Page 268 of Romeo

I wasn’t okay.

I didn’t know what I was.

My body seemed to understand the danger was gone before my mind did, and instead of relief, everything simply collapsed. My teeth started chattering. Tears burned my eyes. Every time I tried to pull in a full breath, it caught somewhere too high in my chest.

Jasper never told me to calm down.

He didn’t ask questions.

He simply held me.

His hand moved slowly up and down my back, the same path over and over, while his other arm kept me tight against him. Beneath my cheek, his heart was beating nearly as hard as mine, but his voice stayed low whenever he spoke.

“I’m here, baby.”

I listened to that instead of the echoes in my head.

I’m here, baby.

Leather beneath my cheek. His hand in my hair. The smell of cold air and road clinging to him.

Road.

The thought rose slowly through everything else.

I lifted my head enough to look at him.

“You’re here.”

His expression softened in a way that almost undid me again.

“Yeah, baby.”

“How?”

A shadow of his normal smile touched his mouth. “I was gonna surprise you.”

For one second, I simply stared at him.

Then a sound escaped me that might have been a laugh if it hadn’t broken halfway through.

Jasper’s face tightened.

His fingers slid gently along my cheek, pushing hair away from my face as his eyes moved over me. “Did he hurt you?”

“I’m okay.”

The lie sounded weak even to me.

His thumb stopped against my cheek. “Fiona.”

“My shoulder.” I swallowed. “And my wrist. I think. I don’t know.”

His jaw clenched.

I could see the anger return beneath the gentleness, buried there every time he looked at the places I touched, but when his hand settled over mine, it barely seemed to weigh anything.

“Did he⁠—”