Falling For Rome 2

by Edwina Fort

  “Nossa! You’ve turned into a bit of a klutz since that last time I saw you.” I admonished when I turned away from putting the lasagna into the fridge only to run into him from where he just so happened to be walking behind me for some strange reason.

  Once again, he wrapped his strong arms around me, pulling me against his body. “Me a klutz? It’s you that keep running into me.”

  He leaned down burying his face in my neck, putting me in the mind of that skunk on the Looney Tunes, who was always after that poor black cat that managed to get a white stripe on her back every episode. I wouldn’t be surprised if Rome opened his mouth and started speaking French.

  Be strong, Nak!

  Before he could open his warm mouth on my flesh, I slid out of his arms turning to face him with my hand on my hip.

  “Listen, brotha! The only reason you are here is because you refuse to leave. I don’t like you anymore, so keep your damn hands to yourself!”

  With a smirk on his face that said he wasn’t buying my little speech, he put one of his big hands on his chest. “You don’t like me no more?”

  I had to bite my lip to keep from grinning when those honey gazers of his turned into puppy dog eyes as I shook my head.

  “No, I don’t…so stop touching me.” I pointed at him. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing. You’re trying to get me into bed with you…but that’s not going to happen.”

  “It’s not going to happen?” The tone in his voice said he didn’t believe me.

  I shook my head. “I can assure you, it’s not going to happen.”

  He lifted an eyebrow. “Is that a challenge?”

  Oh damn…

  And although I knew he was going to make me eat my words, I said them anyway.

  “Naw, bro…that’s not a challenge. It’s a promise.”

  Soooooo….

  Yeah….

  By the end of the week, he’d gotten me…

  And just let me tell y’all, I put up a really good fight, but he played dirty.

  That night after dinner, I’d given him some bed linen and a pillow and pointed to my avozinha’s couch and told him good night.

  He made a sound of protest as he stood frowning at the plastic covered antique looking like a little boy.

  “How you gon’ put me on the plastic couch? You know that sh*t is going to be all hot and sticky and then at some point, I’m going to probably slide off and hit my damn head on that antique gold spray painted metal table leg and knock myself unconscious.”

  I giggled… “Are you roasting my grandmother’s furniture?”

  “Come on, baye…what year did she buy this, the forties?”

  I put my hand on my hip… “My avozinha was very proud of her furniture when she got it.”

  So much so, she’d left the plastic the couch came in from the manufacturer on it. My mom said my avozinha told her she did that so that no one would put stains on her new sofa. I don’t know why, but after my avozinha died, my mom never removed the plastic that had long turned a brownish color in age.

  And yeah, Rome was right, I used to hate sitting on that couch when I was little. The plastic always stuck to my leg and if you fell asleep on it, at some point, you did slide off it and wake up on the floor.

  But since this was another form of punishment for hurting my feelings, I didn’t feel bad.

  “You’ll be alright, I’ll crank up the air conditioner for you.”

  After I turned up the window unit I’d bought for this room when I’d gotten back, I wished him good night and left him standing there frowning after me.

  That night, I had to cover my mouth so that he wouldn't hear me laughing at him. That plastic crinkled all night as he tossed and turned…At some point, I heard him angrily get up and make himself a pallet on the floor while grumbling that he should come in here and kick me out of my comfortable bed and put me on this plastic mutha f***a. His words… Seconds later, I heard him typing away on his laptop.

  However, the next night, it was me lying in the bed hot and bothered. That damn Rome had tortured me all day. That morning, he’d walked in the bathroom right as I’d gotten out of the shower in only a pair of boxers.

  Had he timed it that way? Maybe…

  I screeched and reached for the towel to cover myself…

  “Oh! My fault, I didn’t know you were in here.” He lied as he stood there shamelessly staring at me. The bulge in his boxer shorts grew big right before my eyes. He grabbed it, only pretending to try and tame it.

  “That’s my fault too, my man hungry…” His sexy gaze slowly raked up my body, making me feel hot all over. “It’s been a long time since he’s eaten, he’s f***ing starving.”

  Damn it!!!

  I cleared my throat. “Are you talking about your private area in third person?”

  Still standing there shamelessly holding himself, he slowly nodded with that sexy grin on his face.

  I bit my lip…this joker was too fine for his own good.

  Okay…so I managed to get out of that situation without giving in and feeding his “Man”.

  But then, he came upon me later to find me rubbing my lower back. Since the barn was being taken care of without me, I'd decided to continue going through all the junk that was stored in my old room.

  Some stuff I will give away, some stuff needed to go right to the trash, and some stuff I was going to keep, like my avozinha’s beautiful yellow dress that she called her happy dress. When I was a little girl, she used to tell me how she’d worn the dress when she was younger whenever she felt joyously happy.

  She’d said back in those days her waist was very small, by the time I was born, she hadn’t been able to wear it in years. But she refused to give it to my mother, who’d asked to wear the dress often. My grandmother said she couldn’t have it because my mother was miserable, and she didn’t want her spirit to drain the allure of the dress…My avozinha’s words.

  I didn’t know why, but after my grandmother died, my mother never tried to wear the dress…it just hung in the back of my closet, where it’s been for my whole life. Maybe she’d forgotten it was there.

  Whatever the reason, I’m glad she didn’t wear it either, because I would have never been able to look at it and see it how my grandmother saw it if she had…

  Anyway, I’d been going through all that stuff and my back got stiff, so I was rubbing it when Rome came in to ask me something about the horse stalls in the barn. However, when he saw me rubbing my back, his attention shifted instantly.

  “What’s the matter, Minha Anjo? Do you have a sore back? Come here, let me help you with that…” He grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the storage room to my bedroom across the hall.

  "I think I'll be alright," I told him, only half-heartily trying to pull away from him.

  “Naw, baye…I don’t want your back sore. I give really good massages.”

  I lifted an eyebrow. “Really?”

  He chuckled… “Really…”

  And then before I knew what was happening, he had my shirt up and over my head.

  “What are you doing?” I cried crossing my arms over my bra covered breasts.

  “I can’t give you a good massage with that shirt in the way…here, lay down across the bed.”

  Everything in me said I should have protested…but my back was really tense. And come on, what girl doesn’t like a good massage? So yeah, I laid across the bed.

  He grabbed my body butter off my dresser before joining me…

  Oh, my goodness!!!

  He wasn’t lying, he gave really good massages. At some point, he unsnapped my bra, but by that time he had me so languid, I didn't care.

  “Your skin is so soft, shawty.” His deep voice was drugging.

  I moaned when he dug deep, forcing all the tension out of my back…Leave it to the genius to actually be good at this…

  “I missed touching you,” he whispered right bef
ore I felt his warm mouth on my back. I inhaled sharply as a spasm ripped through my center.

  “I missed kissing you.”

  He took his time and adored me with his mouth… “But tasting you is what I missed the most.”

  I had to squeeze my thighs together to sooth the ache there.

  At some point, I ended up on my back and his warm mouth was drawing the peak of my breast between his lips while his hands were busy caressing other parts of me that now hungered for him.

  Closing my eyes, I lifted my arms above my head giving myself to him. I was lost, he’d successfully cast a spell on me. I didn’t care that I was caving too soon, the only thing I wanted him to do was sooth away the pain that was building in my core…

  I needed him to release the pressure…

  But right before that happened, I mean, seconds before my world shattered, the screen door opened and closed.

  “Senhor Rome, are you here?” Francisco’s voice called from the living room.

  I wanted to yell for him to get lost…but he’d cut through my desire enough for me to get a hold of myself and push Rome off me.

  So okay…through no will of my own, I managed to escape that situation without giving him what he wanted, but it left me lying in bed that night miserable. It was me that tossed and turned, needing him to finish what he started.

  Then the bastard had the nerve to stick his head in my bedroom door after he’d come out of the bathroom and tease me.

  “You alright in here? You’re doing a lot of tossing and turning…” His gaze raked up my legs to settle on my center. I’d long kicked the covers off and now just lay in bed in a tank top and a pair of panties.

  And no, I didn’t try and cover myself.

  He slowly licked his lips as his eyes devoured the spot that ached for him the most…At the same time, he reached down and grabbed his growing erection through his boxer briefs.

  Nossa! Give me strength…

  “Is there something I can do for you?” He paused for just a moment. “You know, to help you sleep better?”

  Yes, there is…you can come in here and finish what you started earlier! You can put out this fire you kindled, you young bastard!

  But to him, although it almost killed me, I said…

  “Naw, I’m good. The air-conditioning unit in here is not working that well. I need to get it replaced.”

  “You sure? Because I can help you cool down.”

  I just bet you can…

  “Naw…I’m good. Night, night…” The last of that I said in a moan.

  Needless to say, the rest of the week didn’t get any better, but by Friday, my lady parts were no longer listening to me.

  There was a strong, virile, young, robust male determined to devour her. And she needed to give him what he wanted.

  Great! Now, I was talking about my private parts in third person…

  Chapter 20

  Nahkti Smiles…

  The Real Power of a Man is in the Size of the Smile of the Woman Next to Him…

  --Sweety Text Messages

  Nahkti

  Alright y’all, listen close and I’ll tell you how Mr. Man eased his way past my barriers and in between my thighs. As a matter of fact, no…I take that back.

  Let me tell you how Mr. Man got me to jump him and rip his clothes off his body…after promising myself I was going to hold out as long as I possibly could. Yeah, that’s more like what really happened.

  That Friday morning, I had laid in bed thinking how Rome being here had taken my mind off my mom’s death and the conflict that was going on within me about my grief and lack of grief…if that makes any sense. He had served as a beautiful distraction.

  So, I’d gotten up that morning and made him a nice breakfast to say thank you. And since it looked like he was going to be staying here, I’d decided to give him my old bedroom now that it was cleaned out because, in just a short time, he'd turned my little living room into a full-blown computer lab.

  He was back to not sleeping as well. I heard him up all night typing away on that computer. I came out of my room at about 3:00 in the morning to go to the bathroom and there he sat on the couch with his glasses on enthralled in whatever he was looking at on his computer. He was so enthralled that he didn’t even look up when I passed.

  Nossa!

  I didn’t even know where he was getting the equipment, it wasn’t like Ribeirão da Ilha was full of Best Buys or something. Now granted it was nothing compared to his set up in Chicago…but still very impressive.

  Anyway, I made buckwheat pancakes with spinach and cheese eggs for breakfast. He once told me that buckwheat pancakes were his favorite thing to eat in the morning. When he came in from his run, I was sitting at the table sipping coffee waiting for him.

  “Mmm, that smells good. Give me a sec, let me jump in the shower really quick,” he said as he came in and bent down kissing me on the cheek, something he’d taken to doing in the mornings.

  In fact, if I was being honest with myself, I've begun to wait on that kiss to start my day, just like I had been doing sitting at that the table sipping my coffee…

  Waiting on that kiss…

  When he came out of the shower, he only wore a pair of black sweatpants…and nothing else.

  And I do mean…NOTHING ELSE!!!

  That should have been my first clue that there will be an all-out attack against my barriers today. Well…

  That and for the first time all week, my place was empty and not swarmed with workers. Amazingly, they had finished the barn. When I had expressed my surprise to Francisco that they had done it so quickly, he had waved it away.

  “A barn is nothing, senhorita…it’s like a vacation for my crew. We are used to building skyscrapers.”

  As you all can guess, like Rome, Francisco didn’t have a humble bone in his body. However, he was good at what he did. The barn was beautiful, way bigger and better than I expected. It looked like something you would find at the Winston Stables. I loved it! I mean I reaaallllyy loved it!

  I spent all day yesterday looking around it and just staring at it amazed. Heck, I would have slept in it had Rome not picked me up and carried me to my bed.

  He and I laid on a bale of hay looking up at the stars as I told him all about my plans of finding an affordable stallion and mare to try and breed them. I told him how in about ten years or so I’d hoped to produce a horse that was even a tenth as majestic as the Winston horses.

  I talked to him so long that I’d nodded off on his big shoulder, only slightly coming awake as he carried me to my bed.

  Another reason I made breakfast for Mr. Man. I love the way he takes care of things that I really don’t know at first is stressing me out and just fixes it. He doesn’t have to be told to do it…he just does it.

  This whole week was so breezy. It was the first week since I’ve been home where I was practically worry-free. He took his rental car back and came back with a brand-new Ford Pick Up truck. It wasn’t as nice as the King Rancher he’d left in Chicago, but it was a hell of a lot better than my truck.

  For the last month, I've been trying to talk myself into getting something better, I was just too cheap to justify spending the extra money. Not Rome, he drove Big Red…what he’d taken to calling my truck, one time. And that was all it took; he went out and got us a better truck.

  He got central air installed so that I didn’t have to keep fighting with the window units. He got the old windows that he said was not energy sufficient replaced with new ones. He even set up Wi-Fi that I suspect was more a treat for him than me. But when I worried that it will put us back on the grid, he gave me a look that said…Please! Have you forgotten who you’re dealing with?

  LOL! As humbled as ever.

  Anyhow…What was I saying at first?

  Oh yes, so he came out of the bathroom with just those sweatpants on… and let me tell you, it took everything I had in me not to stare at the
imprint of his “Man”.

  “These are so good. How did you know buckwheat pancakes were my favorite?” He asked as he helped himself to seconds.

  I grinned. “Because you told me.”

  He frowned… “When?”

  “A long time ago…I just remembered.”

  For a moment he just stared at me, one side of his mouth lifted in a grin. Then he nodded approvingly. “That’s cool, Nak.”

  I know…

  After he’d eaten three helpings of pancakes, he sat back in his chair rubbing his belly, that was still nicely ripped…

  “Damn… I’m so full I don’t feel like getting up to feed the horses.”

  At the time I had been washing the last of the breakfast dishes. I frowned as I turned to him. I think the pancakes may have warped his brain.

  “What horses, crazy man? We don’t have any horses yet.”

  With a little devious smile on his face he shrugged…before he got up and without even putting shoes on headed out the door.

  “Where are you going?” I yelled after him.

  “To feed the horses!” He yelled back.

  What the world…

  Now more than curious, I picked up Giant and followed behind him. Since he didn’t bother to put on shoes, I didn’t either.

  What was he talking about hors—

  Right then, a loud neigh rent the air.

  “Oh my God!” I cried putting Giant on the ground before I took off at a run. I heard him chuckle as I flew past him.

  “Freedom!” I cried before I leaped the railing where he was being housed and threw my arms around his neck.

  “Freedom…my golden boy, what are you doing here? I missed you so much!”

  My hands shook as I vigorously rubbed his mane…He touched his big head to mine, telling me that he’d missed me too.

  Without letting him go, I turned to look at Rome as he and Giant made their way into the barn. There was a huge smile on my face. I don’t know how he got Juan to let Freedom come and visit me, but I was eternally grateful.

  “How did you get Juan to let him out of his stables?”