by L. L. Ash
“That’s great, Fae, but you...”
“Wait! Let me finish!” She held up a hand to stop me. “I know that what I did hurt you. It hurt me, too, so I couldn’t imagine how you felt with it all. But what I should have told you when you opened your heart to me was that I loved you too. But I was too much of a coward. But I’m not hiding from it anymore, Rome.
“I’m here to tell you that I loved you, and that never went away. These past months have been the worst months of my life, and I can’t keep living every day like this. I want to share my happiness with you and my sadness, and I want to go on dates with you, ride on the back of your motorcycle in a dress… I want to sleep next to you at night and feel your kisses when I’m happy and sad or just for no reason at all.
“I love you, Roman Smith. Not because of who your family is, or who your dad is, or even that you’re an amazing artist. I love you for you, and that will never change.”
My heart had stopped beating. Stopped beating as it pounded, thudding in my ears while I tried to listen.
Tears were falling out of her eyes, and I felt them welling in my own.
“I’m sorry, Roman… I lo-”
I couldn’t listen to anymore.
Throwing myself forward, she was in my hands in a second, her words cut off mid-sentence as I kissed the ever living hell out of her mouth.
Her small hands wrapped around my shoulders, then slipped up to my neck as she accepted the passionate kiss, meeting every hard movement of my lips with hers.
“I’m so sorry,” she sobbed into my mouth. “I’m so sorry...”
Instantly, the pain melted away and the anger dissipated into nothing.
Those last four months of pain were like they never even happened at the prospect of her apology and her confession.
She loved me too.
How did she love me back?
“If you loved me, how could you do that to me?” I asked her, my hands on her pale, freckled cheeks
“Because I’m a coward… I’m not as strong as you, Roman. I’m trying… I’m… I’m trying to be what you need and what you deserve… I’m not the same woman I was four months ago. I’m my own woman now. Nobody owns me.”
“Nobody but me.” I smiled, wiping at the wet streaks left on her face.
She gave a snorty chuckle through her tears.
“I’m trying to make this a nice, meaningful moment and you’re making a joke.”
“I don’t like it when you cry,” was my only response.
“Do you still love me, Roman?” she asked after another moment of silence.
My eyes caught on hers, green-blue eyes staring back at me. My heart throbbed and swelled with what I already knew was love. But I wasn’t afraid of it this time.
“That’s a stupid question,” I told her.
“Stupid question or not, I need to know. I’m dying here.”
“Maybe I’ll let you know in four months,” I bit back, still filled with my fair share of bitterness.
She closed her eyes and sighed, sadness etching back into her expression.
“Of course I love you, Fae. Cause I’m a fucking idiot and couldn’t just stop.”
Eyes opening again, she looked into mine again, a grin spreading over her face.
“I’m glad you’re an idiot in love. Worked out well for me.”
It was my turn to snort now.
“Whatever.”
She let out a soft giggle and pushed a strand of hair off my forehead, tucking it into the knot on top of my head.
“You’re willing to be with me despite what your parents think?” I asked her.
“My parents can go fuck themselves. I told them that already.”
I grunted a laugh.
“And by the way, my dad figured out who you and your family are, and he about peed himself. Just so you know.”
I sighed.
That meant she knew who I was.
“And how’d that go?”
“About how you might expect,” she shrugged. “Suddenly the tattoos and everything didn’t matter anymore and he demanded I get back together with you. That’s when I told him he can shove it.”
She blew out a breath and looked down.
“That was also when I realized that they didn’t have my best interests at heart, but theirs.”
“You didn’t figure that out when they were trying to hook you back up with your cheating ex?” I raised an eyebrow.
“I was stupid.” She shook her head. “I wanted to believe that my parents want what’s best for me. When I realized that I couldn’t trust them with that, I...I decided to do things my way. Our way. Knowing what you gave up to do this, your passion, was a really big wake up call, and then it was something to aspire to. You’re kind of my hero.”
My heart was suddenly bleeding for a whole other reason.
“I’m not a hero,” I told her, pressing my hands to her face again so she’d look at me.
“You are to me.” She gave a little shrug.
Fuck it all. I was going to kiss her again.
When my lips touched hers, it was like the world was finally coming back together. Everything that felt like pieces and broken bits, seamed back together.
I felt whole.
Chapter Seventeen
Fae
I had never forgotten what he tasted like, or what his lips felt like on mine, but my memory didn’t serve justice to the real thing.
He was sweet and gentle, tasting of the spearmint candies I knew he liked to suck on at the shop.
But my moment of reminiscing evaporated as his lips became more demanding, paving way for his tongue as his hands on my jaw increased their pressure before sliding to the back of my head.
“Please fucking stop me now,” he murmured against my lips as he took a step forward, the planes of our bodies pressing against each other.
That wild, crazy chemistry between us already fizzing and bursting with passion.
There was no way in hell I’d tell him to stop.
I’d missed him way too much.
“No,” I breathed back and I felt him smile against my mouth before his arms came around me, pulling me even closer.
“I love you, Rome. I love you so much… I-”
“Where are you going to put my tattoo?” he interrupted, mouth now working on my neck.
“What tattoo?” I gasped back as my back hit one of the walls of the shop.
“The ‘I heart Italian’ tattoo,” he mumbled, mouth moving toward my collar bones now.
“W-wherever you want.”
He hummed, as if in thought, as he dragged his mouth down, then suddenly he was gone.
“If we don’t stop, I’m going to end up fucking you on a chair in the back.” He panted, shoving both hands through his hair.
“So?” I asked back, trying to catch my breath as my chest heaved for air.
“So, it’s all on camera,” he shot back with a grin on his face.
“Good. Then we’ll be able to watch our makeup sex forever.”
He let out a choking sound before he started laughing.
“So we’re finally getting back together and making a porn on the same day?” he asked me. “You really trust me with that kind of footage?”
I stilled and stared directly into his eyes.
“I trust you with everything, Roman. Just like you trusted me. There’s nothing between us anymore. Ever.”
His humor faded as he wiped a hand over one eye, ridding it of moisture.
“With an offer like that, I couldn’t possibly say no,” he said back in a low voice.
His trepidation was gone.
One step forward and he had me in his arms again, hefting me up until I was pressed close into his chest, legs wrapped around his hips as he went to the front door and locked it.
“Guess I’m closing early today.”
I grinned and pressed my head into his neck, arms wrapped around his shoulders as he carried me into the back room where we’d
first really become acquainted.
Once inside, he kicked the door closed and laid me down on the chair, mostly flat already.
His lips were back on mine as he lowered me down, following me onto the chair.
One of his hands left me, bumping into my side a couple times before he tore his mouth away from mine.
“Shit,” he murmured as he looked over the side before dipping to retrieve something.
Up came a remote that was attached to the chair. He pressed on a button and slowly, it motored to life as the leg rests lifted to make it more of a bed.
He met my eyes and we both burst into laughter at the same time, releasing stress and anxiety as the chair took its time to settle into the right position.
“I love you,” I breathed against his lips, grinning.
“I love you too, pix,” he whispered back.
He pulled up the belly of my shirt and I shimmied my body until it was off, tossed over to a chair sitting in the corner.
“I love your skin,” he breathed as my bra loosened around me.
“I love your eyes.” I got in on the action, lifting the hem of his t-shirt.
He yanked it up and I watched him toss it over to where mine was, but I paused. Frozen.
There, on his ribs, was a small little fairy, standing on a crescent moon and reaching upwards at a red and purple butterfly perched on one of the laurel leaves that was there before.
The fairy had red hair and a short white dress, with freckles across her nose.
It was me.
My fingers traced the vibrant color and he gasped, looking down to what I was touching,
“How long have you had this?” I asked him in shock.
“Since the day before I met your parents,” he admitted. “I was going to show you that night.”
Sadness and guilt washed over me.
He was going to admit he loved me, too. There was no way he got a tattoo like that if he didn’t already know he loved me.
“Roman...I’m s-”
“Don’t apologize again,” he whispered, meeting my eyes as the robotic buzz of the chair stopped, the room filling with silence. “You’ve said it enough. I just want to forget it. But don’t you ever fucking do it again. Deal?”
I nodded, throat thick with gratitude and regret.
He kissed the trails left by my tears before pressing his body to mine again, climbing up onto the chair with me and spreading my knees, settling between them.
“Rome?” I squeaked as his fingers brushed over my puckered nipples.
“Yeah, pix?” he asked.
“I want to go home. I want to go home with you. Will you take me?”
He laughed gently in my ear before drawing away.
“I’ve never wanted anything so much in my life, Fae.”
That quick, he crawled off me and slid to the floor, pulling his t-shirt back on and holding out my bra and shirt for me to take. I slipped them on as he flew around the shop, turning off lights and locking everything down before bringing back our jackets and his helmet.
“Got the beast tonight,” he said. “Want to take it or your car?”
“I want to feel something of yours between my legs.” I joked, but it ignited a fire immediately in his eyes.
“Soon,” he promised as we went out the back door.
He locked up, put up his middle finger to the camera blinking red at the back door, then got on his bike.
Roman pressed his helmet down on my head and went without since he didn’t have mine around at the shop, then we spun around and got going.
It was raining again. Always raining as we drove down toward the water. The water droplets stung like needles on my skin as we rode. He didn't live too far from my old condo, funny enough. I’d had no idea how close we’d been the whole time. Except he was by the water, and in a really wealthy neighborhood.
If only I had seen his place before everything went to crap... Maybe it would have made a difference.
But no, I never would have wanted to be with Roman because Daddy said so. Roman was mine and only mine, and nobody was going to change that or come between us.
In the last few months I’d been to hell and back, learning my own self in a way I never had before. With every struggle I ran into while getting my shop open, I reminded myself of everything Roman had done, everything he dealt with while following his dream. I remembered the conversations we’d had about how he’d been willing to give everything up, become the black sheep, just to find happiness. So I did it. I found a little shop that already had a baking kitchen and after a few small renovations that I’d managed with the inheritance from my grandpa on my mother’s side, I got it all up and running, powering my ovens with faith and hope that I would succeed.
So far it started off a little rough, but I got more and more customers over the past few weeks while I finished renovations in the front of the shop, and I was officially making money. Not a lot, but some. Hopefully by the end of the year, I’d be making enough to pay the rent on my little apartment above the shop without having to dig into the dregs of my savings.
The garage door opened to a ranch style house with a modern exterior, dark and wet under the heavy, full moon, we disappeared into the garage where the door started descending.
The motorcycle shut off as we stopped beside the beautiful car Roman had bought just for me, but I wasn’t paying attention to that. I just needed to get inside somewhere where we could get our clothes off again.
He dropped the helmet on the bike’s seat, took my hand and led me into the dark house, not bothering to flick on any lights.
“I’ll show you around later,” he said as he led me back to where the bedrooms must have been.
Straight back, he went through an open door and stopped long enough to click on a little machine that burst into light, spraying colorful waves on the ceiling.
The room became shadows, Roman’s face lit by different colors as the waves shifted from one to the next.
He turned to me slowly, his fingers shifting between mine until our hands were woven together and our bodies drifted to each others. The pads of his fingers lifted to my cheek, drifting slowly across my skin, leaving blazes in their wake and chills running down my spine, ending at the apex of my thighs. Head dipping, he took a moment of almost... hesitation, before pressing his lips to mine.
I opened my mouth to him, taking his tongue with mine in gentle strokes as the tips of his fingers feathered down my jaw and neck, sinking into the hair at the back of my head.
“You’re taking too long,” I told him, hoping it didn’t kill the mood.
But I couldn’t take the teasing anymore. I needed him.
The kiss instantly deepened, languid but demanding as he released my hand and pulled me closer to him.
“Fae?” he asked in a whisper as he settled me back into the deep, comfortable mattress.
“Huh?” I almost gasped as his hands gripped my sides.
“I can only do this if you're mine. Mine forever,” he said. “I’m not going to be able to let you go again. It almost killed me the first time, when you didn’t tell me you loved me back.”
I smiled.
“I’m yours in every single way there is. A title doesn’t really mean anything, but it’s yours if you want it. Everything is yours, Rome.”
His forehead touched mine and he took a deep breath before kissing me once more.
“That’s all I want.” He smiled, hands finding their way under my t-shirt again.
I helped him this time, tossing everything on my body off as fast as I could because I didn’t want to wait any longer to feel his skin against mine.
He followed suit, climbing onto the bed beside me, his position identical to earlier at the shop.
“I want to feel you, Fae. Can I feel you...without the condom?”
My breath caught.
“Yes… Yes. I have an IUD. I want to feel you, too.”
His pants were shucked a second later, boxer briefs g
etting wrangled down his thighs by both our hands, which only made it harder to get off.
The metal studs on his cock never seemed so intimidating before, but I anticipated it. I wanted to know how he felt too, no barriers in the way.
Just us.
But he made me wait. His mouth explored me, as if reacquainting himself with my body after those months apart, but it hadn’t been so long that he forgot what drove me nuts.
I was writhing underneath him, clamping down on the finger he slid into me as he nibbled and licked at each breast.
So close…
His finger left me, making me groan in protest, but as his hips shifted between me and his hands pulled up on my knees, I greedily lifted my pelvis, begging for him.
He didn’t make me beg. He gave himself to me completely, instead.
“I love you, Fae. I love you so much,” he said breathlessly once he was seated to the hilt, pausing so I could get used to him.
“Not as much as I love you,” I laughed back, meeting his eyes as he hovered above me.
“That’s debatable,” he smiled, kissing my lips before shifting again. He pulled out so slowly, then drove back in.
I grunted at the feeling, bulbs of metal brushing against me from the inside, the vertical piercing rubbing ever so gently against my g-spot with every single movement.
I squeezed his arms as he kept moving, his strong back igniting a delicious rhythm that was burning fire inside me, heat melting every inhibition and reservation.
This man owned me, body, mind and soul. Luckily he knew what to do with each one.
My hand dropped to his rear and I squeezed, biting my nails into his ass as he laughed quietly.
“You have a problem with how I’m doing things, Fae?” he asked me, bursting the passionate little bubble around us.
“No,” I breathed out. “I just wanted to squeeze your butt. It’s such a nice butt.”
“Here I go again,” he chuckled. “Trying to make this whole nice experience for you and you go ruining the moment with ass grabs and demands.”
