Page 85 of Old Flame

“No,” I admitted.

“Why?”

Not looking at him made it easier to be honest.

“Because I knew I wouldn’t survive the rejection.”

Rome’s arm’s flexed as he held me. “And why were you so sure that it would be rejection?”

I hesitated. Not wanting to make myself so vulnerable. But if this was a second chance, I wanted it to be free of secrets. I’d lived with that for too long.

“You were the one who wanted someone else. You cheated, and you didn’t apologize. You told me to go live my life and walked away from me.”

I heard his hiss.

“I never wanted someone else. Even then, I closed my fucking eyes and saw you. I had to let you go because I’d hold you back. Mom—” He stopped, and I waited, but he didn’t say more.

I pulled back enough so that I could look up at him.

“You were grieving,” I finished for him. “I realized that with time. That having me around was a reminder of her and it was painful.”

He let out a hard, humorless laugh. “No, Angel Face. You were the only reason I made it through the forty-eight hours following her death without completely falling apart. I needed you to breathe. It wasn’t that. It…it was…Mom told me that if I loved you, I’d let you go. That I would hold you back. I didn’t want to be the reason you didn’t get everything you wanted.”

I stared at him with my mouth agape. Words weren’t coming. Horror, shock, even anguish rolled through me.

I’d lost him because of something Vanna had said?

He dropped his hold on me and stepped back, taking his warmth with him. I didn’t want him to go. He began tugging uphis shirt. As much as I enjoyed his muscular body, this wasn’t exactly the time. But he snatched it over his head. My eyes followed it to see him toss it, and then they swung back to meet his gaze.

“You didn’t notice it this morning. But then again, I had you preoccupied,” he said with a tiny trace of humor in his voice.

I dropped my gaze to see him pointing at the tattoo over his heart.

“The day I walked out of your dorm room, I went to have this done. I had just ripped out my fucking heart, giving you what I thought you needed. I wanted my body marked as yours. Even though I couldn’t have you, I would always be yours.”

The memories of the day I’d drawn that came flooding back to me, bringing with it the happiness I’d felt. The excitement that bubbled up in me every time Rome smiled at me. How I believed I was the luckiest girl in the world. That Rome had chosen me. That he had changed his life, his plans, all to be with me.

I reached out and touched the ink with my fingertips. The artist who had copied my sketch did an excellent job.

The swell of emotion inside me was verging on making it hard for me to breathe. It was taking up all the available room in my chest.

The single phoenix feather frayed on one side, and two birds flew out from it. One an eagle and the other a dove.

When I’d sketched it, I’d thought about the phoenix tattoo he’d had done and wanted to create something that would symbolize the two people who were my world and the life I’d found with them. The feather was from Vanna. She was the phoenix. And from it came the eagle, which represented Rome. His strength and protectiveness. And then the dove represented my love. The love I had for the woman who had saved me. And the all-consuming love for the boy who had become my everything.

To be continued in…

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