Chapter 32
SAMMIE
I was currently sitting in Romeo’s car on the way to lunch at one of his favourite restaurants.
Actually, ‘floating’ was a better description than ‘sitting’ because I was still on a high from our epic sex sesh yesterday.
Romeo was even more talented than I’d imagined. Those hands, that mouth and his dick… wow. He was easily the best I’d ever had.
After we’d fucked on the pottery table, we’d said that we should clean up and get back to making the bowl. But one thing led to another and before I knew it, we were at it again.
By that point, the clay was everywhere. In my hair, over my breasts, thighs… I even had an imprint of Romeo’s palms on my arse.
He was covered in clay too, because after I’d slid on a fresh condom, I thought it’d be fun to put more on my hands so I could also leave my mark all over his gorgeous body.
Romeo was about to make good on his promise to make me come with his tongue, but then his friend had messaged to say he was on his way, so it was a race against time to get the studio cleaned up and scrub as much of the clay off in the bathroom as possible before he got there.
Once we’d finished making the bowl, Romeo had dropped me back in town and I waited in his car until my driver arrived.
When we said goodbye, he’d given me a long, slow kiss and the temptation to invite him back to my villa was strong. But we were already playing with fire. It was best if we just stuck with seeing each other outside of the hotel grounds.
‘Did you sleep well?’ Romeo asked now.
‘Like a baby,’ I said, tapping my feet to an Italian pop song that was playing on the radio.
‘You know I’m already a fan of the mattress at the hotel, but when you add in a couple of epic sex workouts, there was no way I wasn’t gonna conk out as soon as my head hit the pillow.
’ I grinned as a flashback of Romeo sliding in and out of me popped into my head for the hundredth time today. ‘How about you?’
‘I also slept very well.’ He flashed a cheeky smile and I got the feeling he was having illicit flashbacks too.
‘Yesterday afternoon definitely blew away the cobwebs,’ I cackled.
‘Cobwebs?’ He frowned. ‘Where did you see cobwebs?’
‘Not literal cobwebs,’ I laughed. ‘I just meant, it’s been a while for me, y’know?’ Then again, of course he didn’t know. This guy probably had a phone full of fuckbuddies ready to spread their legs for him whenever he wanted.
Which was exactly why I needed to stop thinking about yesterday.
We were attracted to each other. We slept together to get it out of our systems and now that we had, that was that. He was just being kind by taking me out today so that I wasn’t sitting at the hotel on my own. End of.
‘Here we are.’ Romeo pulled over in a car park.
Wow. It was a restaurant right by the sea with huge windows giving uninterrupted views.
The waiter showed us to a table and once we’d ordered, I took a sip of the wine that Romeo had recommended.
‘You were talking about Biscotti and your mum before,’ I said. ‘Are you close to all of your family?’
‘Most of them. My mother especially. Although she has lived here for over thirty years, I still think she finds it difficult being away from her family and friends in England. It was easier when we were all living at home, but now with me always working at the hotel, my brother in London and my sister in Rome, she gets lonely. I know she misses us a lot.’
‘I can imagine,’ I said, tearing off a piece of bread then popping it in my mouth.
‘Do you have siblings?’
‘Yeah – a younger sister. She drives me up the wall, but I love her really,’ I said. ‘And how about your dad?’
Romeo’s face turned to stone.
‘We do not get along,’ he said bluntly.
‘Oh no, why?’ I blurted out, then realised I was being too nosy. ‘Sorry, it’s none of my business.’
‘It is okay. I do not like how he treats my mother. He is disrespectful. He has cheated on her many times. Last time she went to London, she came back to find two women in the house with him, so instead of divorcing him, she thinks the solution is never to leave him home alone again.’ Romeo shook his head.
‘That’s terrible.’
‘It is. She gave up her career in London to come here and focus on raising the family. He never wanted her to work, but I know that she did. Now that we are all grown, this is her chance to reclaim her life. I have told her so many times that she should divorce him and return to England, but she will not. She is very loyal. Too loyal. He does not deserve her.’
‘I’m so sorry to hear that. If my dad ever cheated, Mum would chop his cock off.’
‘I would not blame her. It is a betrayal of the highest kind.’ His face tightened again.
‘Yep.’ My stomach clenched as I thought about the times it’d happened to me.
‘Mamma stays because I know that she will feel embarrassed to leave. From what I heard from her sister, many people told her that leaving to go to live in Italy with him was a mistake. And for so long I think she painted the picture of having a perfect life here, the handsome boyfriend, sunshine, sea… it all must have sounded so glamorous. So if she returned, I think she is afraid to look like a failure and have everyone tell her that they knew it would not work, so it is easier to stay.’
‘Yeah. I guess it’s harder to leave the older you get and if she’s been keeping up appearances for so long, it’s probably terrifying to tell everyone she’s been living a lie. But if her family and friends love her, they’d understand and welcome her back with open arms.’
‘Exactly.’
‘And if they haven’t been happy for a while and she’s wasting her life, it’s better to make the break now before she wastes any more of her life, right?’
‘This is what I have been telling her. She does not know this but I have set up a bank account for her, so that when she is ready to leave him and return to England she will have money for a fresh start.’
‘Wow.’ My eyes popped. ‘That’s so sweet of you.’
‘It is nothing compared to all that she has done for me and my siblings. I just want her to be happy and I know she will be happier if she is back in England. She did take us there for a while when we were younger, but my father sweet-talked her. He said if they got divorced it would bring shame and bad luck on the family, so she brought us back. In the end she decided it was easier to stay than leave.’
‘Were they ever in love?’
‘It is hard to say. From what I could tell, my parents were a terrible match. It was all based on lust. She was flattered that a model was interested in her and loved his accent. And he loved being able to say that he had a beautiful girl from London worshipping him. She boosted his ego and he liked that. That wasn’t the basis for a marriage. ’
‘Your dad was a model?’
‘ Sì . For many years. He met Mamma when he was modelling in London. According to my English aunt, he promised Mamma the world, so she left her teaching job and moved to Italy to be with him which was a mistake because he was always travelling. By the time she realised that he was a ladies’ man, she was already pregnant with me and so she committed to staying here to raise me.
They got married but he never changed. I still remember the arguments. ’ Romeo winced.
‘I’m sorry.’ I rested my hand on his and gave it a squeeze, trying to ignore the electricity shooting through me. Romeo was opening up to me, so now wasn’t the time to think about how good it felt.
‘And when his work started to dry up, he made me do modelling instead, so he could live the experience through me.’
‘I didn’t realise you were a model!’ My eyes popped. I wasn’t surprised, because hello , look at him.
Romeo nodded solemnly.
‘That was the career path he wanted me to follow. He wanted me to be successful and have the money and women like he did.’
‘And you didn’t want that?’
‘In the beginning, I thought it was cool. Even though I hated the way he treated Mamma, he was still my father and he was kind of famous so I looked up to him for that, not the way he treated Mamma, so it felt good that he was proud of me and that I was following in his footsteps. And I will admit, I liked the attention. I was just a kid at the time and at that age it is good to be popular, no?’
‘Yeah,’ I said.
‘But when my skin started to break out, things changed. Some brands would use make-up and retouching, but because I did not fit that mould of perfection any more they did not want me. And that affected me. A lot.’
‘How old were you?’
‘Fourteen or fifteen, I think.’
‘Shit. Dealing with rejection as an adult is tough, but it must’ve been extra shitty at that age.’
‘It was. When I finally got through it, I knew that I did not want to pursue a career based on my appearance. That is why I get frustrated when people judge others, including me, by the way I look. Of course I enjoyed the benefits in my twenties, so that does make me a hypocrite, but now I am old enough to know it does not matter. I am more interested in the beauty of someone’s heart. ’
‘Really, though?’ I cocked my head to the side. ‘You’re seriously saying that any woman, even someone who let’s say was at the back of the queue when God was giving out good looks, has just as much chance of dating you as a supermodel?’
‘Why not?’ He shrugged his shoulders.
‘Bullshit!’ I shook my head. ‘People say that looks aren’t important, but it’s the first thing people see. It’s what first attracts you to someone, right?’
‘That is true, but I can tell you from experience that even if someone who the world considered to be the most beautiful woman in the world was standing in front of me but she had an ugly personality, it would mean nothing.’ That made sense.
I’d dated loads of hot guys who were horrible people and the attraction fell flat.
‘Looks catch your attention, but it is someone’s soul that will keep it. ’
‘So, what did you think when you saw me for the first time?’ I said, then wondered if I really wanted to know the answer.
‘I thought you were very beautiful,’ he said without hesitation.
‘Awww, grazie !’ I blushed. ‘But that proves my point. You judged me by my appearance.’
‘I had not finished.’
‘Uh-oh, that doesn’t sound good!’
‘You are right. I thought that you were beautiful, but when you started talking about jet lag and drinking…’
‘You thought I was a bimbo!’
‘ Bimbo is too harsh. I just thought perhaps you were not someone that I would be interested in. But truthfully, I was not ready to be interested in anyone.’
‘So… considering what happened yesterday, I’m guessing something changed?’
We still hadn’t discussed what it meant (although I was pretty sure it was nothing), so now was the perfect time.
‘I got to know you better. Which is exactly my point. You are beautiful, but that alone was not enough. There always has to be more.’
‘I hear you,’ I nodded. The waiter put our dishes down on the table and I deliberately stayed silent until he’d left before continuing what I wanted to say. ‘Speaking of yesterday…’
Romeo’s phone vibrated loudly. He reached into his pocket then pulled it out.
‘I have to get this. It’s Victoria. Ciao ,’ he answered. ‘ Sì , she seems happy. I will keep checking on her. I know.’
Romeo’s expression turned serious. Soon afterwards, he ended the call.
‘Everything okay?’ I asked.
‘We…’ He paused and dragged his hand down his face. ‘What happened yesterday, it cannot happen again. That was Victoria, asking if I had checked on you and reminding me not to cross any lines.’
‘Do you think she suspects something?’
‘I have no idea, but it is too risky. I cannot make any more mistakes.’
My mouth dropped open.
‘So yesterday was a mistake ?’
‘No.’ He grabbed my hand. ‘I do not regret it. It was incredible. But I cannot sacrifice my dream again.’
‘I know,’ I added, remembering what he’d told me about what happened with his ex.
‘We should eat, while it is hot,’ Romeo said, pulling his hand away, and I knew that the conversation was over.
It was fine though. I knew from the start that it was a one-time thing.
And I was fine with that.
Honestly, I was.
We only hooked up to get it out of our systems, so mission accomplished.
Right?