West (A Roam Series Novella) by Kimberly Stedronsky

was. One cold night in January, 1962, I’d listened to Elvis’s voice on the radio…
    And I thought of her .
    I thought of the life Annie had spoken of, the one , the girl who would save the world with me…
    Who would save me .
    I was destin ed to play the fool, rushing into her every single time. I played the song and pulled her into my arms. We danced in the moonlight, naked, the sand beneath our feet allowing us to slide without too much effort.
    I wanted to dance with her, like this, forever. She lifted her eyes to mine. “No matter what happens, West… I just want to remember this. This moment. I want to dream about this,” she pleaded, and I caught a tear that slid from her eyes with my kiss.
    “ You will, ” I promised her.
    Praying.
    She was on edge throughout the plane ride the next day. I tried every way to distract her, even having stayed up after she slept the night before and filling her iPod with playlists. By the time we reached Rome, we both were filled with anxiety…
    And need.
    I must have tried the card key five times in the hotel room door. We had four hours for the layover, and as I kissed her hungrily, I knew how I was going to spend every second of our time.
    The door slammed, and time disappeared.
    I teased her with my touch, my mouth, until she was struggling, twisting beneath me and begging me. She held my face in her hands, staring into my eyes as I thrust, inviting me to search her soul as we made love.
    She wanted me to live inside of her, and there was nowhere else I’d rather be. Her pleading drove me insane; please, please, West, please, over and over, until I was coming just from her words.
    Her voice.
    We both knew. We knew this might be the last time we’d ever hold each other this way, and it was devastating.
    “ I love you, ” she cried, breaking apart in my arms and simultaneously succumbing to tears. “I don’t want to lose you. I don’t want Logan, I want you, ” she sobbed.
    I was still inside of her as she said his name. Cursing, I rolled over, taking her with me so that she lay in my arms, against my chest. “Baby, don’t. Don’t think about him. Not right now. ”
    “How can you just let me go back to him?”
    “I won’t,” I answered, incredulous. “You think that this is the end? That I’m going to just walk away?”
    “ I… didn’t…,”
    “We need him as our ally right now, Roam. We’re not telling him. Not yet. It will kill me if you kiss him, I know that. But your safety means more to me than a couple of kisses.”
    “I love him, but not like I love you, West. I could never love him the way this feels,” she covered her heart with her hands, and I softened, turning into her hair.
    “I love you , Roam Camden. And I have for my entire life. ”
    When we arrived in Russia, and Logan had his arms around her, I fought the fire burning in my gut. His dark eyes bored into mine with worlds of suspicion and accusation, and I tried to ignore him as we hurried to a taxi.
    We settled into a café, and Logan explained that we simply had to lower our arms- our numbers- into the fountain and we’d travel. We’d be in our past lives, but keep our minds when we moved through the door.
    Roam would be Julie.
    “You need to eat, Cam,” Logan was touching her hair, and I fought the urge to break his fingers. “We don’t know what we’re walking into. Troy may have traveled there already.”
    “Logan, I’m not hungry.”
    “Eat, Roam,” I ordered.
    She picked up her fork, and Logan’s dark brown gaze turned almost black. “What did the two of you do while you were gone?” He fired, looking between Roam and me.
    Condemning . This kid, this fucking soulless kid who’d killed my Annie - and my unborn child- stared at me like I was a fucking criminal.
    I snapped.
    “I filled her in on the past, and helped her through nightmares about you raping and killing her.”
    His self-indulgent temper flared, and he shot to his feet, nearly knocking the table