Chapter 21
chapter twenty-one
How do I get myself into these situations?
It was the one question Jules kept turning over and over in her head. It had increased in frequency after Jakob, David, and her mother—HER MOTHER—had arrived. Like she was a little girl who couldn’t handle her life. Of course, seeing that she had somehow become a tabloid queen without actually doing anything that scandalous made her think maybe she was a little girl.
“There you are.”
Her mother stepped into the office that Julienne knew Jensen used when he was on the island. She didn’t spend much time here, as she liked to sit out in the sunshine and work.
When had she become that person? She used to say she loved rain, and she still did, but it felt bloody good to have the sun on her skin. She didn’t seem to get as depressed here either.
“Here I am. I just wanted to get out of the way of everyone who wants to fix my life.”
It was true. David was upstairs packing her clothes. She had refused. She wanted to talk to Alek and apologize. But she couldn’t turn on her phone. Every time she did, her phone lit up with calls from reporters. Or just assholes who thought she should be attacked for being a normal, healthy woman with a sex life.
When she thought about Alek, she sighed. He probably hated her now.
“There’s no reason to get so dramatic, Julienne.”
“Mother, I’m not in the mood to argue with you anymore. I just want to be left alone.”
Lillian settled on the sofa opposite of the one Julienne laid on. Julienne was staring up at the ceiling wondering exactly what she had done to cause all of this. Everything came back to the breakup with Gregor. If she hadn’t done that, all of this wouldn’t have happened.
“Julienne.”
She sighed and looked over at her mother. She hadn’t expected the sadness in her mother’s expression. But it was there. Probably out of the embarrassment Julienne’s latest scandal had caused. Another little jab to her heart.
“I want to talk to you about this.”
She knew better than to say no. She set her head back down and closed her eyes.
“Julienne, you care for this man.”
It wasn’t a question. “Of course.”
“There is no of course . Feelings, other than lust, are not needed for a good hard shag.”
“Really, mother?” she opened her eyes and sat up. Her mother was smiling at her in a way that told Julienne that even if she stormed out, her mother would follow.
“ Really . Your father?—”
“Absolutely not. I do not want to hear about it.”
“Hear about what?” Jakob said walking into the room. He was the middle child without the syndrome of being one. He was brilliant and gorgeous. And he was being a complete and utter wanker. She knew he was still trying to come up with a plan to get to Maui. Her mother had stopped him, but he was still plotting.
“I’m trying to impart some wisdom to your sister.”
Jakob frowned at her. “Jules, you should listen to her.”
She looked at him. “She wants to talk about Father and their sex life.”
His face paled and for the first time in hours, she laughed. “Oh, that was brilliant.”
“Mother, please. Don’t scar her. She’s already broken.”
“I am not broken.”
“She’s had all this going on and that wanker Gregor—and, just so you know, Jensen and I will be having a chat with him—and now this.”
“I’m not broken,” she repeated, a little louder this time.
They both continued to ignore her.
“I understand that, but it’s time to pick up the pieces. She needs to get her life back on track,” her mother said.
Anger flushed through her as she stood up. “I. Am. Not. Broken.” She fairly bellowed it. Both of them turned to look at her as if she’d lost her mind.
“Who the hell said you were broken?” someone rumbled from the doorway.
She blinked and looked in the direction of the voice. There, with the mid-afternoon sun shining behind him, stood Alek. He was dressed for work and he was holding a bag. Marta stood next to him, but Jules barely noticed her. Instead, she had to fight back the tears that filled her eyes.
“Alek.”
Her mother and brother looked over and, of course, Jakob was a complete tosser. He strode up to Alek, who had a couple of inches of height and probably about twenty pounds of muscle on her older brother.
“What the actual fuck are you doing here, Johnson?”
“Language,” our mother ordered as she rose from the sofa. “I take it you’re Aleka Johnson?”
He nodded, but his gaze remained focused on Julienne. “Who said you were broken?”
She didn’t say anything. Instead, she glanced at her brother. Alek’s stony gaze moved to her brother and she wasn’t sure, but she thought he might have gulped. Her brothers were big men, but Alek…he was just massive. All those years in the military, along with his Samoan blood, helped with that, she was sure.
“I think you need to reassess your opinion of your sister.”
Oh, bloody hell…that tone. It raced along her flesh, leaving her breathless. Yes, he was threatening her brother, but he sounded so damned sexy doing it.
“Excuse me?” Jakob asked, derision filling his tone.
“Your sister is not broken. Far from it.”
“Listen here,” Jakob started, and Julienne rolled her eyes. God why was he sounding like such a prig? Alek paid him no attention as he walked past him.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded, and for the first time since her family arrived, her eyes filled up with tears. He didn’t hesitate. He slipped his arms around her and crushed her to him. “Don’t cry, kuuipo .”
“I’m not crying.”
He chuckled, the vibration of it warmed her soul. She hugged him back with all of her might as she felt his lips touch her temple. After a long moment, she pulled back from him and looked up.
“I’m sorry,” she said. His expression hardened.
“Fucking stop it.”
The profanity lashed out at her. Alek didn’t use much profanity, unless they were in bed.
“Stop what?”
“Stop apologizing to me. You have nothing to apologize for.”
“But I do. It’s my fault that we’re in this situation.”
“First of all, you are not at fault because some bastard used a telephoto lens to capture something that should have been private.”
“Maybe you should have been more careful. Or better yet, you should have kept your damn hands off my baby sister.”
Alek’s attention moved to her brother and panic set in Julienne’s gut. Jakob wasn’t a small man, and she knew he could give as good as he got, but Alek was trained to kill. With just his hands.
“Stop infantilizing your sister. She’s a woman and we didn’t do anything to be ashamed of.”
“Indeed,” her mother said. Julienne glanced at her mother and realized that she had remained completely calm—no big surprise there—but there was a look of…she didn’t know what that expression was on her mother’s face.
“Infantilizing my sister?” Jakob demanded, rage dripping off each syllable he uttered.
“Yeah. It’s disrespectful. She’s a grown woman with her own mind. She makes her decisions without your input and judging her constantly. There is nothing wrong with what we did. And besides, if anyone is at fault, it’s me.”
“What? No,” she said.
He turned back to her, regret and apology stamped on his gorgeous features. “It was. My ex hired the private detective. I’m so sorry, kuuipo.”
She cupped his face in one hand. “You said it. It’s not our fault. We were being normal.”
“This ex’s name?” her mother asked.
“Shelley Lancaster.”
“Thank you.” Her mother pulled out her phone and Julienne knew exactly what she was doing.
“What was that about?”
“She’s going to let David and Nic know about it.”
“I already talked to Nic.”
“You did?”
“Yes, she wanted to make sure I didn’t have to go all the way to London to get you.”
“Why would you do that?”
He frowned. “What do you mean by that? I would travel to the ends of the Earth to get you.”
Her chest felt like something was sitting on top of it. She shook her head. “I still don’t understand why you would do that for me.”
And she truly didn’t. Even Gregor hadn’t traveled to her family home for her birthday. He’d been busy with work and didn’t see the reason for coming all that way for cake. Yeah, she should have known then that he was a loser. But then what did that make her? She’d stayed with him for the next six months.
“You always put yourself down. It pisses me the hell off. Don’t you see how wonderful you are?”
She opened her mouth to respond, but nothing came out.
“It’s just like your work.”
“What about her work?” Jakob asked.
“She isn’t happy with only working for your family. She wants to do other things, but she feels that she needs to stay with the family. That somehow, she’s letting you all down if she strikes out on her own. And you can. You can be anything you want to be.”
Oh, God, there was a tickle in her throat that warned her she would be crying again if she didn’t get it back under control. “That’s not how my life works.”
He wrapped his hands around her upper arms and gave her a gentle shake. “Your life can work how you want it to, and you need to stop acting like you’re some kind of damned martyr.”
She pulled herself away from him. “What do you mean by that?’
His eyebrow rose. “So, I’m embarrassing you?”
She looked around at her mother, Jakob and now David—who was holding up his iPad, so she was sure he was FaceTiming with Nic—watching the scene play out in front of them.
“How do you know I’m embarrassed?”
“You always get that prissy tone when you’re embarrassed.”
“That’s true,” her mother said.
She tossed a nasty look in her mother’s direction. “ Mother .”
“Look at me,” he said, lowering his face closer to her. The moment their gazes connected, all other worries seemed to fade away. He cupped her face. His eyes were fierce, but she could not look away.
“You are enough. You are making the hotel into a showplace. You did that. You. Are. Enough.”
In that moment, she gave up holding back. Tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. His gaze softened.
“Don’t cry, kuuipo ,” he said again .
He brushed her tears away using his thumbs.
“Stay here with me. Be mine.”
“Will you be mine?” She whispered the question.
He released a sigh filled with relief, as he settled his forehead against hers. “Always. From the moment I saw you standing at the entrance of that bar. I’ve been yours.”
Joy filled her heart as she smiled at him. “I love you, Alek.”
He laughed, that crazy loud booming laugh of his that seemed to fill up all the dark places inside of her head and chased her worries away. If she could hear that laugh the rest of her life, she would be a happy woman.
He dipped his head and brushed his mouth over hers, just a butterfly kind of a kiss, but at the last moment, his tongue darted out and teased her. Before she could draw him into her mouth, he was pulling away. The look he gave her let her know that this was just a short break before they would steal away.
“I love you too, Jules.”
Her head was spinning and nothing in her life had ever felt this right.
“Well, that settles it. We are going to have a celebration dinner,” her mother said. “I want something authentically Hawaiian. I’m sure you can suggest a place, Mr. Johnson.”
“I can.”
“Julienne said you went somewhere to eat last weekend; some little place, and I want to go there.”
“Rainbow? It’s kind of…”
He looked at Julienne, who smiled at him. “My sense of adventure comes from my mother. She’ll love Rainbow.”
“Great. Now, I think both of them have more to talk about and you,” she said pointing at her son, “are coming with me.”
Once they were finally alone, he picked her up and sat down on the sofa, settling her in his lap.
“I’m so glad I didn’t have to fly to England.”
“I am too.”
“I just need to know why you didn’t call me?”
“My mobile was already blowing up by the time I got up this morning.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “I was also being a coward.”
“I will not allow you to say that.”
She snorted and opened her eyes. “I was. Part of it was that once my phone number leaked, it was insane. The amount of calls overwhelmed me. Not to mention the things they said.”
“What?’
“I won’t repeat them, ever.” Mainly because she didn’t want him to get too upset. “I could have called you though from the landline, or something. But I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“I…I was worried you would hate me and while I would have understood it, I didn’t want to face it.”
“Never,” he said cupping her face, and brushing his mouth against hers. The familiar heat he always beckoned hit her with a blast, her entire body lighting up. She forced herself to pull back. “We can’t do anything right now. Jakob is probably listening at the door.”
“Oh, I know he is. So, we’re going to make out a little bit until we can celebrate tonight.”
He took her mouth again, as she slipped her hands up over his shoulders and behind his neck. This man, as corny as it was, he completed her. She felt whole when she was in his arms and she never wanted to change. Alek gave her a sexy smile, then went to lock the door to the office. Then he started back toward her. After picking her up, he sat down on the sofa and settled her on his lap.
“So, show me how sorry you are that you didn’t call me,” he said with a smile.
“Anything for you, love.”
His eyes darkened. “I like that.”
“What?”
“When you call me love .”
Her heart sighed as joy sparkled through her soul.
“I will do it all the time, love.”
There was banging on the door, and she rolled her eyes. Alek just smiled.
“You two better not be doing what I think you’re doing in there,” Jakob shouted.
She was smiling when she lowered her head to kiss Alek. Even with the mess of her life right now, Julienne knew having the right man beside her made all the difference in the world. And Alek was definitely that man. With him by her side, she would be able to be the woman she had always wanted to be.