I’d be a liar if I’d said I had fallen hard for Juliette. The fourteen year difference between us was sometimes very apparent, more notable than my brother’s relationship with his wife, yet Sawyer was the around the same age as her.
However, most of the time her younger outlook on life felt like a breath of fresh air in my otherwise sober existence in my new serious business position within my father’s firm. Therefore, what had begun as a casual arrangement between Juliette and I amazed me when it developed into more.
Tired of the commute, the easy companionship and laid-back dates I’d shared with Juliette became more frequent since I’d sold my New Jersey beach house and moved to the city. Within weeks we had been spending most nights together, until one day I had shocked myself when I had suggested she move in.
Our chance meeting happened when I’d gone along to a charity fundraiser held by a well-known wealth management corporation, which was one of the firms my father did business with. I’d been volunteered to go and as such had reluctantly attended, not expecting for a minute to find and fall in love with someone like Juliette. She was vastly different from many of the women I’d briefly dated in my life, and probably the opposite of controlling Charlotte in nature.
Juliette was uncomplicated and carefree, and I had been enthralled by the way she wasn’t impressed or intimidated by the collective of rich men and women; those cutthroat brutal power drivers of the city, all gathered together at that same event.
From the moment I’d laid eyes on her she’d held my attention, and with my curiosity piqued, my beady gaze had followed her as she had flitted breezily from person-to-person around the room like she owned it.
Completely distracted from the conversation taking place around me, I continued to watch with interest from across the crowded room as she conversed easily between all of those present.
Confidence oozed from her as she used her pleasant charm and ready chatter when she’d flashed engaging smiles toward the normal sober patrons, and I’d noted them smiling back. I found my lips curve upward right along with her, even though at that point she never knew I existed. I had no idea what she was saying to them, but could hardly wait to find out because I had found her that enthralling.
After several minutes of observation, I finally caught her eye and she wandered toward me. “Can I interest you in one of these exclusive pieces of high-fashion corporate neckwear, sir?” she asked in a patronizing but playful tone that told me she found the whole idea of handing out a cheap piece of nylon, with a plastic hook on the end to the attending clientele, absurd.
I glanced around the room again and noted almost every man present, despite their handmade tailored suits, which had likely cost more than a year’s mortgage for the average American household, had been wearing one. I snickered, immediately acknowledging her worth as a persuasive events girl.
“Can I be frank with you, Miss…”
“Juliette, my name’s Juliette,” she beamed. Her brown eyes held my gaze and I found myself swallow as my attraction toward her grew.
“Of course, it is,” I remarked through a chuckle, sweeping my hand under hers and bringing her knuckles to my lips. She smiled and there wasn’t a hint of resistance to my gesture. “Excuse me, but,” I pointed to myself, “as you can see, I’m not Romeo.” I flashed her a helpless smile. “Although my mother would probably contest my denial, vigorously.” Her smile widened, showing perfect pearly white teeth, but she stayed silent and attentive. “James… Wild, pleasure to meet you, Juliette,” I added playfully, introducing myself.
“And are you?” she asked, biting back a grin as her gorgeous brown eyes narrowed in mock concentration as she prepared and lifted the thin, cheap length of swag over my head.
“Am I what?”
“Wild? You look pretty smooth to me,” she added, taking her bottom lip into her mouth, and made like she was still focused on the task in hand. The gesture of placing the cheap lanyard over my neck which brought her face closer to me. Inhaling, I smelled a hint of cherries; a liqueur I presumed, and a sweet but not sickly floral perfume. My eyes briefly fell to her cherry red lips, and I realized what I had thought was alcohol was in fact the lip gloss she wore. A desire flashed within me to lean in and taste it.
Searching for a distraction from that, I formed a flirty reply, “I suppose I can be—rough—but at other times I guess smooth might also be a fair assessment. It all depends on what the occasion calls for … what the situation calls for, I mean.”
“Interesting,” she remarked, an eyebrow raised in reply when she finally let go of the lanyard, then surprised me by sliding her hands around my shirt collar. A shiver ran down my spine when she trailed her long fingertips down my jacket lapels and skimmed the edge of each side of my suit jacket, fleetingly catching the top of my abs as her hands fell away.
“I beg to differ. You’re the only interesting thing in this room as far as I can see.”
I saw my words had amused her when I caught her bite back a grin as she spun away from me on her heel. As she did this, my gaze dropped to her feet and that was when her fishnets registered with me. I’d always had a thing for those sexy as sin nylons with the solid black seam that began as a visible line and ended in the imagination of every man as they thought where the trail led in their minds. I wondered if she wore black lingerie to match. Lingerie was definitely a thing with me. My dick immediately stirred and concurred with interest in the lovely Juliette.
As she wandered away from me, she glanced back over her shoulder with another barely visible smile teasing at her lips. “Smooth, Mr. Wild,” she said, quietly. “In this circumstance, with the encounter we just had, I’d say today you are smooth.”
It wasn’t usual for me to get hung up on merchandise girls, other than that they were usually a pleasant eye candy distraction, which normally broke up the duller moments of those kinds of get-togethers. Standing, listening to someone, who liked the sound of their own voice and talked statistics about stocks and bonds in stiff and boasting conversations, was not my bag at all.
The role of these girls may have appeared sexist and degrading, and to the uninitiated the way Juliette was dressed may have looked tacky and demeaning, but the secretarial logo of the company hosting the event had fit her attire perfectly. The design of the insignia was instantly recognizable and represented trust to the public, therefore it had been regarded as an acceptable promotion of Secretariat Treasures Inc. for well over a century.
Dressed as the female on the company logo, Juliette’s appearance still got my vote in her classic, tight black pencil skirt, sky-high black patient heels, and her tucked, crisp white, cotton button-down blouse. Completing the look, she wore a sophisticated sexy blonde hair updo and a pair of black-rimmed specs; which I later found out were her actual nearsighted eyewear. No matter whether they had been real or not, the girl totally rocked the look.
Juliette was alluring, but I only noticed what she wore after she’d already engaged me with her infectious smile, confident flirty nature, and her ignorance of the competing testosterone in the room. Seeing her unimpressed by those people made her infinitely more interesting, and I was intrigued to find out more about her.
As for Juliette, she’d already registered her interest in me by the way her warm hands had lingered around my neck, and by the time I headed home that night, her home and mobile cell numbers had been safely added to my contacts list for a call on another day.
From that day to this I was thankful I’d met her, because for the first time in years, I’d felt happy to wake to a woman beside me in my bed. Of course, there had been the odd occasion when one or two girls I’d gone out with had lasted a month or so, but I never really had that one person in my life I’d wanted to be a better person for, until Juliette. Sex with her was good, if a little less exciting than I’d been used to, but I felt mentally stronger for being with a partner for the first time in my life.
“So this happened pretty quickly?” Sawyer probed, ta
king a slug of his beer.
“I guess. It wasn’t an intentional decision, but yeah, I’d only been in the New York apartment three weeks before I asked her to move in. Coincidently, Jules’s lease on her apartment came up for renewal, and I’d already seen what a dump she lived in.” I shrugged. “I just thought she was better off living with me.”
“Very romantic,” Sawyer drawled sarcastically.
He was right, when I heard myself recall the reason she was with me, it hadn’t sounded like a statement of commitment, but it was the best I could offer at that point in time. It had been something of a miracle I’d trusted her at all after my experience with Charlotte.
It had been a huge decision to take Juliette with me to Hammer’s place, since I knew my youngest sister, Lorna, Sawyer and his wife, Billie, would be watching my every move. I knew from Sawyer, Billie had felt disappointed that I hadn’t made more of an effort with her best girlfriend, Tricia. I had never spoken openly about what had happened between Tricia and me, and I had nothing to reproach on that score anyway, because the decision not to go farther was on Billie’s friend, not on me.
After the wedding we’d hooked up on a couple of other occasions; the last time had been when we’d left Sawyer and Billie’s place on Christmas night when Billie was pregnant with the twins.
Tricia swears I had initiated that session by pecking her cheek and touching her hand in the kitchen when I’d arrived, but I disagreed, because it had been her idea to go to her house when I’d been prepared to go home. Looking back, there was never a choice that night, because the lust and attraction we had was mutual. But after the fiery chemistry and deep connection I’d felt we’d shared that night, I drew a line when afterward she’d acted cold and blew me off again.
That time I didn’t roll over and leave because by then I’d made up my mind I liked Tricia, really liked her. In fact, I thought I may even have loved her by then and her cold and controling behavior was maybe just an act. But when I tried talk to her about why she was resisting what I knew we both felt, she immediately shut me out.
When I left her that night and got back in my car, the ache in heart felt heavy, and something told me instinctively, she was determined not to change.
Admitting that to myself was tough, but the first rule to a problem is a solution, business had taught me that. My problem with Tricia Mattison was I liked her a little too much. Acknowledging my feelings for her was hard, and once I had been honest with myself about that, the only solution I saw going forward was to deliberately avoid her. Life had felt difficult enough at that time without chasing complicated, fucked-up women.
“Do I detect rings and wedding bells?” Sawyer asked me, nodding toward the direction she’d gone again.
“Fuck, no. What’s the rush? It’s only been weeks since she moved in, Sawyer, not months. I’m not all like you, bro. Some of us are more guarded with our single status.”
“Bullshit, when you know, you know,” he replied, flashing me a smug smirk as he brought his beer bottle to his lips and his eyes instinctively scanned the yard for Billie.
“I like her,” I admitted, after shrugging my shoulders when he silently scrutinized me with his curious eyes until I felt uncomfortable. A frown creased his brow at my response.
“Fuck, James.” He shook his head, looked at his feet, then his eyes snapped back up and met mine. “No wonder women couldn’t keep their hands off your dick.”
“And that would be why, exactly?” I asked, eyeing my brother with caution.
“The store has closed, so no one can buy into your feelings,” he said, poking my chest.
“I do have … feelings for Jules,” I replied hesitantly, my words choppy as I tried to quantify it in terms to myself.
“Well, I hope you can express them a bit more than that, dude, because ‘feelings’ aren’t exactly how you describe someone you love.”
“All right, smart-ass, tell me what I’m missing. What do you think when you look at Billie?”
“That’s easy. I see the love of my life. My gorgeous little ball of wonder. When I see her, I can’t keep my hands off of her. My heart melts when I see her holding my kids in her arms and it swells tight. When she looks at me and I stare into the depths of her soul, it’s the most serene feeling. When that happens it’s just her and me and we’re all that matters.”
“You sound the part of a lyricist with those comments,” I scoffed, but his description of his life with Billie sounded nice.
Sawyer shrugged and his eyes filled with angst. “I feel desperately protective of her, and there isn’t one single thing that I wouldn’t do to keep her from being hurt.” He chuckled. “Flip that, and on the other end of the spectrum, I want to fucking devour her because she fires me up inside.”
“Whoa, Sawyer … that’s some heavy shit—”
“If you don’t feel all of that, bro—” he shrugged and ground out his warning.
“Sorry I took so long,” Juliette’s sweet voice cut into our conversation. My gut twisted because I didn’t feel half of what Sawyer talked about, but we had still been growing as a couple. My head snapped in her direction and for a second, I wondered how long she had stood there, and how much of our conversation she’d heard.
“James was about to send out a search party, weren’t you, bro?” Sawyer replied quickly, covering my inept attempt to find any words to continue with normal conversation after his candid explanation of how his wife made him feel.
My gaze remained fixed to my girl and I shrugged. “Thank you for rescuing me, I’ve been drowning in cheese while my little brother here poured his heart out about his wife.” At least that part wasn’t a lie.
Sliding her arm through mine, she rested her head on my shoulder in an obvious sign of support. “James may not be one for public displays of affection or openly vent how he feels, but I believe he does it where it matters. Not everyone has the confidence to know exactly what they feel or can even express this. Besides, I’ve been on the end of plenty of charming words in the past, but the actions of those men just didn’t match up.”
A laugh bubbled up from my throat, but I caught it when I saw Sawyer rub the back of his neck, clearly embarrassed Juliette had most likely heard the majority of our conversation. “Lovely to meet you, honey. James needs to bring you down to the house for dinner so we can get to know you properly without hordes of people hanging around.”
Nodding, my girl smiled warmly, slipped her hand down from the crook of my elbow and laced her fingers in mine. Relief washed through me because she obviously hadn’t been offended by anything my brother had said.
“Thank you, I’d like that, Sawyer. I saw your wife, Billie, a few minutes ago; she seems lovely. I’m looking forward to getting to know you both better… and meeting your children as well. James clearly adores them, he talks about them all the time,” she added and turned her head, looking up at me with a warm smile that reached her eyes. “Baby, would you grab me another drink? I mean, I’m thirsty and this is a party after all,” she reminded me, giving me an out in the carefree tone that had attracted me to her in the first place.
“Sure, I replied, and felt happy to leave her standing with Sawyer, who I knew would gently quiz her further about us.
Whatever Sawyer thought, my decision to take Juliette to the party had made people notice. My lack of clarity on defining what Juliette was to me was no one’s business but mine. Unlike Sawyer, I’d never experienced that instant love Sawyer said he’d felt when he met his soul mate, and therefore I was proof, even with the same rich blood running through me, no two men were the same.
Chapter Five
It had been an age since I’d been to a yard party, and that afternoon it dawned on me I’d grown to prefer ones like the kind Hammer threw, instead of the superficial nightclub parties my buddies and I had lived for when we were all single.
During that time, most guys I knew envied the lifestyle I led. The playboy I once was, had been cocky, sometimes arrogant, but
nevertheless a magnet for ballsy women or those my friends had called inheritance chasers. It was a lifestyle I managed well, and back then I didn’t attend intimate social gatherings in someone’s home unless it was a family occasion.
Being the eldest of my siblings, I had felt there was an unspoken expectation that I should have been the most confident within my sibling group; that my primary position should have made me more resilient than the others, but for some reason it didn’t. With every new sibling’s arrival, I’d viewed them as competitors and in my opinion from the attention they received, I didn’t feel as important because their needs were always greater than mine in the eyes of my parents.
Growing up, I wasn’t the most outgoing boy. With each new sibling who came on the scene, I guess I felt farther out of favor with my mother until by the time Sawyer was born, I had felt invisible.
My solitary behavior earned me the reputation with my mother as her ‘broody child,’ and as such, I learned people only considered the action someone takes and seldom questions or tries to understand the reason behind why someone behaves like they do.
It took guts to accept a proposal from my father, but it had proven to be a defining point in my life. It’s true I’d avoided that role, mainly because I had figured I’d fail him. As I grew older, I learned the only people who failed were those who never took risks, and as my father wasn’t getting any younger, someone had to step up to the plate.
Being the eldest heir to an extensive multi-agency firm, it had been my father’s expectation I’d join the company. It had been my expectation not to. I rebelled when it was suggested, partly for the reason I said before, and partly because I felt my father related to Sawyer better than me.
However, deep down, I guess I had always known I was the right person for the job. It was my place to succeed him when he retired, but I knew a role like his took great patience and nerves of steel, and at the time when it had been proposed I was very immature.
Resist You (Unchained Attraction Book 3) Page 4