Players gotta play.
Hate is like a poison. It contaminates everything.
So does doubt.
Even though I deny what I overheard, even though I insist it isn’t true, the seed of doubt has been planted. I can’t help but be tormented with the endless what-if’s that have taken over our lives.
Romeo and I were happy in love. The future stretched before us brighter than any star in the darkest sky. Now everything is broken. Literally broken. Romeo’s entire career is at stake, my entire future is threatened… and my past?
It’s coming back to haunt me.
To haunt us.
Romeo says we’re in this together and right now the only sure thing is us. But how far can a love so new be pushed? The lengths we will have to go to save each other puts everything at risk.
Romeo is a #player but how much of the game can one person play?
The azure shade of his eyes caressed me to my soul. I swear he looked at me like no one else ever could. It was like there was nothing else in existence except me. It was like he wasn’t just looking at me, but in me, and I was the most precious thing he’d ever seen.
I got caught up in that gaze. I got caught up in him. My chest felt like it caved in, but not in a disaster sort of way. Like it was sealing in everything he was saying even though no words ever left his tongue.
“How do you do it?” I whispered. My tongue felt thick against the roof of my mouth.
“Do what?” he asked. That look never once left his eyes. If anything, it swept me in tighter.
“How do you look at me like… like I’m everything?”
He made a low sound in the deepest part of his throat. Sort of like a growl, sort of like an agreement. “Because you are.”
“Romeo.” I sighed.
“Rimmel,” he replied. “Don’t forget.”
I started to pull back from the moment, but his fingers tightened on my hip. I looked back up.
“Don’t forget this moment. Don’t forget the absolute truth in the way you feel right now. I love you and I’m not going to stop.”
Emotion welled up in my throat and tears rushed to the backs of my eyes. His words were beautiful, but it was the reason he said them that had me so choked up.
This wasn’t the end.
Beyond this moment, this quiet, whole moment with him, were many more. Many more that weren’t going to be like this one.
We were going to have to keep fighting to keep what was ours.
“I’m not going to stop either,” I whispered.
A smile stretched over his face and lit up his eyes. I leaned closer and sealed my vow with my lips. The rush of heat I always felt when we kissed tingled my toes and they curled into the blankets. I opened my mouth so his tongue could venture inside, and I sighed, so wanting to feel him.
But the moment was cut short.
The door opened and a man with graying hair, a white coat, and a file in his hand stepped in.
“Mr. Anderson,” he said, looking straight at Romeo. It was like he didn’t even notice the intimate bubble Romeo and I occupied. “I have your X-ray results.”
The bubble burst abruptly and reality rushed back in.
Romeo’s dad came in the room, his face concerned as Valerie hovered just outside the doorway staring into the room like it was some forbidden fruit.
I scrambled up to sit on the mattress, ignoring the protests of my sore body. Romeo did the same, moving a little more gingerly.
In the space between us on the mattress, our fingers intertwined.
“How bad is it?” Romeo asked. For once I heard fear in his tone.
I glanced at him.
He glanced at me.
Our moment was over.
The fight started now.
Cambria Hebert is a bestselling novelist of more than twenty books. She went to college for a bachelor’s degree, couldn’t pick a major, and ended up with a degree in cosmetology. So rest assured her characters will always have good hair.
Besides writing, Cambria loves a caramel latte, staying up late, sleeping in, and watching movies. She considers math human torture and has an irrational fear of chickens (yes, chickens). You can often find her running on the treadmill (she’d rather be eating a donut), painting her toenails (because she bites her fingernails), or walking her chorkie (the real boss of the house).
Cambria has written within the young adult and new adult genres, penning many paranormal and contemporary titles. Her favorite genre to read and write is romantic suspense. A few of her most recognized titles are: Text, Torch, Tryst, Masquerade, and Recalled.
Cambria Hebert owns and operates Cambria Hebert Books, LLC.
