Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
TESSA
“Keep your hands to yourself,” I warn, taking hold of his hand.
He hauls me toward the branch, and I straddle it before scooting back against the trunk.
“I’m serious,” I add. “My parents have cameras.”
Rome leans forward to look through the tree branches. “They do? Where?”
“Worried I’ll watch it and overhear all the secrets you told Vivian?”
Those soul-crushing blue eyes shift to me. “As if you didn’t already hear them?”
My cheeks heat, so I turn away to play it off. “What are you talking about?”
Rome snorts out a laugh. “You’re a terrible liar, Princess.”
I cross my arms. “I hate when you call me that.”
Without looking up at him, I know he’s staring at me. Each time his eyes scan me up and down, it’s like a trail of flames brush against my skin.
“See?” His voice drops. “Terrible liar.”
I nibble on the inside of my cheek and stare at the pieces of bark chipping away from the tree.
“Was that true?” I ask. “Everything you said to her?”
I spread my fingers along the branch, the splintered parts cutting into my palm. My heart anxiously beats, waiting for his answer, like I’m afraid he’s going to lie.
“I may be an arrow, but I’m not a liar. Of course it was true.”
My lips twitch, a beg for me to laugh, but I don’t because my next question blurts out too quickly. “Even the part about you caring about more than just racing?”
This time, I can’t help but look at him. His head tilts, the setting sun painting a glare on the side of his face.
“A month ago?” He turns away with a shake of his head. “I would have said no. The only thought in my head aside from tormenting you was winning the cup and beating the shit out of my dad’s team.”
I huff out a laugh. “Kind of like how the only thought in my head, aside from not being able to stand you, was proving myself as a female engineer in a male-dominated industry.”
He grins from the side. “And now look at you, up here all alone in a tree with me.”
I swing my legs back and forth. “And I haven’t threatened to push you off once.”
He turns with a half-smirk waiting for me. “The night isn’t over, Princess.”
“And neither is the season.”
Rome’s smile slips, and the space between us grows tight.
I fiddle with the bark again, afraid to look into his eyes for too long. I came out here for a reason, and it’s taken less than a minute with him to forget why.
I force a breath through my lips and stare at his hands against the branch. “Sitting at the dinner table, I decided I was going to come out here and tell you we needed to stop whatever it is we’re doing.”
The cords in Rome’s forearms flicker. “Because your dad mentioned the weather conditions for the race."
My spine presses against the trunk. How did he know?
“I’m a distraction,” he adds.
He is. A big one.
“I haven’t bothered to think about the next race since touching down from Spain,” I admit. “It’s so unlike me.”
“Would it make you feel better to know that I haven’t thought much about it either?” he asks.
We both know why neither of us has paid attention, and being this wrapped up in something—someone—is dangerous, especially when there’s so much at stake for both of us.
His career.
My career.
Both of our reputations.
If there's even a single slight between us, those things all come crumbling down.
“Whatever I do to you…you do it to me too.” He gazes at me from across the branch, the truth written all over his face. “You always have.”
A frown pulls at my lips. “What do you mean?”
“There’s always been something about you, Tess.
Even when we were kids, before your dad left Pierce Racing, I was drawn to you.
” He glances at me briefly. “Don’t you remember me always coming to your rescue when your brothers would torment you?
Or what about the time you bumped into the tire trolley, and one of the tires clipped my dad’s ankle? ”
The memory plays out like a movie in front of my eyes.
“I forgot about that,” I whisper.
He stays quiet.
“You took the blame.”
“I couldn’t bear the thought of him yelling at you,” he admits.
I wince, remembering what happened next. “He hit you.”
Rome crosses his arms and gazes at the side of my house. “And your dad stepped in to smooth things over, like always.”
“I’m beginning to think my dad knows more about you than I do.”
“Why do you think he let me join Vanstone?” he asks. “Despite your earlier assumptions, it isn't to take it out from beneath him. That’s something Lucas Pierce would do, and honestly…” A swallow works down Rome’s throat. “I’d wreck a thousand times over again if it meant knowing the truth.”
He snaps his eyes to mine, the shock evident in every little movement he makes. The way his hands curl around the branch, the tense bunching of his shoulders with corded muscles straining along his neck.
I sit up taller against the trunk. “The truth?”
“Fuck.” He squeezes the bridge of his nose, his eyes clenching shut. “You’re going to have to let that one slide, Princess.”
“And if I can’t?” I blurt.
His hand drops, and he looks to the ground instead of at me. “You have to.”
My mind spins, old memories of Pierce Racing and a younger Rome filling every tiny void.
Rome jumps down from the branch and lands on sturdy feet. I quickly lean forward and find him staring up at me with his arms out wide.
He wants me to jump? Now?
He calls up to me, “You don’t trust me?”
“Should I?” I ask.
His chest expands, his arms remaining open. Without thinking, I swing my legs over and jump. He catches me with ease, one arm under my legs and the other pressed against my back.
I wrap my arms around his neck and look into his eyes. “I guess I do trust you,” I say. “But I don’t think you trust me.”
The grinding of his teeth is loud enough to hear over the breeze in the air. I almost reach up to grab his jaw so he’ll loosen it.
“I trust you more than I’ve ever trusted anyone, Tess.”
I wiggle in his grip, and he places me on flat feet. I cross my arms. “Then why won’t you tell me?”
“I already told you that I can’t.” He swallows. “It’s not that I won’t tell you; it’s that I can’t tell you.” His hands disappear into the pockets of his jeans. “And that has to be good enough for now.”
Before I’m able to say anything else, my dad’s voice echoes into the yard. “Rome?”
We both look to the porch just as my dad walks through the back door.
“Meet me in the den. I have to talk to you…” My dad glances at me with a soft smile. “Alone.”
Rome starts past me but not before whispering, “Just trust me, Tess.”
I don’t say anything, but I do trust him.