Page 43 of Romeo vs Romeo

“We weren’t friends,” Everett said coolly. “Besides, I know where my parents are. They won’t be back until much later. Come.”

Part of me wondered if he wanted to get caught. Another part wondered why. Still, Everett took my hand and waited, his eyes glimmering with hope and a greedy sort of desire. He wanted me, and I loved that feeling.

I didn’t know I agreed to it by the time my feet moved, and I found myself entering the ridiculously tall skyscraper where the richest of the rich parked their cash. The elevator ride alone took an eternity, and Everett held my hand with firmness and determination.

“Yesterday,” he said carefully and then went quiet for a heartbeat or two. “They were so fucking smug, Rome. They think they bagged it. Dad worries about the protests dragging it out, but Jacobs… That guy is full of himself.”

“Okay,” I said, my nerves restless. “You said you had something big.”

Everett squeezed his eyes shut. He looked like it took effort to remain still as the elevator moved up soundlessly. “I have enough proof to bring them down.”

Breath hitched in my throat. “Are you serious?”

Everett looked at me apologetically. “There’s only one problem,” he said.

I gazed back at him, reading his face, reading the set of his jaw and the pain in his eyes. “You don’t want to,” I said. I hoped my voice didn’t betray even a touch of hurt or judgment. I understood it almost perfectly, but I worried that there was enough disappointment in me to touch my tone.

“It’s not that I don’t want to,” Everett said. “It’s that I’m…” He held his breath as the elevator came to a halt. It dinged once, and the doors opened smoothly to a large, open space of the Langley penthouse. “I don’t think I’m ready,” Everett admitted.

I heard his words, and I understood them, accepted them even, but my gaze moved over the apartment’s interior. The elevator opened into the foyer, which was separated from theelegant and warm living area only through visual cues but no real walls. The foyer’s marble floor glistened under the soft ambient lighting, leading the eye to the expansive living area beyond. Plush sofas were arranged around a sleek glass coffee table while floor-to-ceiling windows framed a breathtaking view of the city skyline. Rich, hardwood floors stretched throughout the space. The walls, however, were not adorned with tasteful modern art. Instead of paint splatters that cost millions, these walls depicted Jesus Christ, his crucifixion, or his rising from the dead. It felt like walking into a crypt under some old church if only it weren’t so glitzy and rich.

“If I do this,” Everett said, and my gaze snapped back to him, “I’ll never have a home here again, Rome.” I nodded in reply as Everett brushed the side of my cheek with the back of his fingers. “You see, I recorded them. And if that leaks, he’ll know. They’ll both know.”

My heart skipped a beat. There was a recording, then. We had actual proof.

My dilemma was simple enough. I could insist on having the recording and finishing the entire business quickly. Or, I could let things play out differently. After all, Everett could have lied. He could have said there was no proof to get out of his terrible predicament.

“It’s frightens me to pull that trigger, Rome,” Everett said.

I nodded, enjoying the softness of his fingers on my face. I tilted my head like a kitten who wanted the ear scratching to continue. “Then we won’t,” I told him before looking up and into his eyes. “For now, at least.”

Everett blew out a long breath of air he’d been holding in. “Really?”

“You said your father is worried already,” I pointed out. “It means we’re doing well. Maybe, if there’s any luck, we won’t need it.”

Everett pulled me against his body, his arms wrapping around me with gratitude. “That’s all I ask,” he said. “I know it could come to it. I just need a little time if it happens.”

And then I understood. He wanted us to be caught. He wanted them to fire the first shots. So long as they didn’t, his betrayal would be worse.

I lifted my head and let him kiss me. I let him kiss me in all the ways I had been imagining since three nights ago when I’d last seen him. I had been dreaming of this.

Without another word, Everett took my hand, pulled his head back, and led me through the grand living room, where Jesus Christ watched us from every wall. We passed through a hallway with more depictions of scenes from the Bible until we finally entered a spacious, cozy room that was unmistakably Everett’s. The room was bathed in the amber glow of a floor lamp in one distant corner. The walls were ochre with dark brown stripes along the top.

A bed was placed against the middle of the left wall, flanked by nightstands. Nearer to us was a desk with an office chair, and next to it were bookcases with various memorabilia displayed on the shelves. On the far side of the room, there was a sofa, a table, modern armchairs, and more of little Everett’s favorite things displayed along the surfaces. The view from the room was that of Central Park and the glimmering lights of the sprawling city far, far below us.

And there, right above the bed, mounted to the middle of the wall, was a cross.

“You are such a sinner,” I told him.

Everett grabbed me from behind, arms coiling around my body, his lips close to my ear. “Sinning with you is the only way I want to live.”

If there had been any doubt in me, he scattered its remains into oblivion.

My body relaxed in his hold. His hands dragged over my chest and stomach as he leaned down and pressed his heated lips against the bare skin of my neck. A shudder passed through me, and I was his. Instantly, completely his.

Somewhere deep in my consciousness, sinking swiftly under the tide of lust, was the awareness that I had a monumental task ahead of me. I needed to steer the ship to safety while keeping Everett protected from the backlash. I didn’t want him to lose everything. And I didn’t want Mama Viv to lose everything. And somewhere between these two extremes, there had to be a path I could clear.

Everett was mine to protect. He was mine to stand with. He was mine to be with.

---