To Share You (manxman)

Chapter 21

For the best part of an hour I just toss and turn, never able to lie still for more than a couple of minutes. Then, my phone vibrates and I reluctantly answer it with an annoyed grunt.

'Imagine me throwing stones at your window, but don't open it to find out why, just get dressed and come downstairs, Romeo is waiting for you, Juliette.' I hear Raph's amused voice through the phone.

It takes me all of two minutes to actually move and another five to be dressed and actually rush downstairs as fast as I can.

He stands there, in his suit from earlier, looking immaculate as he did during his performance and he's holding a single red rose in his hand.

'Hey gorgeous.' he says, taking slow steps towards me. It's very reminiscent of how his wolf moves and it makes my heart speed up just a bit.

'I'm not sure whether I should call this super romantic or completely embarrassing for both of us, but mainly you?' I say once he's close enough to touch.

My hand unconsciously reaches out, but he stops me by holding up his own.

'First, I have brought you this.' and he actually holds out the rose to me.

I'm speechless for a second, then blink a few times and then actually take it.

'Thank you.' I say and I mean, but I simply turn around and stick it in the earth of the little flower garden mum has in front of the house because there's something a lot more important than that rose right now. So I walk back to him, grab his face and just kiss him. His arms sneak around me as I do and he pulls me even closer to himself.

Soon, I lean back a bit so I can breathe, keeping my eyes locked on him.

'To answer your question.' he eventually whispers, 'call it romantic. Anything else will make this even more mortifying than it already is. Also, don't throw away that rose so carelessly, got it especially for you.'

'I didn't throw it away. I'm gonna take it with me when we get back, but I really just wanted to kiss you. Is that bad?' I ask back, looking at him with what I hope to be puppy eyes. Apparently it works, because he's back to kissing me in a heartbeat.

By the time we actually make it to his car we're both out of breath and have swollen lips, but it was definitely worth it.

'I'm sorry' he suddenly says once we've made it out of town. I don't know where we're going since it's already the middle of the night, but I'm not too bothered by that yet.

'What for? Even though all of this was a bit over the top, it's actually quite cute.' I nudge his hand that is holding mine and thread our fingers together.

'That's not what I meant. I know you were hurting after the concert. I wanted so bad to go up to you and kiss you and I couldn't. I'm sorry for that.'

I know exactly how he feels. It's painful and it feels unfair.

'You played for me though, didn't you?' I ask, pulling his hand to my lips for a simple kiss.

'Of course I played for you.' is his immediate response. I'm so tempted to just lean over and kiss him properly, but I refrain from doing so only because he's driving.

When he finally does stop, I take a look around but don't recognise anything. We seem to be in a parking lot of some sort. I look over to him and note the frown on his face.

'Looks closed.' he mumbles, 'We'll try another one then.'

Unfortunately, we don't have any luck at all with every place we find.