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One
ROMAN
I fell in love for the first time when I was seventeen.
One simple mistake altered the course of my future, of my very existence.
Until that day feelings had always seemed irrelevant and illogical. My world was too dark and chaotic for love to develop.
It was the first day at another new high school. That made—three? four?—this year alone.
The locker I’d been assigned wouldn’t open no matter how many times I spun the combination or slammed my filthy, worn boot into the rusty metal front.
“Do you mind?” A soft voice came from beside me.
I glanced down. Five-feet-nothing of waist-length red-gold hair, soft blue eyes, and freckles stared up at me. A smile played over her full pink lips that I already h
ad an urge to kiss.
“I can’t get it open.”
“Maybe that’s because it’s my locker.”
“No, it’s not.” Even though I already had a bad feeling in my gut that she was right, I handed over the yellow slip of paper I’d been given this morning.
“Hmm.” She tapped her finger against that plump bottom lip that I wanted to suck into my mouth and run my tongue against. “It says seventy-six, but that can’t be right.”
She stepped forward, not at all intimidated by my size—I had to be at least a foot taller than her. Her warm shoulder brushed against my chest, and her long hair tickled my arm. She smelled like roses after a rainstorm. I’m not ashamed to admit I stood there and inhaled her.
The lock clicked open and she opened the door. “See? It’s my locker. My combination works on it. Yours doesn’t.”
“Well, shit.”
She grinned at me. “What’s your name?”
“Roman.”
Laughter spilled out of her. “I’m Juliet. I’ll tell you what, Roman, I’m willing to share my locker with you. If you promise not to leave any gross boy things in it.”
I scratched the back of my neck. “Give me an example of a gross boy thing.”
“Uh, dirty socks.”
“No problem.”
“Jockstraps.”
“Don’t have one.”
“Anything smelly.”
“Okay.”
Pink raced over her cheeks, and I wondered what else she was going to say, but instead, she shook her head. “Welcome to locker seventy-six, roomie.”
She held out her hand. I took it, meaning to give a quick shake. Instead, an electric current of attraction sparked between us. I stood there staring into her eyes, trying to decide if they were turquoise or teal, and stroked her soft skin.
“Thank you, Juliet.” I loved the way her name felt rolling off my tongue.
She didn’t jerk her hand away, and she held my gaze.
I made up my mind right then and there.
I was going to marry this girl.
Two
ROMAN
Protect.
That’s all I wanted to do once I laid eyes on Juliet.
She was so damn tiny. Waiting for me by the lockers, under the glare of cheap fluorescent lights, she seemed defenseless.
People seemed to avoid her which both bothered and pleased me. I wanted her to myself, but I also wanted to kill anyone who hurt her feelings.
“So how is your first day progressing?” The corners of her mouth twitched, but I didn’t feel like she was mocking me. More like we were both in on the same joke.
“Lame. Just as boring as the last three schools.”
Her eyes widened. “Why so many? Do your parents move around a lot?”
My eyes darted away, I didn’t like talking about my situation. It was one of those things that made people uncomfortable and eager to get away from you. But I sensed I could trust Juliet.
“I live at the group home over on Pine,” explained in a lowered voice. “Foster care. Before that I was with a few families. None of ‘em stuck.”
My story was more complicated than that. Six years, twelve different families, and three separate group homes to be exact. But I feared sharing too much, getting too real, might scare her away.
Sadness clouded her eyes. “I live with my aunt and uncle. Not the same thing, but I understand what it feels like…not to…”
I waited for her to finish, anticipating what she’d say.
“Feel wanted,” she finished.
She’d never have to worry about that again. I wanted her like nothing I’d ever wanted in my life.
But I had absolutely nothing to offer her.
No family. No money. Hell, I didn’t even have access to a vehicle to take her out on a date. I had the clothes on my back and a few other things stuffed in a drawer at the home. My luggage was a Hefty bag. I’d had a job lined up at the last place I lived, but that was gone now.
“Sucks, right?” I said to fill the silence between us.
Her lips curved up in a soft smile. “It’s not so bad. One day I’ll have my own family and I’ll know all the right things to give them.”
The longing in her voice hit me on a primal level. I didn’t understand what having a family meant. It had always seemed too unattainable. But the way Juliet talked about it, made me want to figure it out. With her.
I’d never had the luxury of thinking that far ahead in my life.
I was too busy surviving from one day to the next. But Juliet made me want to think ahead. She made me hope for things I’d been afraid to admit to myself I even wanted.
Before I opened my mouth and offered to make some babies with her, someone slammed into me from behind. My shoulder hit the corner of the open locker door and I narrowly missed knocking Juliet over.
“Watch it, new guy,” the brawny football player I’d showed up in gym class earlier said. He high-fived his equally douchebag friends.
It wasn’t pride that forced me to go after him. I didn’t care that Juliet saw me get shoved like a little kid.
No, it was blind rage. That fucker had pushed me right into her. She could’ve been hurt and he did it without thinking.
I’d been pushed around enough at that point in my life. By foster parents, teachers, other kids. I’d learned early that the world was cruel.
I also learned not to take shit from anyone.
If you couldn’t stand up for yourself, no one would do it for you. And if I couldn’t defend myself, how could I protect anyone else?
“Roman—” Juliet said, but I was already sailing through the air, tackling Doug to his knees and punching him in the side.
The violence in my eyes and fists made his two buddies back away instead of helping their unfortunate friend.
Two teachers and a security guard pulled me off the kid, but I still kept fighting.
Until I saw Juliet shaking her head. Tears in her eyes.
“Don’t,” she mouthed at me.
It was a bucket of ice water over my hot-tempered head.
Three
Juliet
“Roman, don’t.”
I wasn’t afraid he’d get hurt.
No, obviously Roman was the kind of guy who could take care of himself. I was more worried he’d kill Doug Winsted and end up in jail. Doug deserved the ass-kicking. He’d been picking on the younger, weaker kids for as long as I could remember.
My bigger fear was that Roman would get expelled from school before I got to know him better.
Selfish? Maybe. But I’d never met anyone who affected me the way he did. Despite the fact he was kicking in my locker, he was the most beautiful boy I’d ever seen.
Boy probably wasn’t accurate. He had the seriousness of a man who’d already seen it all. Survived it all. Rich, brown hair fell over his forehead, complimenting his green eyes. The brief smile he flashed made me weak in the knees. He didn’t seem to notice that half the girls in the school where gawking at him, practically running into walls because they were staring so hard.
But he never took his eyes off me.
Destiny.
Before Roman, I believed my sad story was already written.
Love at first sight.
My cousin Debbie had always reminisced about how she fell in love with her husband the minute she met him in ninth grade. I loved her, but her story made zero sense to me. Only when I looked into Roman’s olive-green eyes did I finally understand.
Maybe I affected him too. He stopped resisting and allowed the security guard to drag him down the hall. I chased after him, but Mrs. Johnson, my AP English teacher, stopped me.
“Don’t, honey. You don’t need to be involved with trash like that. He’s not going anywhere good in life.”
My temper flared. “Doug started it. He’s always starting trouble. Hurting kids who can’t fight back. This time he picked on the wrong person and got what he deserved.”
She rec
oiled. I hardly ever spoke up or talked back to teachers. I earned high marks, but I kept to myself.
My outburst seemed to change her mind. “Go ahead down to the principal’s office and let Mr. W know what happened.” She glanced over my shoulder. “I’ll give you a pass.”
Relief that at least one adult in my life seemed to have some decency flooded through me. I accepted the pass and hurried downstairs.
Mr. W was no nonsense. We called him Mr. W because no one could pronounce or spell his last name. I’d never been in his office before.
I stepped into the main office and his secretary glanced up. “Juliet? What are you doing down here?”
“I have a pass.” I swallowed hard, finding my courage. “I need to speak to Mr. W. about the fight. I saw what happened.”
