Chapter 28

" Hey! Let me walk you to the car." Dean suggested as Roman was leaving the apartment.

Seth was bundling his sheets into the washing machine after their encounter.

Roman locked their fingers together as they walked down the stairs to the car.

He leaned against the car and took Dean's other hand and gently pulled him against him so that their hips touched. He leaned in and kissed Dean's lips softly and confidently. Taking his time to savour them.

" That was amazing." He said through a breathless whisper. Dean knew instinctively that he was referring to what happened in Seth's bedroom.

" Yeah it was." Dean stared into those hazy grey eyes a bit uncertain about what to say. Roman had this way of rendering him speechless by a look or a touch.

Roman groaned softly. " I have to get back to work."

The trance was broken. " I know but I was kinda hoping that you would stay." Dean looked at him hopefully.

Roman sighed and pecked Dean's forehead. " I can't. The account that I'm working on is due tomorrow and I have to finish typing up the report."

" So it's another late night at the office huh?"

Roman could tell by Dean's tone that he was not pleased. " Dean please. I've already been through this with Seth. This is my job. It's what I have to do." He squeezed Dean's hands gently. " I'm not just doing this for me but for us. For you, me and Seth."

Dean shook his head. " I don't need to be taken care of."

" That is not the point Dean. I always look out for the interests of the people that I'm with." He playfully tugged Dean's arm. " Whether they like it or not."

Dean smiled ruefully. He never had anyone who looked out for him like that. " Just don't over do it okay?"

Roman cracked a small grin. " I already promised Seth that I would take some time off before I picked up my next assignment."

Dean nodded. " That's good. Seth would have conniption if anything ever happened to you." He teased.

" Yeah he probably would." Roman mused. He slipped one arm around Dean's waist. " What about you?"

" I don't do conniptions," he joked half heartedly. His brain began to swarm with images of something happening to Roman and he found himself trying to shake those images away. He couldn't face thinking about such things. " I...I..." He started but he didn't know how to finish it. Instead he hugged Roman tightly and whispered in his ear. " Just promise me that you won't over do it."

" I promise." Roman pressed his lips against Dean's cheeks. It was a bit weird being so sentimental with Dean. This was more Seth's forte. But he had to admit that it did feel good getting this close to Dean. They held each other for a little while longer until Roman had to leave. Dean watched as his boyfriend's car disappeared down the road before he headed back upstairs.

" Did Romie leave?"

That was the first question that Seth greeted him with when he walked in the apartment.

" Yeah." He saw Seth's crestfallen expression and immediately he wrapped his arms around Seth's waist clasping them over the waistband of the grey gym shorts that Seth was wearing. " Hey," he said softly. " I talked to Rome. It's going to be all right. You need to stop worrying. Lots of people work hard like that every day for their living. Roman's no different."

Seth worried his bottom lip as he clasped his hands behind Dean's neck. " I know but ..." Seth tried to find the right words. " But he just looks so exhausted."

" Come with me baby."

Dean led Seth into his bedroom. Dean sat on the bed and Seth crawled next to him. Seth leaned against Dean's shoulder as Dean placed his arm around Seth's waist.

" You know that Roman is working this hard for us?" He stroked the soft hair at Seth's temple.

" But he doesn't have to do that." Seth whined.

" Yes he does." He kissed the spot of forehead where his fingers were. " Sethie, now I'm not pointing fingers but you did spend ten thousand dollars alone on a single shopping trip. That money has to come from some where."

Seth snapped up. His eyes filled with fury. " Are you blaming me for Romie working hard?"

Dean tried to calm him down. " No baby boy. I'm trying to point out that Rome maybe well off but he's no where near as rich as Damien. He has to put in the hard work."

" So it's my fault." Seth pouted and looked genuinely upset. " Romie is working too hard because of me."

" It isn't anyone's fault. Rome's a grown man. He's doing it because he wants to." Seth didn't look too convinced. " Look, I made him promise to take some time off when he's finished with the account that he's working on. He'll be spending more time with us, you'll see." Dean kissed Seth's shoulder and then pulled him back with him as he laid down on the bed. Seth curled up against him, resting his head on Dean's chest. He twirled Seth's hair between his fingers. Soon Seth wouldn't have anything to worry about.

Roman had just hit print on the report that he had completed when there was a knock on the door. It was after 7 p.m. and his office hours had long passed. He wondered who it could be as he opened the door. A tiny bit of fear ran through him when he saw who it was. The man smiled at him and pushed opened the door and stepped inside.

" Long time no see, eh?" The man chuckled in his deep English accent at the look of obvious displeasure on Roman's face.

" What do you want?" Roman stood with one hand on the doorknob ready to throw the man out at any hint of trouble.

The man smiled and held up his hands and took a step back. " I don't want us to get off on the wrong foot even though we didn't meet under the best of circumstances."

Roman eyed him warily.

The man took a step forward and offered his hand. " I'm Wade Barrett."

Roman looked at the outstretched hand but did not shake it. " Again, what do you want?"

" Okay I know this may seem strange since the first time we met you flattened my friend out in a car park but it took a lot of effort to track you down."

" Why?" Roman slowly closed the door.

" Well after outing Damien the way that you did of course the rest of us were mildly curious to who you were. Most of us had long suspected that Damien had been hiding something."He paused to sit in the chair in front of Roman's desk.

Roman realized that this was a man who was accustomed to taking liberties without a second thought because it had been his birthright to do as he pleased because of the privileged class that he had been born into.

" Anyway, I had always wondered why Damien had married Caroline because even though they had grown up together he had never shown any interest in her until he announced that he was marrying her." Wade rocked back in the chair. " In fact, he had never shown interest in anyone while we were in college." He chuckled again in his deep baritone voice. " Oh my gosh, I must be daft. I clearly missed all of the signs." He looked up at Roman and saw that he was wondering what the hell had any of this had to do with him.

" Enough about that." Wade put the chair up right and tapped the mahogany desk. " The real reason that I'm here." He gestured to Roman's chair for him to sit and surprisingly Roman found himself obeying him. When Roman had been seated he spoke again. " I tracked you down Mr. Reigns and found out that you were a very successful C.P.A."

" I do alright." Roman replied with no trace of emotion in his voice.

Wade realized that he wasn't going to win Reigns over easily and decided to cut through the bullshit. " Look I've got a business proposition for you."

Roman raised a skeptical eyebrow. " A business proposition for me? Really?"

" Yes. Now Damien maybe my friend but I don't mix my friendships with my business relationships. Plus Damien has decided to take his family on an extented trip to Italy. Who knows, he may settle there. I guess the embarrassment was too much for him." Wade shook his head. " He was always full of lots of foolish pride."

" Anyway," Wade clapped his thighs. " Have you ever heard of Barrett Industries?"

" Vaguely."

" Let me give you a brief run down. Barrett Industries is a huge conglomerate. We have automobile manufacturing, food manufacturing, clothing, cosmetics, whatever. If you use it, there's a chance that we have produced it." He could see that he had Reigns attention so he continued. " Right now there is a huge internal audit going on we have a team of around forty five auditors doing reports on all of the plants and their operations. Now I know that some of the plants have been stealing from me. Not enough to make a sizeable dent in the profit margin but enough that I would notice. A few million here and there adds up to a few hundred million and we can't have that. I can't have that."

" So what do you want me to do?" Reigns' curiosity was piqued.

" I want all of the auditors to hand over their reports and findings to you. I don't doubt that some of my managers have paid them off to look the other way and to hide up the actual dealings. I want you to sniff them out."

The enormity of the task weighed heavily on Reigns, this could be the account of a lifetime but he was still unsure of Barrett's motives. " And you want me to do it? Why? Couldn't you have found someone else?"

Wade smiled and folded his hands. " Because you've got guts. You marched on up into a ritzy, hoshposh golf club and knocked out one of the most influencial men in California and you didn't give a flying fuck about the consequences. If you accept this job you will see that some of these auditors work for some of the top accounting firms in the world and if you disprove their findings, well, let's just say you're going to need a lot bigger office."

Wade's offer sounded too good to pass up but he had made a promise to Dean and Seth. " I appreciate the offer, I really do but I promised someone that I would take some time off after I finished this last account." He took the printed pages off the printer and slipped them into a purple folder with his logo on it.

Wade leaned forward on the desk. " I understand that but what I'm offering you is an opportunity of a lifetime. For two months work you can take an entire year off if you so desired. I assure you that you will be very well compensated."

Now Reigns was interested. A couple more months of work and he could take an entire year off sounded like a better trade off than the two weeks he had originally planned on taking. " How much are we talking?"

Wade grabbed a post-it note pad and a pencil from Roman's desk and scratched a figure on the pad and pushed it back to him. Roman was a bit startled when he saw the figure. He had never seen so many zeros in his life. " Are you serious?"

Wade nodded. " Very much so. If you can start next week, I can throw in a bonus."

Roman quickly ran the situation over in his head. He hated breaking a promise but a couple months more work would be worth it to spend a lot more time with Seth and Dean. He hoped that they would understand. " I guess I can't refuse the offer."

Wade smiled broadly. " Excellent." He stood and offered his hand once more to Roman. This time, he shook it. " I'll send the reports over on Monday morning."

" That'll be fine." Roman walked Wade to door as they ironed out a few details on what Wade expected.

When Wade left, Roman leaned against the closed door exhaling hard. Now he just had to break the news to Dean and Seth.

" Seth baby, bring your tongue here."

Seth bounded into the kitchen gleefully, obviously looking for a kiss or some sort and was most confused when Dean handed him a shot glass.

" I want you to taste this. I've been trying to come up with new drinks for the bar." Dean watched carefully as Seth downed the entire glass and then made a face. " What is it?"

" The tequila and the ginger is a wicked mix." Seth said with a flush rising in his cheeks.

" Yeah it's a coconut tequila mixed with ginger and pineapple juice." Dean took the shot glass from him and placed it on the counter. " So what do you think?"

" It's good but the ginger is a tad strong maybe some more pineapple would mellow it out."

Dean didn't reply but scooped Seth up and kissed him, sucking on the tip of his tongue. When he was done he pulled back and grinned. " You're right. The ginger is a bit strong."

Seth was blushing at the surprise kiss and Dean found himself falling a bit more in love with him. " You seem to have the taste buds for this. Come on. Help me put some drinks together."

This how Roman found them when he walked into the apartment that Saturday afternoon. Dean and Seth were laughing in the kitchen as various shot glasses and bottle of alcohol and mixers stood around the counter top.

" Hi guys." He said as he walked in taking in how well Dean and Seth were getting along.

" Romie!" Seth squealed and ran into Roman's arms. Their lips meeting in a kiss that was so intense that it caused Dean to blush.

When they had finished Roman walked over to Dean and kissed him thoroughly.

" I see that both of you started happy hour with out me." He joked.

" Oh... uh..." Dean had quite forgotten about the drink mixing after that kiss he had gotten. He surveyed the damage done to the kitchen. " Yeah... um... Seth was helping me come up with some new recipies for the bar." He carried a handful of shot glasses to the sink and turned on the tap. " He's actually quite good."

" Yes Romie I was actually being helpful." Seth chimed in.

" For once." Dean muttered loud enough for Roman to laugh and for Seth to scowl.

" I was wondering if you two want to go out to dinner with me tonight?" Roman looked back and forth between the two men.

" Of course Romie! I need to go and look for something to wear." Seth dashed off to his bedroom leaving Roman and Dean alone in the kitchen.

Roman walked up behind Dean and wrapped his arms around Dean's waist as he washed the glasses in the sink. " Is that a yes from you as well?"

It was taking all of Dean's willpower not to sink into Roman's warm embrace especially since his hips were pressing hard against his. " You know that it is."

" Good. I have something to tell you guys and I'm not quite sure how you guys are going to take it." He whispered into Dean's ear.

" Oh?" Dean turned off the tap and wiped his hands off in the towel that he kept by the sink. He turned around and rested his hands against the edge of the sink while Roman held him. " What is it?"

Roman sighed, knowing that this was going to be difficult. " I took another job."

Dean's blue eyes narrowed at him and then pushed his way out of Roman's embrace. " Fuck!" He turned around and poked Roman in the chest. " You made a fucking promise to me and Seth." He gritted through his teeth.

" Dean I know. But you wouldn't believe who the job offer came from."

" Who?" Dean studied Roman's face. It was the first time that he had looked well rested for the entire week.

Roman told him about the conversation that he had with Wade Barrett. Dean's eyes opened wide with surprise and he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. " You think that it's legit?"

" Yup." Roman nodded his head. " Just two more months of work and I could take the entire year off if I wanted. Shoot, with the amount I'm being paid if I invested it properly I would never have to work again."

Dean still looked doubtful. Roman carefully placed his hands on his boyfriend's shoulder. " Just two more months Dean and I'm all yours. That's all I'm asking."

Dean nodded his head slowly. " I guess I could see your point. But you're going to have to break this to Seth on your own. He was really looking forward to spending the next week with you. He had even suggested that we go on a picnic on Monday. It's funny though, never pictured Seth as the picnic type."

" A picnic? Damn." Roman sighed and ran his hand through his loose ponytail. " I'll tell him after dinner. Hopefully he wouldn't throw too much of a fit."

Dean laughed nervously. The one thing that you could count on Seth on doing is being extra dramatic when things didn't go his way.

They had dinner at a nice surf and turf restaurant in L.A. After dinner they were walking through the car park with Seth in the middle. He and Roman were holding hands when the larger man spoke up.

" Seth?"

" Hmm?" Seth looked at him with that wide eyed trusting gaze of his and it made Roman feel even worse.

" I've got something to tell you baby." Roman stopped against his car leaning against the hood.

Dean figured that it would be best if he wasn't around and hopped into the backseat of car. But he couldn't resist watching through the window as the events unfolded.

" What is it Romie?"

Roman sighed and ran the back of his hand down the side of Seth's face. " I took another job. It starts on Monday."

Seth's face went blank for a few tense seconds and then he lashed out at Roman. " But you promised! You said that you were going to take a break."

" I know baby." He tried to grab Seth's hands but he pulled them out of his grip. " Seth please. Don't be mad. It's only for a couple of months and then I'm yours for the rest of the year."

" No!" Seth yelled and walked away from the vehicle and Roman followed him.

" Seth, c'mon." Roman made a grab for Seth's arm and again he pulled away. " Please baby. I'm doing this for us."

Seth stopped under a streetlight and turned slowly around to face him. The wind was blowing Roman's inky black hair across his face and he could see that Roman was being genuine but that wasn't enough.

" But this isn't what I want Roman."

That childish whine that Roman had thought was apart of Seth's natural speaking tone was gone. His voice was deep and raspy. For the first time it sounded like a grown man was having a conversation with him .

" Then what do you want Seth?"

" I want to be with you Roman."

" But you are with me Seth."

But Seth shook his head. " Not like this. We hardly ever saw you these last couple of weeks and now you're going to be busy for the next two months."

" And then I'm yours Seth for as long as you want. Why can't you see that a little sacrifice now is worth it in the long run?"

" But I can't handle it Rome. I can't handle coming home at night knowing that you're still at your office slaving over some papers. I can't handle barely seeing you in the morning and not even having breakfast with you. I can't handle not being able to crawl into your bed and you not being able to make love to me because you're too tired." Seth said the last part softly.

Roman felt a cold chill run through him. He didn't like where this conversation was headed. " But Dean understands and you'll have him while I'm gone."

Seth wrapped his arms around himself to fend off the cold wind from his body. " I'm not Dean, Roman and he isn't you." Seth walked past him heading back to the car.

Roman caught up with him and secured his hands around his waist trapping the smaller man against him. " What are you saying Seth?" He kissed Seth's face once and tried to do it again but Seth turned his head away. That action hurt Roman more than anything else that Seth had ever done.

He pulled Roman's arms apart and stepped out of his embrace. " I think you know Romie." He said as he walked towards the car.

A/N: Thank you guys so much for your wonderful reviews I love reading all of the various opinions. Oh and Shield vs Wyatts… I die! Can't wait for EC.