Page 28 of Cold

ChapterTen

VITO

PushingRomare away was the hardest thing I’d ever done. He was tempting; all his freckles, curly hair, and creamy skin. The animal in me wanted to lick every inch of his skin until his toes curled and he was crying out my name.

But I needed to keep my distance. My job was to protect Romare, not sleep with him. I picked up my ringing phone from the nightstand and let the real world distract me from thoughts of him.

“Yeah?”

“I’ve got her number,” Riccardo said on the other line. “After Romare went missing, she searched for him, but a couple of years with no results kind of drove her insane. She’s staying with friends in Sicily and one of them had a contact number.”

Romare’s mom. I’d promised him that I would find her. "Aldina Ashford,” I said as I typed her name onto a note. “What’s the number?”

Riccardo rattled off the numbers. “That’s all I have for now.”

“That’s all I need. Thank you.”

“No problem.”

The call ended and I stared at it for a minute. Romare would be happy that I’d found his mother. And maybe he would stop trying to climb into my lap if he had other things to focus on. I dialed the number, and when a woman answered, I asked for Aldina.

“Yes, I have your son,” I repeated for the fiftieth time. “No, this isn’t a ransom. I’m Vito Bianchi. We found him.” Like we should have done years ago. But I knew that wasn’t our fault. Romare was taken right before Vincenzo was killed and all of our attention was forced in that direction. “Would you like to speak with him or not?”

“Where is he?” she begged. “Let me speak to my son.”

I put the phone on mute. “Romare! Come here.”

I’d heard him up a while before, puttering around the apartment doing I had no idea what. When I called his name, rapid footsteps traveled down the hall but slowed right outside my door. He let himself in and peered at me carefully. I took in how good he looked draped in one of my button-down shirts until I shook my head and held out the phone.

“For you,” I said as I held the phone out to him. “Take it to your room.”

Romare pressed the phone to his ear. “Hello?” He whipped around, his eyes the size of saucers as he started rattling off rapid-fire Italian. His eyes watered and he placed a hand over the phone. “Thank you,” he said. “Thank you so much.”

I nodded. “Go talk to her.”

I didn’t need to tell him a second time. Romare turned on his heels and left my room. I waited until I heard his door close and raised a brow. Seeing that expression on his face eased me some. He clearly missed his mother and they had a lot of things to discuss. I didn’t mind, they could take all morning if that made Romare feel better.

Alone once again, I clicked back over to the other site. I pulled up the research I’d been doing the night before and stared at the screen. After searching through different articles, I’d found out what Romare was. A little.

From what I could find, it was someone who regressed to a younger age and liked childish things. That I’d seen first hand. Romare had moments where he acted much younger than his age. And he loved the toy store the other night.

“Must be what he is.”

The more I scrolled through pages, the more I saw that littles had Daddies, Mommies, or caregivers; someone to look after them and protect them. I’d never thought I wanted a family, not with all that responsibility. Not after I’d been turned off of the idea forever. So being paternal had never occurred to me.

But I loved the idea of Romare calling me Daddy.

I conjured up images in my mind of him sitting on my lap, batting those long lashes at me as he rubbed against my cock. Daddy, fuck me. I closed my eyes and tried to shove that thought far away, but it lingered. Reaching down, I adjusted my length through my pants and groaned.

How long had it been since I’d even bothered to get myself off? Most times, I didn’t want to think about sex. Or even want to take the time to jerk off. But ever since Romare had wandered into my life, my libido was supercharged. All I thought about was burying my face between his thighs and watching him cum over and over again.

I shook my head and snapped my laptop shut. He needed help and support. That was something I could offer him while he was still with me, but nothing else. I knew the rules. Don’t mix the job and personal feelings. That was how you got yourself killed.

Romare popped back up eventually and I jumped like I’d just gotten caught doing something I wasn’t supposed to be doing. He blinked at me and I looked right back at him until he walked over and held out my phone.

“How did it go?” I asked.

“Good,” he nodded, a small smile on his face, but he sniffled and wiped at his eyes. “I can’t believe she’s okay.”

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