I groan and roll my eyes. ‘We dated for a couple months, but we broke up three years ago. She got back together with her ex. They’re engaged. I’m single and not cheating. Onanyone.’
Rome blinks at me as my hands fall to my sides.
We stare at each other as the sun shines in through the doorway, bits of dust sparkled in the rays.
‘Truth?’ he finally asks, and I nod, wetting my lips and trying to keep myself from moving toward him.
I can’t believe he thought I was a cheater. I can’t believe he’d think that about me. But there’s something about the anger and passion in his signs that has my blood running hotter. He cared. He was killing himself over what we’d done together. He let himself compromise all his morals and fuck an engaged man because he wanted me that badly.
I don’t know if that makes me a bad person, but in this moment I don’t care. I want him even more now.
I adjust my growing cock, and his gaze flicks down to the movement. His cheeks redden again, and his pupils dilate. I can tell he wants to move toward me, but before he can, Leaf stumbles in.
‘Hi!’ he exclaims, a streak of dirt across one of his cheeks. ‘I forgot to tell you Rome was showing up since Thom cancelled,’ Leaf tells me. I nod, and he peers between us. ‘You two okay? Not enemies, right?’
‘No,’ I respond before Rome can. God knows how he’ll answer that question, but I want control of the narrative now.
‘Awesome. Well, Rome, you want to help Dex finish those planters? He’s going very slow.’
I roll my eyes, but Rome just shrugs. ‘That’s fine.’
‘Great,’ Leaf replies. ‘Thorne and I are verygood at digging holes, and I think we may be done faster than Dex can put these together.’
I flip him off, and Leaf giggles as he throws up a peace sign and disappears, leaving Rome and me alone.
I hold up the screwdriver, and he moves toward it, swiping it from my hand. Our fingers brush when he does that, and a shiver moves up my spine.
‘What do you need me to do?’ he asks, and I seriously contemplate asking him to come sit on my face, but I don’t do that. Instead, I just point to one of the planters still in pieces and ask him to put it together.
He moves toward it, squatting down and forcing my eyes to his ass.
An ass that is very nice-looking and one that I want to fuck again.
My hands tighten on the planter I’ve half put together, keeping myself put. If I let go, I’m afraid I’ll launch at him.
And honestly, I want him to make the next move. He’s avoided me for a week, gave me the cold shoulder, and all the while thought I was cheating on my fiancée. So I want him to be the one to initiate whatever happens next.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
ROME
I can’t believehe’s not engaged. I can’t believe all this time, I was hating myself over something that wasn’t true.
Halfway through building the second box, I stop him, waving my hand in his direction and getting his attention. When he looks my way, I ask, ‘You single?’
His lips twitch into a smirk, and he nods. ‘You?’
I huff and get back to work without answering. He fucking knows I am, considering how upset I was over the thought that he was sleeping with me while being engaged to someone else.
Asshole.
I can feel his eyes on me, moving from the project in front of him to me and then back again. It’s making everything in my body hypersensitive. But I’m not going to jump on him just because I was wrong. I’m going to think this through.
Logically, because even though that’s not always my strong suit, I need to work this out because being with him still isn’t that simple.
He’s not engaged, not seeing anyone else, but he’s still hearing.
He signs so fucking well, and he understands me just fine, even when my hands are slashing through the air in anger, but that doesn’t change things. He’s nothing like my ex, but I’m still not sure I’m brave enough to let my guard down.
