Page 24 of The Hitman's Rose

Chapter Twelve

Ademaro

Neither of us knew what we were doing but cooking with Rosaline was a lot of fun. We shared quite a few laughs as we searched the internet for meal ideas. We finally decided on spaghetti which we both thought was foolproof.

“Oh, no. Surely it isn’t bad,” she gasps, bringing me back to reality where I have a mouthful of spaghetti. Rosaline lifts her fork to her mouth and I quickly grab her hand. I can’t shake my head fast enough to warn her. “It can’t be that gross? Can it?”

“Rosaline,” I say, swallowing the bite and grimacing. “Do not eat that.”

“But we followed the recipe,” she pouts.

“I’ll order us pizza or something.”

“I have to at least try it.” She looks down at her plate.

“I’ll buy you edible food.That,” I point at the spaghetti, “that is not suitable for you. You deserve delicious food. Not…that.”

“It can’t be that bad,” she giggles, taking a bite.

Her face turns to one of disgust. I fight hard to not bust out laughing. She looks like a little kid and at any moment she’s going to spit her food all over the table.

“How does it taste?” I smirk. She glares up at me and swallows the bite.

“Tastes like I’d rather starve,” she laughs. “That is freaking awful.”

“The worse,” I join in on the laughter.

“We need some serious cooking lessons.”

“We should do a cooking class for our next date,” I tease. She stops laughing and I instantly regret my words. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to assume that you’d give me another date.”

“Don’t apologize.” Her cheeks redden and she giggles softly. “I was thinking the same thing earlier.”

“Same thing?”

“I was thinking about how when you get back from Poland… maybe we could go to cooking classes together or something. But I didn’t want to seem clingy so I wasn’t going to suggest it,” she admits faintly.

“Not clingy at all. I’d definitely like to get together, when I get back,” I shake my head. “With Giovanni’s permission of course.”

“Of course,” she laughs.

“Let’s order some real food then we can figure out all of the other details.”

***

"Was this my idea or yours?" Rosaline asks, stepping into the backyard.

It’s dark out with only the lights in the pool on; however, I can hear her shivering and I can see that she has her towel wrapped around her like a blanket.

"Yours," I remind her, standing up from the lounge chair. "But we can pretend it was mind."

"Holy shit! You're built," she gasps.

She can see me?I look down at my bare chest then at her and I shrug.

"Not really."

It’s the truth. I don’t hit the gym as much as I’d like to. I’m always on the road so I do a lot of push-ups and sit-ups. When I’m at the Tacchelli compound, I run the perimeter.

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