Taming Romeo Read Online Free Page A

you.
    “Evangeline María Apostol Sánchez. Are you dating anyone?”
    I whip around so fast my hair slaps my face and I advance two steps. “What business is that of yours?”
    He crosses his arms, his biceps flexing and raises his eyebrows. “Are you seeing anyone?”
    “Well, no.” I’m in his face now. “But you don’t get to—”
    He ropes me in and crushes my lips against his. My teeth clack on his and I let out a cross between a grunt and a moan. Oh, shit. Teenage me already has her arms around his neck, running her hands through his hair. I let out a sigh, an involuntary one caused by fight and flight hormones and momentary hypoxia, and the rascal takes the opportunity to slip his hot, wet, luscious tongue between my lips. Iridescent butterflies and shaved ice and fairy dust jelly and sugary shivers render my resistance futile.
    While my mind’s reeling, Romeo draws back ever so slightly, his lips tenderly caressing mine. The ball on his lip ring jiggles my lower lip, and his tongue dips and darts, barely slivering into my mouth.
    Hungrily, I press into him with whimpering, mewing kisses, like a woman on a deserted island presented with a coconut shell full of halo-halo . This is how it should have been. Romeo and I. His kisses are forever seared in my soul, ruining me for every man who came after. Especially Eric. Scratch the thought.
    What am I doing kissing Romeo? I’m passing out. Temporary insanity. Someone resuscitate me, shock me with the defibrillator. Nine-one-one what seems to be the emergency? Oxygen saturation below eighty percent. Change in mental status. Oh, what a wonderful, soul-sucking kiss. I pass my tongue between his lips, slurping, drinking him in, making up for all the missing years. My fingers fist the back of his shirt and he tugs me closer, still seated on his motorcycle.
    He whispers against my mouth. “You’ve always been mine.”
    My eyes pop open and I’m sucked into the dark inky pools of his. He looks at me so sincerely, both hands cupping my face, his thumbs stroking my cheeks. If I could stop time… It. Would. Be. Now.
    Bang! The garden gate slaps and we jolt apart.
    Genie claps her hands to her face and screams, “How dare you kiss Romeo?”
    Behind her, my parents advance like armed guards, one on each side of Genie. How much did they see?
    My father’s jowls are shaking and my mother wrings her hands.
    What did I do? I glance at Romeo, but his expression is stony. He lowers his forehead and peers from under his eyebrows. “Tito, Tita.”
    They don’t extend their hands for the traditional mano-po blessing. Oops. Something is seriously wrong and I feel like I walked onto the set of a soap opera.
    “Heya, thanks for the lift.” I give Romeo a tiny wave. “I have to fix my boo-boos, owies, abrasions, lacerations, whatever.”
    “Sure, get a helmet, okay?” A silent message passes between us. “Tito Rey, Tita Anna, I’ll see you later.”
    My cheeks are hot as I brush past them and storm to my room. I’m a consenting adult. I lived with a man for two whole years, although my parents pretended he didn’t exist. What is the problem with one little kiss?
    Don’t lie to yourself, Evangeline María Apostol Sánchez, that one little kiss is attached to one big badass man, and guess what? You didn’t ask if he was seeing someone before plunging your kissy bits onto his.

Chapter 6
    You’d think I declared World War III at my house. After I showered, exfoliated, shaved, and bandaged, I emerge from the steamy bathroom and walk right into a posse of inquisitors, otherwise known as the Sánchez gang.
    They drag me into the kitchen and sit me in front of a plate of tapsilog , marinated beef strips, spicy, garlic rice and two eggs over easy. Not an auspicious start for the new vegan me. I pick at the rice and mumble about making a fruit salad.
    My family sits around the dining table, each waiting for the other to speak. Mama’s hands shake as she sips a cup of tea,