Page 23 of Made For Romeo
My stomach is sore, my chest tight, and my hands itch to touch her. What I wouldn’t give for one more fucking moment with her. “I told you, I’m not leaving.”
She folds her arms over her chest. “What about your movie?”
“What about it?” I reply, and my hand moves before I can stop it as it twirls around one of the loose hairs that are not pinned in the back. “It means nothing without you.” I take another step forward, and I’m so close I can feel her breath on me. “I’m nothing without you.” I know that I should take it slow. I know everything has to be on her terms. That is what I was told. I know all of this. My head knows all of this, but my heart, my heart just wants her to know I love her. “I’ve been nothing without you,” I whisper right before I move my head and my lips find hers. For the first time since she walked out on me, I feel my heart start up again.
FIFTEEN
GABRIELLA
My heart is beating so fast in my chest and I’m trying to pretend I don’t care, but it is all a lie. My head screams at me, he broke you while my heart says, he can put you back together again. Every single day since he’s come back has been my own private torture. On one hand, I should be happy he’s back, begging, so I can finally tell him to go to hell, while on the other hand, I realize I miss him.
“What about it?” he replies as his hand comes up, and I stop breathing as I watch his finger touch my hair. “It means nothing without you.” He takes another step closer to me and my first reaction is to step back, but my feet feel like they weigh a hundred pounds. “I’m nothing without you.” His eyes meet mine, and no matter how many times I pretend that his words mean nothing, the next words go straight to my heart. “I’ve been nothing without you,” he says them in a whisper, and I can feel his breath on my face. My stomach flutters, and I want to say his name, but his name gets stuck in my throat, and then I don’t say anything because his lips are on mine. It’s as if an electric shock just went through me, and my heart started again. My hand comes up to cup his face, my fingertips tingling when I feel his soft scruff. He kisses me softly. Then he turns his head to the side, coming back to kiss me again, but this time his tongue slides into my mouth. My eyes flicker closed the minute it happens. My hand slides down from his face to his neck and then to his chest. Stopping in the middle of his chest, I feel his heart beating just as fast as mine. He wraps one hand around my waist, pulling me into him as the hand that was holding my hair is now holding my cheek in his palm. Our tongues go around and around in circles, and it feels like home. It’s been over eight months since I last kissed him, yet it feels like I just kissed him this morning.
The sounds of clicking heels make me snap out of the daydream that is his kiss, as I step away from him and his touch. His hand that was on my face falls to his side. “Gabriella,” he says my name, but I hold up my hand because I don’t need to hear him speak right now.
“Right now, at this minute,” I say, trying to get my breathing under control and think, “I just need a minute.” He just nods at me as he watches me. Internally, I’m telling myself it’s fine. We’ve kissed before. I’m also secretly telling myself that maybe it will always be him. “That was a mistake.” I point where we shared a kiss as I look over his shoulder to make sure no one saw us or is coming this way.
“The only mistake I’ve ever made in my life was to take you and what we had for granted.” He says the words that my heart has secretly wanted to hear.
“Romeo,” I say his name, and I don’t know if I’m pleading with him to kiss me again or pleading with him to leave me alone.
“Gabriella,” he says my name but never moves from the spot in front of me. “This may not have been our first kiss.” He points at the spot where we kissed. “But it’s the first kiss that matters.” Holy. Fucking. Shit. My head screams out and sighs. “I know you think we said everything we needed to say, but we haven’t.”
My head is spinning around and around. “I don’t even,” I start to say, “this is…” I try to come up with the words to say, but everything feels as if it’s jumbled together. It took one touch from him and I’m right back in it.
“Come home with me,” he urges, and I shake my head.
“I need some time,” I say honestly. I need some time to think. I need some time to breathe. I need some time to just think about what the fuck just happened. How did I go from hating him and loathing the sight of him to my stomach fluttering when I look at him? When I saw him on the red carpet, I was shocked and surprised, and then my whole body was like good, he’s here. Like this week didn’t happen. Like he didn’t walk out of my house, leaving me with the memories of what broke us without a second thought. Like this whole week I wasn’t asking myself if he actually left or is he just here. Like this whole week, I didn’t fucking replay everything we’ve done together while secretly yelling at myself.
He closes the gap that is between us. “Hear me say these words, Gabriella.” His hands grip my hips. “I’ll give you this time because you asked for it, and also because my therapist says I need to listen to you.” His therapist, what the hell is that all about? “But know that I’m not going anywhere.” He bends to kiss my lips softly before he turns around and walks away from me.
He looks at me before he walks back out of the doors and into the party. Only when I hear the click of the door behind him do I let go of a sigh. I put my hands on my head, hoping it’ll calm my nerves, but it doesn’t. Looking around, I spot a door that says restroom, so I walk over to it and push open the white door, seeing that it’s a lone bathroom. I close the door and lock it behind me. Making my way over to the sink, I turn on the cold water. I avoid looking at myself in the mirror until I’ve wet my hands and hold them to my cheeks.
My eyes stare at myself, and I can see my cheeks are pink, my eyes seem to be crystal clear. Clearer than they were when I walked in here. I close them, and all I can do is feel his lips on mine. Opening my eyes, my hands go straight to my lips as I touch them. “He cheated on you,” I remind my reflection, “you can’t forget that.” I stare at myself. “Or can you?” I shake my head. “What is to say he won’t do it again?” My head answers without thinking twice, “What if he doesn’t?”
I turn off the water and grab the hand towel to dry my hands. Opening the door and stepping out, I walk back down the corridor and out of the bathroom door. The sound of music fills the room, and I look around, seeing Romeo is right in front of the door. “I was just making sure you were okay,” he says with his hands in his pockets, and I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear.
“Thank you,” I reply softly and look up when I see Matty coming toward us.
“Your father is looking for you,” he informs me and then looks at Romeo. “I said I would find you so they would stop asking me questions about Sofia.”
“Who is Sofia?” Romeo asks, and he smirks before he breaks out into a huge smile, his eyes twinkling.
“A girl from school,” he explains and I just look at him., raising my eyebrows at him.
“You should have brought her.” I push his shoulder, joking with him. Knowing full well that before anyone introduces their girlfriend or boyfriend, it’s a sure thing. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who wasn’t with my cousins before. It was like, this is my boyfriend and I will be with him forever.
“Her family is just as big as ours,” he tells me and my eyes go big as saucers. “Her father is in tech, I think, and her family owns a couple of ranches.” He shrugs. “Anyway, can you go and tell your father you are alive and no one kidnapped you to sell you to an oil sheik who lives in Dubai.”
I can’t help but laugh. “When will they realize that Taken was just a movie?” I ask as Romeo just laughs. “Excuse me,” I say, taking one more look at him before walking to meet my father.
“There you are,” he greets me as if I was just found.
“I was in the bathroom,” I tell him, and his eyebrows pinch together as if he knows I wasn’t. “What is it?”
“Nothing.” He puts his arm around my shoulder and brings me to him, kissing my temple. “I just missed you.”
I wrap my arms around his waist as we listen to some story that someone is telling, the whole time trying not to look around the room and see if I see him. My eyes always find him chatting with someone from my family. It feels so weird that he’s here, meeting my family members and I didn’t bring him. I’m trying to focus on the conversation that is going on in front of me. Still, one ear is trying to listen if anyone brings him up, and the other part of me is making sure he’s okay.