Star-Crossed(64)

“It’s fine,” Jules said, oddly calm. “I got the world’s most irregular periods. I can go seven months without one. At first the doc told my daddy I was working out too much, but then I went to a specialist up in Mercy and it’s more than that. Doctors told me it’d take a damn miracle to have a baby on my own. They warned me years ago I’d probably have to go through fertility treatments to get pregnant.”

“Are you sure?” Romeo asked in concern.



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“I think I know my own body,” Jules said with a laugh as she turned around and gave him a look. “It’s fine. Breathe, Romeo. Ya look like you’re ’bout to go down right here in the shower.”

“That’s exactly how I feel,” he said, taking his first clear breath. “Scare the shit outta me, why don’t you?”

Jules turned around and hugged him, strong and dependable; it was almost as if she was trying to hold him on his feet. “So I’ll take a test in a few weeks and make sure, but I promise, it ain’t nothing.”

Her accent was heavier, as if she wasn’t totally convinced, but he decided to believe her as he hugged her back. He rested his chin on her head and for just one moment entertained the thought of a place and time where he could make a baby with Jules and not want to faint at the idea of bringing another life into this world that was dead set against him more often than not.

“In a different life,” Jules started, her breath warm against his chest, “seeing what we could make together wouldn’t be bad a thing, ya know?”

“I do know,” he said softly, wishing life had dealt him a different set of cards, because he’d love to give Jules a baby. He knew she wanted one, and he liked kids more than anything, but— “It’s not a different life, Juliet. This is the one we got to play with.”

“Do you have condoms with you?”

“Yeah.” Romeo blinked from the whiplash Jules’s one-eighty gave him. “I got two in my wallet and a whole pack in the bag I threw in your car at your office.”

“I got another hour to hide from work and responsibility,” Jules said as she looked up. “You wanna try out the bed?”

Romeo shook his head again, a laugh of disbelief bursting out of him. “I guess. If you’re sure—”





165

“I’m sure,” Jules said, sounding sad with the certainty. “With the amount of money I’ve spent on doctors who paint grim pictures ’bout my hopes of reproducing, if ya knocked me up after a quickie in the shower, I’d have to be impressed.”

“Well…” Romeo couldn’t help but smile and reminded her, “I am Italian.”

“Half Italian.”

“Yeah, this half.” Romeo held a hand at his midsection and looked down at his dick; that was impressive if he did say so himself. “You think that dumb asshole who nailed my mother left me with that? Hell no, that’s a hundred percent Sicilian, baby, and we’re virile people.”

Jules laughed, a deep, throaty burst of joy that came from the center of her chest and echoed off the tiles. Then she pinched his waist, as if looking for fat she’d never find and said, “I’m not convinced.”

“Oh no, it’s true. Ask anyone. Italians do it better.” Jules tilted her head, looking skeptical. “I dunno.”

“Longer, harder,” Romeo went on, licking his lips before he finally offered. “I could prove it if you don’t believe me.”

Then Jules squealed, spinning around so fast she nearly knocked him off his feet.

She pushed at the glass door and leaped out of the shower, a streak of slick, pale skin and blonde hair, completely fearless of the wet tile.

Romeo didn’t even have to think before he went after Jules, intent on catching her.

He did just that, wrapping an arm around her midsection and then pulling her to him before she could reach the big, king-size bed in the master bedroom.

Jules shrieked and laughed and fought him to the point that Romeo pushed her against the mattress and then draped his big, heavy body over hers to keep her from squirming. To soothe the defeat, he kissed her bare shoulder, the back of her neck, the curve of her spine, and she went soft and pliant beneath him, making it obvious she had wanted to get caught. If she hadn’t, it would’ve never been this easy.



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ROMEO FELT SO good over her. Jules loved the weight of him, the strength in his arms as he held her down and kissed her wet skin. Everywhere he touched was a shimmer of bliss, a small dance with a rippling affect that made her nipples ache and her pussy clench for more.