can see everything. Even in the dark. My heart is starting to pound at the realization.
“Every time I was with them, I thought of you. The woman next door I couldn’t have. The one I didn’t deserve to have.”
His words wrap around my heart and squeeze. The effects of it zap me straight in the core.
“So, every time…you saw…?” I pant, trying to force the words past my lips, but with each thrust of his hips, I’m falling apart a little more. I’m falling for him a little more.
He kisses a path down my neck. “Oh, I saw, baby. I watched. I craved you.”
“Roman,” I groan out, his words my undoing.
“That’s it, baby. Come all over my cock.”
I do just that. With each swirl of his fingers over my clit, each pump of his hips, I ride out my orgasm, words and noises falling from my lips that never have before. I collapse onto the bed, and his grip on my hips tightens, as he finishes. He follows, soon after, scooping me into his arms.
We both lie there, staring up at the ceiling, as we work to control our breathing. There’s a sudden howl that’s coming from his hallway, and I glance up at him, laughing under my breath.
“Someone feels left out.”
Rome’s lips quirk. “Horny bastard.”
His fingers trail up and down my spine in featherlight motions, practically lulling me to sleep. I rest my cheek on his chest, relishing in the feel of his warm skin beneath mine. The sound of his heart beating, the synchronicity, is a song I didn’t realize I’ve been dying to hear.
“You know, I always wondered what this tattoo said.” I run the pad of my fingers over the script tattoo on his pec.
“Got it a while back. During one of my stints in jail.”
I smile sadly, thinking about the words inked across his flesh.
Learn from yesterday. Live for today. Hope for tomorrow.
“I think one day, when I stop being a chicken, I’ll get one. It’s sort of been at the top of my bucket list, but I’m sure you know how that goes.”
He laughs huskily. “Not really. Didn’t realize people still did bucket lists.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re telling me you don’t have one?”
“Nope.”
“Fine, I’ll share mine with you. I mean, it only seems fair.”
His chest rumbles beneath me as he stifles his laughter and it makes me smile. God, I could get used to this.
A thought suddenly strikes me, and even though it might ruin the mood, I need to know.
“Can I ask you something?”
His answer is a gruff, “Yeah,” that I feel vibrate beneath my head.
“How many women…?” I pause, trying to figure out a way to phrase the question. “Since I’ve moved in, how many women have you slept with?” I feel the muscles in his chest tighten, and I jump to add, “I only ask, because of all the women I saw coming and going.”
He’s silent. Far too silent. I start to wonder if maybe I pissed him off somehow or took it too far, by asking a question like this. But when I hear him chuckle, I nudge him in the ribs, my own lips twisting ruefully.
“Two. Both of them were to purge you from my mind, and everyone else I tried with, it just…”
My heart is beating rapidly at his admission. “Just what?”
“Just didn’t happen. I couldn’t do it. Especially not when I was thinking about all the ways I wanted to be fucking you instead.”
Glitter bursts in my chest, and my breath catches. Hearing this news shouldn’t make me as happy as it does, but Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I can’t help the relieved breath that escapes. It’s empowering to know I held so much space in his head that he couldn’t sleep with anyone else, because he was thinking of me. I’d like to say I’m not the jealous type, but that would be a lie. The idea of Rome sleeping with hordes of women makes me sick to my stomach. His admission has tamped down that swell of jealousy. I find myself burrowing deeper into his embrace, relishing in the feel of his skin against mine.
Since I asked him something deeply personal, seems he is doing the same. “Now it’s my turn.”
“Okay, shoot.”
“How long ago did you have heart surgery?”
I tense at the question. I should’ve known he wouldn’t let me leave it at that.
“I was just a kid, Rome. It was so long ago.”
He’s silent. Processing. “What caused it?”
I swallow thickly, wishing he would