I threw a napkin at him.
We all laughed and things seemed to return to normal. All awkward vibes disappeared. That is until Romeo moved his leg and pressed it against mine beneath the table. I started to scoot away but his hand joined the party. His palm cupped my thigh just above my knee.
My brother was telling the story about the time they went off-roading, crashed, and he ended up getting fourteen stitches.
He seemed totally clueless that Romeo’s hand was on my thigh. As much as I was enjoying seeing my brother, I had to admit, I wished he wasn’t there at this moment.
If I had one birthday wish, it would be for Romeo and me to spend the day doing what we did last night.
There’s still tonight, a little voice of hope piped in.
CHAPTER 20
Romeo
“So how’s the solo album coming?” Jared asked as we sat around the dinner table after a long day out in the desert.
“It’s coming along.”
I could see Jules’ eyes land on me. I hadn’t told her about the project, but in fairness, she hadn’t asked. It was so strange, she used to be the person that I told everything to first. And, truth be told, she was the person I still wanted to tell everything to first.
I couldn’t really tell where I stood or what our relationship was going to be now since we’d had a chaperone all day. I’d snuck touches, glances, and even whispered one very dirty deed I’d like to do to her in her ear. But for the most part, I’d been doing my best to be respectful of the fact that Jared was her brother and she most likely wouldn’t want him to know about us. For now.
If it were up to me, I’d run an ad in The New York Times announcing how I felt about Jules. The headline would read: “Romeo Whitehall Is Totally In Love With Juliette Pierce.” I wanted to be with her and I wanted everyone to know, but from the way she’d gone out of her way not to touch me or look in my direction all day, I had a feeling that she did not share my sentiment or enthusiasm.
Which was fine. Again, for now. But soon I hoped she’d feel differently.
I knew that our relationship was going to take time to rebuild and I was up for the job.
Jared’s phone buzzed, then rang, then buzzed again. He pulled it from his pocket. “Shit.” He said as he wiped his mouth and stood. “I have to go.”
“What’s wrong?” Juliette stood as well.
“A kid we just signed was arrested. I need to fly to Vegas tonight.”
As happy as I was to get some time alone with Jules, I wasn’t about to let Jared leave without telling his sister about their dad.
He’d planned on doing it tomorrow, which I’d respected, but now he wasn’t going to be here tomorrow. I knew if he left without telling her, I’d end up having to do it.
“Do you need me to book you a flight?” Jules offered.
“No. The front office took care of it. I’m on a seven-thirty.”
Jules glanced at her phone. “You have an hour. It takes thirty to get to the airport.”
“I know. Sorry about this.”
“I’m just glad I got to see you at all!” she enthused.
Jared hugged his sister and she hugged him back. “I still can’t believe you surprised me for my birthday.”
From behind her I mouthed, Tell her.
Jared looked at me, silently pleading for a reprieve. There was no way that was going to happen. Mine and Jules’ relationship was fledgling at best, I wasn’t going to keep it from her and I was definitely not going to be the one to drop the bombshell. She wasn’t normally a shoot-the-messenger type of person, but I wasn’t about to take that chance.
I looked at him and shook my head no. He’d be the one to break the news to his sister and he’d do it before his ass got on that plane.
Jared sighed and released her.
“Actually, Sis, I didn’t just come here for your birthday.”
“You didn’t?” She looked at me, her brow knitted in worry or confusion, I wasn’t sure. She was probably thinking that what Jared had to say had something to do with the two of us. I tried to reassure her with a supportive grin.
“No. I, um…I don’t know how to tell you this, but…I found Dad.”
Her expression didn’t change. She had wrinkles between her brows as she turned her attention back to her brother. “Dad?”
“Yeah. I found him.”
Her head shook back and forth slightly. “I didn’t even know you were looking for him.”
“I wasn’t and then Romeo found his mom—”
“You did?!” Her head spun back my way.
I nodded. I wanted to tell her everything, but now was not the time.
“I went to see him,” Jared continued.
“You went to see him?” she repeated.
“That’s why I was in New Mexico. He lives in Santa Fe.”
“He does? That’s only a couple of hours from here.” Juliette spoke quietly, still confused. “Why did you…how could you go see him without me?”
“You were young when he left, but I was ten. I grew up in the same house as him. I remembered what a drunk asshole he could be. I had to go and see for myself that he was even worth mentioning to you. I didn’t want to invite some belligerent alcoholic into our lives just because he shares our DNA.”
“So, what was he…is he still…?”
“He said he’s been sober for five years.”
“Do you believe him?”
“I do.” Jared nodded. “He said he’s wanted to make amends with us, you know for the steps, but he didn’t feel like he had the right to show back up in our lives. The old Dad would’ve felt like he had every right to do anything he wanted.”
I stared at Jules, trying to figure out how she was taking the news. Her expression had gone blank, giving me zero clues as to what she might be thinking. I knew this was a lot to take in.
“I didn’t want to tell you on your birthday,” Jared explained. “I was going to see if you wanted to go and see him with me. I thought maybe—”
Her iPad lit up and vibrated and she picked it up off the table. “I, um, it’s work. I have to go.”
“You’re leaving?” I asked in disbelief.
What I really wanted to say was no. That she couldn’t go. I was worried about her. She was in shock. The second Jared walked out the door I wanted to pull her into my arms and make sure that she was okay.
“Yeah, I shouldn’t be long.”
“I’m sorry, Jules. I should’ve told you right away,” Jared said sincerely.
“It’s fine. You wanted to see him. You saw him. I don’t want to see him. I’m not going to see him.”
And just like that, the walls were back up. She was back to being the same woman that had picked me up at the airport. I immediately felt the distance between us.
“It was good seeing you.” She gave her brother one last quick hug.
When she turned to me I could see in her eyes that the blinds had been drawn once again, shutting off the windows to her soul. “I shouldn’t be long.”
And with that declaration, she left.
“Well, that went better than I thought.” Jared slapped his hand on my shoulder.
He might think that it did, but I wasn’t so sure.
Hearing that kind of news wasn’t something that a person could process that quickly. She was going to have questions that needed answers. She was going to have feelings that needed to be dealt with.
As pissed as I’d been at him for wanting to spring this on her on her birthday weekend, as it turned out, the timing might not have been that bad. Because I was here. She wasn’t going to have to go through this alone. And even though she might want to shut me out, I wasn’t going to let that happen. I had no plans of going anywhere, and I wasn’t just talking about tonight.
CHAPTER 21
Juliette
Cooper wants to reserve a private hot springs and would like some flowers or something. Do we have any he can use?
I reread Liam’s text
and messaged him back as I walked down the path back to the resort.
I’m on my way.
His reply message popped up immediately.
Alexis can handle it.
Liam was right. Alexis could handle this. But I needed time away from the villa. Some time to myself to process and breathe. Jared’s news that he’d found our father and had gone to see him had me reeling.
I took a deep breath in through my nose and exhaled slowly. His revelation couldn’t have come at a worse time. Last weekend, or the weekend before that, or literally any other weekend before that and I could’ve handled it without blinking an eye.
But after spending the past two days peeling back layers that I’d been more than happy to live beneath, and breaking down walls that I’d taken years to build, I was vulnerable. I didn’t have my tough exterior for protection. I didn’t have a turtle shell to just pull my head in so the news could bounce off of me. I was exposed and my emotions were raw.
One thing I knew about myself, I didn’t do vulnerable, raw, and exposed well.
Liam’s message couldn’t have come at a better time. It was a desperately needed escape. A longtime friend of Liam’s, Cooper Briggs, wanted help creating a romantic setting at one of our hot springs and I wanted to feel in my element. I needed to be in control of something.
The serendipity was twofold.
First, I was a planner, an organizer, and a problem solver. I thrived off of lists, goals, and action steps. But from the moment I’d found out that Romeo was coming to Oasis, I felt like I’d been spinning out of control. Mentally, emotionally, and even physically. I wasn’t sure what to do with myself with no tangible purpose to my days and very little input or control over my schedule.
Doing busy work in my office earlier had helped a little, but not enough. This project was exactly what I needed. A goal, a mission, a visible result for my effort. I hoped this task would center me. I hoped I’d feel like myself again after completing it. I hoped it would rebuild my shell.
Second, for better or worse, I was nothing if not a hopeless romantic, I’m sure in part thanks to Yaya’s books. I was not above admitting that I was excited to do my part in facilitating a budding romance.
So yes, Alexis was more than capable of doing this, but I needed to do this.
I’ve got it. I typed back.
When I tucked my phone back into my pocket, I realized I was still wearing sweats. Thankfully, I always kept an in-case-of-emergency change of clothes on hand in my office. A quick detour to put on my superhero suit and I’d be ready to take on the world.
I entered the back of the building and hoped that I wouldn’t run into any staff. It was a bold wish, considering I was in the back of the resort, but one I still made.
Miraculously, things were quiet and I was able to sneak into my office undetected. In less than ten minutes, I’d changed into work clothes and pulled my hair up. It wasn’t quite as fast as Lynda Carter in a phone booth on Wonder Woman, but it was just as effective.
I may not have a lasso of truth or an invisible plane, but I felt like I could handle anything. I stared at my reflection and marveled at how seamlessly I’d stepped back into my executive persona. Figuratively and literally since I had slipped on my black suede Manolo Blahniks. My alter-ego was in full force.
With a renewed charge of authority and control, I sat at my computer and pulled up what inventory we had in storage for the setting I wanted to create. I could see the scene that I wanted to build in my head. I needed candles and flowers. I saw that the flowers from the wedding today had been stored for donation. We always took left over flowers from events to hospitals and retirement communities.
As I scrolled through the candle inventory, my mind drifted from the project to my dad.
“I found Dad.” My brother’s words rang out in my head.
How could he have done that without telling me? Sure, we might not be as close as we were when we were kids. Sometimes we went months or even an entire year without seeing one another, but I was still his sister. His only sister.
Why would he go looking for a man that abandoned us?
But then again, why would I sleep with a man that had abandoned me?
I wasn’t sure I had any answers. But none of that mattered right now. With a quick shake of my head, I picked up the phone and dialed extension 210.
“Room service, this is Jana.”
“Hi Jana, it’s Juliette. I’d like to order an Oasis Romance Trio to Bliss.” I’d reserved our Bliss hot springs because it was the most secluded. It was tucked in a rock formation, surrounded by trees, and only accessible from a winding narrow path.
It was perfect for couples.
“Who am I charging it to?”
“The house,” I replied without hesitation.
Cooper Briggs was not only a personal friend of Liam’s, he was also a newly acquired vendor. Cooper was here this weekend to debut his new massage oil line which would be exclusively available at the Oasis Spa for the next several months. The staging would just be our thank you to him.
I hung up and made my way to storage to grab the props before heading out to the hot springs. As I did so, visions of Romeo laid out on a table and me rubbing oil all over him flashed in my head. I imagined my hands sliding over his body and his muscles twitching beneath my touch before he eventually pulls me down on top of him. Our bodies sliding against one another…
Now that I’d had sex it’s like a switch had been flipped in my brain where I constantly thought about it. All roads led to the same place, me having sex again. But not just any sex with anyone, hot sex with Romeo.
He’d been the star of all my fantasies before we’d consummated our relationship. I’d thought that maybe with the mystery gone my mind would cast another leading man, but our night together had only cemented his role. There was no other stand-in or understudy that would do.
I wasn’t sure where that left me. Yes, I was no longer a virgin, but now I had even less desire to have sex with anyone but Romeo. Before last night, I could only imagine what that sort of intimacy would invoke. Now that I’d experienced it, I was a thousand-percent sure that I didn’t want another man touching me, and I certainly didn’t want to touch another man.
But I had no idea where his head was on the issue. He’d been MIA for twelve years. What had he been thinking all that time?
For that matter, what had my dad been thinking all those years?
I did my best to put all thoughts of both men who abandoned me out of my head as I got busy creating a magical retreat. Cooper showed up sometime during the setup and I made him string the twinkle lights.
It was clear that he wasn’t in a chatty mood, which was fine by me. I had enough on my mind. As I was putting the finishing touches on his romantic surprise, Cooper thanked me for all my help. I assured him I was happy to do it as I lit the final candle.
The timing couldn’t have been better, since Cooper’s phone buzzed as the flame came to life.
He took a deep breath and I could see that he was nervous as he said, “She’s on her way.”
“If you need anything else, just let me know.” I smiled. It was so sweet to see a man that was so clearly in love. I wondered if Romeo had ever felt that way. Were the lips on his neck from a girl that he felt that way about? I’d intentionally resisted kissing him there even though I’d wanted to so badly. I couldn’t bring myself to do it though after he branded himself with someone else’s lips.
“Thanks again, Juliette,” Cooper repeated.
I took one more look around to make sure everything was in place. Moonlight and stars, candles and twinkle lights illuminated the cavernous space. Rose petals were sprinkled along the rocks. Soft music was streaming out through hidden speakers. The Oasis Romance Trio of champagne, chocolate-dipped strawberries, and cheese had been delivered.
Satisfied that my job was done and wanting to make sure I didn’t mess up the surprise by crashing it, I slipped down the employee path to m
ake my trek back to the villa. With each step that I took, butterflies filled my stomach.
I had no idea what tonight had in store for me, but I did know that I missed Romeo. I’d been away from him for only a couple of hours and I missed him. A lot.
And tomorrow he was leaving to go back to California. That was a sobering thought. He would carry on his rock star lifestyle and I’d be here, trying even harder not to be reminded of him than I had been before.
As much as I’d love to pretend that this thing between us was real and perhaps have a repeat of the night before, I now knew that wasn’t a good idea. Now that I’d had time to regroup and was back on more solid ground emotionally, I knew the smart thing to do would be to keep my distance.
If I had even a shred of a chance of not falling even further in love with the man, it was crucial that I limited my interactions with Romeo tonight.
I’d walk in, wish him a goodnight, and go to bed. Alone. If there were any knocks on my door, I’d ignore them.
Tomorrow, I’d wake up early and order in a breakfast, so that he couldn’t cook another sentimental meal, and by noon, he’d be gone.
It wasn’t a good plan, but it was the only one I had.
CHAPTER 22
Romeo
My eyes scanned the room as my foot tapped nervously on the hardwood floor. I couldn’t shake the gut feeling that something wasn’t right…
A yellow cake with chocolate icing, Jules’ favorite, sat in the center of the table, topped with the numbers three and zero. Two champagne flutes stood beside a bottle of Dom Pérignon chilling in an ice bucket. I’d lit every candle I could find, giving the game room what I hoped was a romantic glow. My guitar was within reach, so I’d be able to finally give Jules the present that was over a decade in the making.
I’d set everything up in the game room because I thought that it would be a fun environment. Everything was in place, but it still didn’t seem like enough to celebrate the birth of the most amazing person in the world. Somehow, at the same time, it all felt like too much.
Resisting Romeo (Steamy Weekends Book 3) Page 11