His Juliet: An Age Gap Hurt Comfort Mafia Romance (Empire of Royals Book 2)

My heart leapt when my phone vibrated. It was one a.m. and Romeo was calling. I’d barely heard anything from him since he left last night. I knew he was busy on his business trip, but I hadn’t been able to shake the feeling of being rejected by his silence.

“Hi.” I cringed at how breathless I sounded.

“Hi, angel. How’s your book tonight?”

I snuggled further into the covers, sinking into the deep rumble of his voice. Tension I hadn’t realized I was holding in my chest melted away at the sound of him.noveldrama

“It’s not really catching my attention. Good thing I have my gentleman caller to distract me.”

Romeo chuckled, but it sounded strained.

My brow furrowed in concern. “Are you okay?”

“How can you read me so easily, even through the phone?”

“Must be all the late-night chats.” My words were supposed to be teasing, but they came out a little too sincerely.

“Must be,” he murmured.

“So what’s going on?”

“Nothing much. I just had a long day at work.”

“Are you tired? You should sleep.”

“Nah, I want to hear about your day.”

Warm and fuzzy feelings blanketed my body at how he genuinely wanted to know about my life. “It was uneventful.”

He hummed. “You gotta give me more than that. Did the old people come in?”

I’d told Romeo about an elderly man and woman who had met at the store the other day. They’d both ended up at the desk at the same time to pay, and the woman had looked the man up and down and told him she expected him to ask her out the next time they saw each other.

“Yes, they did.”

“And?”

“And he totally asked her out. She said it was about time and agreed to dinner.”

“Mmm, you think it’s going to work out?”

“I hope so. She definitely seems to know what she wants.” I wished I was as assertive as her. Then maybe I could demand more from Romeo. My cheeks burned just thinking about it.

I kept talking about my day, telling him all the little things I never had a chance to share with anyone. Romeo murmured and asked follow-up questions. After a while, he fell quiet and all I could hear through the phone was his breathing. I smiled, happy that he’d finally fallen asleep.

The intimacy of the moment wrapped around me. I kept my phone pressed to my ear and closed my eyes, imagining what it would be like to sleep next to Romeo. Maybe I would curl up against him, or even rest my head on his chest. I imagined how his face would relax as he slept, the lines of tension softening as he wrapped his warm body around mine.

I didn’t want to hang up. Instead, I turned off my lamp and pulled the covers over my head.