Page 282 of Romeo

I had wanted Jasper before I was brave enough to admit I wanted him. When he sent me flowers for Valentine’s Day. When I waited for his texts every morning and pretended I didn’t notice if they were late. I wanted him when he showed up at prom in a tuxedo and turned a night I’d expected to endure into one I would remember forever. I wanted him when I kissed him in September and learned just how much restraint a man could have while kissing me back like he had spent months imagining it.

I wanted the ridiculous imaginary house. The arguments about Christmas lights and landscaping. Wanted to know what his face looked like first thing in the morning and whether he was as irritating before coffee as he was after it. I wanted things with Jasper I had stopped letting myself imagine with anyone.

But every one of those wants had Charlie standing behind it.

“I’m ready,” I whispered.

Jasper searched my face. Whatever he was looking for, he seemed to find it because the tension around his mouth eased. “Ready to be mine?”

There was something outrageous about the question. Something very Jasper about believing possession could sound like a promise when it came out of his mouth.

I should have made him work harder for it.

Instead, my fingers slid into his. “I think I’ve been yours since we met.”

His smile was slow and devastating, the kind I had seen him use on women without meaning anything by it and somehow still managed to look completely different when it belonged to me. Before I could lose my nerve, I tightened my hand around his and forced myself to keep talking.

“Jasper, there’s something you need to know first.”

The smile faded.

My heart started beating too fast, and this time it had nothing to do with the parking lot. I had imagined telling him about Charlie so many times that the words should have been familiar by now, but sitting beside him with his hand wrapped around mine, every version I had rehearsed disappeared.

Jasper watched my face as I tried to find the least terrifying place to begin, and then his free hand slid into my hair and he kissed me.

It wasn’t the hungry kiss I had imagined after our conversation two nights ago. There was no teasing in it and no attempt to push me anywhere I wasn’t ready to go. His mouth moved against mine slowly, warmly, until the frantic thoughts battering around inside my head quieted enough for me to breathe again.

When he pulled back, he stayed close enough that his nose brushed mine. “Whatever has you looking at me like you’re waiting for me to disappear can wait.”

“But you don’t know what it is.”

“Nope.”

“It could change things.”

His eyebrow rose. “Are you secretly a black widow?”

I blinked. “What?”

“Black widow. You know, sweet little thing that lures an unsuspecting handsome Cajun into her web, marries him, bumps him off, collects his millions.”

“You don’t have millions.”

“See? Already poking holes in your plan.”

A laugh slipped out before I could stop it, and Jasper looked absurdly pleased with himself. I shoved lightly at his chest, but he caught my hand and pressed it there instead, holding my palm over his heart.

“I’m serious,” I said.

“So am I.” The humor remained around his mouth, but his eyes didn’t leave mine. “Unless you’re planning to marry me for my nonexistent fortune and murder me in my sleep, there isn’t a damn thing you can tell me that’s gonna keep me from claiming you. Whatever it is, you tell me when you’re ready. Not because you’re scared I’ll change my mind if you don’t get it out before we leave.”

The words should have made it easier.

They didn’t.

They made me want to tell him more.

That frightened me almost as much as the possibility of his reaction because there had been a time when Charlie belonged to the quietest, most guarded part of me. He wasn’t something I discussed. He was a little boy I loved from a careful distance, wrapped inside a family structure that allowed him to grow up knowing Frank and Claudia as his parents while I stood close enough to watch.