30. Juliette
JULIETTE
T wo martinis later, I’ve divulged my darkest secrets to Felicity.
Maybe it’s because I’m tired of holding the weight on my own, or maybe it’s because I’m such a lightweight that the alcohol made the words stumble off my tongue.
The only thing I didn’t tell her was that Roman is the street artist responsible for the recent headlines.
“You’ve always been a cheap date,” Felicity giggles when I tell the bartender, Ginny, that I want water.
“It’s part of my charm.” I lean against her. “I missed you.”
“Did you?” She quirks a brow. “Seems like you were having fun without me and not filling me in. I feel like I should be mad.”
I twist my lips. “You didn’t tell me you broke up with Keagan, either, so let’s just call it a truce.”
She narrows her eyes and then nods. “Fair.”
“ And you’re sworn to secrecy.”
“Obviously.” She sips her drink. “Although it’s my duty to let you know that if you were going for incognito vibes, you both suck at it. I thought he was about to bend you over the bar.”
I glare at her. “I’m serious, Felicity. This can’t get out. You know what would happen if my family knew I was hanging out with a Montgomery.”
She tilts her head, eyes wide. “No, actually, I don’t. What would happen, Jules? They’d get mad at you?”
Is she mocking me? “It’s not that simple.”
She shakes her head. “You’re so afraid of being disowned by your family that you’re letting them dictate everything about your life.
Aren’t you tired of that? So what if you can’t live in their gaudy mansion and you have to get a job?
What’s on your plate otherwise? Marrying that douche nozzle Preston and becoming your mother? ”
I swallow around the barbs she’s throwing. “I’m not marrying Preston. Be so for real right now.”
She sighs and nudges me with her shoulder. “I’m sorry. I’m being a bitch.”
I snort. We both know she’s not sorry. “No, you’re not.”
Her mouth cocks up in a half grin. “True. Still, it’s a downer. Let’s talk about something else.”
Something in the corner of my eye catches my attention.
It was just a flash, but I could have sworn it was Lance I just saw disappear into a dark hallway. My chest tightens, anticipation lighting me up and making my heart bang against my ribs. Is he here right now? Did Art lie to me?
“Hey, I’ve gotta use the restroom,” I say. “I’ll be right back.”
“Sure.” Felicity spins in her stool, leaning over the bar top to grab a napkin.
I’m off my own chair and pushing between the tables before I can think better of it, making my way to the small hallway next to the stage.
Goose bumps spring to life along my arms when I walk toward the back exit, like the air conditioning is turned on high. I continue around a corner, where I think I saw Lance, but stop short when it’s a dead end.
And there’s no one here.
I could have sworn. There’s a door with no window at the end of the hall on the right.
Moving slowly, I make my way to it. I probably should hesitate before walking around in a bar I’ve never been to, in a part of town I know isn’t the best, but the liquor pumping through my bloodstream is making my vision a little hazy and my mind a little numb and propelling me to take risks I normally wouldn’t take.
I reach out and grasp the handle of the dark door, my heart suddenly pounding in my ears.
Why is everything back here so ominous?
I pull on it.
Immediately, it catches on a lock. I sigh and try again, like I can force it open through sheer will.
“I don’t think you’re strong enough to break it.”
The voice is a deep rasp, and it sends shivers down my spine.
I spin around, a gasp stuck in my throat, my hands splaying flat against the door. My eyes lock on Roman’s.
He’s close to me, and God damnit , I hate the way my body flares to life just from knowing he’s near. I shouldn’t be back here with him. Not with the alcohol making me uninhibited. And especially not when we already forgot about the world and flirted in front of it.
I glance down the hall to see if anyone else is with him. They aren’t. It’s just the two of us. “Did you follow me?”
“And what if I did?”
“Now who’s the stalker?”
He smirks and leans in. My stomach flips at his proximity.
“I learned from the best,” he says.
Breathing deeply, I try to think logically here.
“What are you doing back here?” I ask.
He quirks a brow, stepping in closer. “I could ask you the same.”
“I thought I saw…” I trail off, looking at the door and then back at him. “It doesn’t matter.”
“I miss you.”
My hands leave the door and rise to push him away, but instead, my fingers dig into the material of his shirt, gripping it to pull him into me. “Don’t say that.”
“Why? It’s the truth. You haven’t come to our spot in days .
” His eyes are glossy, and there’s tequila on his breath, but it mixes with that woodsy scent that’s all him, and it’s almost more intoxicating than the alcohol.
Heat pools between my legs, and I suck in a breath, knowing I should back away but not strong enough to break the connection.
“Why can’t I stay away from you?” I whisper.
He leans down, the tip of his nose skimming along the expanse of my neck and goose bumps sprout down my arms.
“If you figure out how, let me know.”
Laughter flows down the hallway, and my heart shoots into my throat. My fingers grip his shirt tighter, accidentally pulling him in, and he stumbles, his arm flying to the door until it’s resting next to my head, just a whisper of space between us.
His gaze darkens. “Come somewhere with me.”
“We’re in public, and…people have already seen us talking.”
“So?”
I look at him incredulously. “So, I can’t.”
“Says who?”
I toss a hand in the direction of the bar. “Everyone.”
He hums, reaching to tip my chin up until I’m locked in his gaze again. “Do you always do what everyone else wants?”
Ugh , he sounds like Felicity. And maybe it’s the alcohol, or maybe it’s the way that I’ve missed him, too, even though it hasn’t been that long since I’ve seen him, but my resistance is growing weaker by the second.
His mouth ghosts against the shell of my ear, not touching, just teasing, and his voice is low and deep when he says, “Such a good little rich girl. Always playing the part. Come on, Juliette, live a little. I promise I won’t tell.”
My heart flips and free-falls, tension coiling deep in my abdomen. I hate that he knows me so well already; that he can take my insecurities about being who everyone expects me to be and use them to play me like a fiddle.
“I’m not a good girl,” I say, but it sounds as fake as it feels. My mouth is dry, my fingers still bunched in his shirt.
“Prove it.”
“Maybe I just don’t trust you.”
He lets go of my chin now, his right arm still next to my head, and his left hand covers mine on his chest. “What should I swear by?”
“Don’t swear at all.”
“If you’d just?—”
I move forward suddenly, my front pressing against his. His words cut off, and he sucks in a sharp breath, his arm leaving the door and coming down to grip my hip tightly .
“I like you, okay?” I admit.
His eyes flare.
“But it doesn’t matter. This thing with you, it’s…reckless.”
“So be a little reckless,” he barbs back.
“It’s too sudden, and you’re actively trying to tarnish my family name, and, well, it makes me nervous.
What if I do go with you, Roman? What if we break these boundaries we’ve set?
Then what? We have this one night and then it’s over like lightning, so fast you can barely speak the word before it’s gone. ”
His fingers flex on my hip. “It doesn’t have to be just one night.”
“It shouldn’t be anything at all.”
I try to push him away so I can leave, but he tightens his hold on me, bringing me back, one of his hands sliding against my jaw and gripping the hair at the nape of my neck.
“But it is.”