Love Me (The Elites of Cheshire shore #2)

46. Florence

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

florence

“ W ant to know the best part about my day?” Rome’s voice sneaks through my quiet thoughts, seconds before his arm snakes around my middle and pulls me toward his hard body. He adjusts the dials, making the temperature slightly colder.

“What part?” A giant smile fixes itself across my lips. THIS. I want to scream. I open my eyes and stare up into his deep green ones. I don’t know who I have to thank that this is now my reality, but I will happily say it every single day for the rest of my life.

“The part where I have you in my arms.” He peppers the length of my neck with kisses as his hand creeps up to cup my breast.

“See this…” I gasp as his teeth lightly graze that delicious spot where my neck meets my shoulder, “is cheesy.” He bites down hard, and a yelp escapes my lips just as his tongue soothes the area.

“You just love it when I’m cheesy,” he replies as his other hand teases lower, finding my slick folds. He’s not wrong, I fucking love this side of Rome. He teases my clit between his thumb and forefinger, pinching it just enough to make me want more but not enough to be exactly what I need. Bastard. I place a hand against the tiled shower wall and use the other to anchor myself against Rome, my fingers creating half-moon indents into his bicep.

“Do you like that?” he asks as he continues to play with my clit with his thumb and slides two fingers into me.

“Yes. Oh God, Rome,” I groan as he increases his thrusts, my fingers digging harder into his thick biceps. “Don’t you dare stop.” My skin electrifies as my impending orgasm looms. In one swift movement, Rome removes his fingers, flips me around to face him, and slams into me just as my walls convulse.

“Rome,” I scream.

“Fuck, you feel good.”

His piercing is doing an amazing job of driving me wild. He continues to thrust into me so that I don’t come down from my orgasm, I just continue to build into my next one. My breasts bounce with the force of his punishing pace. With one hand, he tweaks and rubs at my pebbled nipple while his other secures both my wrists over my head. My muscles squeeze in an attempt to hold Rome in.

“Flo, you drive me wild doing that.” His voice is more feral than man. I do it again, loving the way the muscles along his neck bunch, like he is using every single ounce of control he possesses. But I want Rome to lose control, I want to watch him shatter.

I feel him become harder inside me. “I love watching you go wild,” I mumble and squeeze again. Everything in me tightens. “I’m going to come again.” I can barely catch enough air to say those words.

“Not until I say you can.”

He bends down and sucks my nipple into his mouth.

“You ready to come, Flo?” His thrusts increase in tempo to a maddening speed.

I throw my head back, hitting the tiled wall. “God yes.” My muscles are already turning to liquid after the first orgasm he gave me, to have a second one so close, I almost don’t think I can do it.

“Come for me now,” he whispers. Right on cue, I fall apart as he does with me. Rome proves he can not only worship me, but my body too. Thankfully, he uses his body weight to keep me secured between him and the wall, or else I would have fallen into a jelly heap on the floor. My loose legs, by some miracle, manage to stay locked around his waist, keeping him inside me. We stay like that until our breaths even out.

He tips my chin up. “I love you, Dr. Florence Liu-Savino.”

“I love you, Rome Venuccio.”

Mom is due to pick me up at any second to take me to my final meeting with the hospital board. Even though I was more than happy to drive myself, she insisted. She feels bad that I had to go through Dr. Dick’s treatment and I didn’t come to her. No matter how many times I reassure her that it’s not for anything other than I wanted to handle him myself.

“You ready for today?” Rome hands me a matcha latte as he sits down beside me with his espresso.

This quiet time when it’s just the two of us before our busy lives creep in is quickly becoming the most sacred of our time.

“Yes and no.” My career has only just started, and I’m already having to face something that could derail it completely. But I’m ready for today. There are always going to be crap people like Dr. Dick Moore that use their influence and power to try to dictate how the world works, and I’m ready to take him down a few pegs.

“The hospital is going to see straight through Dick.” Rome rests his hand on my knee. I soak up every single ounce of warmth that it provides me.

“That’s Dr. Dick,” I sass back, only because I believe anyone who earns an MD should be shown the respect of being titled correctly. I rest my head on Rome’s shoulder, soaking in his scent for a couple of minutes before I reluctantly let him go.

“I love you,” I say, tugging on his bottom lip, but Rome turns his head at the last minute and smashes his lips on mine with a proper goodbye kiss.

“I love you, too, baby,” he whispers against my lips. I spot the clock on the wall and almost jump out of my skin. It’s a lot later than I would like.

“I really have to go now, or mom is going to have my ass on a platter.” I race to the door, grabbing my bag and coat on the way. I cast a final “Bye” over my shoulder and leave.

“Sorry I’m late,” they’re the first words out of my mouth when I open the car door. Of course Mom was already waiting for me. I hurry inside the car, already bracing myself for a lecture. The silence in the car makes me pause, clicking my seat belt in place. I look over my shoulder. “Nanai?” I question when my grandmother, wearing an equally neutral expression, stares back at me. “Mom?” My gaze circles between the steering wheel, which is decidedly frozen, and my mother’s hands, still in her lap. “What the heck is going on? Aren’t we going to be late?”

“No,” Mom finally answers after a few minutes of extremely uncomfortable silence.

“No?!” I blink rapidly, my heart rate increasing to a dangerously high beat. I would know, I’m a doctor. Both my mom and grandmother are completely oblivious to my inner freak-out or they don’t really care. This meeting is kind of incredibly important to me.

Nanai snorts first and the stony expression on her face melts away. “I can’t do it.” She laughs. My mom’s face also cracks as she descends into fits of laughter.

What the fuck? Is this their way of breaking bad news to me? Because if it is, I gotta say, the delivery is shit.

Nanai wipes a tear from her eye as Mom clutches her stomach, taking deep breaths. “Ahh, yeah, so that wasn’t a funny joke,” I mutter and look out the window. Still not sure what said “joke” even is, but it clearly looks like it was at my expense.

“Oh, Florence, lighten up. Your meeting isn’t for another hour,” Mom says, and my mouth drops open. Another fricking hour?! That means I could’ve stayed in bed with Rome for longer than we did.

“So why did you tell me to be ready so early?”

“Because I needed proof,” Nanai pops in.

“Proof of what?”

“Proof that you are in a relationship with Rome. And the happy, in-love look on your face officially proves it.” She does a little fist pump in the air. “Nanai strikes again.”

Wait, again?! Who else has Nanai set up?

“Wait.” I touch the bridge of my nose and take a deep breath. “So you guys wanted to get a little payback because I didn’t tell you I was really together with Rome?”

“Damn right, we did.” My mom actually looks a little hurt, but she covers it quickly. “Your father would be so happy that you guys are together. He’s always loved Rome. Even from a young age he knew that boy was going to be special to you. He was looking forward to the day we could become a giant family, although we practically already are.” Mom rests a hand on my forearm. “But now, it’s like grandbabies kind of real.”

My eyes nearly fall out of my head. GRANDBABIES??? Woah, woah. The irony of this whole conversation is Rome spent his whole life under the impression my dad didn’t think he was good enough for me, and my dad thought the opposite. That moment when Dad was dying, he was actually giving Rome his blessing. I place my hand on top of my mom’s, and stare into her eyes, equally as glassy as mine.

Mom is the first to break contact and clears her throat. “Now that we have that sorted, let’s go make Dr. Dick wish he’d never chosen to pick on my family.”

I find myself in the same chair I was in a couple of weeks ago, only this time, more prepared. As the key board members have done their investigation, today is the day I find out if I can keep going in my current program or if I have to kiss Cheshire Shore Hospital goodbye and go work in a different city. It’s still doable, but not something I want to do. I live here, my friends and family are here, and most importantly, I didn’t do anything to warrant this happening to me—other than having a misogynistic boss.

Nanai wasn’t supposed to come in, but she flat-out refused when they told her she had to wait outside. She is currently taking up the seat next to me, her hand warming my cold knee. The stern expression my mom inherited, albeit a heck of a lot less intimidating, is securely on her face.

“There really is no reason for you to be here.” Dr. Dick stares at Nanai as he addresses her.

Nanai’s lips thin. “As I have told you already, I quite frankly don’t care what you think. Since this hospital enjoys the checks I write out for them every couple of months, I suggest you shut your pathetic excuse of a mouth up.” The ruddiness in his cheeks takes on a purplish hue. I guess it’s all women Dr. Dick has a problem with, not just younger ones who work alongside him.

Mom clears her throat. “After a thorough investigation of the incident raised by Dr. Moore, it is safe to say we do not believe there was any negligence displayed by Dr. Liu-Savino. The board is satisfied?—”

The giant weight I’d been carrying around for a couple of weeks lifts and I grab Nanai’s hand, giving it a squeeze, sharing my relief at hearing those words.

Mom is abruptly cut off when Dr. Dick stands. “Satisfied? The board is satisfied?” His usual cool, calm demeanor is slipping.

Mom slowly eyes him, his antics painting him in an incredibly erratic light. “As I was saying, the incident that occurred did not result in any harm coming to the patient. While it was obvious that Dr. Liu-Savino—who is still training—did result in a delay in the procedure, she followed protocol and phoned her supervisor for assistance. However, what this incident has brought to light is that bullying and intimidating other doctors is occurring, which goes against our code of ethics.”

“Yes,” one of the other board members pipes up. “Unfortunately, Dr. Moore, this has been a display of your inability to teach those under you, and given that a few other doctors have recently put forward reports of your behavior, we are going to have to ask you to step down from supervising medical students.”

I give an internal fist pump.

“You can’t ask that!” Dr. Dick slams his fist on the table.

A woman to the left of Dr. Dick shakes her head slowly. “Oh, unfortunately, you’re right. That was merely a courtesy we extended to you because you have shown such loyalty to the hospital over the years.” She slides a piece of paper over to Dr. Dick. “We aren’t asking. Please find the details of your new position.” Then she turns to look at me.

“Well, Dr. Liu-Savino, I’m pleased to meet you. I’m Dr. Yap, and as the new department head of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, it would be my honor to have you learn from my team. I read through your application and noticed you wanted to specialize in thoracic—that was also my specialty, and I would love to mentor you. A wise mentor of mine once said, ‘Medicine isn’t just black and white on the page, there is color within the lines.’”

My heart gives a slow patter in my chest. That philosophy—it’s only taught by one man. Dr. Yap gives me a small nod. My dad mentored her and now she wants to mentor me. The back of my throat burns as I try to hold in the tears. I absolutely cannot cry right now, especially not in front of Dr. Dick.

“She’s way too young and inexperienced to be the head of the department,” Dr. Dick pipes up.

“While Dr. Yap is certainly young for her position, that doesn’t mean she isn’t qualified. This hospital has made the decision, and Dr. Yap has gladly accepted the offer. Not to mention you have brought great disrepute to this hospital by bullying staff. You are lucky you haven’t been fired.” Mom says it like she’s chiding a five-year-old, and Dr. Dick’s cheeks pinken.

I stare at Dr. Yap. Holy crap. This is really happening.

My new boss checks her watch before excusing herself.

“Dr. Yap,” I call just as she’s about to leave.

“We’re colleagues, please call me Nicholle.” I was never allowed that privileged with Dr. Dick; he pretty much classed me as worn-out gum underneath his shoe.

A rash blooms on my neck. “Nicholle, um, when do I start?”

A smile splits across her lips. I’m not just accepting her offer, I’m ready to change into a pair of scrubs right now.

“Tomorrow,” she replies.

Tomorrow. I don’t know how to describe this, but my mentor is badass.

Mom winks at me as I thread my fingers through Nanai’s and give her hand a squeeze. I cannot wait to tell Rome.