Page 27 of Romero and Juliette

“You take my dick so well. Look at that.” I rub my thumb through her slick folds until I find her clit and circle it slowly.

“Ohmygod!” she yells. “Like that. So good. Don’t stop.”

I grip her hips with one hand and play with her clit with the other. My balls tighten, and pleasure shoots up my spine. I’m getting close. I already made her come once, but I want to feel her pussy milking me.

“Together,” I say. “I want you to come with me.”

She nods. “I’m so close.”

“Good, because I can’t fucking hold off anymore. You feel too damn good.” I squeeze her clit. “Now. Come now.”

And she does. In unison with me, like this is how it was supposed to be all along.

chapter

eleven

Juliette

The morning light spills through the thin hotel curtains in bands of gold and white, catching dust motes that hang in the air like tiny stars. The room smells faintly of coffee, but mostly of sex. The sheets are still warm where Cruz had been next to me. Everything about the bed is in disarray.

We made love so many times last night, and my body is deliciously sore because of it.

Cruz is by the window now, leaning one shoulder against the wall, phone in his hand. He’s quiet—has been since sunrise. The kind of quiet that feels full of thoughts he’s not ready to say out loud.

Outside, the world is already awake. A delivery truck rattles over the uneven pavement, and someone laughs on the sidewalk below. Life goes on, even when yours has just changed shape overnight.

I sit up, wrapping the sheet around me, not because I need to, but because it feels like armor. “You’re thinking too loud,” I say.

He glances over, a faint smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. “Didn’t realize thinking was a noise.”

“With you, it’s always a noise.”

He sets his phone down and comes to sit at the edge of the bed, elbows on his knees. “Your brother’s gonna lose his mind.”

“Probably,” I admit. “But he’ll get over it. He always does.”

He exhales, long and slow. “I don’t want this to make your life harder, Juliette.”

“It won’t.” I reach for his hand, threading my fingers through his. “It’ll make it ours. There’s a difference.”

He studies our joined hands for a long moment, thumb brushing absently over my knuckles. “You’re really sure about this?”

“About you? Yeah.”

He lifts his gaze, meets mine. “Then I guess that’s enough. I’ll slay any dragons that get in our way. Making you happy is the only thing that matters.” He leans forward and kisses my forehead. “As much as I’d like to crawl into that bed with you, we’ve got to go pick up the dogs.”

“Oh, right.” I chuckle. “That was kind of your point to this whole trip, even though I hijacked it.”

“It was the best hostile takeover ever.”

We pack quickly after that, since there’s not really much to gather. When we meet by the door, he reaches past me to hold it open, his arm brushing mine. The touch is simple, familiar, grounding.

“Ready?” he asks.

“As I’ll ever be.”

After picking up the dogs and ensuring they were settled in the back of the van, we did our best to make the return trip as fast as possible. Cruz dropped me off so I could get my car, and then he headed straight out to the sanctuary. Our relationship would resume later, after he got the dogs settled in their new place.