Page 109 of Forbidden Romeo

“Aimee!”he hisses.

“What do you want?” I say, gulping down the emotion threatening to spill from me at any moment.

He looks at me as if I’ve grown a second head, “What is going on with you? Who was that woman?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

He crosses his arms. “Clearly, it does.”

“I don’t owe you an explanation,” I say desperately, backing away.

Jack is already shaking his head by the time I finish speaking. “Goddamn it, Aimee, I’m trying to help you right now.”

“Now you’re trying to help me? Why? Is keeping me sweet back on your priority list after you avoided me the last few days?”

“I haven’t been avoiding you–”

“Then where have you been?”

“Where haveyoubeen?” he says, taking a step closer.

I don’t back down. “You’re seriously deflecting right now?”

“You’ve been avoiding me just as much as I’ve been avoiding you.”

“You’re fucking infuriating!” I practically shout, even though his face keeps inching closer.

“Yeah? Then you’re the bane of my fucking life.”

His lips are crashing into mine before either of us seems to register it’s happening.

My body reacts instinctively. Curling into him, gripping onto his neck to pull him closer and deepening the kiss with my tongue.

He groans as he tugs my hair and wraps his arms around me even tighter. He’s everywhere. My waist, the top of my thigh. My neck. God, my neck.

When he pulls away, his breath comes out in rapid pants, and he rests his forehead against mine. Cradling my face in his hand as he just breathes me in.

“I’ve missed you.”

The words make me crash back down to earth with a nauseating jolt. We’ve been here before. I’ve fallen for this before.

I pull away, even though every cell in my body screams at me to stay.

“I can’t do this,” I whisper as I back away.

The vulnerability I see flash across his moonlit face almost makes me reconsider, but I continue my retreat defiantly. One step, then another, and I’m out the door, and I force myself not to glance back at him.

This time when I leave, he doesn’t follow. When I find another empty room, the doors don’t crash open behind me.

But as the tears begin to fall, I can’t help hoping that maybe they might.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Jack

I must have sat in theLuckieslocker room a thousand times. Whether it was to train or to try and goad Graham into a fight or even take part in a few low-stakes matches, this place has always felt like a second home.

But tonight, I feel like a stranger here.

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