Romeo's Fated Choice

Prologue

Romeo

“You’re back early,” I said, turning away from the New Orleans Saints football game I was watching. “Kiddos are asleep, and Jack took LeeAnn to dinner at the Country Club. He said not to expect him anytime soon.”

Josie shrugged out of her coat and draped it over the back of a chair. I was already turning toward the television again when I noticed she wasn’t alone.

The young woman beside her looked around the family suite with the uncertain expression of someone who wasn’t sure she belonged there. Light brown hair framed a delicate face, and when her gaze finally reached mine, silver eyes stopped every thought in my head.

I stood without deciding to.

Beautiful didn’t begin to cover it.

Josie cleared her throat, and when I finally dragged my attention away from the girl, my cousin was glaring at me.

“Rome, this is Ms. Fiona Mitchell-Steiner. George and Frank’s little sister. Fiona is going to be our guest tonight.”

I crossed the room before good sense could suggest I do anything else. Fiona watched me approach with those remarkable eyes, and something strange tightened beneath my ribs.

I took her hand and bowed.

“Jasper Francis Alexander DuBois at your service, m’lady.”

She stared as I lifted her hand and brushed my lips over the back of it. The faintest smile appeared, and there went whatever chance I had of pretending my reaction to her was normal.

Rolling her eyes, Josie said, “Forgive him, Fiona. The men in this family are full of shit. They know no better.”

Fiona giggled.

Mon Dieu.

I’d spent most of my adult life making women laugh. None of them had ever produced a sound that went through me quite like that one.

“Come on,” Josie groaned, removing Fiona’s hand from mine. “Let me show you to your room before Rome really turns on the Southern charm.”

I watched them disappear down the hallway before returning to the couch. The Saints were still on the television, the score hadn’t changed, and five minutes earlier I’d cared enough about the game to yell at the screen.

Now I couldn’t have told you who had the ball.

All I saw was light brown hair and silver eyes.

She was young. That much had been obvious before Josie ever introduced her, and the realization should’ve been enough to shut down whatever strange thing had just happened inside me.

It wasn’t attraction alone. I knew attraction. I’d built half my reputation on it.

This felt different.

Older somehow. Deeper.

The thought that settled into my mind made absolutely no fucking sense.

Mine.

I stared at the television without seeing it.

Apparently, the La Croix family curse had finally decided I’d laughed at it long enough.

Fine.

If that was what this was, I could wait.

A sound from the hallway pulled my attention away from the game again sometime later. Fiona stood near the edge of the room, no Josie in sight this time.

“Hi,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Hi,” I returned with a smile. “You need something?”

She shook her head and glanced toward the empty cushion beside me.

“I couldn’t sleep.”

“Have a seat.”

I patted the cushion next to me.

Fiona crossed the room slowly and sat, pulling her legs beneath her. The easy smile from earlier was gone. She stared toward the fireplace instead, the flames throwing soft light across a face that looked entirely too sad for someone her age.

“You okay?”

She shrugged and kept her gaze on the fire.

Whatever brought her into this room had nothing to do with insomnia.

I reached for the remote and turned off the television. The sudden silence seemed to make her withdraw even further into herself, so I shifted closer and took her hand.

“Fiona, tell me what’s wrong.”

She inhaled before finally turning toward me. Tears shimmered in those pale eyes, and every instinct I had told me to pull her into my arms and keep her there until whatever had hurt her disappeared.

I stayed where I was.

“We had a school dance tonight.”

The dress made sense now.

“Didn’t go well?”

“I didn’t go. I mean, I went to the high school. But I didn’t go inside.”

She tugged her hand free. I let her, although every part of me disliked the empty space she left behind.

“Why not?”

Another shrug.

I turned toward her and rested my arm along the back of the couch, catching a loose strand of her hair between my fingers.

“Talk to me.”

“I sat in the parking lot watching everyone go in and just decided to skip it.”

Her hands twisted together in her lap.

That wasn’t the whole story.

“What’s his name?”

The surprise on her face would’ve amused me under different circumstances. Tonight, it only confirmed what I already knew.

Some little asshole had hurt her.

She blew out a breath and answered, “Joseph Higgins. He said he wanted to take me to the dance. But when I waved to him, he ignored me, and then I saw him escort Amy into the dance. I couldn’t believe it. I thought he liked me.”

Joseph Higgins.

I committed the name to memory.

“Want me to beat him up?”

Fiona smirked. “No. What’s the use? It won’t make any difference. It just hurts, ya know. I thought we were friends. I wasn’t asking for anything special. Just to go to a dance with someone I thought liked me.”

The little bastard had asked her to go with him, left her sitting outside alone, then walked another girl through the doors where Fiona could see him.

I’d disliked people for considerably less.

“You deserve special, Fiona. Even from where I’m sitting, I can see that. Don’t let one boy’s mistake stop you from dreaming of your happily ever after.”

She sniffed.

“Do girls like me ever get a happily ever after, Rome?”

The question wiped away every smartass response that normally came so easily.

I didn’t know what she meant by girls like her. Josie had told me enough to know Fiona had survived things no child should have had to survive, but I didn’t know the details.

I knew one thing.

Whatever had convinced her she belonged in a different category from everyone else needed to be proven wrong.

“Oh yes, sweet girl. Somewhere out there is your happily ever after, and when you are ready, he will be waiting for you. I know it.”

Fiona nodded, then leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to my cheek.

“Thank you for that. I needed to hear it.”

“Anytime.”

She wiped beneath her eyes as she stood and disappeared into one of the bedrooms.

I remained on the couch for a moment after the door closed.

Somewhere out there.

That had been a careful choice of words.

Telling a seventeen-year-old girl I’d met less than an hour ago that some ridiculous family instinct had me convinced I was her future seemed like an excellent way to frighten her and earn myself a conversation with every protective man in Rosewood.

Still, I’d meant what I told her.

Someone would be waiting when she was ready.

I already knew who.

I stood and crossed to the tall windows overlooking the dark Shenandoah Mountains. The glass reflected the room behind me, including the shadow near the hallway where my cousin had apparently been listening.

“Never in my life have I ever been so disgusted with my sex.”

Josie didn’t bother pretending she hadn’t heard us.

“Tonight, I am ashamed of the male species. Josie, that young lady has been through hell and back. Suffered and survived as no child should ever have to. She is screaming for someone to love her, and some asshole broke her heart tonight. I want to find the little bastard and wring his neck.”

Josie came to stand beside me and wrapped an arm around my waist, resting her head against my shoulder.

“You can’t protect her all the time, Rome.

You’ll be going home to Diamond Creek after the wedding.

Then what? I don’t think your club president will allow you to stay here and follow a teenage girl around.

‘Cause let’s face it, that will get your butt thrown into jail fast. Then where will she be? ”

“It just ain’t right, Josie.”

“She’s young and resilient. Plus, she’s stronger than she looks, and with two big brothers, a full clubhouse, and people who care about her, trust me, she will be just fine. Adolescence is hard. We’ve all been through it.”

She was right.

I knew she was right.

That didn’t change the certainty that had been sitting inside me since Fiona walked into the room.

“She’s mine, Josie,” I whispered.

“What?”

I turned away from the windows.

“I know it sounds crazy, but I just know. Knew it the second I saw her. Something hit me hard. You’ve heard the stories about the La Croix family curse.”

She slowly nodded.

Everybody around New Orleans knew some version of the story.

The La Croix family had beauty in abundance and apparently terrible fucking timing when it came to love.

Generation after generation claimed to recognize the person they were destined to spend their life with almost on sight, usually young and almost never without complications.

I’d always considered it romantic bullshit our family had polished through enough generations that everybody forgot it started as superstition.

Until tonight.

“My own momma—she was barely fifteen when my dad laid eyes on her, and when she turned eighteen, he married her. Aunt Marabella, Wade’s momma, was seventeen when she wed Daniel Crawley.

Hell, Auntie Gail ran away with Uncle John to get married.

They were barely seventeen themselves. For as long as I can remember, I’ve heard stories about the La Croix family.

I just never thought it would happen to me. ”

“Rome, she’s barely seventeen.”

I nodded.

“I know, and it’s a good thing I’m going home after the wedding, because I don’t trust myself not to take her away from all this heartache.

She deserves better than what I can give her.

My life ain’t easy. Jack and Blade have been keeping me abreast of what’s happening in the underworld.

It ain’t pretty.” I caught my cousin’s gaze and said, “Promise me something, Josie?”

“Anything.”