Chapter 1
ONE
JULIANNA
I used to worry he’d suffocate and die while his face was buried between my thighs, but now I wonder why I worried at all.
It’s probably in poor taste to wish someone was dead. Especially him. Though it’s difficult to think otherwise when you not only hate someone, you loathe them, too.
I’ve hated him my entire life. From the moment I drew my first breath and was placed into my father’s arms, he whispered the same words into my ear as the ones he ended up telling me for the rest of my life. Words that became a promise in the end. An oath.
To protect me from the dangerous Montgomery family.
The rivalry between the Capuletis and Montgomerys goes back generations, and we’ve all been raised never to question the real reasons why. I’m not even certain any of us know the truth at this point, but even if I hadn’t been taught to do so through our generational rivalry, I’d still hate him.
I haven’t stopped staring at him between the cracks in the enormous flower wall, which my best friend’s wedding planner designed.
If I’d been the one to plan the wedding, I probably would have done it slightly different.
Charleigh, however, wanted me to leave my interior design and event planning behind for one night and simply be here as her best friend and maid of honor.
It’s her night after all, so who am I to argue? It still doesn’t keep me from taking note of every design detail, though.
The expansive flower wall is beautiful, dividing the buffet table from the dining room. The gaps aren’t wide enough for me to maintain a clear view of his face, but there’s enough for me to see parts of him at a time: his jawline, the sharp angle of his nose, his constantly furrowed brow.
I catch a glimpse of his eyes, piercing me between the petals and stems of mountain laurels.
When he looks away, his profile remains, though.
A sharp breath cuts the back of my throat.
I cough, clearing out the visceral scratch before I take another sip of my champagne.
One sip quickly leads to me downing the entire motherfucker before I snatch two more from the server passing me with a full tray and hold one in each hand.
“Thirsty?”
“Yep,” I mutter, keeping my gaze pinned on the man behind the flower wall while grinding my teeth until my jaw hurts.
“Are you all right?” My best friend’s voice is laced with enough worry to snap me out of my trance.
I force myself to turn and look at her. Charleigh’s fucking stunning as a bride.
Her wavy curls cascade over her shoulders, the ends resting on top of her flowered, lace, form-fitting white dress.
Thankfully, her ridiculously long train is pinned to the back, keeping it from tangling around her feet.
I note the pinky blush shadow dusting her soft lids.
She’s simply beaming now that she’s married to her first love.
Last year, I don’t think Charleigh ever imagined she would be married to the love she thought she’d lost when she was eighteen by forces neither of them could control.
Now though, she’s a successful business owner of two floral shops in the biggest city in the world, and she’s married to an equally successful real estate executive, Asher Egan.
I give her a soft smile, shoving the anger I feel for the man I can’t escape aside. “I’m fine.”
“Okay.” She smiles back, soothing me by running her hand along my arm. “I’m about to toss the bouquet and figured you wouldn’t want to miss it.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” I wince, holding up one of my glasses. I peer at her through the empty top half. “I think I may have had one too many of these to catch anything at this point.”
“This doesn’t have anything to do with earlier, does it?” She laughs, tipping her head back. Her highlight-dusted cheekbones shimmer under the bright lights of the ballroom.
“Earlier?”
“Yeah,” she sighs, her smile fading. “The bouquet of roses your secret admirer left for you in your hotel room. London and Selene told me about it.” She gives me a leveled look.
“And that you threw the flowers in the trash. Normally, I’d be angry at you for throwing them out, but you must have had your reasons. ”
I swallow thickly, trying not to look back at the flower wall, but I can still feel him. I imagine him standing on the other side of it, wearing his usual stupid ass, smug grin.
I roll my eyes. “They weren’t from a secret admirer.”
“Oh?” Charleigh’s brows knit as she jerks her chin back. “Are you dating someone again? Unless they’re from one of your exes? If that’s the case, it’s strange for whoever it was to deliver you a bouquet of roses on my wedding day.”
“Something like that,” I mumble before downing the rest of my second glass of champagne.
Charleigh’s assumption that the bouquet delivered to my hotel room was gifted by one of my exes doesn’t surprise me. Up until a year ago, I went through a period of dating anyone who even so much as looked my way.
I drop both my empty glasses onto a passing tray without grabbing another.
Not only because the server doesn’t have any left, but the alcohol is already swimming through my veins a little too freely.
A fraction of the tension I feel from knowing he’s here has started to dissolve. Albeit, just a fraction.
“Hello, Mrs. Egan!” London shouts from across the ballroom. She gathers the bottom of her sage green bridesmaid gown—one that almost perfectly matches mine and Selene’s—and jogs over to us. Selene quickly follows behind, handing her plate to her husband, who also happens to be my brother Holt.
London’s grin stretches across her gorgeous face, and the tendrils of her black hair frame her eyes. They sparkle as she sighs and grabs hold of Charleigh’s hand. “I thought you said you were ready to toss the bouquet.”
“I am.” She nods in my direction. “I was wrangling this one here. She’s been oddly silent since the ceremony.”
“I have not,” I protest.
All three women eye me skeptically.
“What?” I ask, dodging their stares.
I glance over my shoulder, back to the flower wall. It’s only about twenty or thirty feet away from me, but his eyes are unmistakable. He’s still staring at me, forcing me to turn back to my three best friends.
“I’m perfectly fine. I look amazing and I’ve lost count on the number of glasses of champagne I’ve had since Charleigh and Asher cut the cake.”
I cross my arms beneath my chest, mostly to stop me from marching over to the other side of the wall and punching that asshole right in the face.
Selene purses her lips, twisting her mouth in thought.
Not only is she my best friend, but she’s also my brand-new sister-in-law.
It was only a few weeks ago that she married my brother in a whirlwind ceremony down at the courthouse.
Their romance has both happened at the speed of light, yet it’s been a long time coming.
After pining and obsessing over Selene for years, Holt finally found his path to professing his love for my best friend.
I was hesitant at first, but I’ve never seen Selene this happy.
Not to mention my brother. My gaze darts over to where he’s sitting at one of the tables, cradling his sleeping son in his arms. The anger inside me disappears momentarily.
I wish our mother were here to see Holt slipping into his role of being a father so effortlessly.
Seeing Holt love on his son reminds me that life isn’t always treacherous and chaotic.
Sometimes, it can be calm and beautiful.
Turning back to Selene, I unravel my arms the moment I realize she hasn’t stopped eyeing me. I know she sees straight through me.
Or at least she thinks she does.
My heart is trapped inside a locked vault, resting at the bottom of the ocean. I’ve never truly opened it for anyone. Well, no one except…
“I think it’s funny Charleigh is tossing the bouquet when all but one of her friends are married or engaged,” London blurts out.
With her jaw dropping, Selene snaps her head toward her sister. “London!” she scolds, shifting her gaze to me in a not-so-subtle way.
Charleigh and Selene are married. London is engaged. And me? Well…
“Shit.” London’s eyebrows pull together. “I’m sorry, Jules. I didn’t mean it that way, I just…”
“It’s fine.” I pretend her comment didn’t sting.
“Hey,” Charleigh chimes in. “I have more friends than just you three, you know.”
“Sure, you do.” Selene rolls her eyes.
They continue to bicker, but I’m too distracted to pay them any more attention. Looking over my shoulder has me meeting with blue eyes again. They’re intense, staring at me relentlessly between the flowers. Of course they are. He’s probably here to claim the debt he swears he’s owed.
Asshole probably assumes he’ll get it at my best friend’s wedding, too.
I curl my fingers into fists at my sides. The sharp tips of my nails slice into my palms, and the blood in my veins boils over.
“I’ll be back,” I tell my best friends, leaving them quickly.
“What about the bouquet toss?” Charleigh shouts behind me.
“Start without me!” I shout over my shoulder.
Wedding guests eye me as I whiz past them to get to the other side of the wall. My feet can’t carry me fast enough. I steel my chest, prepared to confront him, when I find him standing on the other side of the flower wall, and my heels slam to a stop against the marble floor.
The debt I owe this man for writing an anonymous article in my brother’s magazine about him and dragging his name through the dirt has followed me around for the past nine months like a fucking storm cloud.
Heavy and gray, the weight of it has kept me up at night, tossing and turning until I’m tangled in a web of sheets and those fucking blue eyes.
I will never tell him that, though.
Instead, I tell my thundering heart to calm the fuck down, but when he comes into my line of sight on the other side of the wall, it completely ignores me.
I stop for a split second and inhale a deep breath.