Page 64 of Dark Romeo

Someone was in my apartment.

JULIANNA

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My training kicked in. I slammed my back up against the front door and grabbed for my gun, my veins flooding with adrenaline.

A firm hand on my forearm stopped me. “Relax, Jules.” I heard Roman’s voice. A strange sense of relief washed over me.

It took me a second for my mind to catch up. Roman Tyrell had broken into my apartment. I should not be feeling relief. In the dim moonlight streaming in through my living room windows, I could see his wide frame taking up almost my entire vision. Where he was touching me, felt like it was burning.

I found my voice. “Let go of me.”

“Only if you promise not to shoot me,” he said, his tone light.

“I’m not promising anything.” I could smell his familiar masculine cologne of wood and citrus. I hated that I wanted to press my nose into his chest and fist my hands into his shirt. He was a criminal for God sakes.

He chuckled softly into the dark, the noise sending shivers down my spine. “I guess I’ll have to take a chance that I’ll survive you.”

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

He let go of me but he didn’t step back, leaving me no room to breathe. I was suddenly all too aware that I was standing alone in the dark with Roman Tyrell. My nerve ends felt electrified, as if we were two live wires that would spark if we got any closer. I couldn’t be in the dark with him. It was too intimate. Too intense.

I reached out to the side and flicked on the closest light switch. It turned on the living room light, which fell partly into the entryway through the kitchen. Now his handsome features were bathed in light and shadows. Dear God, he was beautiful. And too close. Much too close.

I sank back against the door and realized too late that I had cornered myself. “What are you doing in my apartment?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.

He stared at me with those intense eyes of midnight fire. “We need to talk.”

No, we needed to stay as far away from each other as possible. I swallowed. “How do you even know where I live?”

His perfect lips twitched. “I’m a Tyrell. I have…resources.”

Don’t forget that this man is a Tyrell. He is dangerous. I should be terrified that he’d found out where I lived and broke into my apartment. For some reason, I wasn’t.

I thought back to my lock. I hadn’t noticed any pick marks. I couldn’t imagine Roman Tyrell bothering to pick a lock. He’d more likely kick the door down. “How did you get in? This is a secure building.”

He frowned. “You should get an alarm system. You never know who might be lying in wait for you in your apartment. It’s not safe.”

I snorted. “This coming from you. You never answered me; how did you get in?”

“You left your bedroom window unlocked.”

I blinked at him. “You scaled my building?”

He shrugged. “There’s a fire escape out there. It wasn’t hard to jump from the fire escape to your window.”

I ran my mind over the structure of the side of the building, of the fire escape and my window. I gasped. “You idiot. You could’ve been killed.”

“So you do care about me,” he said, his voice softened.

I glared at him. “I don’t care about you. I care about how the hell I would explain the body of Roman Tyrell splattered all over my sidewalk. Never mind the paperwork.”

He grabbed his chest as if I shot him through the heart. “Ouch. You really know how to wound a guy.”

“What the fuck happened at the interview?” I hissed at him. “Was that your idea of a joke?”

“I was as surprised as you were.”

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