CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
ROME
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This woman was my Juliet.
I knew it in my heart, in my soul, in my fucking bones. I trusted my gut. I didn’t need further proof or another coincidence. I didn’t even need another report from Tony to confirm it. Every instinct I possessed screamed the same thing.
Juliet With Curves was Blossom Brooks.
She was mine. And she was just as in love with me as I was with her. So why wouldn't she tell me who she was? I was here, in her face, in her space. Why wouldn’t she admit to what we both knew to be true?
That question had been eating away at me ever since she dropped her hand from those tulips and took a step away from me. I’d thought she was close to opening up to me, close to revealing who she was. But then she shut down on me. I'd almost asked her outright.
Are you Juliet?
The words had been right there on the tip of my tongue. Then I'd looked into her eyes, and what I saw there chilled me to the bone. Fear. Not nervousness. Not guilt.
Fear.
Gone was the playfulness that had been there when we’d been discussing tulips. She’d gone from being relaxed next to me to looking terrified. I had to find out the cause of that fear and rid her of it before she could be honest with me.
But how could I do that if she wouldn’t talk to me? I hoped Tony’s investigation would reveal something useful for me because I was clueless right now. I rubbed the back of my neck, frustrated as hell.
Was love always this fucking complicated and confusing? If so, I could see why Raz and Cas had taken matters into their own hands. I could make things easier if she’d just talk to me. If someone was threatening her, I'd make them disappear before sunset.
If someone had something over her, I'd take care of them. I’d make sure they never threatened her again. If she needed protection, I'd give her a fucking army of guards. And I’d be the general, making sure she knew her enemies would have to kill me before they could even lay eyes on her.
Hell, if she wanted to disappear and start a new life somewhere, I’d provide us with new identities and relocate us to an island no one would find us on. I could solve any problem she was facing. I just needed her to talk to me.
However, I couldn’t force her to do that. And that left me feeling more helpless than I'd ever felt in my life. Helpless, frustrated, irritated, ready to kill. I hated not knowing how to help the woman I loved.
All I could do was hope Tony's investigation would uncover something that let me know what had her so frightened. Something that would explain why Blossom looked at me like she loved me one second and feared everything the next second.
"Sir," she started with her customer service voice back in place. "Which flowers would you like?"
Fuck the flowers. Tell me what you’re afraid of. Tell me how to make you smile again.
"Um..." I cleared my throat, trying to get my mind right, not wanting to scare her more than she already was. "I think... I think I'll take the red tulips."
Your favorite.
Her gaze drifted toward the display beside us.
"How many?" she asked.
Enough to fill my beach house with.
"Three dozen," I answered. "And some nice vases for them also."
"Certainly. Please wait near the register while I prepare your flowers."
I didn’t want to wait near the fucking register. I wanted to stay by her side. I wanted to go back to a moment ago, when she was talking to me and smiling at the flowers, explaining what form of love each one represented.
I hated this cool, calm persona of hers. I hated this mask. It was worse than having her retreat behind Juliet’s mask again. Worse than having her speak to me through a voice modulator again.
It had felt so good to hear her real voice, to have her laugh with me, talk to me, stare at me as if she longed for me the way I longed for her. No one had ever stared at me that way before. No woman had ever yearned for me with an intensity that left me breathless before.
Damn it, I wanted this woman! All of her. Every part. The good that was right before me and the bad that she was running from. It was killing me to be this close to her and still unable to hold her in my arms.
For the first time in my life, wanting something wasn't enough to make it mine. I had more money than I’d ever need, yet I couldn’t buy her trust. I couldn’t force it. There was nothing I could do.
I felt useless in the face of her fears. I wouldn’t be okay until I figured this shit out. She was focused on the flowers now, carefully arranging the tulips inside the vases I'd purchased.
It had to make her uncomfortable having me standing there, staring at her. But I didn’t want to take my eyes off her. I was afraid she’d disappear somehow if I looked away.
“Please wait at the register,” she said again, and I noted the tremble in her voice.
Just tell me what's wrong. Tell me who you're afraid of. Tell me who's keeping you from telling me who you are, and I'll take care of them.
But saying that would only frighten her more. Or, worse, it would make her think I was an insane killer. And then I’d become the one she feared. It was best if I found out what the problem was on my own and took care of it without her knowing.
Not wanting to make her more uncomfortable, I turned and walked toward the register. Each step I took away from her felt like a knife stabbing through my heart. As I waited where she’d told me to wait, my gaze drifted behind the counter.
A closed laptop sat on the small workspace beside the register. I stared at it for a second. Had she ever chatted with me from that laptop while standing in this very shop? Had Juliet flirted with me in between helping customers pick out flowers?
Is this where she’d been when she’d been hacking me? My eyes were still on the laptop when she walked behind the counter, pushing a cart that held my vases of flowers on it. Following my gaze, Blossom looked toward the laptop.
"Don't worry," she said quickly. "I don't slack off at work. That belongs to my employee."
“If you say so,” I muttered, irritated at her for continuing to lie in my face.
I didn't believe her for a second. Something about the way she'd rushed to explain it only made me more suspicious.
“Give me a second to prepare Care Cards with tips on how to care for your flowers,” she told me.
Tell me how to care for you, Blossom.
Those were the kinds of tips I needed. Even so, I remained silent, watching her work. Soon she'd ring me up. Then she'd hand me my flowers and thank me for shopping at Blossoms and Vines.
After that, she'd expect me to leave. I couldn't just leave. Not this time. I needed to do something. Something that made her understand I wasn't her enemy. She didn’t have to fear me. She didn’t have to fear anything when she was with me.
I wanted to let her know that whatever she was facing, she didn't have to face it alone. Showing up at her flower shop day after day wasn't going to accomplish that. Snatching her up and taking her to my beach house was the last resort.
I wanted to try something else first. Maybe if I could get her away from this shop, away from work, and out of work mode, she’d open up more. I drew in a slow breath as she told me my total. I exhaled in a rush.
"Blossom?" I started.
“Will you be paying with cash or credit?” she asked.
Shit. I pulled my card out and handed it to her.
“Blossom,” I tried again, trying to sound like a gentleman, or at least a sane man.
She swiped my card and then looked up from the register.
"Yes?"
"What time does your shop close?" I asked.
She glanced toward the clock on the wall before looking back at me and answering my question.
"Would you..." I cleared my throat, unable to believe I was getting nervous again. "Would you maybe like to go out for a drink when you get off work?"
Silence.
She stared at me as if I’d lost my mind. Then, slowly, she started shaking her head.
"If that's not convenient," I rushed to say. “Maybe we could do lunch tomorrow instead. Or..."
"Mr. Cattaneo."
“Or next week. You pick a day?” I finished.
"Mr. Cattaneo, I can’t go on a date with you.”
“Why? Is it because you think I don’t know who you...”
“It’s because I have a boyfriend,” she said, speaking over me.
For a moment, I forgot how to breathe. A boyfriend? Had she really just said she had a boyfriend? I had to be hearing shit right now. Her words echoed through my head.
I have a boyfriend.
What the fuck did she mean?
I was her fucking boyfriend.
I was the man she'd stayed up talking to for hours. The man she'd stripped naked for. The man she'd touched herself with. The man whose name she’d moaned as she talked dirty to him. I was the one she'd watched anime with.
The man she’d hacked and forced her way into his world. I was the man she’d called her lover, her Romeo. She didn't have a boyfriend. She had me. Only me. So what the fuck did she mean she had a boyfriend? I swiped my hand over my face, trying my best not to lose my head right now.
"You do?" I finally managed through clenched teeth.
She nodded.
"How long have you two been together?" I asked, voice low.
"It'll be two years this Fourth of July."
Two years? Two fucking years! If I clenched my teeth any tighter, my jaw would break. She was lying. She had to be.
“How did you meet this boyfriend?” I asked.
"We met at a mutual friend’s barbecue,” she told me, smiling as she picked up her phone and began swiping her finger over the screen. “See. He’s my screensaver.”
My heart fucking stopped beating in that moment.
Her screensaver?
She’d told me I was her screensaver.
Blossom turned the phone toward me. A picture filled the screen. A picture of my Blossom with a man who wasn’t me. I stared at the photograph. Every muscle in my body was frozen. Even the air in my lungs had turned to ice.
"What... is....his.... name?” I ground out through clenched teeth.
Her smile disappeared. "Why?"
"Name," I repeated, hands balled into fists now.
A small crease settled between her brows as her gaze narrowed on me.
"I don't think that's your business," she replied.
“Everything about you is my business, Blossom Brooks.”
“Mr. Cattaneo, you need to...”
“Where does he live?” I asked, stepping closer to the counter as she pulled her phone away and hid it somewhere behind the register.
She placed the vases on the counter one at a time, then slid my receipt and my bank card to me.
"You have your flowers and your card back." Her voice remained calm. Professional. "Thank you for shopping at Blossoms and Vines."
I stood there, staring at her. She wouldn't even look at me anymore. Her gaze was on something just past my shoulder.
“I’ll ask you one last time,” I told her. “Who is...”
“Please leave my store, Mr. Cattaneo,” she demanded, eyes returning to mine. “In the future, if you need flowers, please visit our website to make your order.”
There was no longer fear in her gaze. There was anger now. What the hell was she mad about? I was the one who was upset, who was hurting. She had no fucking right to look at me that way.
“Please,” she whispered, staring down at the counter. “Please leave my store, Mr. Cattaneo.”
I swallowed, her image swimming before me as my eyes filled with tears. Why did I have to leave? Why did she enter my world in the first fucking place if this was her plan? Why did she make me feel for her if she didn’t want to be a part of my life?
I could’ve gone my whole fucking existence never knowing this type of weakness, this type of pain. She’d forced this on me, and now she wanted me to leave. What gave her the right to pull some shit like this on me?
My heart ached further when a lone tear slid down her cheek. And now she was making me feel like the asshole when all I was trying to do was get closer to the woman who’d approached me first.
Fuck!
I grabbed my card and slid it into my pocket. I then picked up the flowers and turned toward the door. The bell chimed overhead as I walked outside. I didn’t look back. I couldn’t. I barely remembered getting into my car.
The engine roared to life. My tires squealed as I peeled out of the parking lot. I was driving too damn fast, but I didn’t give a damn. My hands tightened around the steering wheel.
A boyfriend?
Bullshit.
Everything inside me rejected those words. The way she'd looked at me earlier, the way she'd reacted to me, the yearning in her eyes, no one who belonged to someone else would do that.
I didn't know who the man in that picture was, but she was going to get that bastard killed with her bullshit. Juliet belonged to me. Blossom Brooks belonged to me. That was the truth of the matter.
No other narrative could exist.
I wouldn’t let it.
Gritting my teeth, I headed straight for my beach house. I was done waiting. Done hoping she'd tell me the truth on her own. I was done pretending this would somehow work itself out.
I was done trying to handle this as a normal man would. It was time to move forward with my plan. When she’d hacked me, she’d placed one foot into my world. That had sealed her fate. There was no getting out now.
It was time to bring Blossom home, where she belonged. I'd keep her there until she finally told me the truth. Until she finally admitted who she was. Until she finally admitted who she belonged to.
As for the man in that picture...
I chuckled, a dark feeling coming over me.
I hoped that wasn’t a relative of hers, or a family friend, because he was as good as dead. And it was all her fault. Once she was settled into the beach house, I would give her his head as a gift to show her that lying to me was never the answer.
This woman owned me, body, heart, and soul. I demanded the same in return. I would never lie to her, and I expected that same level of honesty from her. I would never do anything to break her trust. I expected that same level of respect from her. I would not feel guilty about what came next.
She’d forced her way into my life.
And now, I was going to force her to stay.