How? How is he so … muscly? And covered in ink, from his jawline to his fingers and everything in between. There are words and images. An angel. Flowers. It would take hours to look at them all, and my fingers itch to touch him.
“My eyes are up here, firefly.”
My cheeks darken as I roll my lips together and lift my eyes to his.
He’sgrinning.
“You have a nice smile,” I say, surprising us both.
Leaving his slacks on, Rome climbs onto the bed, but he doesn’t touch me. He rolls onto his side, facing me, and pulls the covers up to our shoulders.
“What are we doing?” I ask him.
“Hopefully, we’re going to nap,” he says. “You needto sleep more of that off, and I haven’t slept in two days, so a few hours sounds good.”
“Why don’t you sleep?”
“Work,” he says simply. “Why did you run from your dad?”
I tuck my hands under my chin and let out a breath. “I should have run away a long, long time ago, but I didn’t have any resources, and despite what he did … well, I guess it was easier to stay. That makes me sound weak, and I hate that.”
“I haven’t known you long, but I know you aren’t weak.”
I feel warm with his words. I can’t believe I’m telling him so much. That I feel safe to.
“I don’t know how much you know about the Mafia.” I cringe. “That sounds like something out of a movie, but my father is kind of a big deal in that world.”
“I know who he is,” Rome replies, surprising me.
“You do?”
He nods.
“He’s not a good man. Not even to me.” I shake my head. “Anyway, he came to me not quite a week ago and told me that he’d arranged a marriage for me, and I’d be expected to go with this guy within an hour of his little announcement.”
Rome’s eyes go cold.
“I know that arranged marriages happen all the time in organized crime. It just is what it is. But he’dnevertalked about it with me before. Not that he really talked to me much. I know very little about what he does,except that he makes a lot of money, and he gets off on hurting people.”
Rome takes a breath. “How do you know that?”
I chew on my lip, looking at the angel on his chest.I don’t want to tell him how I know.
“Anyway, when I told him that I wouldn’t marry whoever this guy was—I’d never met him before, and I didn’t know the name—he hit me.”
Rome’s jaw clenches.
“Wasn’t the first time, but I knew that I couldn’t stay. That I wouldn’t just blindly go to whoever my father sold me to and hope that my home life there would be better than it had been before. I’d prepared to leave during the few years leading up to this, and I grabbed my go-bag and left. I knew he’d look for me, I’m not stupid, and he’d never just let me go. That’s why I found the cheap motel because he’d never think to look for me there. Well, that, and I didn’t have much money. I don’t know how that guy found me.”
“Why Vegas?” he asks as he reaches out to push my hair behind my ear, and it sends warmth down my whole body. I love this man’s hands.
“It was convenient,” I admit. “I’m from Reno, and it was a quick and cheap bus ride. I didn’t lie to my boss, as I really do have a background in mixology, so I figured I’d find a job here pretty quickly.” Am I digging myself a deeper hole right now?
I feel so stupid.
“I like the job, and I’ll miss it. I like my coworkers. It sucks that I have to leave.”
Rome reaches out and brushes his finger down my cheek, sending a shiver through me.
