But Blue let out a whine before she could, reaching her saliva-and-mashed-pea-soaked fingers in-between Rocco and Stella’s faces, breaking the kiss.
Rocco and Stella both pulled back with a groan, wiping the moisture from their faces, looking at Blue just in time to see her lips curled down, bottom lip jutting out and trembling. Her big eyes filled with tears as she gazed up at Rocco, cheeks fire-red.
Laughing softly, Rocco kissed Blue’s cheek too, which instantly calmed the lines on her pinched face and dried the tears in her eyes. She smiled up at him, cooing softly when he placed another kiss on her forehead.
When Rocco turned back to Stella and leaned down to kiss her lips again, however, Blue tightened up once more, whimpering softly the moment their lips met and looking up at Rocco with a ripple of utter betrayal crossing on her face the moment he pulled away.
Smiling, Rocco kissed Blue’s cheek again, and Stella kissed the other one, causing Blue to giggle softly, blushing, curling her limbs like a caterpillar trying to wiggle back into its cocoon.
Stella laughed, lifting her mouth to Rocco when he came down for another kiss from her as well.
Blue’s hand flew out before their lips could meet, however, fingers splayed wide as she pressed the palm of her hand into Stella’s face and pushed it backward with a scream.
Rocco burst out laughing, bending over at the hip as Stella stumbled away, wiping the mashed peas that Blue’s violent hand had left all over her face.
“My god, Blue, that jealousy streak is gonna be a problem,” Stella beamed, voice astonished as she watched Blue cuddle closer to Rocco and nuzzle her head into his shoulder, watching Stella with warning eyes that dared her to try to kiss him again. Stella held her hands up in surrender. “Alright, alright, he’s all yours, girl. Dang. Don't let me stand in your way.”
“Whoa, I don’t get a say?” Rocco whispered, carrying Blue back to her high chair and setting her inside as Stella crossed the room to the kitchen island, digging into the purse that sat open on top of it.
“Apparently not,” she laughed, pulling something out of her purse. “Unless you want Blue to smother you in your sleep. She’s giving me Single White Female vibes right now.”
“You mean Single Biracial Female?”
Stella nibbled her bottom lip. “I have something for you.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Oh yeah. Sit down.” She waited for him to retake his seat before showing him what she’d pulled out of her purse.
His face fell at the sight of her checkbook in one hand and a pen in the other, shaking his head softly. “No…”
“The spa is doing so well—”
“Stella, no.”
“And I want to pay you back—”
“I didn’t ask you to pay me back.”
“—for everything you’ve done. Not just for the spa. But for me. For Blue.”
He leaned forward on the table, biceps pulsing. “I don’t want your money, Stella.”
Her hands collapsed to her sides. Silence fell. Then she looked over her shoulder with a scoff, motioning to the white Christmas tree in the corner. It was almost as tall as the 20-foot ceilings and had taken three men just to get it in the door. They’d spent a week decorating it with matching white Christmas lights, and Rocco had nearly broken his neck getting the white star perfectly centered on top. The bottom of the tree was wrapped with a fluffy white throw blanket and was flanked with presents of all shapes and sizes. Enough to take up half of the living room.
Next to the tree, a flurry of brand new blown-up black-and-white photos had popped up on the mantle above the fireplace. Some of them even replacing old images of Troy. Stella’s new favorite was the photo of Rocco with Blue on his shoulders during her first trip to the park. The smiles that lit up their faces were exactly as Stella had remembered them on the hot summer day it had been taken. She still couldn’t decide who’d had more fun that day, Blue or Rocco. She’d loved the photo it so much she’d been unable to resist posting it on Instagram, very much to DJ’s annoyance, who never missed an opportunity to point out all the changes she saw in the house. Especially when those changes came at Troy’s expense. Her face was always pinched a little tighter every time she saw a new photo of Rocco’s smiling face where Troy’s used to be, but Stella didn’t care.
This was Rocco’s home too.
“But all the gifts,” Stella whispered, motioning to the tree. “The loans you’ve co-signed, the bills you’ve been paying, keeping Blue and me on my feet, saving that 30k so I could start taking online classes—first quarter grades just posted a few hours ago, by the way. I aced every class but one.”
“I never had a doubt.”
“Only 21 credits left.” Her heart warmed. “I never would have believed I could do it. That I could do any of it. If it weren’t for you… So, please, will you let me say thank you? Will you let me pay you back something? Even if it’s only pennies compared to how much you’ve given us? I can’t keep letting you do all of this, Rocco. Gosh, it’s too much.”
He stood from his seat, leaving Blue to continue spreading handfuls of the mashed peas she hadn’t eaten all over the tray of her high chair, like Picasso working on his masterpiece.
Stella straightened as he grew closer, tilting her head with a soft smile when he took the checkbook and pen from her hand and dropped them to the floor. His big arms came around her waist and pulled her in next. She wished she hadn’t chosen those plaid pajamas so she could feel his smooth chest against hers. All its rock hard dips and curves. Her arms circled his neck as their bodies became flush, her veins pumping with the need to be even closer than that. Closer than they’d ever dared. Their foreheads met, and her eyes fluttered closed.
“I wanna take care of you,” he whispered. “I like taking care of you.”
“Consider it a Christmas present, then.”
“All I want for Christmas,” he whispered. “Is you, baby. That’s all I want.”
“Okay, Mariah.”
“I’m serious.”
Her eyes fluttered up to his. “All I want for Christmas is you too.”
“So instead of paying me back with that money, let’s use it to take a trip instead. Just you and me.”
“What about Blue?” she asked. “We’re gonna ask DJ and Justin to babysit? You know they’ll get suspicious if we go on vacation together.”
“So we won’t tell them it’s a vacation. We’ll pick a place that’s not too tropical and tell them it’s for… a business conference or something. They know how hard we’ve been busting our ass for the spa these last few months, how seriously we’re taking our partnership. A business trip won’t make them anymore suspicious of us than they already are.”
Stella couldn’t help coming to her toes in excitement, moaning as he leaned down and caught her lips in a fast kiss. One that Blue, thankfully, didn’t notice, still too busy creating her mashed pea masterpiece.
“Where?” Stella asked.
“Somewhere as breathtakingly beautiful as you. That’s warm in December. Where I can hold your hand and kiss you in broad daylight, without having to hide. Without worrying about who sees.”
Her heart skipped a beat. “We’ll have to go online and see if there any warm places that are throwing business conferences in December.”
“Might be a long shot.”
“Are you willing to sacrifice a beautiful destination for alone time?”
“As long as you’re with me, that’s all the beauty I need to last a million lifetimes, baby.”
He trapped her bottom lip in a kiss before she could respond, drawing it between his with the deep moan. And, in an instant, the kiss was his. Under his full control, it became deep, hard, and passionate in seconds. So much so that Stella was left just trying to keep up as breathtaking passion raged through her body and made every inch of it swell with need. She gasped between each kiss as their lips battled, digging her fingers into his back and dragging them down hard enough to draw blood.
>
She pulled her mouth from his with a smack, inhaling heavily when he zeroed in and spread his lips wide over the most sensitive part of her neck, warming it with his gasping lips and wetting it with his tongue.
She whimpered as he sucked the tender skin, leaving her center soaked and throbbing in seconds.
“I know how hard it is to ask a man to go backward, to stop at just kissing, and you’ve been so patient with me, and so giving. So… before we go…” She sank her fingers into his hair, holding his mouth right in the crook of her neck, just above her collarbone—the spot always sent her body into overdrive, pressing her gasping lips to his ear. “I want us to get tested.”
He pulled back and met her eyes, his green orbs darkening. He tried to speak, but no words came. Going so quiet she could hear the sound of his own heart as it hammered against his chest, which was rising and falling rapidly.
He licked his lips. “You sure?”
She nodded, and their lips found each other once more, picking up right where they left off. Just when Stella was sure she wouldn’t even make it to the testing—seconds from taking his hand and guiding him up to her bedroom, Blue screamed at the top of her lungs from her high chair.
Arms still wrapped tightly around each other, Stella and Rocco’s lips broke apart and their eyes flew over the Blue’s high chair just in time to see her watching them with fury all over her face, bottom lip jutting out again, and big blue eyes filled with tears as they shined up at Rocco, her mashed potato masterpiece all but forgotten.
Only when Rocco and Stella broke apart completely, biting their bottom lips to control their laughter, did Blue’s face relax, calming once more—going calmer still when Rocco made his way over to her high chair and kissed her forehead softly.
“Papa Wak.” Blue smiled up at him, even as the forgotten tears still gleamed at the edges of her eyes.
And Stella’s heart swelled so largely she worried it might burst from her chest.
——
Savannah couldn’t have been a more perfect city to be hosting the only business conference being held in the country in early December. Even more perfect than that, it was a conference for new business owners, which made Stella and Rocco’s alibi all the more solid when they’d dropped Blue off at DJ’s to jet set to Georgia alone.
Savannah’s glittering downtown gem, River Street, was the perfect respite from the bitter cold in Jersey. Cobblestoned streets weaved through historic buildings with orange trolleys rolling past at the leisurely pace that the south was known for. The district house an eclectic mix of tiny boutiques, magnificent galleries, humble brewpubs, and energetic nightlife, leaving a little something for everyone to enjoy.
Just a few hours of southern hospitality has allowed Rocco and Stella to walk a little slower, smile a little easier and take each breath a little deeper at a time, breathing in the fresh scent of the Savannah River, glittering under the bright lights of the century-old buildings, the scent of Spanish moss floating up from the surface. Southern live oak trees lined the street along the water and gave off their own deliciously fresh scent as well. Their sheer height topped only by the Georgia Queen riverboat that sat quietly in the water.
White Christmas lights had been wrapped around every oak tree and slung across the street to the buildings on the opposite side, leaving a flurry of white bulbs glowing overhead like stars. The Christmas music fluttered out from the open doors and windows—many of which had Christmas trees glowing on the other side—of every restaurant they passed. The warm, familiar music only served to ease their bones even more, slowing their already leisurely pace and ensuring the soft smiles on their faces stayed permanently glued.
Or perhaps it was just being with each other that kept those smiles glued, fingers entwined without a care in the world. Free to express their real feelings for each other without having to worry about someone they knew appearing from around the corner.
Stella tightened her fingers around Rocco’s, where they’d been locked for hours, since the moment they’d disembarked the plane and thrown their suitcases onto the king-sized bed in their modest hotel room with a river view. Tourists and locals alike buzzed on the streets all around them that Saturday night. Most of whom were probably the actual attendees of the business conference going on at the banquet hall down the street. The 71-degree weather qualified as the height of summer for two NJ residents, leaving Stella free to gallivant around in her flowing white mini dress and nude sandals, and Rocco in tapered dark-washed blue jeans, black t-shirt, and black sneakers. The soft breeze made Stella’s hair waft into her eyes from where she’d left it down and stick-straight but was nothing a quick hair toss couldn’t fix.
The barely contained excitement and zest for life buzzing through every soul on that street seemed a million times stronger in Stella’s heart, and when she looked up and found Rocco smiling softly down at her, she knew he felt it too.
Did he look so happy because it was their first weekend alone together?
Because of the empty bed awaiting them in their hotel room later that night?
The sound of his phone chiming in his pocket rang out before her mind could answer the question, and as he fished it out, she silently noted how much less she’d heard the chime those days. It sent a warm flutter through her belly.
As Rocco looked at the screen, the smile fell his face for the first time since they’d arrived. “It’s the clinic.”
“Thank God they were willing to email us our results, or that beautiful bed in our hotel room would’ve been going to waste tonight.”
Not even the promise of sex could bring him back from whatever black hole he’d fallen into, his jaw tightening. “I can’t look. You do it. Passcode 984000.”
Stella took his phone when he offered it to her. “Are you sure you want me to have the passcode to your phone? The phone that used the be lit up with calls and texts from thirsty women 24-hours a day?”
“Dry as a bone since the day I moved in with you.”
“Well, that’s just a bold-faced lie. It didn’t dry up until several months after you moved in—when Blue and I finally wore you down with our breathtaking beauty and charm.” She teased, unlocking his phone and smiling at the results the STD clinic they’d visiting back home had sent, turning the screen for him to see. “All clear.”
Rocco frowned down at the screen, then his eyebrows shot up.
She laughed, letting the phone fall back down to her side. “Surprised?”
“Honestly, when they sent in your results a day earlier than mine… and the way that woman was looking at me after the consultation and blood draw? It was like she was convinced I was gonna come back with something.”
“Is that why you looked like you’d seen a ghost when you came back out into the waiting room? I honestly had no idea your skin was capable of getting so white until that woman walked you out, looking serious as hell. I bet she sent your results a day late just to make a point. Just to make you sweat. She must get off on fucking with her more-promiscuous patients, especially the ones who were dumb enough to have never been tested before.”
“Listen, I knew everything was gonna be straight.” He tugged at the hem of his shirt. “I’ve always worn protection.”
“Didn’t seem like you were wearing any that day I caught you with Lil’ Miss Fredrick’s in the guesthouse.”
“I was wearing a condom that day. Guess you were too busy being in complete and utter awe of my incredible stroke game to notice.”
She slapped him with the back of her hand. “Oh my god, get over yourself!”
“Hey, you’re the one that keeps bringing it up. Constantly. Seems like it’s all you can think about.” He took her arm when she pretended to walk away, pulling her back in, close enough to wrap both his arms around her body from behind, warming her ear with his lips. “Don’t worry, baby. I’ll give you the live show soon enough.”
“Yeah, unless I decide otherwise.” She rolled her eyes, unable to hide the shy smi
le parting her lips.
“And who the hell is Miss Fredrick's?”
She clutched the arms he had slung around her shoulders. “The kind of woman that’s always laid out in a bra and panties in the display window at Fredrick's of Hollywood at the mall. Don’t pretend like you don’t know, the way you always break your neck to take a second look on the way to The Baby Shop for Blue.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Thin as a whistle, no cellulite, skin smooth as silk, not a single stretch mark to be found. Perfect from head to toe. Built to live her life in a bra and panties 24/7. That girl in the guesthouse was definitely that kinda girl.” Stella’s voice fell. “Your kinda girl.”
“You’re my kinda girl.”
“Not even close.” She removed his arms from around her, crossing her own tight as she gazed toward the water. “Not anymore.”
“Hey…” He stopped walking; forcing the people behind them to circle around, tugging at her arm until she begrudgingly turned and face him. “You.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Me?”
“I love you.”
She drew in a sharp breath.
He did too, his eyes widening at the same time as hers as if even he couldn’t believe the words that had just left his mouth. As soon as his eyes had widened as his shoulders stiffened, however, they relaxed. Every inch of his body softened like he was looking at her for the first time.
But Stella only grew tenser. “I’m sorry… what did you just say?”
He stepped closer, licking his lips, and lowered his voice. “I love you, Stella.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“And only you.” He shook his head.
Her entire body began to tremble. “Even if I’ll never be thin enough to be worthy of a Fredrick’s display case again?” Her eyes narrowed to a slender blonde who sauntered past. “As skinny as her?”
Rocco didn’t even look, taking her chin and forcing her eyes back to his. “I. Love. You.”
She couldn’t speak, croaking around every word that tried to leave her lips, fighting to keep the moisture burning her eyes from falling down her cheeks.
Forbidden (War Book 1) Page 24
