Page 126 of Burning Daylight

“Don’t swear at all.”

“If you’d just?—”

I move forward suddenly, my front pressing against his. His words cut off, and he sucks in a sharp breath, his arm leaving the door and coming down to grip my hiptightly.

“I like you, okay?” I admit.

His eyes flare.

“But it doesn’t matter. This thing with you, it’s…reckless.”

“So be a little reckless,” he barbs back.

“It’s too sudden, and you’re actively trying to tarnish my family name, and, well, it makes me nervous. What if I do go with you, Roman? What if we break these boundaries we’ve set? Then what? We have this one night and then it’s over like lightning, so fast you can barely speak the word before it’s gone.”

His fingers flex on my hip. “It doesn’t have to be just one night.”

“It shouldn’t be anything at all.”

I try to push him away so I can leave, but he tightens his hold on me, bringing me back, one of his hands sliding against my jaw and gripping the hair at the nape of my neck.

“But it is.”

31

ROMAN

I’ve wanted to put my mouth on Juliette’s again since the moment I climbed onto her balcony, and my heart is tripping over itself with the possibility of it happening right now.

But right before our lips touch, she stops me.

“Roman,” she whispers.

My stomach sinks, but I grin anyway. “Say my name again, Little Rose.”

Her eyes spark, and my hand that’s threaded through the back of her hair grips tighter, positioning her head so her lips are angled up and her throat is exposed.

It would besoeasy to dip down and taste her.Markher.

The door behind us jolts, and it pushes her into me, throwing us both off-kilter and making our noses touch instead of our mouths.

“Ow, what the fuck?” someone mutters from the other side.

Alarm rips through me, and I grip Juliette’s hip, pulling her away from the door. Her eyes widen, panic spreading over her features, and I can feel that she’s about to run away from me. ButI can’t have that, not right now, not when I was so close to having her where I want her.

“It’s locked, you absolute idiot.” Another voice filters through the wall, muffled but close.

I move my hand from Juliette’s hip, slipping it around her fingers instead. If we weren’t rushed for time, I’d probably focus more on the way her palm fits in mine perfectly.

Instead, I pull her down the hallway and out the back exit until we’re in the alley behind the bar. There’s not much out here, just two blue dumpsters, a small shed, and a few chairs scattered in the left-hand corner like this is where the employees come out to smoke.

Juliette’s gaze is scanning everything like she can’t decide where to look: the line of cars, the wooden fencing along the left side of the building, the concrete wall to the right, or the puddles on the ground from yesterday’s rain.

I grip her hand tighter, because I don’t want her to run away. I know that we shouldn’t be seen together. Not because I particularly care at this moment, although I probably should, but becauseshewould care.

And that’s a knife in my gut, knowing that no matter what I do, what I say, how worthy I become, I’ll never be good enough for her.

Just like I wasn’t good enough for my father.