Chapter Three
“What the fuck?”
Beth stared up at the ceiling and she didn’t know what to do.
Everything had been going so well until, well … the pain, and then the confusion. Beth didn’t know how long she was leaning over the table before she realized he’d left her, and she was still naked.
The pain in her body had ebbed away, but now she felt that odd sting of humiliation. Shouldn’t guys feel happy about having a virgin? Isn’t that what all romance books said men wanted? Virgins were prized possessions, or something like that.
She’d been so busy working and trying to make a life for herself and her brother, men hadn’t entered the equation. The first time one did, it hadn’t exactly gone well. She’d tried not to scream, and even though she’d been nervous, she had wanted to feel what it was like.
It was strange as part of her had always wanted the dating, meeting a guy, getting to know him, falling in love, having sex, all of it being part of a natural and somewhat boring cycle. She thought about them laughing over mistakes they made, stupidness they’d done through sex. None of that had happened. She didn’t have time to meet guys, as meeting them in bars just didn’t seem ideal. Also, her brother was kind of a pain in the ass. She had to babysit him enough, and men seemed like hard work.
So, if she was completely honest with herself, even though she didn’t like Rome’s ultimatum, it did kind of tick all her necessary boxes that she needed. Sex without the awkwardness of building a relationship. Finding out everything she had missed with a guy who wasn’t going to call. She had all the answers before everything else. It sounded so perfect, at least to her.
Now, she had a guy who hadn’t even finished, and had walked away from her. It didn’t exactly fill her with confidence for the next chance, if there was even going to be a next chance.
Rolling over, she tried to look across the room.
This was Rome’s room. She didn’t quite know where Rome went afterward.
Before leaving the dining room, she’d cleaned up the mess he’d made. She didn’t know what kind of cleaning arrangement he had, but it felt wrong to leave it for someone else.
She was so stupid. On the night of losing her virginity, she gets rejected and yet still tries to make it work. How dumb was she? It made no sense to her.
Trying to sleep wasn’t helping either. She shoved the blankets off. Although it had been kind of fun and scary being naked, she’d thrown on an old ratty shirt for bed. Stepping toward the closet, she opened the door to find her bag filled with a month’s worth of clothes. Not that she had many. There were several that would need to be washed.
A couple of pairs of jeans, a few shirts, some skirts, and a couple of dresses. Her whole wardrobe had been bare by the time she was finished. She had less shoes—a pair of heels, sneakers, and boots—that was it.
Unloading her bag, she started hanging the clothes on the spare hanger.
Rome had more clothes than she did. She didn’t touch any of his stuff.
“What are you doing?”
She spun around to find Rome, looking composed, and nothing like the man she had heard before he left.
“Ugh, I was … putting away my clothes.”
He looked at her and she pressed her lips together. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him how he was doing, but she was the one who had been in pain. Why should she keep asking him? It made no sense to her, even though she really wanted to.
Gritting her teeth, she waited.
“Why?” he asked.
“You told me to.”
“No, I’m not talking about the fucking clothes in the closet. I’m talking about why you didn’t tell me you were a virgin?”
“It didn’t exactly come up,” she said.
He shook his head. “I should have known.”
“You’re blaming me?” she asked.
“Yes, you should have told me what was going on or the fact you’d never been with a man.”
She couldn’t help it, her mouth fell open, she was in so much shock. “Wow, forgive me for not telling a perfect stranger who threatened to hurt my brother. I didn’t think a guy like you would even care.”
“A guy like me?”
“Come on, Rome. You came to my brother and threatened to kill him unless I agreed to belong to you for a month. That kind of guy.” She shook her head and got to her feet. She’d been lining her shoes up, and she thought she kept hers in pretty good condition but opposite Rome’s, they looked a mess. They were worn and scruffy. “So don’t start accusing me. You didn’t ask and I didn’t know if it was in the job description to tell you I was a virgin.”
“How?” he asked.
“Huh, you’re not making any sense to me. You know how women remain virgins, they don’t have sex. I didn’t have any kind of sex with anyone. That is how I’ve remained a virgin.”
“I don’t mean that, for fuck’s sake, I know how one remains a virgin. I want to know how you did,” he said. “You’re fucking beautiful, and you’re kind. Men must have been clamoring to get to you.”
In a moment like this, she shouldn’t have been feeling pretty good at him calling her “beautiful,” or “fucking beautiful.” The compliments were so sweet, and yet, she had to keep her wits about her.
“I don’t have to justify anything to you,” she said. “Not a single thing.” She refused to.
“I could have made it better,” Rome said.
She had been about to brush past him, but he captured her arm and then pressed her up against the wall.
“It didn’t have to be such a painful experience for your first time.”
“Instead, you said, ‘what the fuck,’ and then you left. You ran away.”
“I didn’t run away.”
“Yeah, you kind of did. I wonder what people would think if they knew a girl’s virgin pussy terrified you.”
He reached out and his fingers stroked her neck. “Are you threatening me?”
“No, I’m not, actually. I am hurt, and I’m lashing out at you.” She frowned. There was nothing good for her that came out of the last few hours.
Her virginity wasn’t accepted, and above all, a guy like Rome had run away like she was some kind of vermin. Yeah, there was no way she was going to be telling anyone what happened this evening. Not a soul.
Also, he failed to see that she didn’t have anyone else to tell. There was just her, and she was going to listen to his advice. When it came to her brother, the alarm bells had already been going off inside her head before Rome turned up at the door.
It would only be a matter of time before he got them both into trouble. She loved her brother, but she wasn’t going to take the fall for him. This with Rome, would be the last thing she ever did for him.
“I wouldn’t tell anyone about what happened here.” She didn’t want to remember. His fingers didn’t leave her throat.
She looked at him as he stared back at her, and neither of them spoke. They just looked at one another. Beth wanted to ask him what he was thinking, but it didn’t seem right.
He leaned in close and she held her breath, not knowing what was coming next, anticipating, waiting, curious, and then his lips brushed across hers. The kiss was so unexpected. Kind of sweet.
And then, he deepened the kiss.
Against her wishes, Beth closed her eyes and then let out a moan as he growled against her lips. She placed her hand on his chest and started to move up, about to wrap them around his neck, but he pulled away before she could do that.
“Get some rest,” he said.
He pulled away and without another look, he left the bedroom.
At first, Beth had to consider if she was daydreaming. Had Rome been in this room? The tingle of her lips told her he had.
What was happening to her?
****
Rome never ran from problems. He was always there, dealing with everything. He was strong, powerful, and everyone knew not to fuck with him. He showed no mercy to anyone, and it was how he’d risen to the top.
He got rid of anyone who was weak. In the cutthroat underbelly of the world, the underdog never won. Ruthless killers ruled.
He was the one who ruled the city. No one else.
He’d forced out Mafia, Bratva, MC, and small city crooks. No one did a bad deed in this town without his permission. Everyone had a price to pay to do business here.
There was no way he was going to be brought down by a twenty-three-year-old ex-virgin.
He looked at the security footage of the previous night. Rome didn’t like how he left her, spread across the table, open and vulnerable. Beth looked so … lost. She got up from the table, and for several minutes she just stood there, not really doing anything. Then, she started to clean the mess he’d made. She was meticulous as well.
He’d already gone to check the dining room. She didn’t go snooping around. She found the cleaning closet, grabbed what she needed, got to work, and then cleaned up the dishes before heading upstairs.
Rome had cameras in his bedroom as well.
He watched as she went into the en-suite bathroom and took a long shower. She put on an oversized, ugly looking shirt, and finally climbed into bed. She didn’t go to sleep right away. No, she tossed and turned before climbing out of bed, and then going to clean the closet. He didn’t understand this woman’s need to clean. He paid people to come and clean his stuff. She didn’t need to worry about any of it and yet, there she was, cleaning everything.
He turned off the recording and brought up the present footage. Beth had left the bedroom and was making her way downstairs. She wore a pair of jeans and another oversized sweater, and it looked awful. He didn’t like the clothes she wore. They didn’t suit her body and while she stayed with him, she was going to dress differently.
Before leaving his security room, he made a call to a local fashion boutique that knew what he liked, and arranged for a delivery to him by the end of the day.
With everything else in order, he left the room and made his way toward the kitchen. The kitchen staff had come to a stop as he entered the room, and were looking at Beth as if she was some kind of alien.
“Philippe, the usual,” he said, taking Beth’s hand and leading her into the dining room.
“Did I do something wrong?” Beth asked.
“You entered the kitchen. That is Philippe’s domain, and you don’t go in there unless you are ready to be gutted like a fish.” He turned to see her nose wrinkling.
“That’s gross.”
He found his interaction with Beth interesting.
Moving to the table, he pulled out the chair and waited for her to sit down. He watched her tense up as she sat down. Had he hurt her that bad? He’d never been with a virgin before. Virgins were not on his list of requirements. He preferred a woman who knew what she was doing. He assumed Beth was one of those women.
Ignoring her soreness, he took a seat and stared at her. She kept looking up at him and then glancing away.
“You know, you’re kind of making me nervous,” she said.
He smiled. “Why am I making you nervous?”
“And that is not helping. You don’t smile a lot, do you?”
“And you don’t spend a lot of time with me, do you?” he asked.
“I don’t even know if you answered my question but seeing as I’m nice, I will answer yours, and no, I don’t spend a lot of time with anyone. I have a job to do, and I like to be efficient. Being around people just slows the process down.”
“So, you like your job?”
She thought about it for a few seconds. “Yeah, I do. I like cleaning.”
“Why?”
She pressed her lips together and frowned at him. “Because without things being clean, there would be chaos, and no one wants that.”
He raised a brow. “Some people like chaos.”
“You don’t.”
He smirked. “You don’t know me very well.”
“Okay, maybe you like creating chaos you don’t have to worry about cleaning up, but you don’t relish chaos.”
“What makes you think that?” he asked, curious about her.
“Your home.”
This made him frown but he didn’t ask her a question and waited for her to elaborate.
“Seriously, you don’t see it?”
“See what?”
“You have a very clean and organized home. Nothing is out of place, and from what I can tell, you must hire some kind of cleaning crew to come around, and, I don’t know, clean like every single day. There’s not a speck of dust to be seen, and lived-in houses always have a mess by the end of the day.” She shrugged. “Which suggests you like making chaos but that doesn’t mean you like living in it.”
He didn’t like how astute she was.
“Why?” she asked.
“Why don’t you tell me the reason you can’t stand mess?” he said.
“Simple. My parents did nothing but cause trouble and make messes that were impossible to clean. Growing up with sticky floors, beer cans, used condoms, moldy food, that will affect some people. No matter how much I seemed to clean, they always found a way to make it messy.”
“You cleaned for your parents?”
“At first I did, but then, I don’t know, I think I started to clean for myself and it made it a little easier.” She leaned forward, placing an elbow on the table, followed by her chin onto her palm. “So, tell me, why do you not like messes?”
“That is none of your business.”
“Can I take a guess?”
He didn’t see a reason not to allow her to continue to talk. She pursed her lips as she stared at him. Rome took the time to just watch her.
“You’ve had no choice but to live in messes when you were younger.”
“Why when I was younger?”
“You’re much older now. Some things that happen in our past greatly affect who we are in the present, and what we do in the present designs our future.”
“It’s too early for philosophical lessons.”
She giggled, and it was such a strange sound, not bad, not fake either, but … natural. She smiled at him, and he couldn’t bring himself to look away.
“It beats talking about the big elephant in the room,” she said.
He knew exactly what she was talking about. “I’ve never had a woman refer to my cock as an elephant.”
She gasped. “I didn’t mean that.”
This time, he chuckled. “I know.”
She pressed her lips together and quickly glanced down. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy teasing you about it.”
“Was it that bad?” Beth said. “Being with me?”
“No.”
“Why did you stop?” she asked.
“Because, regardless of the rumors about me, I don’t get my kicks out of abusing women.” He’d dealt with them swiftly in the past. Yes, he’d hurt women, those that had betrayed him. He’d been swift about it. At a young age, he had come to see that there were people who would use women, as they didn’t believe they would get hurt. Some women were cruel, they were born evil, and killing them was the only reward he could give the planet.
Glancing over at Beth, he knew he wouldn’t take any pleasure in hurting this woman. She was so sweet, and he also knew, so innocent. Her first time shouldn’t have been bent over a table, where he was impatient to feel her pussy wrapped around his cock. That was his bad.
“You stopped because…”
“You screamed in pain. I’m happy to have women screaming on my dick, Beth, but not when it’s hurting them.”
“It’s so nice to know there are a lot of women out there who know what it is like to be … on your dick,” Beth said.
“Not a lot of women,” he said. “But enough for me to know how to satisfy a woman.”
The door opened, and a woman carrying their food, entered.
Beth smiled at him. “I wouldn’t know what that feels like.” And she winked at him, before moving out of the way for their food to be put in front of them.
He had no idea who this woman was. Beth was an interesting mix of innocence and experience. She didn’t cower away from him, which he found incredible. There was also an air of … resilience around her, which was hard to describe. He didn’t know if she was afraid of him or not. She certainly hid it very well.
Watching her, he found himself even more enamored of her, and that was a dangerous place to be.
He didn’t like having women around him. They were to be used and discarded as he couldn’t trust any of them.
Everyone was after their own agenda, and in a way, so was Beth. She was here to save her brother—nothing more, nothing less—and he needed to remember that.