Page 19 of Roses are Royal

“Stay with me.”

Blink. Blink. Blink. Stay with him? I know he offered before, but I didn’t think he was actually serious. Plus, he doesn’t have any furniture in the rooms yet, and he’s a client.

“Um, I don’t think that’s a good idea. The motel will be fine for a night until I secure extended lodging.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Rose.”

“Dante.”

Clearly exasperated with my petulant responses, Dante takes a deep breath before responding, “Rose, please stay in one of my guest rooms. You spend most of the day on the property anyway, and it’s not safe at the motel.”

Wow, that was the calmest and most logical response he could have given, and it leaves me little to argue with, considering he knows something happened to my room the last time I stayed there. Luckily, he doesn’t know the extent of the damage and chaos that was left, just that someone broke in.

“Dante, I couldn’t impose. Really, it’s fine.”

“It’s no imposition. I have the space. Consider it a client request if it makes you feel better.”

“For god’s sake, woman! Stay at the man’s house or else I will, and you can stay at my place.” Shirley interrupts our back-and-forth before I can come up with another excuse for why it would be a bad idea, and she even adds a playful wink in Dante’s direction with her last statement.

“Fine.” I drag the word out, glaring at Shirley. “But only for the night, and then I will find someplace else for the remainder of my time up here.”

“Now that that is settled.” Shirley eyes me pointedly before turning toward a satisfied-looking Dante. “Are you staying for dinner, handsome? Can I grab you a menu?”

“No need. I’ll just have what she is having. Hold the iced coffee, though.” Dante returns Shirley’s wink with his own and settles into the seat across from me. First, Shirley goes and gets everything I would need for iced coffee, and now Dante is making jokes? I feel like I’m in the twilight zone or something equally bizarre.

25

DANTE

Step 1: Get Rose to stay in my house—complete. I have a feeling Step 2 is going to be a lot more difficult than Step 1. I’m glad I moved my bed to the guest room upstairs so that Rose will be more comfortable. I’ll have to come up with a reasonable motive for why there is a bed in the guest room all of a sudden, but Rose doesn’t need to know it’s mine. Plus, I haven’t been sleeping much with the additional surveillance needs on Rose, but now that she’ll be under my roof, I can hopefully get in a few hours of sleep tonight, even if it’s on the couch in the basement.

Walking up the stairs with Rose trailing me has my brain quickly shuffling all the reasons a bed would have magically appeared since she left earlier today, but with her proximity and knowing she will be here all night…alone…with me…my mind is conjuring all the possibilities and sleep is not one of them. Fuck, I need a drink if I’m going to get through this.

“Do you need help with your luggage?” I have to break the tension that has been building since the diner. I could tell Rose was uncomfortable accepting my offer to stay, and I need to find a way to put her at ease. Maybe we both need that drink.

“Uh, I’m only going to bring in the essentials since I’m only staying tonight.”

I hold back a growl at her stubbornness. I will just bring her stuff in later tonight when she is asleep anyway, so it’s not worth arguing with her.

“I’ll show you to the guest room, then.”

“I know where the guest room is, Dante.”

This woman continues to try my patience.

“Fine. Do you need anything else from me? I have some work I need to finish.” I don’t have any work to finish other than her, but she doesn’t need to know that.

“Um, not to sound ungrateful for your, uh, hospitality,” she says tentatively, “but, uh, do you have a blanket or something I can use? Since you don’t have beds or furniture yet?”

“There is a bed in the guest room. It has fresh sheets and blankets.”

“What do you mean there is a bed in the guest room? I was just in there earlier today, and it was empty. The deliveries won’t arrive for several days.”

“I thought I mentioned it before, but I had something ordered prior to your arrival for myself, but it was delayed and just delivered, so I put it in the guest room.” That sounds like a reasonable excuse. Let’s just hope she buys it.