Love Me (The Elites of Cheshire shore #2)

21. Rome

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

rome

L uca. Fuck.

I grind my teeth as I glare at my younger brother, standing at the end of our table with his arms crossed over his chest. The air around us thickens, and my chest tightens as Flo’s worried eyes dart between Luca and Brian and Nora. She purses her rosebud lips. This is a problem neither of us considered, but in hindsight probably should’ve accounted for, given Luca is staying here too. All the confidence and bravado Flo had before Luca arrived evaporates as she subtly unclasps our intertwined fingers and slides her hand from mine. Guilt niggles at me; am I getting her to do something she’s uncomfortable with? God, I hope not. The last thing I want to do is cause me to lose Flo and alienate Luca.

Our conversation after Flo moved in with me flits across my mind .

“It’s a wonder we put up with her,” Luca jokingly mutters to me as Flo and Dante make their way through the café to find our table. We both know he loves putting up with her, and so do I.

“Florence has always been a firecracker. We’ve had years of practice knowing how to handle her and keep her happy.” I bump his shoulder with a closed fist.

Luca laughs. “Yeah, I know. Just say the word and I’m happy to move her into my place.”

I rear back like he’d just slapped me. “What the fuck gave you that impression?”

Luca shrugs and pops his bottom lip out. “I know you work like a demon and like to have your space, and Flo is probably cutting into that. I know how much you do to take care of all of us, brother. I’m only thinking about what will be best for you.”

His words are actually kind of sweet, but just the suggestion of Flo leaving has my protective instinct rearing to life inside me, making me defensive. “Really, Luca? How would that conversation go? ‘Oh, sorry, Flo. I know you’ve had all your possessions destroyed and you nearly died. But you’re just way too much in my space, so I’m moving you a few floors down?’”

Luca opens his mouth to inject but I quickly shut him up. “Not to mention I actually like having her around. She isn’t imposing at all; she’s actually doing the opposite. I want to come home to be near her. If you want her to move into your place, fucking balls up and ask her, moron, but don’t hide behind me.” The threat of losing Flo has officially soured my mood. The blood running through my veins starts to hit an acidic level.

Luca holds his hands up. “Hey, bro, I didn’t mean to piss you off. I was just offering.”

I’ve never blown up at Luca over Flo. I’ve always held it in and let him take the lead with her, but since her apartment fire, everything changed. Florence Liu-Savino isn’t just my little brother’s best friend anymore. She’s the woman who was made for me—the key for my lock. And since she has unlocked me, I have no intention of ever letting her go.

“Luca.” His name pulls me out of my thoughts. Lottie Croft, the person who has just handwritten herself into my will, because my brother is about to kill me, threads her arm through Luca’s elbow. “I just have to tell you who I met last night,” she cuts off Luca from saying anything else that could potentially blow our fake relationship out of the water, yanking my brother away from us. Flo visibly relaxes the farther Lottie pulls Luca away from our table. Her half-eaten toast left on the plate and the matcha latte untouched indicate that her appetite has clearly soured. There is no need for us to sit here a second longer, and I don’t want to make Flo any more uncomfortable than she already is.

“And on that note, I believe we have a couples massage booked.” I stand and extend my hand to Brian before taking my seat again. “I hope you have some time this week to go through the new proposal I sent over.”

“It’s in the pool of consideration.”

I’m sorry. It’s in the fucking what?! My thighs bunch under the table. Flo senses my mounting anger and places a calming hand on my leg. But it does shit to help anything but make me more on edge.

His fucking port hasn’t been publicly listed for sale, and now all of a sudden there is a “pool of consideration.” Who the fuck else is bidding for this?

“Oh, I didn’t realize there were other interested parties.” My eyebrows reach my hairline in my most schooled expression possible without outright showing my shock.

“There wasn’t, but it seems my godson has decided to change his career path. I’ve recently acquired the desire to keep Deeter Group in the family.”

Fuck. I purse my lips, my nostrils flaring. Brian Deeter is turning out to be a much greater challenge than we first anticipated.

“At any rate, given our long history together, I will indulge you this one favor.”

Wow, this guy is really on fire this morning.

“I’ll have my assistant check my schedule and get back to you. I have to say I am slightly intrigued by this new relationship development. But nevertheless, now my godson is interested, I think it’s only fair we consider everyone evenly.”

A muscle in my jaw ticks. Fucker.

“I look forward to it.” I flash him my most professional smile. First he had a problem with the fact that I’m single, now he’s out there pitching his company to other interested buyers. How the heck am I supposed to please this guy if he’s always changing the game.

I help Flo out of her chair and let my arm fall around her waist, pulling her into my side. “Enjoy your day.” As she tucks her hand into the back pocket of my pants, Flo gives a tight smile to Brian and a suspiciously quiet Nora. She’s doing a really good job of selling this fake relationship.

“Fuck, that was close,” I whisper when we are a significant distance away.

“You’re telling me.”

I expect her to pull away, to remove her hand like she did at the table when Luca interrupted us, but I’m pleasantly surprised when she doesn’t.

“Lottie warned me, you know, and I just didn’t think we’d need to worry so quickly.”

“Lottie warned you about what?” I pause in front of her room…or should I say our room?

“About Luca.”

I detangle myself from her and step to the side; hearing my brother’s name is like a splash of cold water. Both of my brothers are my world and I’d never want to do anything to hurt them. If Lottie thinks me and Flo pretending to be a couple will do that, then maybe I’ve read this whole situation wrong. I’ll need to message Brian that Flo and I broke up and then come up with another way to buy his port. My brothers mean more to me than Ven Industries and a stupid business deal with a tough man.

“Oh,” is all I can utter as Flo opens the door and walks in.

“Yeah. I mean, we were both pretty stupid to miss that one. We should’ve sent him a message to fill him in on our plan?—”

Something in my chest lightens, she’s not referring to my brother being annoyed.

“But I’m going to put the blame on you because you completely abandoned me this morning, so we didn’t get a chance to talk everything through before breakfast.” She continues to talk, not stopping to take a breath. “I guess, with the cat out of the bag, we need to tell Luca and Dante what’s happening so neither of them accidentally blow our cover again. Thank fuck Lottie was there to save the day.” She rests the palm of her hand on her forehead, the apples of her cheeks pulling tight as she works herself into a storm. I bite my tongue to save my laugh from escaping. This is the same woman who threw herself into action, checking out all her neighbors when her apartment building caught fire. Not once did her adrenaline hit this level, and yet, almost being outed for being in a fake relationship has this woman about to snap.

“Flo.” I rest my hands on her upper arms, bending slightly at the knee so we’re eye to eye. “Take a breath, relax. I’m sorry I abandoned you this morning. I was up super early writing a whole new proposal for Brian in the hopes he would look it over, and I didn’t want to disturb you. I’m sorry I left you here alone. I fully intended to have something quick to eat, then come back here and talk this whole thing through. Then Brian and Nora randomly showed up at breakfast and were asking questions about your whereabouts, and I’m not going to lie, when you showed up, I think I almost fainted from relief.” She blinks slowly. Her silence only making me more on edge.

Flo places her hands on my cheeks, squishing them together and cutting me off from speaking, her gray eyes boring straight into my soul.

“Rome,” she whispers, her voice as calm as mine was a couple of minutes ago when I was doing the same thing to her. “Thank you for apologizing. Now it’s your turn to take a breath.”

She uses my own words against me. I do exactly as she says and take a deep breath. I take my time drinking in her proximity. Breathe in her closeness. Her jasmine scent goes straight to my cock, making it tighten in my pants. I focus on my Nonna, willing for it to go down. Shit. I can’t have a boner now. But it’s Flo, she has this power over me. Her long eyelashes fan across her high cheekbones as she continues to hold my gaze. It’s intoxicating. The tip of her tongue darts out to lick her bottom lip.

“But you’re one hundred percent right, we need to talk about our ‘relationship’ and how far you want to take things.”

She still has a hold on my lips, so I nod. A satisfied smile spreads across her rosebud lips, and she releases my face from her hands. I stand to my full height. “We need to talk about all this, but first…” I cross the small room, pick up the phone, and put in an order for room service, since Flo didn’t get a chance to eat her breakfast. We settle into silence while we wait for the polite knock on the door.

“Are you still okay with doing this?” I ask when Flo is finished eating. I’m not going to be hurt if she says no, this whole thing was probably a stupid idea to begin with.

“Yeah, what makes you think I’m not?” She licks her fingertip, and my eyes are absorbed in watching the action, making it a fuck ton more sensual than what it should be. Everything Flo does is incredibly sexy, especially when she doesn’t realize she is. I swallow hard.

“Rome?” she calls my name, but through the blood roaring through my ears it’s hard to hear.

“Huh?” I slowly lift my eyes to hers.

“What makes you think I wouldn’t be all right with pretending to be your girlfriend.”

The fact that you pulled your hand away when my brother arrived?

“It was my idea after all,” she finishes saying.

My tense muscles relax. She’s still happy to do this. Somehow, this makes me happier than I care to admit.

“We just need to make sure we break it to Luca and Dante before they accidentally blow this whole thing out of the water. The kiss in front of Brian and Nora was perfect, by the way. Super convincing.”

“I’m glad we put those hours practicing last night to good use.” Arousal thrums through my veins, just thinking about last night.

“I guess it’s a good thing we’re already living together then, it makes more sense.”

I nod my head, because it’s all I seem to be capable of doing right now.

“Maybe we should go on a few more breakfast-y dates or even do a double date. You know, you, me, Luca, and Nora.” Flo’s eyes dance as she starts to plan things we could do to make us a more convincing couple.

I scoff. “Luca is going to hate that.”

She shrugs her shoulder and pulls her bottom lip between her teeth. “We’ve all gotta make sacrifices here Rome. Luca can bitch and moan about it after the date is over.”

Yeah, that’s not going to go down well, I just can’t wait to be in the room when Flo tells him, because I sure as shit am not going to be the one to do it.

“Why is Brian Deeter so important anyway?”

I take a sip from my coffee. “Brian Deeter currently owns the single largest port in Cheshire Shore.”

“So why not go to the government and petition for another one?”

“Already have, lollipop, and it’s a no-go. So the only option is to buy the Deeter Group one.”

“And does this have something to do with Dante currently being in Europe?”

“You could say that.” I settle back into the chair opposite her, letting my head roll back, “Ven Industries is expanding to have its own end-to-end transportation. He’s trying to get a new port in Kadelburg—it has the fastest shipping trail right to Cheshire Shore.”

“But it won’t mean much unless you can either go into partnership?—”

My face sours at the thought. The only thing worse than going into business with Brian is our current position of paying Brian usage for docking our boats. It might also have something to do with all the paperwork issues we’re currently having. Luca and I are still working on getting to the bottom of that rabbit hole.

“Or buy Brian out and have two Ven Industries ports.”

I tap my nose. That is my giant plan, one we’ve been working on for a few years, and the current plan that is failing epically. “Technically it will be two Founding Five ports.” Since the Founding Five Group is going to be the one that acquires it, and this is a good portion of why it’s taken so long to do. I had to vet the plans, pass them through the Founding Five Group process before we could sit down and vote on it. The added challenge is Brian not reviewing our proposal. Failure is not an option here. Brian not wanting to be acquired is even less so. From the reports Dante is sending, it seems like he is making headway in Kadelburg. And this whole thing is relying on two end-to-end ports.

“This really is quite a pickle,” Flo breathes out, resting against the back of her chair, her hand lightly placed on her now full stomach.

“So you see why I’m willing to do anything to make this happen.” I level her with my most sincere stare. Because the truth is…I am. But the question is, how far is she willing to go?