Other than my mindless need to be inside of her and to make her happy, I had no idea what I was doing. She watched with bright, eager eyes while I rolled on the condom.

  Her breathing sped up as I covered her with my body. She spread her legs wider to accommodate me. “Make me yours, Roman. Please.”

  “You’re already mine, butterfly.” I crushed my mouth to hers.

  Shaking with the need to be inside her, I slid the head of my cock along her slit. Our lips connected again and I rocked against her, seeking entrance. She let out a strangled cry as I pushed inside, her smaller body squirming underneath me. The impulse to pound into her seized my body, but I willed myself to take my time.

  Slow and gentle. We had our whole lives for fast and hard.

  “Still good?” I asked.

  “I think so.” She wiggled her hips again and a burst of pleasure seized my entire body.

  “Easy,” I breathed out. “Am I hurting you?”

  She seemed to think over the question and my heart stopped while I waited for the answer. “No. It feels…different. Full, but not in a bad way.”

  I grunted and pushed into her with a little more force. “I want it to feel amazing for you.”

  She stroked her hands down my sides and dug her nails into my ass. “You can go faster. I can feel how much you’re holding back.”

  “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “You won’t.”

  She was so tight but dripping with arousal. I clutched one breast and scraped my teeth over her nipple. Her moaning spurred me on and I drove into her faster. Harder. Bit down on her other nipple.

  “Roman, I’m…” she strained, tense and so close. I reached between us and rubbed her secret spot until her eyes rolled back in her head and her little body jerked underneath me.

  Having the whole house to ourselves was a blessing. Juliet came hard and loud. So many different noises I’d never heard from her before.

  I wanted to hold back my own release as long as possible but lost the fight as soon as her muscles clamped down around me.

  We lay there panting, slick with sweat, staring into each other’s eyes.

  Juliet

  We fell asleep for a few minutes. Well, I did. Roman darted into the bathroom to clean up before slipping under the covers with me. He pulled my naked body against his. The warmth from his still-sweaty skin seeped into me.

  I sighed as his hand restlessly traced patterns over my hip and belly, down to my thighs and up between my breasts. He still seemed eager to roam and explore. And honestly, so was I.

  “Will you think I’m weird if I show you something?” I whispered.

  His hand stopped moving. “Never.”

  I reached out and yanked open the nightstand drawer. My cheeks heated as I pulled the vibrant book out of its hiding spot.

  Roman sat up. “What’s that?”

  “It’s silly. When I told Vienna I wasn’t going to prom, she gave me this.”

  Despite how intimate we’d just been, I had a hard time meeting his eyes as I handed over the colorful 101 Sensual Positions guide.

  His whole face lit up. “Remind me to thank her.”

  “Don’t you dare.”

  He chuckled and flipped over onto his belly, encouraging me to do the same so we could look through the book together.

  “What do you want to try next?” he asked.

  I hesitated. I truly didn’t know. When I’d first looked through the book, all of it seemed too overwhelming. Exciting but overwhelming. I wanted to wait to study it until Roman and I were together.

  “Come on.” He slipped his hand around mine, intertwining our fingers. “Which one makes you tingle when you look at it?”

  “Hmmm.” I flicked through the pages. “We already kind of did this.”

  “Not quite.” He pointed to the way the woman’s feet were braced against the man’s chest. “We’ll give that variation another try later. Right now let’s figure out what excites you.”

  “You excite me.” I leaned over and kissed him. When I pulled back, he was smiling and still waiting for an answer.

  “There was this…” I flipped the pages, finally landing on one called The Basket.

  He read the short description out loud and sat up. “Sounds sexy. Let’s do it.”

  “Now?”

  He reached over and grabbed another condom, tearing into it before answering me. “Right now.”

  My insides ignited at his eagerness. To please me.

  He put his back against the wall and stretched out one leg. “Come on.” He pulled me on top of him, arranging me in his lap the way the picture showed.

  “Yeah, this is hot. I like this.” He held my breasts in his hands, kissing and licking, while I figured out how to ease down his length. He lowered one hand to my hip, guiding me.

  “Oh!” I gasped and raised up.

  “Easy,” he encouraged. “You control how much you can take.”

  I liked that. Actively participating. The way other girls gossiped in school, it always seemed like sex was something boys did to you, not with you.

  I balanced my hands on his shoulders and tried again. The strange, almost painful fullness eased into something hotter and more pleasurable. “Ohhh.”

  “There you go.” His voice had turned into a choppy rasp. “You’re so beautiful. You feel so good. Don’t stop. Please.”

  I raised and lowered myself a few more times before falling into a faster, satisfying rhythm. That same heat from before swept over me, pulling me under and turning me inside out. “Oh my God,” I gasped and kept on riding him.

  When the overwhelming tingles faded and I opened my eyes, Roman gripped my hips and took control of my movements, wringing another orgasm out of me before finding his own release.

  I fell forward, resting my forehead against his shoulder.

  He stroked his hands up and down my back. “Ninety-nine positions to go, butterfly,” he whispered against my hair.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Roman

  We didn’t make it through the whole book, but we did eventually use the third condom.

  Then the part I’d been dreading all night came. Juliet’s alarm went off.

  “I set it in case we fell asleep,” she explained. “I don’t want you to be late getting back.”

  I groaned and untangled myself from her. “I don’t want to leave.”

  “I don’t want you to either, but I can’t have you get in trouble. Not when things are going so well.”

  She was right. I still hated it.

  “Stay like that. I want to burn this image in my head,” I said as I stood and yanked on my underwear and pants.

  She pulled the sheet back, giving me an unobstructed view of her naked body.

  “I didn’t get to do a fraction of the things I wanted to do to you,” I groaned.

  “We’ll have more chances,” she promised.

  I dropped to my knees beside the bed and took her hands in mine. “We will, Juliet. You’re my present. My future. When we’re together I’m something, and I’m nothing when we’re apart.”

  She stroked my cheek with the back of her hand. “Roman, you’re everything.”

  Her alarm chirped again. I kissed her once more, then finished getting dressed.

  To my disappointment, she also got dressed. “I’ll walk you downstairs.”

  “I’d tell you to stay up here and tuck you in, but I want to make sure you lock the door behind me.”

  “I will.”

  I followed her downstairs and checked the windows and back door before we said goodbye. “If I kiss you again, I won’t stop.”

  She nodded as if she had the same dilemma. “Go. I don’t want you to be late.” She reached up and pecked my cheek. “I love you.”

  “Love you too, butterfly.”

  Then I raced into the night, leaving my heart behind.

  Thoughts of Juliet and everything we’d done consumed me as I ran through the park. I arrived a few minutes before midnight and sat on the brick wall in front of the school to wait for the van.

  “Where were you?” Squire shouted. “Didn’t see you all night.”

  “I was around,” I muttered.

  “You sneak off with your girlfriend?” Janet’s nasal voice irritated me, but I shrugged off the question.

  I was saved from any more probing by the van pulling up to the curb. Judy opened the door and we clambered in.

  “How was it?” she asked.

  “Fun,” I answered quickly. Maybe too quick because she squinted at me for a second.

  “Yeah, Raman Noodles had so much fun, no one saw him all night long,” Squire tattled.

  I slapped his hand off my shoulder and took my seat. “Didn’t see you either. Where’d you and Janet sneak off to?”

  My hunch was correct and he finally shut his big mouth.

  Judy shook her head. “I hope you guys behaved. You know if you didn’t that means the kids next year won’t be able to go.”

  “Why’s that our problem?” Squire scoffed.

  Juliet’s scent clung to my skin and to my jacket. I stared out the window into the night, wondering if she was okay. Hating that I had to leave her after such a big step in our relationship. Furious that I wouldn’t see her until Monday morning.

  My body might have been on the van on the way to the group home. But my heart and mind were still in the bed with Juliet.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Roman

  One of the reasons I’d wanted to wait was that I knew the second Juliet and I had sex, I wouldn’t want to stop. After our “prom night,” we took any and every opportunity to sneak away for privacy and a quickie.

  She was still house-sitting for Mrs. Shields, so most days we raced there and tore each other’s clothes off as soon as we stepped in the front door.

  I spent a portion of my next paycheck on a jumbo-sized box of condoms that I stashed in Juliet’s room.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever been happier,” I said as I bent her over a mountain of pillows stacked on the couch for a position the book promised would allow for “deeper penetration.”

  “No kidding.” She laughed into her hands then moaned as I pushed into her.

  I lightly smacked her ass. “Not just because of this.”

  She glanced at me over her shoulder. “I know.”

  We ended up on the floor after that. Slow and gentle. Her on top. Side by side. You name it, we tried it.

  When I couldn’t put off leaving for work any longer, we got dressed. “Let me make you a sandwich to take to work,” she said.

  “I’ll be fine.” Juliet already did enough for me. I hated mooching food off her all the time.

  “We take care of each other,” she reminded me as if she knew what I’d been thinking.

  She packed up more than just a sandwich for me while I watched. Like always, she added cut up fruit and vegetables. A few cookies. Somehow, she just knew food was scarce at the home and was always trying to feed me.

  “Wouldn’t it be nice if we lived here together?” she said over her shoulder.

  As if I hadn’t thought the same thing a million times.

  I wrapped my arms around her waist, hugging her to me. “I’d love nothing more. Soon, butterfly. I promise.”

  She rubbed her hands over my arms. “I know.”

  “I probably won’t be able to afford a place as nice as this—”

  “But at least we’ll be together,” she finished for me.

  “Right.”

  Since she still had Mrs. Shields’ car to use, she drove me to work so I didn’t have to take the bus and risk being late.

  I kissed her goodbye and watched her drive off before heading inside.

  Ulfric had a line of paint cans waiting for me. “Touch up the building. Ain’t supposed to rain for a few days.”

  And that was the extent of the instructions I received for the day.

  That suited me fine.

  I worked better alone and uninterrupted. Ulfric had let it slip one day that he had hidden cameras stashed all over the place. He waited until after he’d confirmed that I didn’t fuck off while I was working to share that tidbit.

  Didn’t matter. Camera or not, I wasn’t a slacker.

  In the middle of my shift, I was twelve feet in the air dabbing white paint over bare patches of concrete when I heard the crunch of gravel below. I glanced down and groaned.

  “Dex, what are you doing here?” I greeted my surprise visitor.

  He smirked at the paintbrush in my hand as I climbed down the ladder. “Very good, kid.” He raised one finger in the air. “First rule of the streets, never let anyone get the jump on you.”

  “Uh, okay.” I glanced around. We were way in the suburbs. “This isn’t exactly the streets, Dex.”

  He rolled his lips like he was trying to bite back his laughter. “Need you to help me run an errand tonight.”

  Was he joking? My gaze skimmed the area. “I’m kinda in the middle of my actual job.”

  He grunted at the sarcasm. “Already spoke to Ulfric. He knows you’re leaving with me for a couple hours.”

  “A couple of hours?”

  “I’ll have you back by curfew, Cinderella.” He cocked his head toward the parking lot. “Come on.”

  I unzipped my coveralls and stopped in Ulfric’s office to confirm he was okay with me leaving before walking outside with Dex.

  “You’re not gonna make me ride bitch, are you?” I asked.

  He snorted. “No, smart-ass.”

  Instead of the bike, he led me to a fancy black sports car. “Somehow I expected you to drive a truck.”

  “I usually do. Get in.”

  “Aren’t you part of an MC? Why can’t any of your buddies help you with this errand?” I asked once we were on the road.

  “They’re busy.”

  “And I was your next best option?”

  “I’ll pay you double what you make the whole night painting cinderblocks.”

  I took that as my cue to quit bitching. “Okay.”

  After a few miles, he glanced over. “Tonight’s adventure stays between us. Juliet doesn’t need to be involved.”

  I wasn't sure how I felt about that. Juliet and I weren't in the habit of keeping secrets. But in the end, I figured the less she knew about whatever Dex was into, the safer she probably was.

  We pulled up in front of a large brick apartment building and Dex cut the engine. “Stay in the hallway and bang on the door if anyone’s coming. Then haul your ass down here and start the car.” He handed over the keys.

  “You’re not worried I’ll steal it and leave you behind?”

  He leveled a hard stare my way. “You’re not that stupid, Roman.”

  No, I wasn’t.

  “Are we doing something illegal?” I asked. Apparently, I was stupid enough to keep asking questions.

  “Nope.”

  That wasn’t reassuring.

  He punched a code into a keypad by the front doors and we went inside. He looked around for a second before jogging up the wide staircase in front of us. On the second floor, he scanned each apartment door before stopping in front of 4F.

  “Stay right here.” He pointed to the wall next to the door like I was an unruly puppy in need of training. “Keep your mouth shut.”

  “All right.” I hated everything about this situation, but I was also intrigued. What exactly was he willing to pay me so much money to do?

  Satisfied I’d stay like a good boy, he banged on the door.

  From inside, someone shouted, “What?”

  Dex mumbled something incoherent.

  The door opened. “What do you want?”

  Dex shoved his way inside.

  “What the fuck!? Who are—”

  Thump! The unmistakable sound of a fist smashing into someone’s face.

  The door slammed shut, but the sounds of the beating on the other side continued.

  What did Dex drag me into?

  Crash! Thwack! More thumping. I scanned the hallway. All the doors remained shut. None of the neighbors were concerned about the situation in 4F.

  Another smash. A loud grunt.

  Shit, what if the guy had gotten the upper hand and Dex was the one getting his ass kicked? The dude was obviously nuts, but Juliet loved him. I didn’t want him to get hurt.

  I nudged the door open and peeked inside.

  “You like beatin’ up on girls, motherfucker?” Dex sneered.

  Boom! He slugged the guy in the stomach. With his foot.

  “She fell!” the guy on the floor hollered.

  Thwack!

  “Fell my ass.” Dex pummeled the guy in the face. “This ain’t the first time you put your hands on that girl. But it will be your last.”

  And the beating continued.

  The guy had not gotten the upper hand. I don’t think he’d even touched Dex.

  More punches. A few kicks.

  The guy either died or passed out. I couldn't tell and didn’t care to investigate.

  Dex looked up and focused on me. I fought the urge to piss my damn pants under his intense stare.

  “Christ you’re a sneaky bastard. Didn’t I tell you to stay outside?” His tone wasn’t that sharp. He didn’t seem all that concerned that I’d just witnessed him beating a man half to death. No, the scariest thing about him was how calm and controlled he acted.

  “I heard a crash.” I shrugged. “Thought you might need help.”

  He cocked his head. “So you ran in here?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  He chuckled, but I got the sense he approved. The guy at his feet groaned and Dex spit on him.

  “Let’s go.” He slipped off his black leather gloves and stuffed them in his vest pocket. Eager to get the hell away from the scene, I followed.

  On the sidewalk, he held out his hand for the keys.

  “You make a habit of breaking into strangers’ homes and beating the hell out of ’em?” I asked once we were in the car.

  “Who said he’s a stranger?”