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“I don’t have any white dresses.” Jules laughed. “And even if I did, I didn’t wanna start off a new life lying to myself or the folks at the courthouse. I ain’t innocent or virginal; no sense pretending I am.”

Romeo laughed with her and pointed out, “I’m wearing white.”

“Does that mean I get to corrupt you on our wedding night?”

“Absolutely,” Romeo agreed with a mischievous smirk. “But be gentle.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Jules teased as she pulled to the stop sign leading to the main road from the motel parking lot. “Where to?”





* * * *





On a gentle spring day Romeo and Jules got married under a magnolia tree outside the small West Virginia courthouse. The air smelled like flowers. The breeze forced Jules to hold her loose hair away from her face. They didn’t have rings, but the stately black woman who performed the ceremony said they didn’t need them.

Jules said, “I do,” and Romeo kissed her before the woman gave him permission because he didn’t want to lose the tight hold he had on his emotions. Jules let go of her

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hair and kissed him back, intertwining her arms around his neck, and neither of them cared they had an audience.

Everyone who worked at the small courthouse had come outside to watch Juliet Conner and Romeo Wellings get married simply because of the names printed on the marriage license. They seemed to feel it was something worth watching, and they weren’t disappointed by the performance. They all clapped, and several people took pictures with their phones.

Romeo wanted to give them his e-mail address, but he knew he couldn’t.

He wished Nova was there to memorize everything for him, but Romeo tried to do the best job he could with his ordinary mind. Everything felt so vivid. He knew most of it was going to stay intact.

Jules cried after it was over; then she hugged the woman who married them. Her name was Sara Jensen. Jules wrote it down so she’d remember.

Once they got away from the hugs and congratulations, they got back into Jules’s car, and she turned to him, tears still sparkling in her light eyes as she grinned. “Now’s the part where I corrupt you.”

He chuckled. “Corrupt away, Mrs. Wellings.”

Unable to resist, Romeo reached over and cupped his hand at the back of her neck and pulled her closer. He stole another kiss, this one more intimate. Their tongues brushed as Jules pulled open the first few buttons of his shirt and slipped a hand inside, placing her palm over the steady thump of his heartbeat.

“I’m so happy,” she whispered against his lips after a few breathless moments.

“This is the best day of my life.”

Romeo smiled. “Mine too.”



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Chapter Twenty-Two

Nova had gone from a social smoker to a chain smoker in the space of two days.

He sat on the couch in Romeo’s apartment in New York after setting up camp there in the vain hope his brother and Jules Conner would show up. His laptop was on his lap.

An ashtray rested on the coffee table. Romeo would have an absolute fit if he came home to an apartment that smelled like cigarettes, but that was the least of Nova’s problems.

Even if he’d bought time with Aldo on the Romeo issue, it still felt like the world was collapsing in around him. Aldo and Nova’d had a sit-down with Frankie this morning, and something about the twitch in his father’s eyes created a knot in Nova’s stomach. He wasn’t totally certain Frankie was going to listen to Aldo this time. Taking out Romeo after Aldo told him not to could start a war, but maybe that’s what Frankie wanted, to force the family to choose sides.

The spilt was starting to become obvious, and many agreed with Frankie. Nova shouldn’t have the position he did. He wasn’t even a legitimate son, and even if he was, overstepping his father was unheard of. Aldo had taken a risk by making Nova capo bastone, but he’d assured Nova that money would always inspire more loyalty than old rules and traditions.

Usually Nova agreed with him, but he couldn’t shake the feeling something bad was about to happen. Or it could just be Romeo taking off in the middle of the night.

Things couldn’t get much worse than that.

He had a lot of reasons for sleepless nights, but losing Romeo was what kept Nova up for the past two days. Even when he’d tried to sleep, all he ended up doing was

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lying in Romeo’s bed, smelling the trace of his cologne still on the sheets and trying to imagine a life without his older brother around.

When Romeo had been in prison, Nova still knew he was coming home and the hell would stop. His family would be back together and that helped him get through, but what the fuck was he supposed to do with this? Romeo couldn’t be gone forever.