Love Me (The Elites of Cheshire shore #2)

43. Rome

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

rome

“ D id you check Sof’s place?” Luca asks when he can’t get ahold of her for the seventh time. His hair is now standing up in many different directions from the amount of times he’s run his fingers through it.

The moment those words leave his mouth, I slip my shoes on and I’m already walking across the hallway.

“On it,” I tell Luca and hang up while raising my fist and pounding on the door.

“I have a doorbell, you know,” Sof grumbles, answering the door. Her plumpy Russian Blue cat, Mr. Rhubarb, darting behind her.

I stare past her shoulder, angling myself so I can get a peek into her apartment. “Is Flo in here?”

An odd look passes across Sof’s face and she opens the door, letting me into her apartment. “No, she isn’t. She’s gone out.”

My large strides halt and I turn to face her, cocking my head to the side. “What do you mean she’s gone out? We have a date night planned. Why would she go out?”

“I thought you were different, Rome.” Sof exhales an annoyed breath, crossing her arms over her chest.

“What’s with the cryptic answers, Sof? What’s going on?” Panic starts to take hold of my insides as my muscles tense. What the fuck is going on? “Where is Flo?” I say through gritted teeth, pretty sure I’m about to snap every single veneer in my mouth.

“If you must know,” Sof lifts her green eyes at me, so full of fire, “she’s gone on a date.”

What the fuck.

My face turns to stone. My heart ceases to beat and my lungs squeeze, making it hard to breathe. Why would she go on a date? After everything we’ve been through.

“You’re lying,” I spit.

“I thought you were different. You’ve known her for so long, and you were the only guy she ever let get close to her, the only man she would ever even think about loving.” Sof’s eyes gleam as she shakes her head like she can’t believe I let her down, and it nearly kills me. “She was scared moving to the next step would change things. But we told her you would never hurt her. We told her you were a good guy.” She shakes her head again. “But you broke her heart, just like she was afraid of. She always said love is too painful and you just had to go and prove her right.”

My heart hammers in my chest, something is so very wrong here and I need to find out what.

“I don’t know what the fuck has happened, but I can assure you this is one giant mistake.” Rubbing a hand along my jaw, I think of all the ways I’ve fucked up in my life, this is why I’ve been so scared to have a relationship with her, but I will do everything I can to fix it. I don’t want to be the reason Flo is hurting.

“Is that why you were having your assistant come over in a trench coat? Why you were so surprised when she came home early?”

“No, Sof, it’s not like that at all. This is one giant mistake. Sav was just dropping by.” I need to find Flo; I need to explain everything.

“Mistake or not, Rome. I don’t like to see my friends hurt.”

“Don’t believe me? Here.” I hand her my phone with the messages to Sav. I watch her face change as she reads through them. “You see.” I take my phone back. “I need to find her and make this right.”

Sof purses her lips and crosses her arms over her chest. “Yeah, you really do. I just hope she’ll listen to you. She’s at the bar with Archer.”

I don’t need to be told twice. I’m already out the door and heading toward the bar when Sof messages me the address.

She’s dyed her hair black. I fume, staring at the locks curling around her shoulders. Her beautiful pastel purple locks are gone. And it’s all my fault.

“Flo.” My heart shatters at her dead expression.

“I’m ready for another round, are you?” She slides off the bar stool and pushes past me to make her way to the bar. Perfect. We can be alone to have this conversation. I place my arms on either side of her, caging her in.

“I’m going to skim over the fact you’ve come out to a bar when we were supposed to be spending the evening together.”

She turns around but doesn’t make eye contact with me and says, “We were never together, Rome. I was your fake,” she waves her hand in the air, “girlfriend to help you get Brian off your back. But we were not officially together. And I simply wasn’t going to spend my evening waiting around for you to be done with Sav. You clearly showed me I’m not yours.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Archer get up and quietly leave. The bartender places Flo’s drink behind her as I bend at the knee, bringing myself to eye level and placing my finger under her chin to lift her gaze to mine. “And what makes you think you aren’t mine?”

She moves her face out of my grasp. “You can’t have me and not have me at the same time. It doesn’t work like that, Rome. Also, you might need to find someone else to help be your fake girlfriend because I’m done. Maybe ask Sav to do it.” She ducks under my arm and spins away from him. But I grip my upper arm and turn her to face me.

“I don’t think I can do this, stand by and be your friend while you eventually fall in love with someone else. With your person. It would hurt me too much. I’ve already had enough pain in my life Rome. I can take this too.”

“I don’t want to fall in love with anyone else. I’ve always been in love with one person.” My lips pull into a thin line. “The right person has always been you, Florence Liu-Savino.”

“You have a really stupid way of showing it,” she spits.

“This isn’t…” I run a hand over my beard in frustration. “This isn’t coming out how I would like. And I seem to be fucking this up more than I already was.”

“You really are. Did you really think I was so stupid I wouldn’t piece together what you were doing? I mean at least you had the decency to act shocked.”

“Flo, no. Please. Let me explain. It’s not what you think. Sav came over to drop some paperwork off but Luca was going to collect it. I had this entire date night planned.”

I can tell from her expression she isn’t buying what I’m saying. I hand her my phone, the messages to Sav opened, but she refuses to look at them. “If you don’t believe me, call my brother. You know he won’t lie to you.”

Flo pulls her own phone from her pocket, presses a few buttons, making sure the call is on Speaker before my brother’s ragged voice answers. “Flo, are you all right? Why the fuck haven’t you been answering my messages. I know my brother is a stronzo, but, Flo, please don’t ice me out.”

“I’m fine, and you’re right, I’m sorry I didn’t answer your messages. I just needed some space from anyone with the name Venuccio.” Her eyes don’t leave mine as she replies to Luca. I notice that she doesn’t go into specifics.

“Luca, I need you to clear something up for me. Do you remember my plan for tonight?”

“Yeah.”

“What was it?” I ask.

“The plan where I was going to do the important paperwork that Sav was bringing over for Becks tonight while you guys had a date night.”

The apple of Flo’s cheeks pull tight as she listens to her best friend explain my plans for tonight. I knew that no amount of explaining would change Flo’s opinion, and I needed to go for the big guns. Luca is the only person who knows everything and would be able to convince Flo of what I’m trying to say.

“Yes, that plan.”

“I was coming to collect the paperwork when we found Flo gone,” he continues.

“Yes. Now, can you please read the messages?” I hand Flo the phone as her reluctant eyes dart over the messages. Her steel gray eyes flick to mine. “I promise you, I’m a lot of things. But I could never ever do anything to hurt you. I’m so sorry that I’m the cause of this much pain right now.”

“I’ve gotta go,” Flo says, hanging up the phone call and tucking it in her pocket. I take a step closer to her, and when she doesn’t step back, I take it as a good sign.

“I’ve loved you from the sidelines for what feels like a lifetime and that ends today. I’m done sitting back and not putting myself first. I’ve kept your Kindle charger at my house just in case you needed it. I sent you those candles you wanted because you mentioned how much you liked the smell. I’ve done all the loving I could do from the sidelines without upsetting him.”

“Him who?” she asks.

“I saw your dad die,” I blurt, her eyes widen as she stares at me. My throat bobs with the force of my swallow. No matter the years that have passed, it’s still such a hard thing to say. “I had always had a crush on you before then. That summer we got even closer than ever before. I was excited to ask you out, but then your dad died. He stared right at me as he died. His last words to me were, ‘Watch Flo,’ and I know he thought I wasn’t good enough for you. So I have spent the last fifteen years loving you from the sidelines while distracting myself because I knew I couldn’t have you.”

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” she whispers. I suddenly feel really stupid.

I give a harsh laugh. “How do you think that would have gone down, even saying it to you now feels like I’m breaking some promise to him.”

“But you’re not, you’ve done exactly what he asked of you. My whole life you and your brothers have watched out for me, protected me, and made me feel loved and cared for. You and Luca filled the space in my heart losing Dad left behind. You made me whole again, Rome. I’m so sorry, Rome. I should’ve known you never would’ve done that to me. That there was another reason for Sav being at our apartment.”

She’s calling it our apartment. My heart simultaneously shatters and beats faster, thumping against my ribs.

“While I’m hurt you believed I could ever do something like that to you, I promise I will spend the rest of my life showing you that you’re my world and I wouldn’t do anything to change it. Florence, you have been mine for the better part of two decades. I was just too scared to tell you. I didn’t deserve you.”

“What’s changed, why now?” she asks.

“I’m done fighting this, Flo, I can’t do it anymore. I can’t keep staying away from you.”

“Why do you love me, Rome?” she whispers. I rest my forehead against hers.

“Rome,” she whispers so low I almost miss it.

“Why did you change your hair color?” I pick up a lock of her ebony hair and twirl it around my knuckle.

“Because I couldn’t stand to look at myself in the mirror. Because the hair color reminded me of being with you, every time you’d call me lollipop. And it hurt too much not to hear you say it again.”

“You have me, baby. I’m yours and always will be.”

“Do you mean it? You really love me?”

My thumb lightly strokes her cheek. “Yes, I do. I have for longer than I should admit.” I whisper, “You are the meaning of perfection to me, in every irreproachable way. You are a drug I cannot get enough of. And I’m addicted to wanting you for the rest of my life.”

She swallows. “I think, deep down, the reason why I’ve been so afraid to love is because it’s always been you, Rome.”

I lean down and capture her lips in the most soul-shattering kiss. If this is the last kiss I ever receive for the rest of my life, then I will die a happy man.

I release her lips first and rest my head against hers. “Please come home with me.”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

I take the glass from her grasp and put it on the counter behind me, intertwining my fingers with hers, I lead her out of the bar.

“Welcome home.” I breathe as Flo glides past me, leaving her tantalizing aroma in her wake, and like Pavlov’s dog, my mouth waters. The whole ride back I couldn’t keep my hands off her, needing to touch her in some way. To have her close to me.

“You know…” Flo stops, puts her hand on her hip, and cocks it to the side, her sass is back, and my blood pools in my cock, straining inside my boxers. “You never actually asked me to move in?” She lifts her eyebrows and sticks her chin out.

“Ohhhh, lollipop, the moment you walked through the door, you agreed to the blood oath declaring you’re officially mine, and there is absolutely no takebacks there.” I poke my thumb over my shoulder at the closed door behind us.

“I’m sure there is a way to break a blood oath?” She taps her finger to her chin, mulling over her options.

I close the distance between us. “Lolli, don’t you know blood oaths are the real deal? Breaking them would cause untold troubles to befall upon your friends and family.” I nip at her chin, running my nose down the column of her throat, inhaling her sweet jasmine scent.

“We wouldn’t want that now, would we?” Her voice hitches when I hit the spot between her neck and shoulder, making my lips tug into a smile.

“Absolutely not, we’re really doing everyone a favor by preventing anything bad from happening.”

“Look at us, such charitable people we are.”

I bend at the waist and sling her over my shoulder, her squeal doing weird things to my heart.

“Rome.” Her hands tighten on the belt of my pants, giving her more leverage.

“Since you now live here, I think it’s only fair we christen this entire place, starting with our new room.”

Flo smacks my ass. “You’re just using this as an excuse to have sex with me.”

“Firstly, you’re my girlfriend, therefore, I will take advantage of any and every opportunity you give me to have sex with you, and secondly, when would I ever not want to have sex with you.”

“I’m your girlfriend again?” she says, and I swing her around. She lands on the bed gracefully, already wiggling into the center.

“Blood oath, remember.” I tear my shirt over my head as I kick off my shoes and undo the button on my pants, letting them fall to the floor. I prowl toward Flo, climbing onto the bed at her feet. I start with the first leg, kissing my way up her tight-clad calf until I hit her thighs. “Have I ever told you I fucking love when you wear those tights?”

“You’re really going to love these ones.” She smiles, heat simmering in her silver eyes, glimmering freshly cut steel. She throws her head back as I continue up her thigh, her dark locks spread out behind her like a curtain. The strap of her plum silk dress falls off her shoulder, exposing the lace cup of her bra.

“This dress,” I murmur, “it does things to me.” When I saw her sitting at the bar with this dress on I wanted to fall to my knees and worship the goddess that she is and kill the guy sitting opposite her.

“I’m so glad you like it, because I really love it.” The way she says that has me eyeing her. She wiggles out of my hold, slides her knees underneath her butt and lets the other strap of the dress fall off her shoulder so the dress can pool at her knees. Not a single panty line in sight, thanks to her sexy black lace thong, which I can’t wait to have between my teeth.

I blow out a low whistle when I see what’s stitched into her tights. Lick here , in red letters opposite her hip bone. My dick turns to granite. It’s no different to whenever I’m around Flo.

“Jesus fuck.” I gasp when she turns around to show the other side of the stockings, which say Bite here over the curve of her ass cheek.

“What do you think?” She looks at me over her shoulder, a coy smile on her lips.

“I think I’m the luckiest fucking man to ever live.”

Her lips pull into a full-blown smile. She’s so beautiful I forget to breathe. I don’t know what I did to deserve her looking at me like that, but fuck me, I’ll keep doing it every single day for the rest of my life just to see that look again.