her. He gently took her wrist as he applied the ice around her forearm.

Roman didn't know what to say. He could already see her left forearm bruising. He kept his mouth shut. If he opened it he was liable to explode and take half the state of California with him.

Kenzie watched as Roman's chest continued to rise and fall with his temper. She knew he was harnessing his anger and she would thank him for that later. She'd yet to see him truly angry and really wasn't looking forward to the day the bear got poked too hard. She was pretty sure he'd been poked today with Jeff's actions, but right now she just wanted to calm him down first. She reached out a shaky hand and touched Roman's forearm and his head snapped up as their eyes locked. She smiled softly.

"Don't." Roman stated gruffly before he pulled away from her touch.

"Don't what?" She questioned curiously.

"Just don't. Don't smile, don't touch me, and don't be nice…Not after what the asshat just did to you. Don't be nice and loving towards me." Roman stated in his dom voice.

"Roman…"

"I said don't Kenz, not right now; just let me calm down first." Roman demanded before he turned and stalked across the kitchen and into the guest room that was theirs.

Kenzie pulled her heels off before she hopped down from the counter and walked back outside. She started covering the food with the lids and gathering decorations.

"Is he going to be ok?" Alice asked softly as she stepped up next to her little sister.

"I'm not sure. He knows what I went through with Jeff, but I'm sure it didn't seem very real until today." She stated as she held up her left arm and showed her sister the bruising hand print around her forearm. Her eyes went to her brother in law. "Dain, get him out of here please. I think he went to our room to change, just take him to the garage or a bar or something. I'll help Alice, but just please get him out of here."

Dain walked over and kissed Alice's lips softly before he kissed MacKenzie's right temple. "No problem kiddo; I'll take care of him."

Alice and Kenzie watched as Dain walked into the house.

Roman kicked himself verbally for just walking away from Kenzie, but he had to; he was too pissed off and had too much anger running through his body and he didn't trust himself around her. He discarded his polo and pulled on a deep red t-shirt and got rid of his good dark jeans and pushed them into his suitcase as he pulled out his faded jeans.

The minute he stepped out of the room Dain was standing in front of him. "Come Roman."

"Where are we going?" Roman asked as he raised an eyebrow at Dain.

"We're taking a trip to the man cave bro." Dain stated with a smirk as he cocky his head to the side and opened the garage door and held it open for Roman to follow him. Once Roman was out and the door was closed Dain reached over and grabbed a remote and hit a button.

Roman watched as a 55in Plasma flat screen TV slowly came down out of the ceiling of the garage and stopped directly in front of two huge black leather recliners with a mini fridge and table. "Bro are you serious?" Roman asked with a chuckle.

Dain laughed as they walked over and sat in the recliners. "Dude if I'm going to have a man cave it's going to be something I can relax and enjoy being in. The kids very rarely come out and bug me and Alice is good about just letting me have my alone time. Shit, I return the favor and let her go shopping kid free all the time." Dain lifted the arm rest of his recliner and grabbed the two PlayStation4 remotes and tossed one to Roman; before getting two long neck beer bottles from the mini fridge and handing one to Roman as well.

"So anything you'd like to talk about before I kick your ass at Call of Duty."

"Kick my ass at Call of Duty?" Roman chuckled. "In your dreams bro…"

Alice watched as Kenzie sat in the den with McKenna in her arms. "You're so natural at that…it's like second nature to you; hell even with the twins you always made it look easier than I ever could. And I'm the mom."

Kenzie smirked as she looked up. "Maybe it only seems easier because they aren't mine. Who knows, when I have kids maybe it won't be as easy for me."

"I don't believe that for a second. You were born to be a mom and I think Roman is just the guy to make you one." Alice stated honestly.

"ALICE!" MacKenzie scolded before her cheeks went up in flames. "I can't believe you said that. Roman said something close to that the first night we were here."

"Looks like I'm going to have to work on him a little bit. My kids would love some cousins." Alice stated with a laugh in her voice as she watched her sister flush red again and shake her head.

"I'm already regretting bringing Roman with me. Between mom's display and Jeff pissing Roman off and now you wanting to work on Roman for cousins for your children. I can see now I should've just told him everyone in my family died in a horrific fire." MacKenzie stated as she looked down at McKenna. "Do you think Roman is going to be ok? He was really mad."

Alice smiled as she leaned over and kissed her sister's forehead. "He'll be fine. He'll game and drink out in the 'man cave' with Dain and get his frustrations out and then he will come back in here and feel the need to reclaim you as his property. So don't be surprised. He's like any other red blooded male on this planet. He couldn't have gauged that Jeff was going to hurt you so he couldn't stop it and I think that was what he was more pissed off about than anything."

"I think the fact Jeff touched me let along put bruises on me was enough to piss him off. Of course me telling him not to hurt him because he's a lawyer probably didn't help matters either; I guess it was like emasculating him. I hope he doesn't think that was my intentions." MacKenzie stated in a soft voice. She was sort of curious if she would be punished for stepping on her Dom's toes…so to speak. And she wasn't sure if she wanted to know – she couldn't see being punished as a good thing.

She'd started doing her own research on Dom/Sub relationships. Roman was definitely different about it. The first time she watched a video of a sub being spanked by her Dom for talking out of line or being a smart mouth her eyes widened and her mouth fell open before she shut it off. The thought of someone spanking her like a five year old almost pissed her off. There would be nothing about being spanked that would turn her on; she didn't see the appeal.

"Wow, I didn't see if before…I see it now. You're in love with him; you're in love with Roman." Alice accused her little sister verbally.

MacKenzie's mouth opened and closed a few times. She didn't know what to say to her sister. She suddenly couldn't stop thinking of the question her sister had accused her of.

Was she in love with Roman?

"I…it's only been a couple of months Em." Kenzie tried to defend, but she knew it only took weeks sometimes days to fall in love with someone in every way possible.

Alice leaned over and gripped her sister's chin before looking in her eyes. "You are – even if you don't know it now; even if you yourself can't tell. I can see it all over your face; when he touches you, when he smiles at you – even when he says your name. You are definitely in love with him even if you can't tell it right now."

MacKenzie couldn't stop the blush from spreading all over her face. Even when she had her own doubts in life her sister could read her like an open book whether she liked it or not. "I think I'm going to go lay down for a bit." Kenzie stated as she handed over a drowsy McKenna.

Alice nodded as she took her nearly asleep daughter from her sister. "I'll wake you in time for dinner." She watched as Kenzie nodded before she headed out to her room.

Roman and Dain had about three beers a piece before they cut the game off and headed into the house around 3. They walked through the house into the living room as they both smiled at the sight of Alice stretched out on the couch with a sleeping with McKenna on her chest and Neela and Nathan tangled in her legs.

Dain walked over and gently lifted McKenna because she was starting to get fussy. He softly brushed his lips across Alice's forehead, but didn't disturb her.

"You should go talk to Kenzie." A soft voice stated.

Roman looked over as Alice rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "Why do you say that?" Roman asked curiously.

"I think she's worried that she emasculated you when she told you not to hurt Jeff. She knows it's your job to protect her no matter what and her telling you not to hurt him was like basically cutting your pecker off in front of everyone." Alice stated as gently as she could.

Dain and Roman both chuckled at her explanation.

"Momma, what's a pecker?" Neela's sleepy voice asked.

Alice groaned. "Don't you worry about it you won't need to know what it is until your 30." She watched as Nathan sat up and gave her a curious look as well. "And you don't worry about it either because it will only get you into trouble." She stated with a tone of finality.

Dain and Roman busted out laughing before Roman nodded. "I'll go check on her now."

"Roman, my sister – she's not a fancy materialistic person. She doesn't need much just her blackberry, laptop and maybe a guy who will hold her and tell her she's beautiful. She doesn't need much to survive." Alice stated as she was getting the twins up right and mobile towards the stairs to get them bathed before she had to start dinner.

Roman nodded. "Dually noted." He stated.

Dain followed Alice upstairs with the twins. "Let's order Chinese. You won't have to cook and it will give Roman and Kenz time to talk, make out get some frustrations out…ya know the fun stuff."

"Oh my God! Dain Nelson! I don't need to have any sort of mental imagine of my baby sister having fun." Alice scolded.

Roman could hear Dain's chuckle all the way up the stairs and into the master bedroom. This was the family he wanted some day and he already knew who he wanted to have it with.

Grey eyes watched as her body was stretched across the bed sleeping peacefully. He knew it had only been a couple months since they'd been together but he could feel things inside of his body changing. His feelings for her were growing and becoming stronger. He let his eyes wash over every curve of her body.

Roman didn't even have to think about his next move as he kicked his sneakers off and climbed into bed with her. He softly kissed along her jaw until he got to her neck and felt her giggle and shiver; he knew his goatee and scruff tickled the side of her neck and he felt her wrap her arms around his torso as he arms went around her body pulling her closer to him. One of her legs went between his as her other hiked up over his hip.

Roman's hands slid up her body as he cupped her face and softly kissed her lips. "I'm not mad at you and no I don't think you emasculated me. I think you were scared that a bad situation was going to be made worse given my Samoan temper and the fact that he put his hands on you and hurt you. You already knew it was going to be bad."

MacKenzie frowned slightly. "I know what Jeff is like. I know if he wanted to he could make your life very hard for you right now, especially if he knows how big of a public figure you are. He will drag your name and your family's name through the mud and slander it and it will be very bad for you. He can and will destroy your life. The only reason he hasn't done it to mine is because of the law firm I work for. They already threatened the company he works for."

MacKenzie pulled away from Roman as she got off the bed and went to stand by the window; wrapping her arms around herself. "Roman, today could've been so much worse for you." Her frown deepened. "Roman I'm giving you an out because you need one. Because you don't need to be caught in the middle it's bad enough my family is stuck in the thick of it; you shouldn't have to be in it either."

Roman sat up and threw his legs over the side of the bed as his sock covered feet hit the hard wood floor. "What are you saying MacKenzie?" He asked curiously. She wasn't really saying what he thought she was saying…was she?

"I'm saying run; run as fast and as far away from me as you can. I'm telling you - you need to get away before Jeff turns your life upside down. I'm not worth the fight. If he thinks you are any kind of threat to him he will blow your world into tiny pieces and I don't want to be responsible for the damage he will cause to you, your family, your lives, possibly your career; everything you hold dear in your life." MacKenzie saw the look on Jeff's face earlier. She knew he was going to start a shit storm that no one would be able to recover from.

Roman shook his head. "Kenzie, come here." He held his hand out. He watched as she turned and looked at his outstretched hand before she took his hand. He closed his fingers around her hand and pulled her over and grabbed her hips and guided her to sit on his lap. "I'm not going to run away from anyone or anything. And I damn sure am not running away from the best thing that ever happened to my life. Because whether you know it or not, you are the best part of my life right now. And I don't give a shit what Jeff does, if he wants a fight I'll give him one. You're my girl not his and it's his loss and he will get over it or he won't either way I don't care, but he's not getting you back. He threw you away and I'm not stupid enough to make the same mistakes he made."

MacKenzie couldn't stop the tears from sliding down her cheeks as she threw her arms around his neck and felt his arms tighten around her body.

Roman sighed with relief.

Crisis diverted…for now.