Page 105 of Rebel Romeo

I try to straighten my dress and shift off his lap as the cab rolls to a stop in front of my building. But Holden pins me in place, not letting me slink away. “Hey,” he says, cupping my jaw gently and dragging my eyes to his. “You’ve owned me from the moment I laid eyes on you. I just couldn’t give myself over to you then.”

“But you can now?”

“Fuck yes I can.”

I gulp, nervous tears threatening the backs of my eyes. “I need you to prove it. I don’t even know how you can, but I need to see and feel that you’re really here this time. That we’re really doing this.”

Solemnly, he nods and there’s a softness in his gaze that somehow, inexplicably, I trust.

“I’m sorry,” he says, holding my gaze. “I’m sorry that I was such a shitty boyfriend five years ago. I’m sorry my family set out to ruin you… ruin us. I’m sorry that I let them. Back then, I believed you deserved so much better than me and while that’s true, it’s not an excuse to not do better, myself. You need me to prove that I’m really here this time. That I’m in this. The only way I know how to do that is to keep showing up. To respect your boundaries. To love you even when you hate me. Even when I hate myself. If you’ll have me, I’ll spend every day from now until eternity proving to you that you are the only woman to ever burrow in my heart. I love you, Katherine. And from the bottom of my broken, ruined heart, I’m so, so sorry.”

He stares down at his hands, lightly grasping my waist. With my thumb, I swipe across his damp cheeks, wiping away the tears falling silently down them.

Then, blinking through my own tears distorting my vision and I dip to press a gentle kiss to his lips and whisper, “Now that’s an apology.” I crawl off his lap and open the door to the cab. “Pay the man, so we can go inside and finally have makeup sex.”

His thick lashes lift quickly and he jerks his gaze to mine as a smirk kicks up the corners of my mouth.

“Fuck,” he hisses, then scrambles to pull out a wad of cash from his wallet. I’m ninety-nine percent sure he just overpaid for the cab by like fifty bucks, but neither of us seem to care as we fall out of the cab. He chases me inside my building, scooping me into his arms and throwing me over his shoulder caveman style as he runs toward the elevator.

“Put me down,” I squeal and kick against him.

“Nuh-uh,” he says and gives my butt a smack.

The elevator dings and as he exits with me still over his shoulder, I feel his steps come to an abrupt halt. The muscles in his shoulder and back go rigid against my abdomen. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he growls.

Without needing to ask, he lowers me back to the floor and I swivel around to find Nolan sitting on the floor outside my door.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Nolan is on his feet just as Holden stalks forward, getting in his face. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Holden, stop it!” I smack his arm with my purse, but it does nothing to break up the pissing match happening.

“I could ask you the same question.” Nolan growls, then slides his eyes to look at me. “But I’m not here for her.”

“Oh, really? Then who are you here for…” Holden’s words trail off and he takes a step backwards. “Jill?” Holden blinks, looking between me and Nolan. “But I thought you two?—”

“We were trying to make you and Missy jealous, you idiot,” I snap.

“Not Missy,” Nolan says pointedly.

It takes every ounce of energy I have not to roll my eyes and instead, I level him with a look.

Nolan thrusts his hands into his hair and paces outside my front door. “I’m serious! I… I wasn’t trying to win her back. But then Jill started dating that greasy loser at the coffee shop and, I don’t know, it was a moment of weakness when Missy came onto me in the green room.”

“A moment of weakness?” I snort and cross my arms over my chest. “That’s an understatement.” If I were a stronger woman, I would have asked what they both saw in her… but I’m not strong. And I don’t trust myself to be able to handle their answers. Either of them. “But now you’re here… for Jill.” Slowly, the pieces come together. “How long have you been sitting out here?”

With a shrug, he says, “A couple of hours.”

Holden’s brows lift. “So this whole time you two really were just friends?”

“Yes,” Nolan and I say together.

Holden slumps against the wall outside my front door. “I really am an idiot.”

“No arguments here,” Nolan mutters.

I drop my cheek to my shoulder. “You’re one to talk.”

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