Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Nina swung her eyes back to Goldie. “The tattoo is about Salem?”
What tattoo?
My chest tightened, and my heart did a weird flutter.
Goldie nodded. “Brick took him to the guy he used to get it done. He wanted it over the place where his heart was. It was an exact replica of a drawing that the girl who had taken his heart had given him for something…I don’t remember that part.”
They were all looking at me now. I didn’t want them to be. Right now, I wanted to be alone. Process this without witnesses. I’d seen him through the door naked this morning, but it had been a side view. I’d not seen his bare chest straight on. But if he’d tattooed what I thought he had over his heart, I needed to curl up in a ball for a while and let it sink in.
Pushing back the stool, I stood up and attempted to smile, but I wasn’t sure what my lips were doing. “I, uh…I need to go,” I blurted out, then spun and hurried from the room before anyone could stop me.
The range of emotions hitting me at once was similar to the panic attacks I had once suffered from regularly. I didn’t want to have one of those in front of them. That was something only Eamon had witnessed, and it was going to stay that way.
Twenty-One Years Ago
The front door opened, and I sat up from where I’d been lying on the sofa, watching a movie from the huge DVD collection that Vanna had shelved. She had gone out with friends on her monthly girls’ night and wouldn’t be home until midnight.
I hadn’t been sure if Rome was coming home after work or if he had other plans. He’d not said at breakfast, but he had winked at me before leaving the table and told me not to cause too much trouble at school.
He had moved back to live here a month ago. It had been only a couple of weeks after the prom. His showing up that night had been the beginning of a change in us or him. He had told his mom he wanted to save up to invest in the new body shop that his boss was opening in Miami and that was why he’d moved home. I had believed that at first. I still did, but the more he found ways to be around me when his mom wasn’t around, the more I began to think that maybe he’d moved here for me too.
The sound of his boots as he walked across the hardwood made me giddy with excitement. There was a chance he’d only come home to shower and change before heading out again. Hiding a hand behind my back, I crossed my fingers as if I were eight years old, hoping he was staying here. With me. Alone.
Nothing was as thrilling as the sight of Rome Bower. If hearts could skip a beat, mine did every time he entered a room. The smile that lit up my face couldn’t be helped. The corner of his mouth twitched as his gaze found mine.
“Hey.” That one word in his deep drawl was enough to make the tingle in my private areas start up.
“Hey,” I replied, hoping I didn’t sound as breathless as I felt.
His gaze shifted to the television. “That’s one of my favorites. Would you pause it until I can get a shower and something to eat? I want to watch it too.”
He wasn’t leaving. I was going to giggle with joy.
I nodded my head. “We can watch it from the beginning. And I can make you something to eat if you tell me what you want. Your mom left money for pizza, but I haven’t ordered it yet.”
“That sounds good. I can call and order it. What do you like on yours?”
“I normally get a meat lovers,” I admitted, scrunching my nose.
“Figures your pizza preference is as fucking perfect as the rest of you.”
It wasn’t the first time he’d told me I was perfect, but when he said it, I felt a thrill of pleasure run through me. I was far from perfect, but if Rome wanted to think I was, I wouldn’t argue.
“Let me get cleaned up,” he told me, then headed in the direction of his room.
I watched until he left the room, then sighed, placing my hand on my heart and falling back onto the sofa.
This night had just become my favorite, and it hadn’t even started yet.
21
Tex
Present Day
I stopped in the hallway, and instead of going to my room, I turned and went toward the bedroom that Salem was staying in. I’d not seen her since this morning, and the image of her with Lick had stayed with me all fucking day. This attitude she had with me pissed me off. I’d thought she didn’t like who I’d become, but, hell, she had no problem with Lick.