Page 20 of Star Crossed
Chapter Four
Romeo woke up sore and sated in a way he’d never been before. The all-night sex marathon had left its mark on his body. His dick was sore as fuck. His back stung with barely broken skin from where Jules had clawed at him in the heat of the moment.
He smiled at the feeling, loving everything about it as he rolled over and instinctively reached for her. He came up with nothing but a cold pillow. It took him a few moments to pull up and look over to the alarm clock on the nightstand.
It was only nine o’clock, way too early to be up after the night they’d shared, and Romeo couldn’t help but feel irritated that Jules had slipped out. Yet even as he formed the thought, a memory invaded his clouded senses of Jules brushing the hair off his forehead. She’d placed a tender kiss above the stitches on his left eyebrow that Clay had left him with, and he’d blinked to see her framed in the first rays of early morning light making their way past the open window.
“I got to go,” she whispered softly. “Busy day. Clay’s called me four times since five. I got a stir-crazy fighter to bust out of the hospital and three sets of luggage to pack before I do it ’cause Melody’s still with him. Our flight’s at two.”
Romeo reeled that not only was Jules awake, dressed, and freshly showered with her long, wet hair tied up in a bun sporting a hotel pen stuck through the middle of it, but she was also exceedingly responsible despite the lack of sleep. He wanted to praise her for something he’d never have been able to pull off, but all he managed to grunt was, “Too early.”
“Shoot, where I come from seven o’clock’s considered sleeping in.”
“Fuckingoobatz.” Romeo’s eyes closed. “You hicks kill me.”
“Who ya calling a hick, city boy?” Jules snapped playfully as she poked at his shoulder. “And what the hell does oobatz mean?”
“It means you’re nuts.”
“Probably,” Jules agreed, a smile still sounding in her voice as she leaned over and kissed his forehead once more. “I had fun, Romeo.”
“Mmm,” he agreed, already drifting back to sleep. He sensed her leaving, and it was instinct more than anything that had him reaching out to touch her thigh. He rubbed his thumb against smooth skin and whispered, “Stay.”
Jules sighed. “Wish I could.”
She sounded like she meant it. The regret was heavy enough in her voice to force Romeo to let her go. He allowed his hand to fall to the side, but he refused to open his eyes as she turned and walked out of the hotel bedroom.
He hadn’t wanted to see her leave, he’d needed to fall asleep imagining she was still next to him, and he must have done just that because he woke up looking for her.
Romeo wasn’t even sure why he was awake. He and Jules hadn’t stopped fucking until past four in the morning, which meant Jules had been operating on about two hours of rest when she left. He was starting to think those people in Hicksville weren’t quite human, because it hadn’t even fazed her.
The phone rang, sounding oddly familiar, as if it’d rang more than once since Jules left, and he’d only now noticed. At least now he knew why he was up.
He reached for his phone on the nightstand and then answered blindly, “Hello?”
“I think it’s actually him,” came an excited screech in the phone. It was a woman’s voice, though she sounded more like an excited teenager. “He totally sounds like he’s from New York.”
Another annoyed woman in the background snapped, “Well, say something, stupid.”
“Is this the Gladiator?”
“I guess.” Romeo rubbed his eyes and then blinked at the clock again. “Who is this?”
“My name’s Sarah. I’m like your biggest fan ever.”
“Okay,” Romeo said, still fighting to wake up as he sat up in bed. “How’d you get this room number?”
“The operator just transferred us to your room,” she said, sounding excited it was so easy. “I saw what you did on the news yesterday. I can’t believe you helped out Powerhouse like that. I would’ve let his girlfriend die.”
Romeo pulled a face, unable to hide his annoyance. “Nice.”
“But I think it was totally heroic what you did,” she went on. “You wanna have breakfast with us?”
“Did you say the operator just patched you through?” Romeo asked, only now absorbing the information. “You just asked for my room, and they gave it to you?”
“Yup.”
Romeo frowned, looking around the room for one confused minute before he realized he hadn’t listed this room under a secret name. He’d been so caught up with Jules Conner he’d just blindly booked it without clarifying. He let loose with a stream of colorful Italian swear words at his stupidity.
