54 pages • 1 hour read
Parker S. Huntington, L. J. ShenMy Dark Romeo
Parker S. Huntington, L. J. ShenFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 29-43Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 29 Summary: “Dallas”
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content, physical abuse, graphic violence, emotional abuse, and child death.
Dallas and Romeo return to the hotel to find Madison sitting outside their room. Romeo punches Madison in the face for trying to steal his wife. Inside the room afterward, Dallas says nothing about Madison and focuses on seducing Romeo. Romeo still doesn’t want to have penetrative sex and suggests they have anal sex instead. Dallas gives in, but Romeo pulls away when he notices she’s shaking. He holds her close, which unexpectedly comforts Dallas. She wonders if he isn’t heartless after all. She breaks the quiet asking if they can have more traditional sex. He tells her to get into bed while he leaves to collect himself.
Chapter 30 Summary
Romeo’s friends text him about Dallas, begging to know if she got him to have sex with her yet.
Chapter 31 Summary: “Romeo”
Romeo angrily paces up and down the block, chewing gum and trying to decide what to do. He does and doesn’t want to have sex with Dallas. Finally, he gets an idea and races back into the room. They have penetrative sex through their underwear. They continue this pattern throughout the remainder of the honeymoon, having sex through their clothes or bedsheets. Romeo resents how much power Dallas has over him but vows to stop having sex with her when they get home.
Chapter 32 Summary: “Dallas”
On the flight home, Dallas broods over her situation. She’s enjoyed sex with Romeo but is upset that she hasn’t been able to get pregnant. Back at home, she races upstairs to check on her rose. She’s shocked that it’s still alive and well. Romeo enters, revealing that he’s going to be staying in DC indefinitely to focus on business. He storms out, leaving Dallas feeling abandoned. She doesn’t know what to do but vows to get her revenge.
Chapter 33 Summary
Oliver and Zach text Romeo to say they saw Monica and Dallas exiting a baby shop. Romeo insists there’s nothing to worry about because Dallas is a baby herself.
Chapter 34 Summary: “Romeo”
Romeo feels relieved to be away from Dallas, so he isn’t tempted to have sex with her. Meanwhile, he watches her on the estate’s security cameras to make sure she isn’t getting into trouble. She mostly sleeps, eats, and reads but often gives him the finger or shows him her breasts on the cameras. He doesn’t understand her but realizes this is who she really is. One day, Romeo checks the cameras, horrified to discover that all his enemies are arriving at his estate for a party Dallas orchestrated. He cancels his meetings and races home.
Chapter 35 Summary: “Romeo”
Romeo is horrified by the raucous party at his house. He’s even more upset when he finds Dallas in her room with Madison. He goads Madison, revealing the intimate details of his sexual encounters with Dallas. After Madison leaves, Romeo tries to punish Dallas for making such a mess at the house. The two end up performing oral sex on each other. During one aggressive portion of the encounter, Romeo asks Dallas if he can do anything he wants to her, if they can have anal sex, and if they can invite his friends to join him. Dallas says yes to all his questions.
Chapter 36 Summary: “Dallas”
The next day, Romeo moves back home. He and Dallas continue having sexual encounters. After one such encounter, Dallas keeps some of Romeo’s cum in her mouth and considers saving it so she can get pregnant. She ends up rinsing it down the drain, realizing she doesn’t want to deceive Romeo. She also wants to make Romeo have penetrative sex with her without a condom.
Chapter 37 Summary: “Romeo”
Romeo tracks down Dallas at a bookstore one day when she refuses to attend a charity gala with him and disappears from the house. Before she checks out, Romeo says he’s going to buy the bookstore. Dallas abandons her book selection, disinterested in giving Romeo business.
Chapter 38 Summary: “Romeo”
Romeo hangs out with Zach and Oliver at Zach’s house. They insist that Dallas is going to soften Romeo, but Romeo protests. To prove the point, Oliver pretends that Dallas hit on him at the party. Romeo gets upset, which the friends say is evidence he’s falling for Dallas.
Chapter 39 Summary: “Dallas”
Hettie brings Dallas a box of books from Romeo. Dallas is disgusted when she discovers all the books are about money management. She asks Vernon if there’s somewhere on the property where she can safely light a fire.
Chapter 40 Summary: “Romeo”
Romeo meets with Senior at the office. He makes a dig at Senior for having sex with Morgan years prior. While he and Morgan were engaged, Romeo returned home one night to find Senior and Morgan together. He threw Morgan out of the house naked and has been determined to punish Senior ever since. The conversation turns to business. When they’re done, Senior insists Romeo should thank him for ending his relationship with Morgan so he could be with Dallas. Romeo warns Senior to stay away from Dallas.
Chapter 41 Summary
Romeo and his friends send joking texts to each other about money and relationships.
Chapter 42 Summary: “Romeo”
Romeo spends the following days obsessively watching Dallas on the security cameras while he’s working. She’s become obsessed with SIDS research, which he doesn’t understand. Then one day she appears in his office, demanding he donate to a SIDS research organization. Romeo refuses, upsetting Dallas. She reveals that she cares about the organization because her little sister, Victoria, died from SIDS when she was four months old. Romeo is moved and suggests she donate an extra wing to a hospital but refuses to let her lobby for her cause. Dallas storms out, insisting she’ll get her revenge soon.
Chapter 43 Summary: “Romeo”
A few days later, Romeo is livid when he discovers Dallas is having lunch with Madison at a restaurant across the street from his office. After buying the restaurant and all the other neighboring establishments, he interrupts the lunch and demands Madison leave, forbidding him to frequent the other restaurants on the street, too.
In Romeo’s car afterward, Romeo says he’ll divorce Dallas so she can return to Chapel Falls if that’s what she wants. Back at the house, he gives her 30 minutes “to consider [her] answer” (213). He watches as she collapses on the stairs, heartbroken she won’t get a baby. Romeo doesn’t feel bad because he’s gotten his way.
Chapters 29-43 Analysis
Dallas and Romeo’s intense sexual relationship further thematically develops the Complex Power Dynamics in Intimate Relationships. As a work of contemporary romance, My Dark Romeo abides by certain tropes of the genre. The novel is a classic enemies-to-lovers story, and thus, the authors use Dallas and Romeo’s hatred for each other to intensify their relationship and the overarching narrative atmosphere. In the majority of this excerpt’s chapters, Dallas and Romeo engage in sexual encounters, which depicts their growing feelings for each other. Becoming sexually intimate shows the characters new sides of each other and reveals how their past relationships have influenced their dynamic in the present. Over time, their abhorrence for each other begins to mutate—challenging both Dallas and Romeo to examine what they want, who they are, and if they can make a life together in the future.
Engaging in sexual intimacy with each other exposes Dallas’s and Romeo’s vulnerability. These power shifts begin when the couple is still on their honeymoon in Paris. Although Dallas agrees to have anal sex with Romeo per his demand, Romeo doesn’t go through with the encounter when he notices her “stiffen[ing] all over, shutting [her] eyes,” and “shivering” (149- 150). He is attuned to Dallas’s body language and doesn’t force himself on her when he notices that she’s uncomfortable. He often “trie[s] very hard to make [Dallas] feel bad” but also “wield[s] the odd ability to make [her] feel cherished” (148). In this scene from Chapter 29, Romeo ends up holding Dallas in an unusually tender embrace. Dallas has “never felt weaker in [her] entire life” (150), but she also notices that she feels comfortable with Romeo for the first time. Her vulnerability creates an opening for emotional intimacy. Romeo gets the opportunity to show Dallas care, while Romeo’s care reveals his softer side to Dallas. He no longer appears like the maniacal tormenter Dallas has learned to see him as. This scene marks a turning point in their relationship. They begin to have sex more regularly, which brings them closer. Romeo still refuses to try to get pregnant with Dallas but is no longer capable of entirely refusing her charms and allure. Dallas thus gains power within the relationship and begins to break through Romeo’s icy exterior. Further, the fact that Dallas’s rose, a key motif, is still alive when she returns from her honeymoon foreshadows positive signs in their changing relationship.
These shifts in Dallas and Romeo’s sexual relationship foreshadow how their dynamic will evolve, establishing the theme of The Transformative Power of Love. Ever since Romeo’s father had sex with his ex-fiancé, Romeo has sworn off sex and romance. He sees sexual and romantic relationships as a form of weakness and doesn’t want his emotions or desires to distract him from exacting his revenge on Senior. Further, The Challenges of Overcoming Past Trauma is the inspiration for his coldness with Dallas. However, the text underscores that “[t]he thing about ice is…it’s bound to melt” (188). The more time he spends with Dallas, the less hard-hearted he appears. He not only buys Dallas books but also moves back into the house and agrees to donate money to the organization she cares about. Romeo and Dallas still regard each other as enemies, but as their dynamic changes, they become more attached to one another. They’re both strong-willed and used to getting their way—similarities that endear them to each other.
Despite these positive shifts in the couple’s relationship, the two remain in conflict. The novel uses Dallas’s desperation to have a baby to sustain the narrative tension and pacing. By denying Dallas her one dream, Romeo thinks that he can maintain his power over her and keep himself from falling in love with her. Meanwhile, Dallas’s desperation for a baby traps her. Just as Romeo’s desire to punish his father is greater than his desire to appease Dallas, Dallas’s longing to be a mother is greater than her longing to make things work with Romeo. She is willing to toy with Romeo to get what she wants, just as Romeo is willing to compromise her happiness to achieve his goals. In these ways, the characters’ past experiences continue to inform their desires in the present—making them unwilling to compromise on behalf of one another. This back-and-forth dynamic intensifies the narrative atmosphere and propels the narrative forward.
Unlock all 54 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 9,100+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features: