Bad Romeo Christmas: A Starcrossed Anthology (Starcrossed #4)(22)

I tear off the paper, and when I register what I'm holding, my chest tightens.

"Seriously?” I ask. “This is your gift? Have you been snooping? Or is this another joke?"

Cassie frowns. "No. Why would you think that?"

I point to her gift bag and smile. "Look inside."

She pushes through the layers of tissue paper until she pulls out the book I bought her. It's exactly the same one I'm holding.

"I bought it months ago," I say, as she stares at it in disbelief. "I couldn't think of a more perfect present for you."

A delighted smile spreads across her face before she glances over at the book's twin in my hands. "Great minds think alike."

If I ever wanted concrete proof we're soul mates, I just got it. I've never been one for religion, or even spirituality, but with Cassie I have no doubt we've known each other before this life. I'm also certain we'll know each other after it. In a hundred different lifetimes, I'll always find her. She's my other half. My better half.

How the hell did I get so lucky?

"There's an inscription," she says shyly, like she's embarrassed for me to read it in front of everyone.

I open the book to the title page and silently read the message in her familiar handwriting:



To my darling Ethan,

I wanted to get you something special for our first Christmas together, so here it is. The reason I chose this book was because no matter what life throws at us, you'll always be my Romeo. Despite your distaste for the character, if it wasn't for this play, and yes, your despised namesake, we might not be where we are now.

After all, he facilitated our first kiss, my first O (in front of Erika, of all people. I still can't believe we did that!), as well as countless Shakespearean declarations of love that allowed us both to uncover our true feelings.

Back then, Romeo held me tenderly when you pushed me away, and he showed me the heart of the man you were beneath all your high walls and prickly armor.

You always thought you were a bad Romeo, but in my mind, you were perfect. I fell in love with you so many times during that show, and these days I fall in love with you more every day. So if that's your version of a bad Romeo, I'll take it. Even with everything we've been through, I'd do it all over again just to be where we are now.

I know a lot of people spend their whole lives looking for their 'happily ever after', but not me. Having a happy ending would imply our tale is over, and I know that's not true. Our epic love story will fill volumes before it's done. It will spill from bookshelves, take over rooms, and burst from more libraries than we can count. And every book, every page, and every word will tell of my boundless love for you.

Thank you for being my (bad) Romeo.

With all my love,

Your grateful (if slightly broken) Juliet



I swallow hard. She's never written anything like that for me before. Her words make my heart do that thing where it grows so full, it presses painfully against my ribs and beats double time. I look up to find her staring at me.

"Do you like it?"

I wrap my arm around her waist and kiss her. "It's perfect. You're perfect."

She strokes my cheek. "I'm really not, but I'm glad you think so."

"I love you, Cassie."

"Not as much as I love you."

Despite Josh and Elissa making gagging noises in the background, and my mother sniffling quietly as Dad pats her shoulder, I kiss Cassie again, softly and slowly, like she's a dream from which I never want to wake.

In reality, that's what it's like to be in love with Cassie Taylor. I'm living out all of my fantasies with the woman of my dreams.

I couldn't ask for anything more.

When we get home, I spend a couple of hours showing Cassie exactly what she means to me, and then we lie in bed, naked and weary as we flick through one of our new books.

Cassie looks up at me and sighs. "Do you think that if we hadn't been cast as Romeo and Juliet, we never would have gotten together?"

Her head is on my shoulder, her body pressed against the length of mine. As we speak, she absently traces the outline of the love heart on the book's cover.

I stroke her arm. "I don't know. I'd like to think fate would have forced us together some other way, but I guess we'll never know. One of the reasons I was so pissed about being Romeo was because I knew that as soon as I played a love scene with you, I'd be a goner. Up until that point, I'd fooled myself into thinking I could deny my feelings indefinitely. But after that first kiss backstage in the theater?" I shake my head. "Done. Ruined. Completely blind to every other woman on the planet, forever."

Cassie smiles. "Did it ever occur to you that Erika knew exactly what she was doing when she cast us together?"

I let out a short laugh. "All the time. That woman constantly manipulated us into being intimate, so we'd have to face our connection. Which reminds me, I'm due to send her my annual ‘thank you’ gift basket. It's the least I can do."

Cassie traces my lips with her forefinger. "If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle fine is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."

As she recites Romeo’s lines, she gazes at me like I have the power to make the world turn. I'll never get tired of her looking at me like that. Ever.