Dolce Vita

Sloane was sitting in her car outside the airport waiting for Roman. She had offered to pick him up from his road trip, they were going to have lunch and she was armed with a handful of ideas on how to test out this whole 'making the first move' thing.

Her phone beeped with a text, pulling her out of her thoughts. Would you mind giving one of my teammates a ride home?

She couldn't help but laugh as she looked around her tiny 2004 Ford Focus, Roman clearly had no idea what she drove. The thought of one of his teammates in the backseat was enough to send her into a fit of giggles as she text him back that she didn't mind and to look for the blue Ford.

"I can just take a cab or something." Seth told Roman as they walked toward the exit of the airport.

Roman looked down at his phone, seeing Sloane's response before telling Seth, "It's fine, she says she doesn't mind."

"Well what kind of vehicle does she drive?" He asked curiously, slipping his sunglasses down over his eyes as they walked outside.

"Blue Ford, don't know what kind." Roman told him as he too adjusted his sunglasses.

"Like that car over there?" Seth asked as his eyes fell on the only blue Ford vehicle in the curbside parking lane.

Roman followed his gaze and laughed before they walked toward it. Sloane saw them coming, reached out and pushed the passenger door open before she looked at them and told them, "Backseat door is broken on that side, you're gonna wanna use my side."

Seth took both his and Roman's bags and walked around the car, getting into the backseat with a bit of a struggle. Roman climbed into the front, his knees pushing against the glove compartment, but he wasn't overly uncomfortable.

Seth leaned forward and stuck his head between them to say, "Thanks for the ride."

"Don't mention it." Sloane told him before she turned to Roman for a brief second and apologized to them both, "Sorry it's so cramped."

They both shrugged her apology off, and Roman glanced around the car. Her phone was sitting in one of the cup holders, connected to an auxiliary cord in the stereo, there was a to go cup in the other holder, he noted that it was a stick shift, there was a rosary hanging from the rear view mirror and a sticker on the dash partially ripped off so he couldn't tell what it was.

"So how'd your work thing go?" Roman asked her curiously as they crept along with traffic.

Sloane shrugged, "Got it done, missed the whole last period and a half of your game though."

"We lost, not like you missed much." He told her with a shrug of his shoulders.

Sloane wasn't really sure what to say in response to that so she glanced in the rear view at Seth and asked, "You going home or to Abby's?"

"Abbs." He told her with a smile, and Sloane could totally see why her newfound friend was so attracted to the young defenseman. She had to admit, he wasn't striking in the way Roman was but he was cute and had this boyish charm to him. She knew adorable wasn't a way men liked to be described but it was the only word that fit him.

"You mind if I hang out at your place this afternoon? Kimberly has Colin over and I'd like to keep my food in my stomach today." Sloane asked Roman as she came to a stop at a red light.

He and Seth chuckled and Roman told her, "Only because I've been around them and know exactly what you're talking about."

An hour later Sloane and Roman were sitting across from each other at a patio table of a restaurant, their meals ordered and Sloane was beginning to wish she'd ordered less food, her stomach was doing flip flops. Roman took a drink of his water and asked her, "How was your week?"

She shrugged, "Boring. Honestly this whole work from home thing was great for the first three years now it's coming back to bite me in the ass."

"How so?" He asked curiously.

"I've gotten into the habit of staying in pyjamas all day and at one point I didn't leave my apartment for a week straight. Sometimes I forget there's actually a world outside my apartment complex." She told him, rolling her eyes when he chuckled. She reached out and slapped his forearm lightly before saying, "I'm serious! I talk to my sixty-two year old neighbor more than I do my friends."

This got him laughing even louder, which made Sloane pout. He eventually stopped laughing and asked her, "What about Kim?"

"Living with Kimberly is like living with my sister. It gets old very fast. One minute it's all fun and exciting and then the next you're arguing about who stole who's holiday barbie in 1998." Sloane stated with an eye roll.

"You have a sister?" Roman asked curiously, neither of them had approached the subject of family during their 20 questions game over a week earlier.

She nodded, took a drink of her juice, and told him, "A sister who's 16 and two brothers, ones 27 the other is 29. Then there's my step dad's 2 sons but they're well in their 30s and I don't really see them much."

"Whoa."

She chuckled at his response and said, "Yeah big family, especially now that both my brothers are married and one has two kids. Holidays are insane in my house."

"Do you usually go home for Christmas?"

"I do, Kimberly and I usually drive out on the 23rd and then we come home on the 27th." Sloane told him, glancing down at her phone when it pinged, she couldn't help but laugh when a text from Kim showed up and she said, "Oh look, speak of the devil."

Roman watched as she tossed her phone into her purse without even looking at the text and he felt the need to tell her, "You can answer her you know."

Sloane shrugged, "She can wait, it's nothing important."

Roman nodded slowly, he watched as she tapped her fingers against the table top and chewed on the inside of her lip. She glanced up at him and her cheeks flushed as he asked, "Everything okay?"

"Yeah everything fine. Sorry, it's just a habit." She told him, silently thankful that their waitress brought their food to them in that moment.

Roman kept his eyes on Sloane the entire drive to his apartment, she bounced her knee and kept moving her hand from the gear stick to her steering wheel, and she wouldn't look at him, even for the entire elevator ride up to his floor.

It wasn't until they were in the apartment and he was walking into the kitchen and she didn't follow that he turned and asked her, "Are you sure everything is alright?"

Sloane, stuck where she was by the kitchen, looked over at him, took in a breath of air and tried her best to give him a proper smile, "Yeah."

"Well... were you planning on watching the movie from there?" He asked, tossing his sweater onto the back of the couch.

Sloane let out a nervous chuckle and took off her shoes, walking into the living room but still standing a decent distance away from him. She took in another deep breath and then stumbled through what she was trying to say, "Do you um… you know what nevermind."

"You sure?" Roman asked her with an eyebrow raise, he'd never seen her so nervous. She kept pulling on the zipper of her long sleeve blouse, and she was biting the inside of her cheek again.

"So how do you feel about women who make the first move?" Sloane finally blurted out, her eyes were on him and they caught the tiniest bit of surprise Roman's expression let out. It was in the way his eyebrows lifted slightly and his eyes widened.

It took him a moment to respond, he was caught off guard by her question. Finally the corners of his lips turned up into the slightest of smiles and he told her, "I don't know I've never met one."

"Oh what the hell." Sloane muttered, grabbing the front of his shirt she pulled him down to her level and crashed their lips together. He smiled against her lips, wrapped his arms around her waist, pulled her tight into him and held her there with one hand, the other tangled itself in her caramel locks. Sloane wound one arm around his neck while the other hand gripped his bicep, every inch of her was touching him, and she practically let out a moan when his tongue dragged across her bottom lip.

She pulled back in that moment to catch her breath, she felt like she was on fire. She couldn't help but look up at him and let out a small laugh. Roman smiled and then asked her, "So what about men that make the next move?"

He didn't give her the chance to respond, instead his hands were on the sides of her neck, tilting her head up so he could kiss her again. It was everything he thought it would be and then some, he felt like he could kiss her forever. Sloane ran her hands down his forearms, gripping them tightly as his tongue met hers and she wondered if this was what everyone talked about. That weak in the knees, earth shattering kiss she had always rolled her eyes at when someone mentioned it.

Before they knew it Sloane started moving backwards, in an attempt to find his bedroom without unattaching their lips. Roman reached out, his hand hitting the wall beside his bedroom door, keeping them from walking into it and he guided them both a little to the left. When she felt the backs of her knees hit the mattress Sloane pulled away from him, she undid the zipper on her blouse, tossing it to the floor before crisscrossing her arms and pulling the tank top off as well.

Roman glanced down at her, she was wearing a lace bra, it was dark blue, and her breasts were practically spilling out of it. He wondered if that was the same one she was wearing the night they met. Sensing her impatience, with the way she kept pulling on the bottom of his shirt, Roman pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it onto the floor. Sloane stared at his body much as he had hers moments before, she ran the tips of her fingers from the tops of his shoulders down his chest and abdomen, until they rested at the waist band of his jeans.

Sloane glanced up at him, bit her lip gently, and didn't bother waiting for him. She undid the button to his jeans, and then pulled the zipper down slowly, before she put both her hands on his hips and pushed them down, where they pooled at his ankles. She pushed her leggings down, lifting one leg and then the other to get out of them, before leaning up and kissing him again.

Roman turned her around, so she was facing the bed, her back to him. When she went to turn again, unsure of what he was doing, he put his hands on her shoulders and squared them again. He carefully gathered her hair to one side, pressed his lips to the skin behind her ear, and then down her soft neck. He ran his finger tips along the tops of her shoulders, carefully pulling the straps to her bra down. His fingers barely touched her skin as he dragged them down her arms, it caused her to break out in goose bumps. He kissed the back of her shoulder, unclasped her bra, and he watched as she stuck her arm out to the right and dropped it onto the floor. His palms went flat against her sides, running softly over the curve of her waist and hips, before they wrapped around and down part of the fronts of the thighs as he pressed his chest into her back.

Sloane finally turned around to face him, and when she did he brought his lips to hers. Arching her back Sloane wrapped her arms around Roman's neck as he leaned into her and deepened the kiss. He gently pushed her onto her back on the bed, breaking away from her lips he pressed his own against the base of her neck as she pushed her fingers into the flesh of his shoulders.

He glanced up at her, taking a second to kiss her quickly, before he dragged his lips down her chest, between her breasts, down her stomach. He pressed one kiss to each of her hip bones, before hooking his fingers around the sides of her underwear and pulling them down. She lifted her legs under his touch, bending them so he could pull the satin underwear from her legs. He was quick to remove his boxer briefs, and caught Sloane taking a not so subtle glance at what he had to offer, she smiled to herself. Roman ran his hands up her calves and then her thighs, leaning over her he pressed his lips against hers again.

Sloane smirked against his lips, pressed her hands against his chest and pushed. With their positions switched Roman sat up, his back against the headboard, he couldn't help but grab her butt in his hands and squeeze. She let out a squeal mixed with a moan and leaned forward to kiss him again.

He kissed her neck, and then the skin at her collar bone before he looked at her and told her, "You're beautiful."

She leaned down and kissed him again, silencing him with her lips. They were both past the point of talking, and they knew it.