"Enough!" Romeo's father barked, silencing the room. He walked forward and put his hand around Romeo's shirt collar, dragging him close. Romeo just let him do it, adopting a blank look in his eyes.

"You ever speak to your momma like that again and I will end you. I won't discuss this any further. Quit fuckin' the girl and get on board with what's happening. Your one fuckin' purpose in this life is to do as we say and do your duty as a Prince! So do it! And stop being such a pig-headed asshole!" His voice was deep and sinister, demanding Romeo's complete obedience.

Mr. Prince threw Romeo back towards me and I had to brace myself to stop him knocking me down to the floor. Romeo righted himself and put his hands on my face, checking that I was okay. I wasn't. I don't think anyone would've been after getting attacked in such an abhorrent way. He saw my pain reflecting back at him and with a moan, he wrapped me securely in his embrace.

His worst nightmare had just come true.

Romeo faced his parents. "I'm through with y'all. I choose Molly. I choose to not be in this fucked-up life anymore. Jesus Christ! What more can you do to me?! You're the worst fuckin' people I've ever known. I'm your only son and you can't stand me." He stepped slightly forward, imploring his parents to listen. "Have you ever even loved me? Ever just once felt anythin' for me?"

Mr and Mrs. Prince looked at each other and cracked up, their cackles echoing around the grand room. I was convinced I'd just witnessed the personification of pure evil.

His father stepped forward. "How can anyone love you? How can anyone love a stone in their shoe? You're just one giant disappointment. But you will do your duty to this family, regardless. We'll find a way to make you see reason, you mark my words."

Shelly shuffled on the chaise longue, unable to hide her discomfort at the whole scene. At least she didn't seem as vindictive as his parents, more like a clueless pawn in their scheme.

Romeo took my hand and I almost cried out loud at the constriction of his fingers around mine. "We're leavin'. The biggest disappointment of your life is out for good."

Romeo yanked me with him and I risked a look back over my shoulder and saw the unbridled rage on his parents' faces.

"Come back here, boy! This is not the end!" Mr. Prince screamed. Romeo didn't stop, and I had a feeling we'd just fanned a very dangerous flame.

We burst through the doors and Romeo pulled me to the truck. He opened the door and practically threw me in, and I watched as he vaulted in beside me and spun his wheels down the driveway.

Droplets of water splashed on my pale hands that were braced on my thighs, and when I lifted my shaking hand, I found tears mixed with black mascara were pouring freely from my eyes. Romeo radiated tension. He never once looked at me as I slowly sank into desperation in the soft black leather upholstery.

"Romeo..." I whispered.

"Not now. God! Just...be quiet..." he snapped as his eyes crinkled in pain.

I flinched and curled myself against the window and away from his anger.

He'd warned me; Ally had warned me. I didn't listen, had ignored the truth. I had witnessed his father attack him, but I never imagined that Romeo had lived with that. Endured years of cruelty and violence like that.

My shoulder pressed hard against the metal car door as Romeo made a sharp right and I noticed we were heading to the creek. I just wanted to go home. I wanted to forget the whole night and figure out what the hell to do next.

The gentle flowing creek came into view, almost silver in the dusky twilight, and I was surprised when we didn't stop.

We drove about a mile farther down the road, deep amongst the cotton fields, when a small, one-storey dark wood log cabin came into view. The truck skidded to a hard stop and Romeo wrenched his door open and stormed into the cabin, flicking on a low light. Crashes and smashing noises ensued.

I stayed motionless in the Dodge. I didn't want to go inside. For the first time ever, Romeo's outburst scared me. I didn't believe he'd hurt me, but I also didn't want to be around him right now. He was more unpredictable than I'd ever seen him before.

My head fell in defeat against the cold windowpane, and I stared at the millions of stars in the dark sky-I always felt small and insignificant in the vastness of the universe. Not tonight, though. No matter how small I knew our problems were in the grand scheme of things, I couldn't help but replay over and over what happened only minutes prior.

Good God, I'd never known anything like it.

The Princes hated Rome. His parent's genuinely loathed him and they seemed almost proud of that fact. They hit him, threatened him, and verbally tore me to shreds.

How did he cope with that all of his life?

I may have had a difficult time losing my family, but I knew love, unconditional love. I was never mistreated. Life for Romeo must have been an absolute living hell.

Guilt cascaded through my body when I thought of how he'd spent endless weeks helping me, telling me I was brave and strong and coaxing me out of my shell. When in reality it was his strength that was inspiring. He needed the support.

As time passed, the night grew eerily silent. I knew that I needed to be with him, to comfort him, show him I hadn't given up, and tell him, at long last, just how much I loved him.

18.

The rickety cabin door creaked open, the tiny room boasting uneven stained floorboards, an old worn brown sofa, and a dusty two-person table as its only features. Romeo was on the farthest side of the small, dusty room. His head was flush against the wall and his shirt was un-tucked, sleeves folded to his elbows, and the collar was still askew from where his daddy had wrenched it aside.

I knew he'd heard my entrance as his back muscles bunched. I shut the door and when I turned around, Romeo was fixed my way, animosity distorting his beautiful face.

"You should never have made us come here!" he shouted, my body jumping at the volume and intensity of his words. "I warned you! I told you they weren't happy about us, but you didn't listen to me. You told me it'd be okay, that they would see us together and realise what we meant to each other. But no! Instead, you agreed to your own fuckin' execution. Christ, Mol! The way they treated you..."

I let him pour it all out. I didn't say a thing, but held my head high and allowed him to vent.

Marching towards me, he stopped only feet away. "I told you they hated me, that they would hate you too. We set ourselves up for a fall, and now I've lost you. You're leavin' me, aren't you?"

"Rome-"

"I could've stopped it-should have! I knew what they were capable of and still I trusted that you could handle it. But I saw your face in there, Mol-you fuckin' checked out on me!"

I held out my hand, placating him. "I don't care about what they said to me, but I care about what they are doing to you. Why do they hate you so much, Romeo? There has to be a reason? That was beyond brutal. What kind of parent hates their child for no reason?" I wrapped my arms around my waist, feeling cold with sorrow. "Your mother, the way she hit you, how could she treat her only son that way?"

Romeo's rigid fingers clawed through his messy hair. I could tell he was fighting against telling me something.

Eventually, he reached forward, grasping my shoulders in desperation. "Because I'm not hers!" he screamed so loudly that I felt ringing in my ears.

"W-what?"

"Because. I'm. Not. Hers. You wanted to know so badly why they hate me. Well, that's why."

"No..." I whispered, softly.

He released me from his hold and rubbed his hands down his face, pacing on the old worn yellow rug. "Momma was barren. The fuckin' bitch was barren. The one thing she needed to be able to do as the perfect wife was breed and she couldn't deliver, couldn't give the great Prince Oil tycoon of Alabama an heir."

"Ohmigod, Rome-"

"They couldn't adopt, 'cause that would be an embarrassment, right? They couldn't get a surrogate and risk all of Tuscaloosa knowing that she was unable to have kids. But, hey, fate decided to intervene just in time."

My heart broke with every heartbeat, listening to Romeo crumbling in confession. I couldn't speak. I felt helpless to do anything but watch him unload years of crushing burden off his chest.

"One of my daddy's many paid whores turned up on their doorstep, pregnant with a child she sure didn't want but was willin' to hand over at its birth to his biological father... for a good price."

My heart plummeted.

"Yeah, Mol. It was me. My father got a private paternity test and I was his, the fuckin' heir to his fortune. The whore had one stipulation, though. They had to keep the name she'd given me. She wanted control, to play some sick twisted game with her most frequent customer, probably pissed that she would never be more than a fuck to him. My name was a lifelong reminder of where I came from, and my mother despised it, despised me on sight."

"Romeo," I surmised.

"Romeo."

He scratched his fingers across his dark, stubbled chin. "So there you have it. I'm the illegitimate child of my father's slut on the side, but they had to have me, didn't they? The fact of the matter was my father wanted to keep his assets in the family. He was expected to have children, an heir. My arrival ensured that could still happen. They paid for the whore to have me in secret. Then my folks disappeared for a year, you know, off on some bullshit cruise, and they returned with a new baby-and of course, the great billionaire's lies were believed."

Seeming a lot calmer, Romeo rested against the back of the sofa, head drooping low. "My momma fuckin' hates me. I'm a livin', breathin' reminder that my father was a cheat. But that's not the only reason they're like this. They expected a docile, obedient child, who, when they said jump, would ask how high. But not their letdown of a son, right? I ended up being freakishly good at sports and I had my own mind and own dreams-unacceptable for a Prince!

"How dare I? How dare I want something for myself, after they'd so selflessly taken me in? Taken me in and reminded me every minute of every fuckin' day that I was the product of a paid fuck. Beat me until I couldn't even hold a football, let alone throw one-if you're injured, you can't play, right? So my daddy made it a frequent thing, a father-son weekly tradition."

"N-no one helped you? Figured it out?" I asked through my tight throat.

He laughed darkly. "Who's gonna take on a powerful billionaire and question why his kid flinches whenever someone touches him?"

I sniffed and tried to soothe the acrid burning in my lungs. Romeo's entire tough-guy persona was disintegrating before my very eyes.

"Then to make it worse, their failure of a child is expected to enter the draft for NFL, twice, and was forced to say no, to sacrifice his dreams just in case people found out he's not really Kathryn Prince's biological pride and joy. The mass of skeletons must be locked up real tight!"

Romeo stood before me, arms wide and humiliation evident in his stance. "So there you go, Mol. That's why my parents hate me and why my bein' with you has just added to their already mountain-high disappointment of their beloved fuckin' son."

I stepped forward cautiously, righting his collar with my trembling hands. "That's why everyone calls you Rome, not Romeo... why you hate it so much. It reminds you of your past."

He watched my every action with timid eyes. "Yeah, my birth momma said if they didn't keep Romeo, she'd go to the media, expose the story, and they couldn't have that, so they agreed... reluctantly. Had her sign some contract to keep quiet." He laughed without humour. "What the hell kinda name is Romeo for the prized son of the wealthiest family in Alabama? My folks always called me Rome in public, but in private, I was Romeo. They used it as a taunt and curse. Romeo the whore's son, Romeo the non-returnable bad gift-and they never, ever let me forget it."

I pressed kiss after tender kiss to his lower throat. "Where did she go, your birth mother?"

"Probably back to whatever hole she crawled out of."

"Romeo, I-"

I watched his face contort as he pushed me back out of his arms. "You're gonna leave me, aren't you? I knew I'd lose you. I just knew it. Who's gonna put up with my parents' shit? I'm not worth everythin' they'll put you through if we stay together, am I?" The grief was heavy on his features and he slumped on the old brown sofa that was placed in front of a grimy unlit fire. Hot tears streamed down his cheeks and his wide shoulders shook from the force of the heavy sobs. I'd never seen him cry.

It nearly killed me.

I joined him on the sofa and wrapped him in my arms while he cried with his head on my lap. I cried with him. I cried for the little boy who didn't know love. I cried for the little boy who'd lost his childhood, and I cried for the man who had so much to offer the world, but had been held back by the unyielding bonds of his abusive and manipulative parents.

When he'd calmed to quiet weeps, I gathered Romeo's face in my hands and forced him to look at me. "Romeo-"

"I love you... I love you," he whispered over and over, eyes wide and frantic, the pads of his thumbs smoothing over the dampened apples of my cheeks.

"W-what?" My heart leapt to my throat.

Romeo shifted position and scrambled to his knees, pulling me to him as he fell back, laying me on top of him. "I love you. I love you beyond anythin' I could've ever imagine was possible."

I careened forwards, my chest smooth against his, our two hearts beating a maddening rhythm and confessed, "I love you, too, babe. I love you so, so much."

His distressed eyes widened. "Baby, you do? Even after-"

"I'm not going anywhere. I came in here to tell you that. I was in the truck, listening to you hurting, and I knew that I had to be with you no matter what, tell you that I'm never going to leave you."

"But my parents..."

"Yes, your parents tonight were something else, but they won't ever chase me from you, from loving you. We're star-crossed, Romeo. Interfering parents come as part of the package." I winked jokingly.

A tentative smile drifted onto his bruised lips, the action transforming his troubled face. "I feel stripped bare right now... like someone has ripped open my chest and all you're seein' is a mangled heart held together by jagged scars."

I pulled apart his shirt, button by button, and kissed along the path of his heart. He expelled a groan and I pressed my lips against the hot, bronzed skin.

"No one has ever known what they're really like behind closed doors. I've never told a soul. You were a big ol' brick through their glass fortress tonight. I could see the panic in my daddy's eyes. You could destroy everythin' they've worked so hard for."

I traced the outline of the tattoo on his ribs. "As bad as that was, I'm glad I was there, that I now know what you cope with. We can't erase the secrets and marred memories of our pasts, but we can build the next chapter of our lives together."

Silent tears fell on his cheeks. "Mol..."

"Shh..." I laid kisses along his sternum, onto his torso, lapping over the hard peaks and into the deep valleys. I pushed the open shirt away completely and unfastened the top of his slacks. I risked a glance at Romeo and his eyes were burning, savagely glowing as he glared down at my seductive act, his dark irises untamed and wild.

The stiff zipper came down easily, along with his boxers, and I stroked along the summit of his thighs. I needed him more than air.

Seeing him bared before me made my mouth water. I edged forwards, delicately licking along his length, and Romeo's head snapped back on a roar.

That was all the encouragement I needed.

I took him in my mouth and his hips soared, his hand finding purchase at the back of my head as he pounded his pelvis back and forth. I felt empowered. I felt in charge, and I loved how I was bringing him to his knees.

"Fuck, Mol. Your mouth!" he hissed, and I hummed in satisfaction, the vibrations affecting the pace of his thrusts. I hooked the waistband of his jeans with my fingers and pulled them off his muscly legs, dropping them to the floor, only to bend down once more to rain wet kisses down his muscly thighs and calves. I engulfed his hardness again in my mouth, my teeth scraping his skin from root to tip. He groaned and stilled, wrapping my hair around his fists.

Romeo Prince had snapped.

"Stand up," he ordered forcefully.

I immediately stood and watched as he ripped off his open shirt and came before me, naked, excited, and emitting pure power. Gripping my shoulders, Rome spun me around and in one swift movement, tugged the zipper of my dress down to my lower back, the garment loosening and dropping to the floor in a wrinkled heap.

One of his hands snapped my bra, as the other untied the ribbons on the side of my black panties. All of the silky material covering my modesty floated to the floor along with all the hurt and pain of the night.

On a throaty groan, Romeo propelled me back onto the couch, his hot palm pushing on my chest as he moved between my legs. "I didn't tell you to suck me, Shakespeare. You know you need to ask permission first." His eyes tightened and I knew what he needed. He needed to take back control after his parents so brutally stripped him of his pride.

"Now it's my turn," he announced and latched his mouth hungrily onto my core, his tongue lapping in relentless circles, sucking me hard into his mouth. The instant pleasure made me lurch uncontrollably off the sofa.

"Grip my hair."

I did as he ordered as flutters of ecstasy danced along my skin.

"Pull it! Mean it!"