Page 10 of Roses are Royal

“Hi, Ro. I brought you some coffee, just how you like it,” Luca adds with a wink.

I can feel Dante tense beside me, and he is about to open his mouth to speak when his phone starts vibrating on the counter. With an annoyed expression, Dante swipes his phone off the marble island and answers with a brisk, “What?” as he stands from his stool. Dante walks out of the room to take the phone call, and I can feel my nerves ratchet up immediately now that Luca and I will be alone for the first time since the ill-fated kiss last night. I really don’t want to do this with him, but I guess it’s better to just address it and move on. Or I could ignore it. Yes, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’m going to ignore it.

“Hello, Luca. Now that Dante and I are in agreement on the designs, I have several items I’d like to go over with you. They will need to be addressed before I can start having items delivered. I made a list during our walkthrough yesterday. Would you prefer I email you the list or would you like to go over them now?” I say in my most professional, boss bitch tone.

“Ro—Rose, about last night.”

“No, Luca, you don’t have the right to bring that up now.” My voice is a little louder and harsher than I’d like, but Luca needs to understand how serious I am. “The time for talking to me about our personal history was last night. Today and moving forward, we are colleagues and nothing more. I have a lot riding on this project, so if we can focus on that, I’d appreciate it.”

“If that’s what you want, then I will respect your wishes,” Luca responds with a dejected tone and dip of his head.

“Perfect. Let’s start in the entryway.” I walk past him, grabbing the iced coffee from his hand before he can see the tears beginning to well in my eyes. I take the time to quickly swipe under my eyes and compose myself with a long sip of coffee before I launch into my list.

13

DANTE

The front door clicks shut behind Luca and Rose when they leave, and I can take the first deep breath since this day began. The scent of Rose lingers in the kitchen where I stand with my palms braced against the marble counter with my eyes closed and head bowed. That’s when I hear the soft clearing of her delicate throat behind me.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to intrude, but I just wanted to confirm delivery timelines with you before I leave, now that I have estimates from Luca on the fixes and repairs needed before I can begin. But I can always send those over via email when I get back to my room.”

I lift my head and open my eyes to see Rose standing in the arched doorway, looking uneasy and less confident and self-assured than I’m used to seeing her. I have a strange urge to ask her about the conversation between her and Luca that I overheard this morning when I stepped away to take a phone call from my boss.

“Sit. Let’s go over the timelines now.” My response comes out more like a command, but I’m too tired to soften my tone. I barely got any sleep last night and then had to spend the whole day trying not to touch the beautiful, tempting flower in front of me.

Rose pauses a beat before complying with my command to sit. Instead of joining her on the stool next to her, I take the opportunity to soak up her essence and stand behind her, leaning over her right shoulder to peer at the timeline on her laptop screen.

“Oh!” she squeaks when she turns her head toward me and finds my body just a hair’s breadth from pressing into hers. “So, um, the things, the, uh, work I have for Luca should only take about a week or so to complete.” Rose has lost some of the professional polish of her tone with my nearness.

I find myself leaning closer to see how far I can push her polished exterior and unleash the fiery brat I know is dying to come out.

“And what will you be doing while he completes his work?” I’m too close for her to make eye contact, so she focuses her attention on the spreadsheet in front of us.

“Well, I had planned to head back to the city to start coordinating orders and deliveries. I also have a few new items to source now that you’ve provided your feedback on the preliminary designs.”

That won’t do. Now that I’ve had this woman in my space, not having her in my presence for a few days, let alone weeks, is out of the question. Not to mention, I’m supposed to provide an update to my boss on my own delivery timelines.

“No.” Think, Dante, you need a reason to keep her here.

“No?” Rose turns her head slightly to catch my eye, clearly waiting for more information other than my clipped “no.”

“No, I’d like you to start having items delivered either here or in town and begin on the rooms that don’t require additional work. I want to finish this job as quickly as possible.” I don’t know if the job I’m referring to is her work or the job I’m doing for my boss. “Have you been able to secure an offsite delivery location as we discussed?”

“Considering you only made that request yesterday, I haven’t had a chance.”

There’s the fire and sass I was looking for. I can tell by her wide-eyed expression that she didn’t mean to say that snarky response out loud.

“I’m so sorry. That came out wrong. What I meant was that I haven’t had time to make any inquiries with the businesses in town and had planned to accomplish that while Luca completed his work.”

“I see.” I find with Rose that the shorter my response and the more silence I allow to sit between us, the more she tends to reveal with her ramblings.

“I promise it won’t be an issue, Dante. I’ll work something out and begin placing orders immediately. I just need to extend my room at the motel since I had planned to check out in the morning. So as long as there aren't any issues with that, then I can remain in town. I guess I could always drive back and forth from the city if there aren’t any rooms. And I could always transport items myself if necessary.” I don’t hear anything Rose says after my name passes through her lips. I think this is the first time she has said my name, and it makes me want to find more reasons for her to say it.

“So, I better get going and try to catch the motel manager before he leaves for the night.” I clearly missed several bits of information as I mused over her use of my name, but I’m knocked out of my daydream when Rose closes her laptop and begins to slide from the stool. She brushes against my chest as she goes to pack the rest of her belongings.

“Stay here.” Did I really just ask her to stay here? In my house? With me? Great, Dante, that will definitely make this obsession with her go away. Maybe she will think I meant for her to stay right now, not forever.

“Stay here? Like in your house? I don’t think that would be a good idea, let alone very professional. Plus, you don’t have any furniture.” She adds the last part with a small smile. “Speaking of which, where have you been sleeping? There isn’t anything in any of the rooms. You don’t even have a couch.”