Love Me (The Elites of Cheshire shore #2)

8. Rome

CHAPTER EIGHT

rome

“ T hree bottles of 1942.” Luca flops down on the couch in my office with a heavy sigh.

I flick my eyes over my computer screen to see my brother laid out on my leather couch with his forearm thrown across his eyes. Dramatic much? Guess we’re having another one of those days.

“Not this again,” I grumble under my breath. Monday morning is already turning out to be shit. I’ve checked my emails twice and nothing from Deeter or Nora. I shake my head at my brother, whose priorities are still firmly on the events of Saturday night. Flo not only won the challenge, the girls wiped the floor—much to Ryder’s surprise. Not to mine, though. The moment Florence Liu-Savino puts her mind to something, she not only surpasses everyone’s expectations but she blitzes past her own.

“This is all your fault, you know,” Luca moans in phantom pain. Let it be known there is no bigger crybaby than Luca Venuccio when he loses. He makes pouting a fucking sport.

I steeple my fingers on my desk and sit forward, staring at my overdramatic brother with raised brows and ask, “How exactly is this my fault?” His talents are wasted in my office, he should be auditioning for off-Broadway productions—namely the ones staring betrayal. He has that down.

“If you hadn’t sat in the booth with that surly-as-shit expression on your face. We would have won, and I wouldn’t have Don Julio putting up a whole new wing in his distillery courtesy of me.”

I click my tongue to the roof of my mouth. Figures. When we returned to Club Trix the following Saturday, Flo happily threw Luca’s credit card down on the table. She won the bet, after all, and announced to everyone there was a new champion in town, before ordering three bottles of Don Julio. Clearly my sulking little brother doesn’t check his credit card statement—because if he did, he would know. I messaged Matt before we arrived and the whole thing was charged to my credit card. He didn’t spend a dime. And the fucker is still complaining.

I lean back in my chair, crossing my arms over my chest, deciding it’s way more fun to continue to poke my brother than to tell him the truth. He shouldn’t make it this fun to annoy him. “Maybe you could ask him to engrave a few bottles with your name. I think they will sell really well. Especially if you run a giveaway like, ‘whoever finds the golden cap wins a date with you.’” I blow out a high-pitched whistle. “I think Don Julio will triple his sales, selling both to the women you’ve fucked and want a second round and those who are just itching to meet you. You should pitch it to him.”

Luca glares daggers at me. “Someone is jealous Vogue chose me for the cover when they did that piece on Ven Industries leading the future.”

I scoff, letting the springs of my chair take my weight as I lean back farther. “More like I chose you because I don’t want to be on the cover of some puff piece.”

Luca sits up and clutches his chest. “I’m so telling Mom you said that, she has a poster-size photo hanging up in the library at home. She said I’m her little bello .” He runs his hand through his neatly trimmed beard. Luca is more attractive than me, and he knows it. He’s all fresh-faced, classic handsome, probably because he doesn’t have to shoulder the burdens I do—it ages a man. He isn’t the one with all the expectations weighing him down. As the oldest, if something goes wrong, even if it’s not my fault, it’s still my fault. It only makes me work harder. It’s my duty to ensure that all this trust that has been put into me to lead Ven Industries is for something. Not that my brothers don’t pull their own weight, because they really fucking do. When shit hits a wall, there is no one else I want to have to wade through it than Luca and Dante. But I prefer to not be the public face and have to deal with all the crap that goes along with it. My brothers don’t mind. It’s them standing at the front getting the applause for all our collective hard work. They deserve it. I am happy to be watching them and cheering them on. An email pings, dragging my attention away from my brother.

It’s from one of our forward shippers that loads at our European port. The subject line has ice flooding my veins.

Shipment delay notification

What the fuck?

I click the email to expand it and read what is happening, and why we’re now having a shipment delay.

“Is everything all right?” Luca, sensing my change in mood, asks.

“No, it seems our European counterpart is delayed in loading a few of our ships,” I repeat an abridged version of the email, something I probably wouldn’t be privy to, but has been sent directly to me. “Seems they were all missing paperwork.”

Luca runs a hand through his hair. “Seriously? That’s odd, we’ve never had a problem like that before.”

My stomach tightens. “No, we haven’t. Let’s hope Dante can get this new port through Kadelburg, before we have more trouble with the Europeans.”

“Bro, it’s Dante, he can get just about anything done.”

I hope so—before we start to have more issues. I quickly type back an email and update our spreadsheet. I’m now going to track this shipment with an eagle eye.

Luca looks at his watch then stands, brushing his suit back into place and adjusting his tie. “Are you ready?”

“For what?” I ask, my gaze fixed on my computer screen at the three emails pinging in from Dante, seems he’s been informed of the delay as well. Absently, I click on the first one and skim over what my youngest brother has written.

Luca gives me a duh look. “The meeting with Glam Co?”

“Oh fuck!” I glance at my watch. “Why did you spend so long bitching on my couch then, we’re going to be late.” Pushing away from my desk, I grab my jacket hanging on the back of my chair and push my arm through a little more aggressively than needed.

Luca shrugs his shoulders. “I was bored, Dante is still in Europe, which leaves my favorite brother to annoy.”

“Thank you for the honor,” I grumble under my breath and stalk past him. “ Stronzo .”

We had five minutes to make the twenty-minute drive to the Glam Co office in thick Cheshire Shore traffic. And he has already called dibs on the radio dial. Sometimes I really want to punch my brother in the face.

Since meeting Livvy Blake a couple months ago, my friends and I have quickly taken Livvy, her sister, Devin, and friend Kendall Fordham into the fold. Now we do more shit together than ever before, a perk of being young, rich, powerful, and the future leaders of some of the biggest conglomerates in the world. As part of the Founding Five, Cheshire Shore is our playground and we’re enjoying the fuck out of it. Not to mention it’s been extremely entertaining to see Livvy hand Ryder Fallington his ass multiple times. She quickly became like a little sister to me, and we love to harmlessly flirt to give it to Fallington, because her boyfriend is just so fun to wind up. When Devin and Sof brought forward the idea of diversifying our portfolio with Livvy, our interests were piqued. Yes, we all have our own businesses that turn over enormous amounts of money, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t interested in looking for more and expanding our options. Livvy pitched her idea to create a teen line. After testing her products out, my friends and I decided to invest in the brand. Cosmetics and skin care are not really my strong suit, but making money is.

Luca pulls open the door to the Glam Co office.

“Do you even know where we need to go?” I ask, scanning the foyer area. We’re already so late for the first official meeting for the line.

“Ahhhh, that way?”

It’s the shaky way my brother points that has me pulling my phone out of my pocket, I quickly scan my emails to see if there is an update on the shipment delay, and I flag a few important ones that will need my attention once this meeting is over, including one from Deeter Group. I send a quick message to Livvy.

Rome

Glam Co = lost boys

Livvy

Are you trying to be Peter Pan?

Rome

Only if you’ll be my Wendy

Luca barks out a laugh, reading over my shoulder. My phone pings with a message from Ryder.

Ryder

My Girl, Rome.

I snort. Why does he make pissing him off so easy and so much fun?

Rome

There is this thing called privacy between people…

Ryder

My Girl, Rome.

“You do know he is in there cursing up a storm now.” Livvy walks into the foyer, laughing.

“We’re sorry we’re late, brother dearest here,” I point my thumb at Luca, “spent too long gossiping about his credit card bill.”

Livvy waves us off, threads her elbow through mine, and leads us to the elevator, which takes us to the upstairs board room.

“Now we’re all here, the meeting can start,” Livvy announces, opening the door.

“Finally.” Sof rolls her eyes. “Are we going to expect this to be a regular thing?”

“Where’s Kendall?” Luca asks, scanning the table and noticing Livvy’s best friend’s absence.

“Right here.”

I swing my head around to the computer sitting next to Ryder, with Kendall’s cheery face on the screen. Livvy takes her seat next to Ryder and dots a kiss on his cheek. Anyone else I would call out the cheesiness, but these two fucking deserve the love.

“Is this a no-pants kind of Zoom call?” Leo wiggles his eyebrows. I smother my laugh in the palm of my hand, covering it up with a fake cough. I don’t know how his uncle can take this guy seriously, from the way Sof is rolling her eyes, I can gather how well it goes down at the Faluccino camp.

“And this is why you’ve stained four office chairs in two months,” Sof grumbles from the corner of her mouth.

“TMI.” Becks shudders, covering his hands over his ears.

“Can you move the fuck over.” Sof’s eyes look between the arm of Zander’s chair and her thigh.

“Aww, does little miss sunshine need more space?” The sarcasm is thick in Zander’s voice. Sof gives him the sweetest, doe-eyed smile, using twenty facial muscles. She leans close to him, from here I can see the curve of her breasts pressed against his forearm, and his eyes zero in on the point of contact, causing the tips of his ears to turn red. All of a sudden, she sends his chair careening to the end of the table.

“There.” She wiggles in her chair. “Much better.”

“Why is Kendall dialing in?” Luca finally asks as we take the remaining two seats opposite Livvy and Ryder, now with more room next to Sof.

“She had to move to France for a few months,” Livvy replies. “Something to do with a crisis her sister’s firm is handling.”

“But I’m still there with you all in spirit,” Kendall says after a few second’s delay.

“We were just waiting on you guys to arrive to start. Please tell me Dante is right behind you?” Henley moans.

“No, Dante is away on business, you just get our pretty faces for this meeting.”

Luca pulls out an A5 spiral-bound notebook, ready to start taking down notes. He is the diligent brother.

“Well then,” Ryder looks around the table, “if that’s everyone, we can get a start. Livvy,” he swivels his chair to face Livvy, “the floor is yours.”

“I was thinking we could start our first meeting off with a few product tests.”

I rub my hands together, I fucking love product tests, especially if Livvy has designed them.