Page 60 of Star Crossed
Chapter Eleven
April
“There’s something wrong with that boy.” Clay sounded mystified. “He’s talented, no one can argue that, but yeah…something.”
Sweaty, tired, and sore, Romeo sat on the mat in the massive martial arts center Clay owned with Jules and Wyatt. While trying to catch his breath, he watched Tino move to the beat of his own drum as he worked out using a punching bag. With white headphones in his ears, his brother bounced and danced and kicked at that stuffed sack of beans, and for the life of him, Romeo couldn’t tell if he was trying to hurt the thing or date it.
“He has an addiction to those high caffeine energy drinks,” Romeo said as if that explained Tino.
Sitting next to him, bare-chested and sweaty after a long session of grappling, Clay turned to give Romeo a dubious look. “That’s more than a caffeine problem.”
Yeah, Tino certainly had more problems than a caffeine addiction. Romeo could take the party away from Tino, but he couldn’t take the partyout ofTino. He was getting positively twitchy without a place to go dance and fuck and do whatever the hell he did with his free nights back home.
“I think he needs to get laid.”
“It’s been two months,” Clay said in disbelief.
“Well.” Romeo shrugged. “That may be a record.”
“He can’t keep it in his pants for a few months?”
“He’s twenty-two and full-blooded Sicilian,” Romeo reminded Clay, thinking it was obvious. “No, he can’t.”
“What the hell did he do when we were on the tour?”
“Oh, he got plenty when we were on the tour.” Romeo laughed that Clay even had to ask. “Groupies everywhere. He had a great time.”
One of the classes released and young, pretty women who looked like cheerleaders playing dress up poured out. In their white karategistied tight with either black or brown belts, it was like a martial arts parade as they giggled and eyed Tino.
Clay snorted at the spectacle. “Doesn’t seem like he should have a hard time finding someone interested.”
It was true, Tino attracted attention anywhere he went, and Garnet was no different. Women flocked to him, younger women, older women, from any type of background. It didn’t make a difference, they all loved him. Universally. It was almost unnatural, but Nova worried about it much more than Romeo did. He had a lot of other things to stay up nights agonizing about when it came to his youngest brother. Tino’s sex life was way down on the list.
Romeo spied the girls giggling in the corners, making no move to leave as they watched Tino do his thing. He wasn’t real sure how old these girls were, high teens, early twenties, but it was odd to see an all-female martial arts class. Every class Romeo had ever taken or taught had been unisex, no special favors. If you were going to learn how to fight and defend yourself, you learned the same things regardless of your sex.
“What sorta class is that?”
“That’s one of Jules’s,” Clay said with a snort. “It started as a self-defense class. She’s got four going a week, but this one’s for all the high school and college girls, and they’ve been taking classes since they could walk. All of ’em are advanced. Lot of ’em compete and are just looking for one more way to get a practice in. So this class isn’t really self-defense even if that’s how it’s labeled; instead it turned into all that kill-and-maim shit Jules loves. If you’re gonna volunteer to be anukefor training,that classis not the one you wanna volunteer for. Wyatt and me avoid it like the plague, and she’s always looking for fresh meat. Chuito did it for a while, but he got wise real fast.”
Romeo turned to Clay in disbelief because the girls looked a little too pressed and perfect to be hard-core. “Really?”
“Oh yeah,” Clay said with a laugh. “Those ones are all on the offense. All their daddies got ’em convinced every man’s out to take advantage of ’em, and Jules has every single one of ’em hitting low and stomping when you’re down. It’s a dangerous combination, and lemme tell you, Garnet girls aren’t the ones you wanna piss off. They’ll hurt ya.”
Romeo laughed, shaking his head and trying to push down the surge in his bloodstream that stirred at the idea of Jules stomping on some guy when he was down. One thing he’d discovered since he’d started working out at the Cuthouse Cellar ten hours a day—watching Jules fight turned him on.
“This is a very different sorta dojo you guys got going here,” Romeo said, mostly out of pride, knowing Jules had been part of the driving force that created this beautiful place in the middle of nowhere. “You got chicks learning how to kill with their thumbs in one room and taking aerobics in the next.”
“Well”—Clay shrugged—“there’s not much else to do ’round here. You kinda got to cater to everyone.”
“Right,” Romeo said distantly as he watched Jules walk out of the class. Flushed and sweaty, with her long blonde hair in a ponytail, she reminded him of how she looked panting and breathless after sex. “Think I’m gonna take a break.”
“Be my guest,” Clay said, rolling his shoulder, making it obvious he was still fighting the ache from the shooting in December. “Fuck, Wellings, but you got a way of making me feel like I’m not all that retired.”
“You love it,” Romeo said knowingly. “I see you fighting with Conner. It’s like you’re still training.”
Jules was by the scale, taking long, gulping drinks out of her water bottle. It drew Romeo’s attention to her mouth and the way her throat worked as she swallowed. He jumped up and headed toward her like a moth to a flame. Trying to seem inconspicuous, he stepped on the scale, just looking for an excuse to get closer. He messed with the weights, not really seeing the numbers as he stared at the back of her neck, shiny with sweat. He’d love to bury his face against it as he was fucking her from behind, licking, tasting the adrenaline that always bled off her when she got worked up.
Jules looked over curiously, and her eyebrows rose. “Why do I see a sauna in your future?”
