Page 113 of Full Throttle

“Hastings?” A pause. “What do you want?”

Dominic closed his eyes. “Can I come inside for a second?”

She sighed. “I suppose I can’t stop you.”

Dominic pushed open the door. Juliette sat on a chair, pink cowboy boots kicked up on a dresser, staring at an apple as if she were thinking about eating it but couldn’t quite bring herself to do it. He leaned against the wall. The sight of her after so many weeks was like a physical ache in his chest.

“I’m sorry,” he said, because really, what else was there to say?

Juliette shrugged. “It’ll blow over.”

She bit into the apple: a sign she didn’t want to talk. And yet.

“Not just about that.”

Juliette stiffened. He could see her mind working. “How much did you overhear?”

Dominic stuck his hands in his pockets. “Most of it.” He hesitated. “Can I ask you something?”

“Yes. I am a natural brunette.”

Okay. So she really didn’t want to talk. That was fine; with Juliette, you sometimes had to launch into it sideways. “Those boots.” He nodded. “Why do you always wear them?”

Juliette studied him, as if trying to decide how serious he was. “You really want to know?” He nodded, and she shrugged. “When I was in primary school, there was this big video-game craze. Lasso Pete. It was a game about a gun-wielding cowboy who had to fight off an alien invasion.”

Dominic nodded. “I remember it.” She raised an eyebrow, and he suppressed the urge to smile. “Oh, come off it, Marchmont. I’m not that much older than you.”

“I know. I just didn’t think you were as cool.”

“Shut up.”

“Anyway,” Juliette said, but she looked on the verge of smiling now, “Capulet used to play the game after school with a group of boys, and one of them—this little git named Griffin Parks—told me that I couldn’t play. Video games aren’t for girls, he said. So I did the logical thing.”

“Beat the shit out of him?”

“Hastings.” That beautiful smile grew. “I was eight.”

“Even so.”

“No.” Juliette swung her legs off the desk. “I started up my own group of female gamers. We’d meet up every Wednesday at seven o’clock. Mostly, it was a bit of fun; we’d eat Party Rings and complain about homework. But after a while I started to get really good at Lasso Pete. I topped the leaderboard, and Griffin was livid.” Her smile was wry. “Anyway, I was a petty little shit, so I started wearing cowboy boots to school, just to piss Griffin off. I guess it became a habit.”

Dominic’s throat swelled, although he didn’t want to examine the emotion too closely. Goddamn it. What was it about this girl that made him want to give up everything just to make her smile? After this weekend, there would be only one victor.

He couldn’t forget that.

Something shifted in her face. “Don’t look at me like that. Please.”

“Like what?”

She looked away. “Like I’m breakable.”

Damn it. He couldn’t fucking stand it. He was there in an instant, cradling her face, murmuring soothing words into her hair. Juliette gave a little hiccup. She was shaking but not crying, and then something hardened on her face. A resolve of sorts. And he knew what she was thinking.

He pulled back. “Jules…”

She gave a small smile. “You never call me that.”

“Don’t I?”