Page 13 of Roman and Jules
She let out a nervous laugh.
Roman was starting to get that Jules loved a good joke, and maybe she’d think this was funny. An idea was forming in his head. A crazy one that had no business being in there, maybe because his lips were still burning with the memory of her and it was making him do insane things. Or maybe because he now knew how his cousin could get to him, and he had to find a way to get him back first.
He shoved his shoulder against the heavy metal door and walked in like a cowboy swaggering into a saloon. The chapel was a reception room with whitewashed walls, barred windows, and a scuffed tiled floor. A chandelier with plastic crystals dangled from the ceiling and an archway of fake flowers separated an aisle of metal folding chairs done up with fake silk roses in an attempt to look classy. It failed miserably. There was a fine layer of dust over everything.
Jules’s hand tightened over his. “Okay,” she said. “We saw it. Let’s go.”
She switched directions and almost ran into the officiator who had edged behind them like a shadow. He was a heavyset man with broad shoulders and a full set of thick, black hair. He held himself up with an exaggerated air of self-importance. “You’re clearly in love,” he intoned dully. “We got ourselves a sale tonight. Eighty bucks for the ceremony, but if you want a bouquet, it’ll be a hundred bucks, and I’ll throw in a veil to sweeten the deal.”
“No, no, no.” Jules was giggling uncontrollably now, and her cheeks, reddened by the storm, grew brighter with her embarrassment. “We’re just sightseeing.”
The minister’s mouth pinched, and he brought his bulging eyes to the popcorn ceiling. “The deal only lasts for the night. Don’t keep me waiting.”
Roman couldn’t keep back his laugh, and his gaze swept over Jules’s wet, windswept hair and her soggy blue dress. It was like he’d dragged her in from the sea. And then quite suddenly, a burst of reckless abandon seized him. “Let’s do this.”
“What?” Her mouth pursed incredulously, and she fixed him with an amused glance.
“This guy clearly needs a hundred bucks.” The craziest things kept tumbling from his tongue. If he talked fast enough, he’d convince herandhimself, but she only looked startled. “You think you’ll get Ty back by being the same doormat you’ve always been?” He held his breath as her eyes narrowed on him.
“I don’t know what you’re saying,” she said.
“You know Ty better than anyone,” Roman said. “He’s grown tired of the chase; it’s why he paid attention to you in the beginning then lost interest, but that’s only because he doesn’t know your value, like you said. So the question is, if you could figure out a way to make him be the guy he used to be, cherish you like he used to, would you take it?”
Her head was still tilted in that adorable, confused way, like she wasn’t sure if she was hearing him right. Roman couldn’t imagine that she’d go for this. He faced worse odds than with his dice rolling game. Here was a girl who was so distraught that she wasn’t thinking straight. He wasn’t either—not after that fight and certainly not after that kiss—but he didn’t let that bother him; he just knew what would happen if he let her go back to Ty. It would be Bella all over again, and once Ty figured it out, Roman might as well kiss his inheritance goodbye. Therewouldbe another fight. But what if Roman could turn the tables on his devious cousin this time? Why not be one step ahead of Ty and movehimlike the puppet on strings? And if this happened to make Tyson lose his inheritance instead, even better.
He pressed his lips together and tried his last trick. “Tyson likes the challenge, the forbidden. You’ve seen that. What’s more forbidden than my wife?”
That cleared the rest of the confusion from her face. “That’s what I thought you were saying!” She jabbed her finger at him. “What’s wrong with you? Why would you even suggest that?”
It was pretty stupid, and now he had to make it sound reasonable. “You want Ty back, don’t you? Don’t you want a man who adores you?” At her look, he put his hands up in his defense. “Notme. Him.”
“What do you get out of it?” she sputtered.
He couldn’t exactly tell her the truth, but what could he say that she’d believe? He hadn’t thought he’d get this far with her to be honest. “Oh, I don’t know—I get to be the good guy for once.”
“No, no, no.” She shook her head, the ends of her wet hair swinging. “That isnota good idea. Besides, you hate Ty—I know you do. You can’t pretend that this is for him.”
“How about I do this for you?”
She seemed shocked at the thought. “I’d never ask you to do that.”
That only made him more determined to go through with this. “I trust you—when we need to annul this thing, we’ll make it a clean break.”
“Are you drunk?”
“What? No!”
“Then I think you have a self-destructive thing going on. This is crazy.”
“Okay, okay, I might have an ulterior motive,” he said. She crossed her arms and waited for the explanation. He slicked the wet hair back from his head while he tried to figure out a way to make his reasons socially acceptable. “I can’t lie and say that I don’t want to see the look on my cousin’s face when he finds out about us, especially after catching him messing withmygirlfriend, so I might enjoy this… a lot.” At her startled expression, he knew what else she was thinking, and he reached for her arm. “Jules, don’t worry. It’ll be a marriage in name only—only a few hugs and kisses in public.”Maybe a few more.She blushed and ducked her head, so maybe that was pushing it. He held up his hands. “Well, Ty’s got to think we’ve got something going on. Even if he tries to fight me…” He hesitated, not sure how much she’d overheard about the new conditions of their great-aunt’s will—he was certain she’d left before the explosion—in fact, he was banking on it because no way would she go for this if she knew what might actually happen to Tyson.
“Wait. He’d fight for me?”
“Uh, maybe?” He wasn’t sure if that was a selling point or not and he rested his hand on the back of his head. “I mean, no, no, we can’t be complete cavemen about this…”
She wasn’t listening. Her eyes had lit up, and he smiled slowly. He guessed that Ty actually making an effort to work for Jules was appealing to her. It was time to get this done. “You got a hundred bucks?” he joked.
Her hands scraped her sides, and then she remembered: “You checked in my purse at The Balcony.” She sighed and then laughed. “Wow. That was a close one. You almost got me. You’ve got a silver tongue on you, Roman. I’ll give you that. You’re also insane. I think it’s catching.”
