Shayne groans and shoves me in the ribs before glancing back over her shoulder to Marcus. “We just need to … talk,” she tells him.
“Right,” he scoffs.
“Go now, Marcus,” she warns him. “Before I tell him how you told me about the time you shot him in the ass when you were kids.”
Betrayal tears through me as I gape at my brother. “We made a pact,” I spit. “Where’s your sense of loyalty?”
Marcus shoves Levi in the back before glancing down at his nonexistent watch. “Oh, shit. Is that the time? We better get going.”
The boys disappear through the door and I don’t miss the way Marcus pulls the door shut behind him, going the extra mile not to click it into place, but in all honesty, an easy escape is probably in both of our best interests, seeing as though the two of us have rarely had a single conversation that didn’t include trying to tear each other’s head off.
Shayne’s soft gaze falls back to mine. I swallow hard as I scoot up on her bed, leaning my back against the headboard so I can meet her eye to eye. Wanting to be right in front of me, she moves over me, straddling my lap before nervously gripping the hem of my shirt and playing with the material between her fingers.
Her gaze drops, and I catch her chin before she can lower it. “Don’t,” I rush out. “Don’t look away from me.”
Her brows furrow and she watches me for a moment, the silence growing louder between us. “Why now?” she whispers.
“You know why,” I tell her. “It’s been there since the very beginning, and I know you feel it too. I can’t deny it anymore, Shayne. I can’t keep pushing you away.”
“I don’t want you to.”
My gaze drops to my arm where the tattoo of her bite stares up at me and a hollowness spreads through my chest. “I’ve put you through the worst kind of hell,” I remind her. “I’ve done terrible things. I’ve denied you over and over again, pushing you away like you mean nothing to me. I’ve hurt you, Shayne. I didn’t trust you when it mattered the most. You should still be pushing me away. You deserve so much better than me.”
“You’re right,” she murmurs, her fingers brushing over the tattoo. “I’ve spent months trying to tell myself that what I feel for you isn’t real. Especially after what happened when Marcus got shot. I wanted to hate you so much, but you just kept showing up for me, you always have. You’ve protected me the only way you knew how, right from the very start. You made it impossible for me to hate you, and I don’t want to keep trying. I want to be with you, Roman. I’m not scared of this.”
My dark gaze bores into her innocent eyes. “You should be.”
Shayne shakes her head and hesitantly brings her hand up before brushing her fingers over the side of my face. I can’t help but lean into her touch, letting it soften something deep inside my chest, something I’ve never quite felt before. “When will you finally realize that denying yourself happiness and love isn’t living at all? Everything has always been taken from you, and I don’t know how he’s done it, but at some point in your life, your father has made you believe that to fall for someone is to be weak, and I don’t believe that for one second. I think being vulnerable and opening yourself up to someone else, to let them in, shows that you’re stronger than he could ever be.”
“You’re making me question everything I’ve ever known, Shayne, and that scares me more than the thought of losing you.”
She shakes her head. “You’re never going to lose me,” she murmurs. “Don’t you see? You’ve had me since day one. I’ve always been yours.”
A grin pulls at my lips as the seriousness in her eyes begins to fade. “I don’t suppose you mean just mine?”
Shayne’s lips twist into a crooked grin that has something fluttering deep inside me, something I’ve never experienced before. Is this what that weird butterfly thing is that chicks are always talking about? “No chance in hell,” she tells me. “Me and your brothers are a package deal. If you want me, then you need to accept that I’m wholeheartedly theirs, just as I am yours.”
Her fingers twist into the back of my hair, and I can’t help but notice how the tension seeps out of her shoulders. “I just have one question,” she says, her eyes locked onto mine. “Why now? You’ve always been so adamant that we would never happen. You’ve been pushing me away every chance you got. I just … I don’t understand.”
Silence consumes me as I try to figure out my response. “To be honest, I’m not entirely sure. I think it was burying Mom. She was barely my age when my father took her life, and it got me thinking just how short life can really be. What if that was you? My father could have easily ended your life when he took you to those cells in the desert, and I can’t stop thinking about how I never would have gotten the chance to tell you how fucking badly I have craved your touch since the second I laid eyes on you. Life is too fucking short for me to keep pushing you away. We could all be dead next week, and I want to live knowing that if I were to get a bullet through the head, I had everything I needed.”
“You’re really sure about this?”
I nod, hating that I’ve pushed her away so much that she barely believes me now. “I’m sure, Empress. I won’t push you away anymore. I can’t promise that it’s always going to be easy. You’ve got three assholes who fight, argue, and get jealous over the stupidest shit. We have short tempers and throw fucking switchblades when challenged. But bear with us. I call you Empress for a fucking reason.”
“Really?” she murmurs, her brows arching with interest. “And why’s that?”
“Because I’ve always known that you would rule over us. It was inevitable.”
Her eyes sparkle with the sweetest warmth, and it’s almost as though I can feel the heat spreading through her veins. She adjusts herself on my lap, moving in closer, still hesitating as she doesn’t know how to be with me yet, what boundaries she can push and where she needs to hold back. She leans into me, her eyes hooded as I feel her soft breath brushing over my lips. “Are you in love with me, Roman DeAngelis?”
My voice drops to a soft whisper as my lips move over hers. “Like you wouldn’t fucking believe.”
Shayne sinks into me and captures my lips in a deep kiss, a soft moan rumbling deep in her chest. Satisfaction and pleasure roll through me and hope surges through my veins. Fuck, I think I even feel a shred of happiness for the first time in my life. A weight lifts off my shoulders and is replaced with a fiery freedom that crashes through my chest, and for the first fucking time in my life, I feel as though I could do anything, and it’s all because of her.
My hands curl around her waist as my lips pull into a smile. Is this what I’ve been missing this whole time?
Holy fuck. I feel invincible.