Page 10 of Star Crossed
Chapter Two
“Why don’t we just order room service?”
Jules paused from her search through her suitcase and looked up at Wyatt stretched out onherbed, watchinghertelevision. It was obvious he planned to camp out in her hotel room all night. “Don’t you got a room of your own?”
Wyatt flipped the channel. “What the fuck am I supposed to do in my own room?”
Jules rolled her eyes, knowing Wyatt was clingy because of the drama with Clay. It shook her up too. The bullet could have easily hit Clay’s heart. Then they would have been dealing with a real crisis instead of an extended stay in Las Vegas while they waited for the hospital to set Clay loose on the world once more.
Usually she’d have been perfectly content to hang out in the hotel room with her brother. Wyatt was like a bad habit, one she’d formed in the womb and hadn’t been able to break in thirty-three years. The sad truth was the two of them irritated the hell out of each other, but they were still inseparable.
Maybe things would be different if Wyatt hadn’t gotten his heart broken at a young age and stopped his search for female companionship. Jules wasn’t exactly a champion in the dating department either, so she took half the responsibility for this dysfunctional disaster.
“Why dontcha go out, Wy?” Jules stared at her brother, bare-chested and barefoot on her bed. It pained her to admit it, but he was a very handsome man. There really was no reason for him to be as lonely as he was. “This hotel’s crawling with beautiful women who’d love to spend time with you. You’re as famous as Clay, probably more so because you don’t growl at anyone who looks in your direction. Take advantage of it for once.”
“I thought you hated groupies.”
“At least they got a pulse. Enjoy the time off work. Go live a little.”
Wyatt lifted his gaze to her, blue meeting blue as he said, “You’re telling me to get the fuck out of your room and go get laid.”
Jules lifted her eyebrows as she studied him sprawled out on her bed. “Pretty much.”
“And catch Hep-C.” Wyatt pulled a face of distaste. “No, thanks. I’ll just hang out here and order room service.”
“Always the romantic.” Jules cursed life for sticking her with such a difficult twin. “I swear, you can put anyone off on dating. When’d you get so cynical?”
Wyatt didn’t answer, because it was a rhetorical question. They both knew the moment he turned from a hopeless romantic to a bitter, cynical man who didn’t understand anything past duty and work.
“You’ve turned into Daddy,” she told him, though it wasn’t the first time. “I hope you know that.”
Jules abandoned her search through the suitcase and walked to the closet. She pulled out the last clean dress she’d brought with her. This was the dress she’d broughtjust in case. It wasn’t a business outfit. It wasn’t a going out with Clay and Wyatt outfit. This was a “fuck me” dress, and she stared at it in trepidation. It’d been a very long time since she wore a dress like this.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
Jules dropped her arm, still clutching the hanger tightly. “What?”
“Being like Dad, you say that like it’s a bad thing.” Wyatt frowned as he also looked at the dress in Jules’s hand. “Are you going somewhere?”
“I was gonna go out,” Jules said, still feeling dazed at the prospect of wearing a “fuck me” dress to have dinner with Romeo Wellings.
“In that?” Wyatt’s eyes grew wide. “Do you have a date?”
“No.” Jules huffed, because this was a business meeting of sorts. Romeo had done something heroic and brave in saving Melody. Clay would want Jules to buy him dinner. It was more like a moral obligation than a date, except for that strange fluttering in her stomach when she thought about Romeo looking at her in this dress. “I don’tthinkit’s a date.”
“Are you meeting someone?”
Jules let her shoulders slump because she couldn’t see getting out of admitting it. “Yes.”
“In that dress?”
“It’s the last clean one I got,” Jules said helplessly. She could dress casual and take Romeo somewhere inexpensive, but that seemed all wrong. He’d risked his life to help Melody, whose boyfriend just beat Romeo in a title fight. The chivalry that took restored Jules’s faith in humanity. The least she could do was buy him a nice meal, and she wasn’t going to let a sexy dress stop her. “I guess it’ll have to do.”
“Who is it?”
Jules met her brother’s gaze, knowing he’d never understand why Jules felt the need to reach out to Romeo like this. Why it was important to acknowledge what he’d done. To Wyatt, Romeo rescuing Melody seemed like no big deal when he would have done the same thing. Didn’t matter who it was, if they were in danger, Wyatt would come to their rescue. Their father had made sure Jules and Wyatt were both strong enough to always help others. It was the one thing he’d instilled in both of them, because that unique integrity was what her daddy had lived and breathed until the day he’d died.
Which could be why Jules felt so drawn to Romeo. Wyatt might not realize it, but Jules had learned a long time ago that men like that wereveryrare. She felt compelled to recognize something that made sure Clay and Melody were together and happy and safe.
