Page 36 of Under His Watch

After the night that he woke me up with a kiss and broke me out of that nightmare, he went back to being distant and busy. I couldn’t say for certain that he was going out of his way to put distance between us, but that was what it felt like.

He was attentive and caring, considerate and generous. But he acted like that in such a way that made me think I was once again a burden, a responsibility and burden among all the others that he had weighing on his shoulders.

I don’t want to be an obligation.I watched him from afar, seated on a loveseat built into a bay window. He paced back and forth in the other room, talking to Franco. Or maybe it was Dante. Andy. George? I lost track, and I doubted it mattered.

All I knew for a fact was that Romeo wasn’t talking tome.

For a week, we lasted in this waiting game. I seemed to be the only one wondering when something would happen between us. And I was left waiting because even though I sometimes felt like Romeo was watching me and always keeping tabs on me, he didn’t make eye contact much. He didn’t initiate anything romantic or intimate, either.

Which is probably my fault.

I’d blurted out too much of an uncensored truth, that I could fall head-over-heels for him with how well he tended to me. It was true, but also not. I was aware that having sex with him had been an excuse to avoid my past. I’d sought him out that night of the rainstorm because he was right there, warm and caring, a convenient placeholder. It was a rebound, no doubt about it.

When I considered it in that light, I hated myself a little more forusinghim. I used Romeo for sex, and that somehow cheapened it all. Of course, he’d wanted it too. He got off as well. But I disliked the notion that it only happened because of something else.

Besides, this is not the time for trying to hook up with a man.It wasn’t. No matter how deeply I grew attached to Romeo and how quickly I imprinted myself on him because he’d saved me like a grand hero that night, it wasn’t smart to rush into anything. Whatever Romeo and I did, it would be too close in time to the horrors I'd experienced. Until I could feel completely recovered and whole after that trauma, whatever we started—if anything—would always be tainted aspost-rape.

Stop moping around.I sighed, restless and antsy without anything to do. This sudden freedom from my parents and my employment still felt weird. Like Ishouldbe doing something or else I would be lazy.

But I’d already cleaned everything. I reorganized the kitchen and scrubbed the bathroom. I wasn’t sure what else I could tidy up, and reading didn’t hold my interest.

If this is what the life of a kept, spoiled woman is like, I do not want to sign up. I?—

Knocks sounded at the door, pulling me from my musings. Instead of looking out the window at the start of the leaves changing colors as autumn came closer, I watched Romeo walk across the room to open the door. He must have been expecting visitors because he seemed at ease and calm.

As he pulled the door wider open, Nina entered with another woman.

“Hey!” I jumped up and rushed to greet her, surprised but happy to see her. Since getting the replacement phone and learning that my mom must have manipulated something in our family account, something to prevent me from reaching out to my bestie, I chatted with Nina daily.

“I didn’t know you were coming by,” I told her as I furrowed my brow at the bags she handed over. Dante was super particular about her safety, and that was the reason she hadn’t visited yet, but something must have changed to permit her being here now.

“Dante wanted to talk with Romeo and Franco in person.” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder, indicating the front door that Romeo strode through as he disconnected his call.

“We’ll be right outside,” he promised before he exited.

I nodded, grateful for the security.

“So this is who’s making Romeo a changed man?” the brunette asked, almost with enough snark to sound mean, yet not.Whoever she was, she sure was curious. But she was off the mark about assuming I was changing anything about him.

“Tess, this is Eva, Romeo’s cousin. Eva, this is my best friend, Tessa West.”

Eva looked me over, from my bare feet to the top of my blonde bob. A twist of her lips was all the judgment she gave me, but I didn’t know whether I passed or failed. I lifted my hand in a small wave. “Hi.”

“Yeah.” Eva huffed, handing over a bag. “I’m guessing you’ll like what Nina brought. Not the things in these bags.”

I peered through them all, seeing that they’d brought more clothes. If not for them, I wouldn’t have had anything. “Wow. Thanks, girls.”

“Well, these too,” Eva added as she pulled a strip of something out of the bag in my left hand. Condoms.

My cheeks heated so fast, and I laughed. “Oh, wow.”

“Eva!” Nina rolled her eyes and shoved them back into the bag. “Don’t pressure her.”

“I’m not.” Eva crossed her arms. “But I can insinuate.” Something almost like a smile crossed her face, and I wondered why Romeo’s getting some mattered to her.

“Well, that deed was already done,” I admitted, surprisingly not shy about confessing it. Nina was my best friend, so I had no issues being so upfront around her. Eva seemed a little cool, but I didn’t care.

“Already?” Nina laughed and headed toward the couch. “How? When? Why?”

---