Page 37 of Born Free

It’s over. The period of figuring things out. We’re there.

It’s me and him.

Roman hauls us up into the bed properly. He rolls, lying on his back, and he pulls me on top of him, my knees on either side of his hips.

A smile spreads on my face as I look at him. My heart feels so warm, so peaceful, so right. I lay my hands on his bare chest, and he covers them with his own. And he smiles too, one that seeps into his eyes, softening everything in his expression.

“We’ll take on the world come dark,” Roman says. There are promises there. There’s action. There’s self-assuredness. “But the last four days have been hell. Stay with me?”

I lean forward and gently press my lips to his. “Always,” I promise.

I slide off him and curl into his side, my head resting on his chest, one leg laying over his. He pulls me in close, pressing his nose into my hair.

This feels like forever. This feels like fate.

Archer King was right. His prophesy is fulfilled.

We corrected one of the world’s greatest tragedies.

This Juliet can’t ever die. And she brought Romeo back from the dead.

Even death hasn’t ripped us apart.

I won’t let anything else, either.

It’s me and Roman. Forever.

CHAPTERNINE

“Whatever it was,it was bad, wasn’t it?” Lily asks hesitantly.

I nod without looking at her. This is going to be very, very complicated, explaining mine and Roman’s disappearance without telling the truth of it. My curse might be known among the Council now, but the general public can never know. Even if I adore Lily. Even if she is the daughter of a Born vampire and will one day be one herself. Even if I’m pretty sure she’s going to be Elena’s sister-in-law soon.

“Things never really stop here,” I say as we walk down the hallway together. I feel so disoriented, so out of step since I’ve been gone for the last few days. But everything is running smoothly at the hospital. With the right staffing in place, things are finally running without my constant attention. “We deal with one issue, but there are three more layers to it, always. And you’ll never guess who we had to make a deal with to take care of the latest issue.”

“Who?” Lily asks, in complete rapture of my words.

“Sebastian,” I state, raising my brows as we step through the emergency room doors. She’s about to start her shift, and I’m headed to check on things.

Lily stops in her tracks. “As in, he might walk back into this hospital? Your former fiancé who tried to take out the supernatural population of Chicago?”

I nod. “The hospital is his. I just kind of took it over when he disappeared. But legally, I have zero claim. I keep expecting to see him walk in the doors any second.”

That stirs all kinds of complicated emotions. Memories. Fears. Happy, sad, angry. It’s all a tangled mess.

Lily shakes her head. “He’s putting himself in danger. Everyone knows what he did now.”

I nod. “I don’t get it. I don’t know if he’s so delusional that he thinks he can fix things between us, or what.”

Diana, our lead nurse in the ER, walks up and hands me a clipboard with something to sign. “Glad to see you’re back. You disappear for a few days without leaving word? Everyone was pretty damn worried.”

I smile at her and hand over the signed paperwork. “I appreciate that, and I’m sorry I can’t really give any explanations. I’m okay, though.”

She just gives a smile and a nod before wandering off, headed back to her duties.

“So,” I say, looking back at Lily. “I heard you and Mason had a date.”

Lily blushes hard, her eyes dropping away from mine. “We did. I’m sorry, I intended to talk to you about it, but then you kind of disappeared before I had the chance. I don’t want things to be weird between us. I know you and Mason had—”

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