Although I put distance between myself and Benjamin, letting him know I wasn’t interested in a relationship, he was still especially nice and didn’t bat an eye at letting me into his tight-knit circle of friends. One night me and two of the girls were hauled to the police station for alleged solicitation. I thought my friends were only joking when they approached the middle aged man, but turns out they had been to juvie in the past for sleeping with old guys in exchange for money.
Any remaining innocence left over from my childhood was stripped away the minute I was exposed to the Vegas lights. Aunt Joey was always yelling at me to wear longer shorts and cover my breasts. Chris threatened to kick me out when he caught me smoking in my room. His threat should’ve been enough to scare me straight. But it wasn’t. I put up with far more than I should’ve and became someone I wasn’t proud of.
Aunt Joey didn’t know what to do with me, so she borrowed money from the bank behind Chris’s back, and signed me up for Camp Oscines. She figured it was the best thing that had ever happened to me, and hoped I’d find my way back to the old Isabelle.
The sideways glances Melanie kept giving me our first day back together made it clear the old me was long gone. My friend almost looked…afraid. And that made me ridiculously happy. I didn’t want to be the weakling that cried whenever Brooke said mean things, or the dopey-eyed girl who had a crush on someone she could never have. I was done being a victim. And I silently cheered when the tall pine trees and brick buildings first came into view.
“Maybe we should go change into our uniforms while we’re waiting,” Melanie suggested, blatantly trying to make her voice casual.
I cupped my small breasts with my hands and looked down at them as I adjusted my bra. “What? You don’t think what I’m wearing is appropriate camp attire?”
Two guys walked by just then and one whistled. As Melanie pressed her lips together, I laughed with a loud cackle. But my amusement evaporated as Roman stepped out from the back of a long black limousine. My breath hitched in my nicotine-deprived lungs, and I swear the world stopped turning.
The expression he wore was grim, impossibly serious. I couldn’t decide if it was because he was holding his thick jaw at a funny angle, or if he had physically changed that much in appearance. He was no longer gangly and awkward. Beneath a button-down shirt, his chest had noticeably bulked, slightly stretching the material. Even his legs looked bulky inside khaki pants. He was deeply tanned, and his sandy hair was buzzed down to military length, making him look years beyond fifteen.
He was a mere heartbeat away from becoming a grown man. And he was drop-dead gorgeous. It was the kind of beauty that literally took one’s breath away and made a person lightheaded.
The way he carried himself was different too, probably because his shoulders and arms had become thick with muscle. He reminded me of a smaller version of my new high school’s quarterback—a guy no one dared to mess with, not just because of his intimidating size, but because of his mannerisms.
But when those starry eyes cut my way, I finally saw a flash of my Roman.
As much as I wanted to collapse to the sidewalk and cry in relief, I wasn’t immediately convinced that everything was going to be all right. We had both undergone major changes—some visible and some hidden just beneath the surface. Months had passed without any kind of communication. I knew I wasn't the same person, and I was afraid he was no longer my Roman. Neither of us smiled as our gazes locked, like we were too scared to acknowledge it was real.
Then his eyes flickered down to my breasts and a tick passed through his squared jaw. A funny feeling sloshed through my gut beneath his heated gaze. I was taken aback when I decided what I was feeling for my friend was raw desire. I was tingling everywhere—most notably between my legs.
“Told you he’d come,” Melanie whispered, easing some of the tension. “God, he looks so different. Don’t you think?” She lightly tapped me on the shoulder, but I still hadn’t drawn my eyes away from Roman. “Okay then. Guess I’ll be waiting in the cabin after you’ve had your…whatever it is you guys are about to do.”
It was once she was gone that Roman decided to approach me. A couple of girls I shared a cabin with the summer before strolled past, their jaws hanging open when they got an eyeful of him. When one of them made a noise of appreciation, jealousy surged through me with the uncontrollable force of a hurricane. He was mine.
As he stood exceptionally close, I felt tiny in his shadow. I also felt week and vulnerable, knowing he could ask me to do or be anything and I’d crumble to his will. His pupils were dilated, but I doubted he was on anything. This was something else.