“I take it you’re the wild animal in this scenario?”
He pursed his lips, the small, angry welt from his mother’s backhand standing proud on the tender flesh. “Oh, you have no idea… I’m legitimately feral.”
Towering over me, Romeo moved to lay above my limp body, losing his veil of darkness and letting in the light.
I brought him to my lips with gentle hand on his nape, and his body heat instantly warmed me. Freeing his hand from our embrace, Romeo reached up and took the cream patchwork throw quilt from the back cushion, laying it over us both, bundling me in his arms as I traced his Alabama tattoo with my fingernail.
“Are you okay, baby?” I asked quietly.
Hard muscles tensed for a fleeting moment before he croaked, “I will be. I have you.”
I rested my chin on his chest, meeting his dark eyes, noticing the sadness leaking through. “You chose me.”
The sadness melted into happiness, a contented smile on his lips. “And I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
I blushed. “Have your parents ever been nice to you?”
He shook his head and tipped his chin to stare at the ceiling, fighting the difficult memories, I was sure. I reached up and took his hand in mine. It always worked when he did it to me. He rolled his head to the side and cast a broken grin my way.
“Were you ever happy?”
Shaking his head, he whispered, “No.”
“Are you now?”
“Completely. I finally know what it is to love and to be loved. But I’m scared as all hell that it’ll end. My folks won’t give up that easy.”
“I’m staying with you.”
“Do you swear that to me?”
“I swear. I love you. I’m yours.”
Romeo brought my hand to his mouth and kissed every digit.
“So what now? Football? Greatness? World domination?”
He shrugged. “I guess so.”
“What do you want, Romeo? What do you desire most from life?”
“You.”
“No really, baby, what do you want? It’s there for you to take.”
He sighed, lowering his gaze. “Just you, baby. You feel like home to me.”
I crawled on his waist, tucking my head against his neck. “You have me. All of me, for as long as you want.”
“Really? I’ve got you forever? ‘Cause I pretty much just cut myself off from the only family I have.”
“Romeo, you’re my family. You’re it. You and my crazy friends are my entire reason for being. How can you not know that?”
“‘Cause I can’t believe it’s true.”
“It’s you and me, Romeo.”
Tensing, he asked, “But what’ll happen when I get drafted? What if you go to a college across the country? Or even outside the States? You never talk about your future with me and I worry about it all the damn time. Now I have you, I can’t imagine lettin’ you go.”
I kissed his lips, running my tongue through the small gap to meet his. “We’ll figure it out as we go.”
Truth was, I hadn’t thought that far ahead myself.
Rome’s hips lifted, his hardness towing languorously between my legs. “Mmm… Okay, we’ll make things work no matter what.”
“Romeo.”
“You’re stayin’ with me in here tonight, in front of the fire.”
“What is this place anyway?”
“The old slave house.”
My eyes widened. “The what???”
He huffed out a laugh. “Relax, baby. It’s been refurbished since then, or at least cleaned up some. I stayed out here a lot when things got bad back home. My parents never came by. It’s kinda my real home in a way.”
Romeo’s hips rocked harder and my stomach muscles tightened. “Then yes, I’ll stay the night.” I pressed his arms flat onto the couch. “Can I lead? Just this once?”
He shook his head slowly, controlling Romeo coming back out to play. “No. But nice try, Shakespeare.”
Suddenly I was rolled over, Romeo’s heavy weight pressing down on my naked body, causing me to yelp. With a playful bite on my ear, I was braced on my knees. “Don’t worry, baby, I’ll take care of you.”
19
Three months later…
“So we leave for Oxford on the Friday and you have the option to stay for either one week or two. We present on the Tuesday and then we need to edit, draft, and finish all that fun stuff before we submit it for publishing, if it’s approved—fingers crossed!