Page 67 of Dark Romeo

I stiffened. “I am not.”

He leaned his hands on either side of me, trapping me against the door. His nose brushed alongside my neck. “I can smell it rolling off you.”

I gulped at the air, trying to get enough breath into my lungs. My mind was short-circuiting with him so close.

“Why are you jealous, Jules? Tell me.”

I had to make him stop. I could feel my willpower wavering as his heat rolled off him. Any second now I’d give in and lift my mouth to his lips, now running along my cheekbone, causing shivers to cascade through my body.

I shoved him back and he stepped out of my space. “Leave. Now.”

“I’m not done talking.”

“I am.” I snatched my gun from my hip holster and raised it to point at him. “Get out.”

He raised his hands in surrender, his face smoothing out into that mask I’d first seen in the interrogation room. He took a step towards me. I sidestepped around giving him the space he needed, keeping my gun trained on him. I didn’t trust myself without it.

He opened the door and paused in the doorway, turning to face me once more. “Thank you,” he said, his voice hard as steel.

“What for?”

He stared at the barrel of my gun, then up at me.

“For reminding me which side I’m on.”

ROMAN

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I pulled my collar up, keeping my face turned away from the security camera I knew was mounted over the lobby door, as I exited Julianna’s building. I eased down a side street and slunk into the shadows, becoming one with the night.

She had pulled a gun on me. She had pointed the black barrel at my heart and fear flashed across her beautiful face as she yelled at me to “get out”.

She was scared of me.

A surge of rage went through me. I lashed out, kicking a garbage can, causing it to fly across the alley and smash against the slimy brick wall. It exploded, the trash contained within spilling out all over the ground. The stench of rotting fruit reached my nose. I stood, chest heaving, staring at the destruction before me. The destruction I had caused.

Look at me. She was right to be scared. I was a Tyrell, a blackened heart, a thing to be feared. A destroyer of everything he touched. Why did I ever think I could be anything different?

Because she had made me feel like I could be different. Because when she had gazed up at me, her honeyed hair spread across the pillow, her soft body naked and open, she gave me a reason to be different.

Knowing who I was had chased that look away. She was lost to me. The man I could have been was lost to me too.

A door banged open farther up the alleyway, fluorescent light spilling out from the fast food joint. A short fat man stepped out yelling obscenities at me for kicking over his garbage can. I turned towards him and watched fear flash in his eyes. He retreated without another word and slammed the door shut behind him, the lock clicking.

I stood alone in the dark once more.

I had done my duty. I had warned Julianna. I was sure she wouldn’t tell anyone about the night we’d spent together. Now I just had to stay away from her.

JULIANNA

____________

“Thank you.” Roman stared at the barrel of the gun I pointed at him, then up at me. “For reminding me which side I’m on.”

I didn’t put him on the other side. He did. He did by… by…

By having the wrong surname.

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