Page 36 of Born Free

My hands explore, making their way up his biceps, over his shoulders, traveling down his back. All this glorious skin. I want to trace every one of his tattoos and memorize them. I want to know what every surface of him feels like.

Roman pulls us from the wall and works his way over to my bed. Gently, protectively, he lays me back on it, pressing the weight of his body into me. His mouth moves in unison with mine. Warm hands travel up my arms, pulling them up above my head before he pins them together on the bed.

He dips his head down, kissing along my jawline, slipping down my neck. His tongue slides out, getting a taste of me before he bites at the skin there, soft, but possessive. My eyes roll back in my head, my body arching off the bed to meet his.

Roman’s hand releases mine, and with reverence, he slides his hands from my hips, up my sides, slipping beneath my shirt. But they stop there, holding me close to him, gently, worshipfully.

“I thought I’d kill the entire House of Badillo when I realized Santiago took you,” Roman says, tracing the tip of his nose up the center of my belly. “I’ve never, ever felt rage like that. If it weren’t for the safety of all of Chicago, there would have been a lot of bodies.”

He shifts his weight forward and combs his fingers back into my hair. “When Sigrid told me where you were…” He shakes his head. I see pain in his eyes. Fear. “Nothing has ever made me feel like that, Juliet.” His voice is little more than a whisper.

I’m breaking and healing all at once. Roman’s words have a power over me like no one else ever has. They reach into the very core of my being. They fill me, complete me.

I place my hand to his cheek, and he leans into it just slightly.

“I know you might still need time, and I’m not asking anything different from you,” Roman says, the intensity in his eyes building. “But I want to be very clear, Juliet. You are everything. You are the most important thing in this world to me. You’re the first thing on my mind when I wake and everything in my dreams when I sleep.”

Emotions bite the back of my eyes, and my insides feel slightly shaky.

He presses his forehead to mine, his eyes sliding closed. He takes in a steady, deep breath. His body is so calm, so confident. He opens his eyes again, staring all the way down to my soul. “Let me be very clear. I love you, Juliet. Forever. Until the end of my immortal life, I love you.”

Those words have only been spoken to me a few times in my life. But they have never, ever had the explosive impact like they do when Roman confesses them.

Roman loves me.

“I love you too,” I breathe out, an emotional quiver in my voice. I’m shocked at myself that there is no hesitance, that the words come out immediately. “I still can’t believe we’re here. That we found our way to each other. But you’re my future, Roman. And I’m done being hesitant and embarrassed, and questioning myself. It’s you, Roman. You’re it. I know it with everything in me. Iloveyou.”

I do.

I love him.

And with the confession of the truth, something explodes in me. The dam breaks. It floods me with fate and cosmic kismet.

Roman and Juliet.

It was always going to be us.

Roman’s lips claim mine, and this kiss is different. It’s confident. It’s sure. It’s natural and new and meant to be.

My fingers lace into his hair as I pull him closer to me, tighter. His hand wraps around my waist, lifting me off the bed slightly.

It’s over. My guilt, my shame over the fact that I was with Mason, and it was all about being physically selfish. That I was with Sebastian and we were too broken to ever work together. I’m done with the guilt. I’m done being embarrassed that I’ve been with two other men in under a year.

Because it doesn’t matter. I had to figure myself the hell out. I had to find my path here, however rocky it was.

I had to go through all that to see my soulmate.

And it’s Roman freaking De Luca.

He’s my it.

My person.

My forever.

“I love you,” he growls into our kiss. And the confidence, the surety that grows in his voice is astonishing.

It’s like we’ve both broken through this barrier. This hesitance. This questioning.

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