Chapter 18
chapter eighteen
They spent all day Saturday playing tourist and Alek loved it. He had seen a lot of sides to Jules, but this one, this was one of his favorites.
First, they went to the Aloha Swap Meet at the crack of dawn to drink some Kona coffee, eat malassadas, and do some shopping. She was so sweet to everyone she met, but when he saw her with kids…his heart did one of those tumbling things it had been doing lately. It was…weird. But he knew what it meant. He could fight it, but he knew it was useless.
Falling in love with a woman who was just going to leave him was stupid. He would remind himself at least once an hour, then he would hear her laugh. The woman had captured his heart, and he had a good idea that she didn’t even know it. That or she was an exceptional actress.
After shopping, they drove up H-2 to the North Shore, stopping by one of his favorite places to get fish tacos. He followed her through the door, frowning at any man who dared look in her direction. Stupid, right? He never got like this, even when he was younger and definitely stupider. Alek was never a man who felt territorial when it came to women. But this woman…he wanted to protect. He wanted to do everything in his power so that nothing bad ever touched her again. Including other men.
He grunted in response to that thought and her gaze rose from the menu. “Is there something wrong?”
He shook his head.
“Yes. There is. You’ve been grumpy since that man talked to me about the paintings.”
Ugh, that asshole. She had been happy enough to discuss his work, and he had been trying to see down the bodice of yet another flimsy sundress she was wearing. She’d taken the man’s card, telling him she was interested in commissioning some work for the resort. It took everything in Alek’s power not to grab the card out of her hands and rip it to shreds.
He opened his mouth to respond but the waiter appeared at the table. Of course, it was a guy. He took their drink orders and once he was gone, she returned her green gaze to his. “Now, tell me. Did I do something?”
He shook his head. It was hard to describe the possessiveness that heated his blood, the need to control the situation. That had never been him. He started to open his mouth, but someone called her name.
She turned in the direction it had come from and so did Alek. A tall, impressive looking man strode toward them. He had long black hair, a prominent nose, and had the look of some of the mainland Native American tribes.
“Micah!” she said, rising out of her chair to hug the man. Oh, fuck no.
He rose in response without even realizing it.
“Micah, this is Alek Johnson. Alek, this is Micah Ross.”
The name was familiar, and he went back through his memories. They were probably around the same age, but Alek knew this wasn’t someone he knew from school or even his time on the islands. He had never seen him before today, so that meant he knew the man’s reputation.
Micah shifted his hold on Jules, and smiled at Alek, offering his hand. Alek stared down at it, then looked back up at the man, then at his arm still around her shoulders. The low chuckle caught him by surprise. Micah removed his arm.
“No foul, man. Just a friend of her brother’s.” He turned his attention back to Jules, but Alek had the impression that the man still had some of his attention on Alek. And the rest of the room. “How is your brother doing? And Nic?”
“Oh, okay. Nic is confined to bed.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “Oh, that must be so much fun for your brother. Nic was never a woman who liked to sit around.”
“True. He’s driving her barmy.”
“Who is driving whom barmy?” A petite blonde woman stepped up. She barely came to Micah’s shoulders, but when Alek looked at the man, he saw it there. They were definitely together. His love for the woman was so damned blatant. Then she noticed who was standing there. “Oh, Jules!” She slipped out of Micah’s grasp and he growled, but she ignored him. She also hugged Jules.
“This is my wife, Dee,” Micah said.
She turned and smiled at Alek. “Nice to meet you…”
“Alek.”
She nodded. “Alek.” She looked at her husband. “You still suck at introductions.”
He rolled his eyes, but there was a smile curving his lips. Alek had a feeling this was a common argument the couple had.
“I had no idea you were on the island.”
Jules smiled. “Been laying low. Relaxing.”
“I can understand that. Well, we have to get out of here because we have kids at home and a club to take care of. Want to get together for lunch?”
Jules eyes widened as if surprised by the offer, and he wanted to go to England and find every one of her so called friends and read them the riot act. This sweet woman should have a ton of friends, but she always seemed surprised by anyone being nice to her.
“I would love that.”
“Same number?”
Jules made a face. “No. I’ll send you a text so you’ll have it.”
“Oh, good. Nice to meet you, Alek.”
“You should come by the club. No charge,” Micah said.
“Yeah, no. Not my scene,” Jules laughed.
“You never know,” Micah said before giving her another kiss on the cheek, which made Alek want to beat the shit out of him even more. Rationally, he knew that the man was married—happily from the looks of it. It didn’t matter.
Once they were alone and seated, they put in their orders before he could ask her more about this Ross guy.
“So, he owns a club?”
She sipped her mango tea and smiled at him. “Yes. Actually, multiple ones now. They have two on this island, one in Vegas, and I heard they were opening a new one in Tokyo soon.”
“What kind of clubs are these, since they aren’t your scene?”
Her cheeks turned pink and his curiosity grew. “I’ve never been. My brother and his now wife are into the lifestyle, which I wished I didn’t know. I mean, who wants to know something like that about their sibling and his spouse? Not me, that’s for sure. Micah owns the Rough ’n Ready franchise.”
Alek blinked, his mind going completely blank. “Rough ’n Ready?”
He remembered seeing something about them in the news but seeing as how he hadn’t been in a club for probably a decade, it didn’t ring any bells.
“My brother has been a member the last few years, but Micah and Dee are good friends of my brother and Nic’s. I think Nic has known Micah a lot longer than my brother has.”
The words she used buzzed around his head…lifestyle…club. “Is it a BDSM club?”
She averted her eyes, her cheeks growing pinker by the second. “Yes.”
“Are you telling me that the owner of a BDSM club just walked up and hugged you?”
Irritation slapped through him again, and the need to hunt the man down and teach him why he shouldn’t touch Jules—no matter how non-sexual—burned in his gut. Fucker.
He blinked, his thoughts taking him down another dark path. This wasn’t him. Even during his most insane infatuation with Shelley, he’d never been jealous. But all bets were off with Jules apparently. Even the idea of another man thinking about her had him growling.
“Alek, are you okay?”
He fought to get his emotions under control, then turned his attention back to Jules. She was frowning at him. He realized then that she was still waiting for his answer.
“I’m fine.”
She studied him for a long moment, her lips turning down in a frown and, dammit, he didn’t like that either. Not at all. In fact, he wanted to do anything he could to make her unhappiness vanish. Why? Well, other than the fact that he wasn’t an asshole, but her happiness seemed more important than anyone else’s, including his own. He pushed those worries aside because she was still watching him, worry etching her features.
“When did you change your number?”
Her expression blanked, then she made a face. “Gregor. He —or I should say those in his camp—leaked my personal mobile number. We had to change it for obvious reasons.”
If he ever came within breathing distance of this Gregor asshole, he was going to rip his arms off and beat the bastard over the head with them.
“But, let’s not talk about that rubbish anymore.”
“Okay. What do you want to talk about?”
She shrugged. “Why the Army?”
He pursed his lips and thought back to the moment he signed the papers. “My dad served. And I wanted to do something other than being Alek Johnson.”
“Why? I think Alek Johnson is pretty spectacular.”
Jesus, he felt his cheeks heat in embarrassment, and she giggled. It was the carefree sound that had his gut clutching, his dick throbbing. If he could bottle up that sound, he was sure he would be a billionaire from the funds.
“Yeah, well, I wanted to be just me. It’s hard growing up in a family where people expect things from you, but those people outside of the family never see you as anything other than an extension of that family unit.”
Understanding moved over her beautiful face. “I totally understand. Like I said before, I’ve always wondered just how far I would’ve gotten without the Wulf name.” He opened his mouth ready to argue his point from the night before, but she held up her hand to stop him. “There is also a part of me that would just be Julienne Wulf, an independent designer. People would take me a little more seriously then, I think.”
Before he could comment, the waiter showed up with their meals. Once they were alone, they dug into their meals, but he was definitely not letting it go.
“I think you don’t understand how seriously people take you.”
She swallowed a bite of her fish taco. “Maybe, but I’ve never had the nerve to step out on my own.”
Something about this conversation was bugging him. “Look what you did with your ideas for my house.”
“Oh, pooh, any first-year designer could do that, no offense.”
He shook his head. “No. They wouldn’t.” He thought back to his conversation this week with Sammie. “You’re intuitive when it comes to your clients. You listen to what they tell you. Not all designers do that. Instead, they do things to get themselves noticed. You do things to create the environment that makes people happy. You should never ignore that.”
When she didn’t respond, he glanced up. She blinked away some tears, but not before he saw them. Alarm moved through him. What did he say?
“I’m sorry.”
She shook her head, pressing her lips together.
“I said something to upset you.”
After drawing in a long, deep breath, she looked up at him. “No. What you said was just so…it was the nicest thing anyone has told me in a long while.”
He felt one side of his mouth kick up, as pure joy rushed through him. “Yeah?”
She nodded.
He leaned closer so he could whisper in her ear. “I told you that you had a pretty pussy last night. I think I’ve said that several times in fact.”
Her blush was back and for some reason, that made him feel better.
“Stop. Eat your lunch,” she ordered, even as she couldn’t seem to get rid of her smile.
“So, if you could do anything you wanted with your designing abilities, what would you do? Start your own firm?”
She sat back. “Well, I guess I would, but I wouldn’t want it to only be about making money.”
Of course it wouldn’t be. He had learned that she had a kind heart. “Then what?”
“Don’t get me wrong. I would definitely have some high paying customers, but I would use that money to do other things. Like…well, this might sound odd, but I would like to help redo women’s shelters. I had a friend in college who talked about the one she, her brother, and mother had to flee to when she was just a kid. I would volunteer to design the space and foot some of the bill. Or probably all of it because I have more money than I will ever need.”
He stopped eating and stared at her. This privileged woman who grew up with security, who never seemed to have to worry about her safety or where her next meal was coming from, thought of others…always. He couldn’t resist. It was stupid to even think he could. Alek set his fork down on the plate and then leaned closer, cupping her face before pressing his mouth to hers. It was the only thing he could do.
Alek meant it to be a simple kiss, but she wrapped her fingers around his wrists and returned the kiss with fervor. Her tongue slipped out and slid over the seam of his lips and he opened his mouth. It took him more than a few seconds to pull back from the kiss.
“You are amazing,” he said, knowing it was inadequate but he still had to say it.
“Thank you. For that and the kiss.”
She was smiling at him when they returned to eating their meals, and apparently, that was all he needed to feel as if all was right in his world.