Page 7 of Roses are Royal

I give a noncommittal head nod and shrug combination because I don’t trust myself to speak without breaking down. I don’t make eye contact with him as I quickly scoot out of my side of the booth and walk past Luca toward the door, giving Shirley a quick wave goodbye in silent thanks.

My pace is hurried enough that Luca has to jog a few steps to catch up with me. As I reach to push open the front door, Luca’s hand covers mine at the same time. We both pause, clearly feeling the same zap of energy with the unexpected contact. Neither of us knows how to react to it. It’s as if both our brains went offline and then rebooted at the same moment because he starts to apologize as I quickly jerk my hand away from underneath his larger one. The warmth of his palm lingers on the back of my hand, and I have to mentally restrain myself from rubbing the point of contact. We couldn’t be more awkward and uncomfortable at this moment if we tried.

In an effort to regain some normalcy, Luca reaches over my head and pushes open the door, giving a small gesture with his other hand for me to proceed ahead of him. How can his touch still give me chills after all this time, even after his extreme brush-off of our entire history?

I must be a glutton for punishment because that moment of physical contact makes me want to forget the past thirty minutes of our conversation and invite him back to my hotel room. I have clearly gone too long without male attention if I am this naive and blind to the situation. He hasn’t given me any indication he is remotely interested in me anymore, and I definitely shouldn’t still want him after everything. But the heart wants what it wants, or whatever that cheesy cliché is. Stupid, hussy heart. Or maybe it’s just my lady bits doing the thinking?

Pull it together, Ro! Get in your car and regroup at your hotel like you planned. I have to see him tomorrow, and the last thing I want is for Dante to notice something off between Luca and me after the dramatic greeting I shamelessly gave him today. Dante should be my full focus moving forward, not trying to rekindle something with Luc that clearly never was. I’ll just chalk it up to teenage hormones and having an inflated view of what Luca and I once had.

Without realizing it, I'd already made the short walk to my car in the small diner parking lot, and Luca walked next to me silently as I internally battled with my reaction to his hand touching mine for 1.2 seconds. As I reach for the handle of the driver’s side door of my Mercedes, Luca presses his palm against the frame of the door.

“Ro, wait. Are you sure everything is okay?”

“I actually prefer to go by Rose now,” I blurt. What is wrong with me? What am I even saying? I hate when people call me Rose. Well, except how Dante says it…but that’s besides the point. I’ve clearly contracted some mental disorder in the last ten seconds because that is the only reason I would want Luca to call me Rose. And why am I correcting him right now even though he has been calling me Ro all day? Ugh!

“Oh, I didn’t realize. I thought you hated when people called you Rose,” Luca responds with an eyebrow raised in surprise and confusion.

“Well, things have changed over the last decade and a half,” I say with far too much snark. Wow, bitchy much? Sheesh, Ro, take it down a notch. This night is not going how I expected at all. I just want to curl up in a comfy bed under a giant down comforter with the AC on high and pretend this day never happened. Well, not the whole day, but at least the past hour or so. I need to salvage this interaction the best I can and get out of here.

Without giving Luca a chance to respond, I quickly babble out, “Welp, have a good night. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I might as well have added “buddy” or “pal” to the end of that sentence with the tone I delivered it in.

Internally rolling my eyes at myself and my inability to be cool, calm, and collected, I go to pull my door open for the second time in my attempt to retreat.

And for the second time, Luca stops my progress with his hand still pressed to the doorframe of my car. Does he not realize I’m trying to run away from this awkward situation?

As I turn to Luca to ask why his hand is still on my door, I have to tilt my chin up, leaning my head back against the car next to his hand to make eye contact with him. When did he get so close to me? Has he always been this tall? And has he always smelled that good? It’s like a mixture of spicy nutmeg and something warm like vanilla but in a manly way. If I take too deep a breath, my chest will brush against his, but I can’t help it and inhale a little more of his enticing scent.

My back is firmly pressed to the door of my car, so his solid body effectively traps me. With one hand already on my door, Luca raises his other arm and presses his opposite hand against the roof of my SUV, essentially bracketing my smaller frame in. Now I not only have to try to hold my breath to avoid physical contact, but I also need to figure out a way to slow my racing heart. I can practically hear it pounding in my ears, and I fear if Luca gets any closer, he’ll be able to hear it and feel its rapid rhythm against his chest.

“Lu—” Before I can even finish the first syllable of his name, his lips are on mine. His soft, wet, perfect lips. In that split second, I’m positive my heart actually stops.

Stunned doesn’t even begin to describe the frantic emotions rapidly streaming through my mind. At the same time, my body has no problem responding. It feels like electricity coursing through my veins, and my body responds on instinct. I kiss him back with abandon. He tastes like coffee and the past.

My hands trail up his broad chest to wrap around his neck to pull him closer. At the same time, he bends down and grasps the back of my thighs with his strong hands and lifts to press me against my car. On impulse, I wrap my legs around his waist, crossing my ankles behind his back. With that move, our bodies fully come into contact with each other, and I can feel his arousal against my center. And what an impressive arousal it is. Kissing has never felt like this before. It’s a mixture of desperation and a sense of familiarity. Still, I don’t even get a second to process or appreciate what’s happening because in the blink of an eye, my feet are back on the ground, and Luca has taken several steps away from me. His eyes frantically avoid contact with mine.

“Ro…Rose, I am so sorry. That was a mistake.” With his head bowed, Luca wipes his mouth with his hand and turns and walks away. He climbs into the cab of his truck, turns the ignition, and drives away without a second glance as I stand there stunned, still leaning with my back against my car door.

WHAT. THE. HELL.

8

LUCA

Pulling away from Ro, or I guess it’s Rose now, was the second hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my entire life. The first was leaving her after graduation without a word. I’ve wanted to contact her every single day for the past fifteen years since I left. It killed me every time she reached out, and I had to ignore her. I was equally relieved and gutted when she finally stopped trying to contact me.

I could see the hurt in Rose’s eyes tonight from across the booth when I pretended it wasn’t a big deal and said that it “slipped” my mind. One thing I know for sure is that Rose Lusso has never and will never slip my mind. From the moment we met until my dying breath, Ro has and will always consume my waking thoughts and haunt my dreams. I had thought, once all her calls, texts, and emails stopped, that she had moved on and forgotten about me, but I guess I was wrong.

I can’t believe I kissed her tonight, but as soon as my lips felt hers, it was like all those years without her didn’t happen, and we were just kids in the back of my mom’s Honda Civic sharing our first kiss. It took every ounce of willpower and strength to pull away from her. I couldn’t take the devastation and hurt I saw in her eyes and just ran like a coward.

Now I’m driving aimlessly on the dark, winding rural roads before heading back into town to grab a few hours of sleep before having to face Ro in the morning. I don’t want her to know we are both staying at the same motel, especially after tonight, but I want to stay close to her to keep her safe. I’m hoping she goes straight to the motel tonight so I don’t have to drive around for long. I can’t face her again tonight. Maybe I should rent a place in the area instead of the motel for the rest of this job.

9

DANTE

“Cazzo!” I shout into the void of my empty entryway after watching Rose and Luca drive away, then slam my fist into the nearest wall. It’s taking all my training and patience not to follow Rose and Luca to see what they’re doing. I don’t care what she does in her free time, and that is the lie I am sticking with.

It’s the only way to keep my initial feelings separate and get the job done. Besides, I don’t have time to watch them. I have to fix the gaping fist-sized hole in the drywall before Rose arrives in the morning, or I’ll have to tell her yet another lie about why there is fresh drywall and paint that wasn’t there before.