Resisting Romeo (Steamy Weekends Book 3)

by Melanie Shawn

  It might’ve been perfect before Jared decided to crash this weekend to drop his monumental I-found-Dad news. But now, in light of his news, would she feel all of this was insensitive?

  Or would she be happy for the distraction? She’d never been particularly excited about her birthday, but today she’d seemed to be enjoying the extra attention.

  I would give anything just to get a peek behind the curtain into Jules’ thoughts so I could have a clue as to how to make this night perfect for her. It wasn’t the first time that I wished I could read minds. She was a complicated creature and I knew that any progress we’d made in rebuilding our relationship might’ve just been destroyed by the wrecking ball of Jared’s announcement. Selfishly, that was frustrating. Things had been going so well before he showed up. She was finally opening up and now I was concerned she’d just curl right back into her roly-poly shell.

  But it was even more frustrating for unselfish reasons. I wanted to be there for her. I wanted to be her sounding board, her shoulder to cry on and lean on. I wanted to be her person to navigate this incredibly delicate and confusing curve ball life had thrown at her.

  At a loss for what else to do, I’d tried to put myself in her shoes. Her father lived only a couple of hours away and her brother had gone to see him behind her back.

  Was she angry? Hurt? Confused? Maybe a combination of all three?

  Maybe she was numb. She’d always been a good compartmentalizer. Whenever the scales in her life began to tilt and she felt unbalanced or out of control, she would throw herself into her schoolwork or a project to give herself the illusion of control.

  When Jules was ten and Papouli had an accident with a hammer sending him to the hospital and nearly costing him a finger, Jules reorganized the entire kitchen, coat closet, and attic. She’d KonMari’d before anyone knew who Marie Kondo was. When Jared was in a car accident our senior year and he had swelling in his brain, she learned how to speak Spanish fluently.

  I wondered what she’d done after she’d left my hotel room all those years ago. What coping mechanism had she used to deal with the trauma I’d put her through?

  Jared had said that she’d been through enough and he didn’t even know what I’d done to her. How I’d hurt her.

  A click sounded and my heart jumped. Jules was home.

  Well, home for one more night, anyway.

  After a few seconds with no follow-up sounds, I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. Another false alarm. I’d had at least a dozen over the past hour.

  My eyes shot to the oversized clock hanging on the opposite wall. The second hand just kept ticking along, mocking me. Minute after minute passed by with no sign of her. She’d been gone for nearly two hours and it felt like an eternity.

  As much as I’d loved seeing Jared, he’d definitely put a wrench in my plans in more ways than one. Besides his news, he’d also taken up precious, valuable time. Time that I desperately needed.

  I hadn’t talked to Jules about the future at all. Hell, I hadn’t even really talked to her about the past. There was a lot to say and I only had one more night with her. She wasn’t even here and I had no idea when she’d be back.

  Not able to sit still for another moment, I stood and began pacing.

  My mind was racing as I tried to figure out what I was going to say to her when she returned. Should I jump right into the dad topic? Should I ignore it completely? Should I focus on us?

  Part of me was tempted to put off any us-related talk until a more appropriate time, but then another part of me didn’t want to wait another second to tell Jules how I felt about her. I let out a long sigh and shook out my arms.

  My only real option was to play it by ear, which normally, I was great at. I could go with the flow like nobody’s business. But this was different. This was too important.

  Jules wasn’t just the girl that got away, she was the only girl that existed to me.

  I heard another sound and this time it was the door opening. Jules stepped inside looking almost exactly like she had when she picked me up from the airport. Her hair was pulled back off her face, she wore a white button-down shirt, and a figure-hugging black skirt that landed just below her knee. The only difference was that tonight she wore black heels and when she picked me up from the airport she’d worn gray ones.

  It was a small thing to notice, but that’s how it had always been with Jules. I noticed the tiniest details about her. I still remembered what she was wearing the first time I saw her. Denim overalls and blue shirt. Her hair had been in double braids. I remembered what she wore to her first day of high school. Black shorts and a striped shirt. I remembered what she was wearing when I taught her how to drive stick. White tank top, jeans with holes in the knees, and a necklace with an angel wing charm.

  “What is all this?” She stood perfectly still, not meeting my eyes.

  I fanned my arms out. “It’s your birthday celebration.”

  She took a deep breath and I could see emotion brimming in her whiskey-colored eyes, but I wasn’t sure what emotion it was, exactly. Happy? Sad? Mad?

  She smoothed her hands down her hips and stood a little taller. “Thank you for thinking of me, but I’m tired. I’m actually going to go to bed.”

  Her tone was so formal and professional. She’d definitely roly-polied.

  “One piece of cake? Come on, it’s your birthday.”

  “I don’t celebrate my birthday,” she stated firmly and began to walk toward the hall that led to her room.

  I didn’t want to fight with Jules but I also didn’t want her to go to her room. I was desperate to stop her. “I haven’t given you your birthday present.”

  She stopped, and for a moment. I thought she was going to continue on and ignore me. But then, slowly, she turned toward me and shook her head back and forth. “You didn’t have to…I don’t need anything.”

  “Well, it’s something I’ve been working on for a long time. Over ten years.” I picked up my guitar and started to strum it. “It’s a song called ‘Perfection.’ It’s going to be on my solo album and I wrote it for you.”

  Her lips parted and before I sang a single word, her eyes had already filled with tears.

  I prayed that they were tears of joy.

  My heart was pounding so hard in my chest, I feared that it would be louder than my voice. I sang with every ounce of pent-up emotion that I’d been building in me like a pressure cooker for years. I sang with more feeling, more love, and more raw vulnerability than I’d ever expressed in my life.

  I closed my eyes for the first few lines, unable to look at her without my emotion limiting my ability to sing. Finally, as I got to the second verse, I felt able to open them. I stared into her caramel eyes as I sang.

  “I loved you forever

  Before I knew what love was

  It was me that was wrong

  The person I couldn’t trust

  Now I open my eyes

  And I see you here

  Kissing me, loving me

  Showing me there’s nothing to fear

  All of my dreams

  Are wrapped in my arms

  I’ll hold you forever

  Entranced by your charms

  There’s only been you

  It was never a choice

  You captured my soul

  The first time I heard your voice

  You’re whiskey, you’re bourbon,

  You’re one hundred proof

  Just one sip of your sweetness

  And I know the truth

  You are perfection

  You inspire affection

  You’re my perfection

  You’re my heart’s reflection

  You are perfection

  You embody affection

  You’re my perfection

  You’re my soul’s reflection.”

  I strummed the final bar and opened my eyes. Tears were falling down Jules’ face and I set my guitar down and walked toward her. All I w
anted to do was pull her into my arms and hold her. Well, that wasn’t all I wanted to do, but it was what I needed to do.

  I’d only made it two steps when she held up her hand, halting me. Apparently she didn’t feel the same way.

  CHAPTER 23

  Juliette

  I felt like I was living out one of my fantasies. Nothing seemed real. Candlelight flickered as Romeo serenaded me with a song he wrote for me. I’d been prepared to go to my room and try to maintain the tiniest shred of self-preservation that I had left, and he’d just obliterated that.

  “You wrote that for me?”

  “I did.”

  “When?” I dropped my hand, my arm suddenly heavy.

  He didn’t answer, instead his legs ate up the distance between us in measured steps, giving me plenty of time to protest. He stopped a mere inch in front of me. My chin lifted as my head tilted back.

  A crooked grin tugged at the corners of his lips. “I wrote the chorus the night you ran out of my hotel room, and I’ve been working on it ever since.”

  I had so many questions competing for attention, but they were all silenced by one urgent, overwhelming need to touch Romeo.

  I lifted my arm once again. But this time, it wasn’t to put up a stop sign. My hand cupped his jaw as I stared at his gorgeous face, every feature looking like it’d been chiseled from stone. I let my fingers brush lightly down his cheeks, over his lips, and down to his chin. It was almost like I had to touch him to convince myself that he was real, that he was still here. Not just a product of my fantasies, but flesh and blood.

  His hands circled my hips and he pulled me against him. I could feel the pressure of his erection pressing against my body. Heat swirled in my belly at the knowledge that he was just as turned on as I was in that moment. It was still foreign, the idea that these feelings I had held for him for so many years were not one-sided.

  It was going to take some serious getting used to. I didn’t know if my brain would ever accept it completely, or if it would always amaze me the way that it did right now. What I did know was that it was incredible, and I was going to have a very good time adjusting to it.

  I lifted up on my toes and pressed my lips to his. Our kiss began slow and seductive. His tongue slid between my lips and met mine. My hands roamed his body as his fingers gripped my hips tightly. Both the kiss and my touch were exploratory and thorough.

  Last night had been amazing but there was something that I’d always wanted to do that I hadn’t had the nerve to try. I wasn’t sure what the song meant for us or what the future held, but I did know that I had tonight. And it was my birthday.

  I trailed kisses across his cheek and whispered against his ear. “Thank you for my present, can I ask for one more?”

  I felt a hard shudder run down the length of his body, all the way from his head down to his toes. When he spoke, his voice came out strangled, like his throat was so tight it threatened to cut off his words. “Fuck, yes. Anything.”

  I laughed breathlessly. “Well, that was enthusiastic. You don’t even know what I want.”

  He pulled back and looked into my eyes. His own eyes were pure steel, and the words he said sent an erotic lightning bolt through me that almost knocked me off my feet. “It doesn’t matter what you want. It’s yours. You can have anything. What do you want?”

  My mouth was dry, but rather than feeling too shy to utter the words while looking him square in the face like I would’ve imagined I would be, the naked hunger with which he eyed me made a boldness rise up in me that I’d never felt before. Suddenly, I felt confident enough to say anything to him.

  So I did.

  “I want to taste you.”

  He gave a half-smirk, that cockiness that I found so fucking sexy springing to the forefront. “You have tasted me. My tongue was just inside your mouth.”

  Maybe he thought that this would send me spinning out into a stammering, flustered mess. Maybe that’s what he was trying to do, because he thought it was cute. But he wasn’t aware of the new, sexy confidence he’d inspired in me. I was no shy virgin anymore. I was a freaking sex goddess.

  Well…maybe I wasn’t at full-goddess status. Yet, anyway. But, damn, when Romeo Whitehall looked at me with that visceral, animal glint in his eye, that was what I felt like.

  I straightened my shoulders, which pressed my breasts even tighter against his chest. I put a hand on each side of his face, holding his gaze to mine, and then said, simply and clearly, “I’m not talking about your mouth. I want to do to you what you did to me last night. I don’t want your tongue in my mouth. I want your cock in my mouth.”

  My eyes widened in surprise at the words I’d chosen. It might’ve been the first time I’d ever said “cock.”

  Romeo, on the other hand, didn’t seem at all shocked by my language. His nostrils flared and his jaw tightened as his fingers dug into my flesh.

  “Is that okay?” I asked breathlessly.

  “Fuck. Yes.”

  I wriggled out of his grip and dropped immediately to my knees. My fingers didn’t fumble at all as I unfastened his belt and his jeans and freed his massive erection. My mouth watered as I wrapped my fingers around his shaft. It was heavier than I’d expected. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was supposed to do, so I just went on pure instinct.

  Leaning forward, I pressed my lips to the rounded head and his flesh expanded in my hands. A small thrill raced down my spine at the knowledge that I was turning him on. I extended my tongue and licked all the way from the base of his shaft to the tip, then swirled my tongue around that sensitive tip again and again. I could feel his hands on the back of my head, stroking my hair and releasing it from its confines, but that was just a vague awareness in the recesses of my mind. I was fully focused on his gorgeous manhood, right there in front of me.

  And it was gorgeous. So perfectly shaped and proportioned. If it wasn’t socially unacceptable, I would’ve commissioned an oil painting of the thing and hung it up over my fireplace—it was a work of art.

  But, of course I’d never do that, and not just because of the whole “pornography over the fireplace” thing. The truth was, I was already feeling very territorial and possessive about Romeo’s impressive penis. I didn’t want anyone else seeing it.

  I parted my lips and slid my mouth over his steel-hard shaft and velvety-soft skin. His body pulsed as I did. My mouth watered as I moved my head down, which made my lips slip smoothly over his engorged erection. My tongue laved him up as I pressed my lips tight around him, sucking him with everything I had as I started to move my head up and down, faster and faster.

  I wasn’t sure what possessed me. It was just an instinctual rhythm that I was following. I felt elementally primal as this visceral knowledge rose up inside of me, taking me over and I surrendered to it.

  Romeo’s fists tightened in my hair and it gave me a clue that he was enjoying my surrender. His fingers were completely entwined with my thick locks and when he squeezed them, it sent small pulses of pain skittering across my scalp and down my neck.

  The sensation shot straight to my core and my inner walls flinched. I squeezed my thighs tightly together as pleasure built between my legs. Was it possible to have an orgasm from doing this? If it was, I thought I might just have one.

  Or at least I thought I might until I found myself being lifted up off the ground. Strong hands held me in place as I stood and lifted my eyes toward Romeo. He was staring down at me. I licked my lips, tasting him, and a deep growl ripped from his chest.

  My entire body went up in flames at the sound and I knew that whatever happened in the future, my choice not to go straight to my room was worth it. Tonight was worth it.

  CHAPTER 24

  Romeo

  Fuck.

  I’d slid my hands underneath her armpits and pulled Jules to her feet just in time. If I’d waited even a second longer I would’ve come in her mouth. But when she’d licked her lips, I almost went over the edge anyway.

  Urgency roa
red in me. I needed to be inside her. It wasn’t an option, it was imperative.

  With much less care than I probably should’ve shown, I ripped her clothes off. Literally, I could hear the material splitting at the seams as I tore off her shirt, skirt, bra, and panties. I’d pay to replace the clothing later, right now it was the only thing standing in the way of me taking what we both needed.

  When she stood in front of me, completely naked, it did stop me in my tracks for a second, though. The sight of her body…she was just so spectacular. And I was only human.

  “God, you are just…stunning. Completely stunning.”

  A blush colored her cheeks, but she didn’t brush the compliment away or argue. She’d probably never have a full understanding of exactly how amazing she was, but maybe she was getting a little bit more comfortable with me trying to explain it to her.

  I stripped off the rest of my clothes, never tearing my eyes from her smooth skin and womanly curves. When we were both finally naked, I put my hands firmly on her hips and spun her around. The movement was so fast and commanding that she drew in a sharp gasp, which was then followed up by a low moan.

  I had a plan, and now it was my turn to take charge and make that plan happen.

  She was only standing about a foot away from the edge of the pool table, so I nudged her forward until she was standing right up against it, then leaned forward and growled a command into her ear. “Spread your legs.”

  This drew a whimper from her, and she immediately obeyed, moving her feet shoulder-width apart. I ran my hands up and down her body, cupping her breasts and roaming down the taut planes of her belly. Then I slipped a hand between her legs and started moving my fingers in slow circles over her pleasure center.

  She moaned and trembled as I did this, and I knew that she was mine. The fingers on my right hand were coated with her juices and I used my left to pull her back against me so I could give her another short, authoritative command. “Wider.”

  This drew a full-fledged, deep groan from all the way down in her belly. I could feel it through the palm of my hand that was holding her to me. She immediately did what I said, moving her legs another few inches apart.