Page 72 of Roma Queen
I slap a hand over the offending injury, ruffling my hair to hide it from sight. “No. I have no idea what you’re talking about. Don’t be ridiculous.”
Shireen gives me a knowing look, both eyebrows hiked up her forehead. “Please, girl. I know a sex bite when I see one. And…” She pauses, inspecting the back of my head. “Seriously? There’s grass and twigs in your hair. You two are fucking animals.”
There’s no point denying it. We really are. Thankfully, our clothes, back on our bodies now, are covering the other numerous grazes, nail gouges, and hand prints we decorated each other with. Shireen would flip out if she caught sight ofthose. She plucks a blade of grass out of my hair, showing it to me like I’m a misbehaving child caught in a lie, and then she straightens me out a little, tucking a few more flowers behind my ears and into the braid she’s just woven into a circlet around my head.
“Nervous?” she asks, reminding me of Pasha asking me the same thing about an hour ago.
I repeat the same thing I told him, then. “Pasha’s going to be the center of attention. I’m just along for the ride, right?”
Shireen snorts. “If you believe that, then you clearly haven’t been paying attention.”
“What does that mean?”
“That means the other clans are here today. The entire West Coastfamilia. And every single one of them has heard about the redheadedgadjewho’s bewitched the boy about to sit his ass down on our throne. They all know who Pasha is. None of them have caught sight of you yet. Who doyouthink they’re all gonna be looking at?”
Oh…shitting…fuck.
She’s right. I haven’t thought this through properly. I can already feel my skin creeping with embarrassment under the weight of so many curious eyes. “It’s all right. I’ll be with you and the kids.”
“Sorry, my love.” Shireen takes me by the hand and leads me out of the Winnebago. “You’re gonna be right up there, standing next to him I’m afraid.”
“What?” I try and pull my hand free, horrified, but Shireen’s a ninja. Far too used to her kids trying to give her the slip. She only holds tighter as she hurries me out of the encampment toward the ridgeline to our left. We begin to climb up the steep incline of the hill, and I can hardly think around the chorus of objections all clamoring for my attention in my head. “I’m not gonna be next to him. No way. This has nothing to do with me, Shireen.”
“Hah! I’ve given you more credit, love, but if you believe that, then you really must be as stupid as that dark-haired lug. Of course, it haseverythingto do with you.”
“He’syour king, Shireen. I’m just...”
“You’re just the woman he’s gonna be spending the rest of his life with?”
My cheeks feel like they’re about to burst into flames. “Now let’s not get a little ahead of ourselves…”
Huffing from the climb, Shireen halts, wild-eyed, and spins on me, dropping my hand. “What? You don’t want to spend the rest of your life with him?” she asks incredulously.
Awkward. Oh god, this is damned awkward. “Of course I do. But…Pasha and I have hardly spoken about any of that yet. He hasn’t brought it up. Who’s to say he wants to spend the rest of his life withme?”
The sound of Shireen’s belly laugh echoes around the glen. She looks like she’s going to piss herself, she’s laughing so hard. “Ahhh,Ves ‘tacha.You aresofucking blind, it’s funny. He’s committed. He’s locked in. I’ve never seen a Rom man so fucking ready to get married in all my life. And trust me…once these morons get the idea into their heads,they are themarryingtypes. It’s been a part of his culture and his up-bringing his whole life, Zara. And even if it wasn’t, Pasha isn’t the type of guy to screw around and play games. He loves you more than anything else on the face of this earth. He worships you, and everybody knows it. There won’t be a single person gathered on the other side of this ridgeline who’ll look at him and not know that his ass belongs to you, woman. For better or worse. So when they look atyou, they’re not going to be seeing some…what did Cleo call you that first night? They’re not gonna be seeing some honored guest, who’s just come along to celebrate her boyfriend’s fucking promotion. They’re going to be seeing the woman their king has chosen to stand by his side until the day he dies. They’re going to be seeing their future queen. You do understand that, right?”
Oh…
Fuck.
Slowly, I sink down into a crouch, aware that I probably look a little weird, but I need to take a minute to catch my breath. If I don’t, I’m going to keel over. “Uhhhhh….”
“Don’t be such a baby,” Shireen says, laughing. “Didn’t you play dress-up when you were a kid? Although, you don’t even really get to dress up all that much in this role,” she adds absently. “It’s gonna be fine. From what I understand, Pasha’s going to be a part-timer anyway. You two are going to be staying here in Spokane for a good chunk of the year, right?”
“Yeah, that’s what…what we decided.” I feel numb, like my whole body is made out of rubber.
Shireen seems to realize that I’m actually freaking out for real and sinks down, crouching in front of me. “Shit.” She huffs. “In all seriousness, Zara. These last few months have been awesome. You’re amazing, and I think of you as a sister already, but Pasha is important. I call him dumb names all the time, and I give him hell as often as I can, but the guy standing on the other side of this ridge represents the future of our people. We don’t have much. Being Roma is fuckinghardin this country. It’s hard whatever country our people find themselves in. We’re going to be trying to figure out where we belong in this world for a long time yet, and Pasha’s signing up to be our flag bearer today. Our advocate, and our voice.
“Honestly, there are gonna be times when that’s gonna be a really shitty job for him. If you don’t think you can stand by his side and hold his hand through those days…if you don’t think you can be there for him and be his equal, be his strength and his light no matter fucking what? Then I’m begging you…pleasedon’t walk down the other side of this hill. Because it will fuckingbreakhim if you walk away further down the line. And I can’t allow that to happen.”
Wow. Well, shit just got real, apparently. I meet Shireen’s gaze, and I see kindness there. She’s not trying to be cruel. She’s just laying it out and telling it like it is, and…well, I appreciate her honesty. I swallow down the lump in my throat and take a deep breath. “I love him every bit as much as he loves me. He’s a part of my soul. I’m never going to walk away from him, Shireen. That was never even a possibility. It just came out of the left field is all. The whole…Queenthing.”
Shireen’s face is still serious, but her eyes are smiling now. She gets to her feet, holding out her hand. She helps me up, then links her arm with mine, taking off up the hill again. “Don’t worry,” she says, elbowing me playfully in the side. “You’ve got time. At least a month or so.”
“Amonth!”
Shireen cackles like a witch all the way down other side of the hill.
