One Night with the Tycoon(16)

Wyatt cursed under his breath.

"I've got a bottle of tequila I've been saving for just such an occasion. Let's go sit on the patio."

"I'm not interested in talking, Trey," Wyatt said. Telling his brother  the messed up way he viewed relationships was way down on the list of  things he wanted to talk about it.

"Then we'll just drink. I don't have anywhere to go and neither do you. I  just signed a new contract for Kelly's Champs and I want to celebrate."

"Count me in," Xander said, coming up behind him.

Wyatt almost groaned and looked around for Xander's twin. The last time  he'd seen Nicholas the other man had been flirting with Juliette.  Something that Wyatt knew he had no right to object to.

But Nicholas strode in behind Xander. "Did someone say celebration?"

Wyatt went after him grabbing by the shirt collar and pinning him to the  wall. He pulled his hand back to punch him and got one shot in before  Nicholas shook free and backed up. "Man, calm your shit. What's going  on?"

"Where's Juliette?" he demanded. He was ready to go as many rounds as it took.

"Juliette? I didn't touch her, she's yours," Nicholas said.

Fuck. What the hell was he doing? One thing was sure as hell clear, he  wasn't over Juliette. "She's her own. She'll be the first to tell you  that."

"Hell. She was flirting with me but watching you and once you left,  she … well, she looked like she'd been bucked from a bull. She's yours,  bro, even if you don't want to admit it," Nicholas said.

"Now what's this about shots?"

"Yeah, old school, tequila shots on the patio," Trey said. "You boys head out there, we will be right behind."

Nicholas walked away, but Wyatt went after him. "Sorry. Nicholas, I shouldn't have done that. I just-

"You forgot we were brothers, dumb ass," Nicholas said, giving him a rough bro-hug. "We don't poach on each other's women."



Juliette woke up with a massive headache. She got dressed in a brightly  colored wrap dress and put on her sunglasses to combat the light as it  was making her headache worse.

She entered the kitchen to the smell of coffee and toast. Chloe turned from the fridge. "How are you feeling this morning?"

"Worse than you can imagine," Juliette said, making her way to the  breakfast table and pouring herself a cup of coffee. She pulled her  smartphone from her pocket and placed into the table next to her mug  while she poured some milk into it.

Chloe pulled at a chair and sat down across from Juliette and a few  minutes later Ariana and her rescue dogs entered. Ariana fed Big Boy and  Little Joe as Juliette scanned her email on her phone.

She almost dropped the device when she came to one from the Henri Des  Jardins. His email was a job offer. He'd seen what she'd done with the  little lavender shop and wanted her back at the perfumery so she could  get the same results for them.

She thought about last night. Her disastrous flirting with Nicholas.  Drinking too much … maybe it was time to go back to Paris. She wouldn't  see Wyatt there.

"How are you this morning?" Ariana asked as she sat down. "You were in a fine mood last night."         

     



 

"Oh, don't remind me. Why did I think I could have two glasses of wine  before I ate a single morsel of food? I have a massive of headache and a  job offer."

Ariana reached across the table and pulled Juliette's sunglasses off. "What are you talking about?"

"The Des Jardins want me back. I can be a partner as promised before and all that if I can duplicate the results I had here."

"You're not seriously considering this, are you? It's just another ploy to get results from you."

Juliette put her head on the table. "I know that. But if I take the job I won't be in Whiskey River."

"No."

She lifted her head and stared at her cousin.

"I'm not letting you do it. You said it yourself we needed Whiskey River and they needed us," Ariana said.

She knew what she'd said. But that had been before Wyatt. Before she'd  fallen in love and realized how hard it was to live near him knowing he  didn't feel the same way. "You saw that embarrassing flirting with  Nicholas last night. I'm a mess here, Ariana. I need-

"To stop feeling sorry for yourself."

"I'm not. Am I? Okay maybe I am a little. But I really don't think I can keep running into Wyatt and ever get over him."

Ariana put her hand on Juliette's. "Maybe you just need to convince him that he's wrong."

"He's stubborn."

"I was too. But Trey and you both pointed out how I was letting fear control me," Ariana said.

"And the asshole," Chloe added. "The asshole was making you doubt  yourself, Ariana. And Juliette, the Des Jardins are just looking for a  big win. They will use you and drop like they did before. You're smart  enough to know that."

Wyatt won't make the same mistakes his father made. You know that's what  this all about … fear. He's afraid he won't be able to commit to one  woman so he keeps moving on."

"Has he even tried to stay?" Ariana asked.

"No," Juliette said. "The big coward won't risk it. That's what he said  to me. Wyatt's not like Trey. He's not going to fall in love with me.  And I'm not you, Ariana," Juliette said.

"I don't have any idea what you mean by that," Ariana said. "You are fabulous in ways I can't be."

"Thanks, sweetie, I love you too, but that's not going to change the fact that to Wyatt I'm not."

"Bull crap," Ariana said. "Last night while you were talking to  Nicholas, I watched Wyatt. He left the bar with his hands clenched in  fists. I think … I think he definitely isn't ready for you to walk out of  his life."

"Then why does he keep pushing me out? I've gone to him and he always says it's better this way."

Chloe put her hand on Juliette's shoulder. "Did you tell him how you feel?"

Juliette shook her head. Admitting that she loved him when he wouldn't  even commit to a second date hadn't been something she'd wanted to risk.

"Maybe that will help."

"What if he that still doesn't mean anything to him?" Juliette said at  last. She was afraid. And fear was controlling everything she'd done  since he walked out of the barn on that rainy day. She'd let him go  because she'd been afraid that he'd see that she needed him. That she  wanted him more than he wanted her.

The power she'd felt when they were both in the throes of intimacy had  deserted her when they were fully clothed. She had felt more in control  when they were naked.

But maybe that was just sex. She wanted more. She wanted the man that  she'd laughed with at dinner with Trey and Ariana. She wanted to be able  to enjoy the closeness he'd fostered that night in the penthouse of  Wildcat Tower before he'd made love to her.

She wanted Wyatt.

She didn't want to run away from Whiskey River or him. She was damned  good at getting what she wanted. Why the hell had she forgotten that?

She was ballsy.

She was determined.

She was in love with Wyatt. And that scared her but as she looked down  into her coffee mug, she knew that nothing scared her as much as walking  away.

She'd never backed down before, and she wasn't about to do it now.

"Thank you both. I needed that. I forgot that I'm Juliette Rossi. I don't cower or hide."

"Damn straight," Ariana said.

"Go girl," Chloe said.

Juliette got to her feet, gathered her keys and her courage and walked out of Lavender House.

She had hedged every time she'd talked to Wyatt. She had let sex cloud  her judgment because well, hell, it was hard not to let it cloud  everything. Wyatt was sex on a stick and whenever he walked into a room  all she could think about was getting naked with him.         

     



 

She'd never bothered to ask why. But now she knew.

It was her love for him that gave him that power over her and it was about damned time she told him.



Lavender Dreams was busy when Juliette got there mid-morning. She might  have made up her mind to go and find Wyatt but when she she'd arrived at  the Kelly ranch house and saw all four vehicles of Boots' sons there,  she decided she'd confront him later. When he was alone.

She also sort of thought she should apologize to Nicholas first, but she knew she was stalling.

Making up her mind to confront him was one thing actually doing it … well  it scared the crap out of her. And with the headache she had this  morning she thought it best to wait.

For what?

What was she waiting for?

She'd run around so many times and that really hadn't paid off. She  grabbed her keys and headed back to the Kelly ranch. She pulled up  behind Wyatt's truck and got out and walked up to the door.

Determined.

Scared.

She knocked on the door and waited.

She didn't hear anything from inside. She tried the handle and it turned. She bit her lower lip and hesitated.

Breaking and entering … well technically this was only entering since the door had been unlocked.

She entered the foyer and headed for the suite of rooms that she knew  were Wyatt's. He'd pointed them out to her the night of the gala.