Chapter Fourteen
We’ve been walking in line with the rest of the crowd for well over an hour, listening to the rich history of the botanical garden, and all I’ve been able to do is watch Julia’s face the entire time. There’s something mesmerizing about the way her eyes widen, along with her smile, as she hears everything from the tour guide.
“St. George’s collection of palms includes over twenty-five species that grow in the Caribbean and adjacent regions in Central and South America,” the tour guide says brightly, her hand waving at the palms on either side of us. “St. George was awarded level one accreditation by the ArbNet Accreditation Program.”
When I look up, there are a few people in the crowd giving me weird looks, but I ignore them and thread my fingers through Julia’s to lead her with the rest of the group. Her green eyes dart from every palm that we walk past, and she pulls her phone out quickly to take pictures, committing everything to memory with a smile on her face.
She stares at me for a moment, then looks to the woman on our right and waves her phone in the air. “Hi, ma’am. Do you mind taking a picture of us?”
The woman blinks in surprise, her gaze falling onto me in recognition, and she shakes her head before grabbing Julia’s phone. “Of course not.”
I’m caught off guard when Julia moves closer to my side, and instead of looking into the camera like I should, I stare down at her with a smile. There’s nothing more beautiful than seeing Julia fall in love with something, and it’s an image I’ll never be able to replace. “Thank you so much,” Julia says as she pushes away from me and grabs her phone from the stranger.
“You two lovebirds enjoy yourselves,” the woman says with a small smile before hurrying to catch up with who I assume is her boyfriend. As soon as she locks arms with him, she turns her gaze over her shoulder to stare at me, and I quickly look away.
I should’ve known the hat and glasses wouldn’t keep me off my fans” radar. Now that we aren’t within the resort, there are much more people to worry about. I could ask Julia to leave and head back where I’ve got a policy to protect me, but that would mean watching the love dim from her eyes, and I can’t bring myself to be the reason.
“You know,” Julia says. “You really know how to do this whole dating thing.”
“It doesn’t take much to realize what a woman might need,” I whisper, clutching her hand tightly in mine.
If I’m being honest, it has more to do with wanting to see that smile on Julia’s face that I’ve been seeing all day than making sure I’m being a good boyfriend. It feels weird to call myself that, but isn’t that what we are doing? It might be fake, but essentially, I’m her temporary boyfriend, who she’s sneaking around with on her vacation, so she can gain more experience with men and not be so awkward around them.
The idea of her doing this with other men has my stomach churning, but I shake my head and ignore it. This can’t be anything more than what it is right now, even if my heart is begging me to make it something more. As much as I swore to myself it would never happen, I think I’m falling for my sister’s best friend. The longer I spend around her, the more my heart aches to be near her when she’s not around.
I’m sure if it were up to her, she would’ve left as soon as she woke up this morning, and I made the rash decision to plan this date so that she wouldn’t. I wanted her all to myself. Is that selfish? She came on this trip to spend some quality time with my sister, but I also know that Mallory was part of the reason Julia was upset last night.
“You’re quiet,” Julia mumbles. “What’s going on in that creative head of yours?”
There’s no way I’m going to tell her what I was really thinking about, but I’ll at least give her a small shred of honesty.
I sigh and pull us to a stop. “Just something I’ve been thinking about doing since we woke up but haven’t had the chance to do it.” She gasps when I tug her close to me, my back leaning against one of the posts holding the building together, and her eyes fall straight to my lips as if her mind is in the same place as mine.
“And what’s that?” She asks breathlessly.
My lips tip into a smirk and I glide my knuckles down the length of her cheek until my thumb is resting over her bottom lip. I lean forward, her lips parting instinctively, and brush mine over hers slowly. There’s nothing hungry or feral about this kiss. It’s tender, delicate, and gentle. Neither of us is eager for whatever could happen next, instead free falling into this moment of slow bliss.
Every swipe of her lips lights something up inside of me until she pulls away and leans into my chest with a sigh. The group is further down the walkway, the tour guide motioning toward the things around them as she speaks about its history, but I don’t care to bring Julia to its attention. I want her right where she is right now – wrapped in my arms.
She pulls away from me and smiles, her cheeks pink from the moment. “Want to head out of here?”
“If that’s what you want, this is supposed to be for you.”
Julia looks down toward the rest of the tour group, then brings her attention back to me and shrugs. “I think I saw everything I needed to. Let’s head back to the resort.”
I let her thread her fingers through mine and bask in the electricity that shoots through me at the contact. Ever since we started this thing, I’ve gotten used to the sensations she brings out in me and have realized I don’t want them to go away.
The sensations take me back to my ex, who I dated in high school before Raising Havoc got famous. We were one of those couples that everyone voted most likely to stay together or get married, and I had never been more proud of something before than I was about that. She was the love of my life, and I was more than prepared to spend every waking moment with her.
It wasn’t until I got famous that everything changed. The woman I grew up loving was no longer that same person – she had become money-hungry. Every day was something new; constantly held her hand out as soon as we woke up and claimed she needed a certain dress for an event coming up. Instead of being able to enjoy our mornings together as we had done before, it turned into something I didn’t want to wake up to any longer.
The betrayal shattered me.
If I can’t trust the person who knew me as a teenager not to use me or treat me like a human ATM, how in the world can I trust anyone? No matter how down-to-earth Julia seems, what if being in the spotlight changes her just as it did my ex?
When we step into the resort lobby, Julia tugs her hand out of mine and hikes a thumb toward the elevator. “I’m going to grab my things from your room, then head back to my suite.”
I frown and tilt my head. “Is there a reason? I thought you were going to stay in my room for the rest of the trip?”
She nibbles on her bottom lip and shakes her head, eyes darting around the room to make sure no one is paying attention to us. “This is supposed to be a girls trip, you know? I don’t think it would be right if I spent it holed up in a guy”s room, especially when that guy is my best friend’s brother.”
“So, things are better between the two of you?”
Julia shrugs. “Not really sure, to be honest, but I should at least try apologizing for how I acted and mend things before she ignores me the rest of our time here.” The elevator dings, and she steps away from me, eyes cast down to the ground as guests slip out of the opened doors and walk around us. “I’ll see you later though, yeah?”
“Sure, yeah.”
I watch her walk away and then disappear into the elevator before I finally turn and head toward the pool. There’s a pretty bartender pouring drinks and she winks at me when I lean against the counter, her eyes raking appreciatively over my form, but I don’t pay her any mind. If it were when I first got here, I might have flirted a bit, but now that I’ve been spending all my time with Julia, it doesn’t seem as fun.
It feels as though I’d be cheating on her.
“You look like you need good company,” she says, her voice lowering as she leans forward to show off her assets hidden beneath her shirt. “I could help you with that.” To most people, she could be offering me her bartender services, but I can tell by the needy swirl in her eyes that she means something else.
“That would be great,” I say, watching as her gaze brightens, and I point to the whiskey over her shoulder. “Just whiskey, over rocks, sweetie.” I’ve learned one thing from bartenders if they are hoping for a little more action at the end of the night, and that’s to never call them sweetie. Most of the older men at the clubs the guys and I would hole up in would call the bartenders that, so I know that’s the easiest way to get this woman off my back.
She huffs in annoyance and rolls her eyes but plasters a smile on her face to hide the frustration. “Sure thing.” While she pours my drink, I take a moment to look around the pool and study the people milling around with friends of their own. Mallory is lounging in one of the chairs nearby, a guy sitting next to her and talking at what looks like a mile a minute, and she rolls her eyes before darting up with her eyes narrowed at her screen.
She snaps her attention up, scouring the crowd for someone in particular, until her gaze lands on me, and that’s when she rises from her chair without bothering to say anything to the stranger next to her. I thank the bartender for my drink, then take a slow sip as Mallory comes stomping over to me with her phone clutched tightly in her hand.
“Hey, sis,” I say with a small smile when she stops in front of me.
“Don’t sis me,” she says through clenched teeth before shoving her phone in front of my face. “What the hell is this?”
I let my eyes adjust to the screen, and my mouth parts in surprise. It’s a picture of me and Julia, kissing, that someone must’ve taken without our knowledge. Briefly, I glance at the top of the image that’s been posted to Instagram and notice that the people who posted it was St. George Botanical Garden themselves and they tagged me in it.
Shit.
Julia said she didn’t want Mallory to find out, but how can I possibly lie my way through this? It’s right there for the entire world to see, and I’m sure everyone is going to have a field day with the news.
“Mal,” I say slowly while handing her phone back. “Maybe you should talk to Julia and let her explain everything.”
Mallory shakes her head and places her hands on her hips. “What is it you plan to do, Brent, huh? Let me guess, you’re using her to help your stupid image?” She threads her fingers through her hair and tugs at the strands. “God, do you have any idea what you’re doing to her? She’s not cut out for your lifestyle, Brent!”
Now, it’s my turn to narrow my eyes at her. “And what makes you so sure of that?”
She chuckles. “Have you bothered to see her lately? She barely talks to a guy, let alone being able to handle all the attention that comes with being with you. Julia doesn’t need it, and I’m damn sure she doesn’t want it.”
I shake my head and frown but decide to keep my lips sealed on the truth of everything. “I suggest you talk to her about everything else.” Before I walk away from her, with my whiskey in hand, I smile and say, “Clearly, you don’t know your best friend as well as you thought she did. She’s more than you make her out to be, Mal.”
With that, I leave my sister to gather my words and walk down the trail that leads to the beach. I’ll admit it – I’m a coward. I don’t want to be anywhere near them two when they go at it over this situation.
I wish I felt sick at the idea of a photo of Julia and me kissing being leaked, but I don’t. If anything, I want to see more pictures of us plastered everywhere, and that only adds to the fact that my feelings are increasing to heights they shouldn’t be.