Chapter 331: Why are you here

KATYA POV

“My room?”

Romeo gestured lightly behind him.

“Or yours?”

His hand shifted toward the room I was currently standing in. I blinked.

Right. He’d just asked me to choose. For some reason, that felt like a much bigger decision than it probably should’ve been.

My eyes instinctively wandered past him.

Only for a second.

The glimpse I caught of his room was frustratingly limited. Dark wood. A large bed somewhere farther inside. A bookshelf against one wall. Everything neat. Everything quiet.

It looked… Nothing like I’d imagined. Which somehow only made me more curious.

What did Romeo Salvatore’s room actually look like here? Did it resemble his room back at his large mansion?

Was it cold? Empty? Did it have family photographs? Anything?

I’d never wondered before. Now I suddenly wanted to know.

Unfortunately… To satisfy that curiosity, I’d have to step past him. Past the shirtless man currently occupying the doorway.

No. Absolutely not. I could barely think while he was standing this close. Walking into his bedroom sounded like voluntarily handing my already-fragile composure over to him.

Besides… My room was familiar. Safe. At least compared to his. Ever since telling Chiara, Give me a moment, my nerves had been spiraling completely out of control.

I’d spent the few minutes convincing myself not to turn around. Not to chicken out. Not to pretend I’d forgotten why I’d come.

Changing locations now would only make everything worse.

“…My room.” His expression didn’t change. Not disappointment. Not approval.

Nothing. For goodness sake, for one’s I would love to know what’s going on his head. He simply inclined his head once.

“As you wish.” Then he stepped aside slightly, one hand making the smallest gesture toward the deeper part behind me.

After you. For reasons I couldn’t explain, that somehow made me even more nervous. I turned before I could overthink it.

The familiar sight of my own bedroom immediately settled some of the frantic beating inside my chest.

Barely. But enough. I walked back inside at a measured pace, trying very hard not to think about the fact that Romeo was directly behind me.

The bed remained neatly made. I walked farther inside until I reached the foot of my bed before finally stopping.

Behind me…

Silence. I assumed Romeo had returned to his room. To put on a shirt. Honestly, I expected him to.

Who had serious conversations shirtless?

Apparently… Romeo Salvatore. I turned around. My words caught somewhere between my lungs and my throat. He hadn’t gone back, at all.

Instead, he’d quietly closed the hidden door behind him with a soft click before continuing farther into my room.

Still shirtless. Still entirely unconcerned about the fact. My brain immediately refused to cooperate.

He wasn’t embarrassed. Wasn’t flustered.

Didn’t even seem aware that walking around half-dressed in someone else’s bedroom might be considered unusual.

Or perhaps… He simply didn’t care. That seemed considerably more likely. My eyes darted upward before they could accidentally linger anywhere they absolutely shouldn’t.

His face. Look at his face. I told myself, looking at his masked face. That was a perfectly normal place to look.

Except… That wasn’t particularly helping either. He looked completely at ease. Like entering my bedroom like this happened every day.

Technically… He did walk through here often because of the connecting door.

Still. This felt different. This wasn’t passing through. This was staying.

He stopped a comfortable distance away. Not too close. Not across the room either. Just… Close enough for conversation.

Neither of us spoke.

The silence settled over us almost immediately.

Oh no.

Not this again.

I’d come here specifically to talk. Actually talk. Yet somehow we’d managed to recreate the exact awkward silence I’d been trying to avoid.

Fantastic. I stared at him. He stared back. Neither of us moved. The seconds stretched longer.

Painfully longer.

My confidence, which had taken nearly fifteen minutes to build outside his door, began quietly packing its bags.

Say something. Anything. You literally came here for this. I opened my mouth. “Why are you truly here.”

I instantly regretted it. The words had barely left my mouth before I wanted to snatch them back.

Really, Katya? That was what you’d decided to start with?

Not… Why didn’t you say anything to the police?

Or… Why weren’t they questioning you?

Or even… What’s going to happen tomorrow?

No. Instead, the very first thing I’d asked was ‘Why are you truly here?’ I closed my mouth, mentally cringing so hard I was fairly certain my soul had just folded in on itself.

Why had that been the question buried beneath everything else? Why had that been the one to escape first?

Because… It was the one that had been bothering me the most. Long before the police. Long before any of this.

Six months ago, I’d truly believed I’d escaped him.

Not escaped in the dramatic sense. Just left him behind. I’d left with Nonna to Italy.

Our lives had finally separated. Or so I’d thought.

I’d spent months convincing myself that whatever destructive chapter Romeo Salvatore had represented in my life… It was over.

Finished. Then he’d appeared again.

Here. In Italy. In his own family’s villa. The very country I’d believed would become mine and never truly be his. Chiara had told me enough over his stay here to piece together the rest.

Romeo had left Italy as a teenager. After that… He never came back.

Not once. According to Chiara, everyone simply accepted it eventually. If Nonna wanted to see her grandson…

She flew to the country his staying Romeo never returned here.

Ever.

Until now. Why? Why now? What had changed after all these years?

And… Why had it happened at the exact same time my life had somehow become tangled with his again?

The coincidence felt almost too perfect.

Across from me, Romeo didn’t answer immediately.

He simply regarded me.

His expression remained infuriatingly unreadable, as though I’d asked him what time dinner was instead of something far more personal.