Page 99 of Dark Romeo

“You’re going to have to face me at some point, Jules.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. Dear God, if you exist, please let him be gone when I turn around.

I turned around slowly. And opened my eyes.

Roman was still standing there, a grin on his face, his gaze roaming over me. He winked at me when I caught his eye, immune to the daggers I was throwing at him. How was it fair that a man could be equally gorgeous and infuriating? I wonder if he’d still be smirking if I shot him.

Suddenly I was conscious that I was at the end of a long day. I hadn’t showered. I probably looked like shit. I was scared to smell myself.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing here?” I hissed in a low voice, because I knew that nosy Nora would have her ear glued to the other side of that door.

Roman cleared his throat and nodded at something to my left. One of my other neighbors was opening the door to her apartment, her buggy and three-year-old appearing as the door widened. I hid my gun at my side. This was not a conversation that we could have now. Chances were high that a concerned neighbor might call the cops on us. Wouldn’t it be a fun thing trying to explain why I was arguing with the heir to the blood empire right outside my apartment?

I growled and shoved past Roman, cursing my own body when tingles radiated from where I touched him. I unlocked my apartment and stomped inside. Maybe if I shut the door on him he’d just go away?

He jammed his boot into the doorway with lightning reflexes when I tried. Goddamn it. I glared at him. He smiled serenely at me.

“Get your foot out.”

“Let me come in.”

“Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin.”

His smile turned wolfish. “Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow you until you scream my name.”

My cheeks heated as I got a flash of his face between my thighs. “That’s not how the rhyme goes,” I said through a clenched jaw.

“Let me in, Jules. I promise I won’t bite. Not unless you ask nicely.”

Curse him. He wasn’t about to take his foot from the doorway. I could shoot it. But then I’d have to explain myself. And paperwork. I hated paperwork.

“I just want to talk,” he said. “Five minutes, that’s all I’m asking for.”

Better to get this over with. “You get two.”

“Four.”

“Two.”

“Fine, two.” He shook his head, a small smile on his lips. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it was pride on his face. “You drive a hard bargain.”

Despite my better judgment, I stepped aside and swung the door open. “Get in before I change my mind.”

Roman strode inside my apartment. I locked the door behind him. He stood in my living room as casually as if I’d invited him in for tea. “Your neighbor Nora thinks I’m handsome,” he said, flashing me a smirk. “Do you think I’m handsome?”

“Nora is a sixty-something year old senior with bad eyesight.”

Roman laughed. “I notice you didn’t deny that you thought I was handsome.”

Arrogant bastard. “As handsome as you are infuriating.”

His grin widened. “And we all know how infuriating you find me.”

I rolled my eyes. “One minute and forty-five seconds left. What the hell do you want, Roman?”

“Would you believe me if…” There was suddenly a softness to his voice. It seemed out of place with the rest of him. “If I told you I just wanted to see you again?”

I blinked. “Why would you want that?”

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