Jules winked at Melody in return, and she only felt mildly guilty for the ruse because luring Romeo to the corner of the diner wasn’t exactly a hardship for her. Then she turned and headed back to the table, all the while thinking of how she was going to get him alone long enough to do more than shake hands.
* * * *
“You’re giving me your Ferrari?”
“Wreck it and die,” Romeo warned as he put the car keys in his brother’s hand.
Giving Tino his car when he was high on sugar and energy drinks was just asking for trouble, but Romeo wanted Jules that badly. “I’ll text you the address to the house.”
“No problem.” Tino gave Romeo a knowing smile, then turned to Chuito behind him. “You ready?”
“Sure, man,” Chuito said casually. “Where’d you wanna go?”
“I just wanna check the place out. See what there is to do around here.” Chuito tilted his head and pulled a face. “There’s not much.”
“You sure you can’t let your little secretary off?” Tino asked Jules, wagging his eyebrows suggestively. “Maybe she knows where the party’s at.”
“She’s sure,” Chuito said before Jules could answer, giving Tino a dark look, making him appear threatening in a way that had nothing to do with being a successful 152
MMA fighter. His voice was suddenly electric with danger as he warned, “Partying with Alaine’s off the menu.”
“Hey, it’s cool.” Tino held up his hands passively. “I didn’t know you were doing her.”
“I’m not—” Chuito swallowed hard before he gestured to Romeo’s Ferrari parked next to Jules’s car in the parking lot of her office. “Let’s just take off.” Romeo watched his brother and Chuito pull onto the road in his car, and tried not to wince. He wasn’t real sure what there was to do around here, but he was fairly certain if there was trouble of some sort, Tino could find it, especially with Chuito as a tour guide.
“You know that guy’s got a colorful past.” Romeo leaned against Jules’s car next to her and gave her a look. “I knew he trained with Clay, but I didn’t realize he lived over your office.”
“You don’t know anything ’bout Chuito or his past,” Jules said defensively.
“You’re just buying into the hype ’round him. He’s lived over my office for three years, and I ain’t never had a problem with him.”
Romeo did know he had a past. It was more than the obvious gang tattoos and the hum in MMA circles that said Chuito was a very dangerous man both in and out of the cage. It was an instinctive knowledge that Chuito would do what he had to in order to protect his interests, even if it wasn’t moral or legal. There was a reason Tino had gravitated to the light heavyweight champion within two minutes of sitting down to lunch. They were cut from the same cloth and used to a lifestyle where black-and-white for ordinary, law-abiding citizens was blended gray under the guise of loyalty and survival.
Then again, how could he give Jules shit for letting a former gangbanger live above her office considering she’d been having phone sex with Romeo every night for nearly two months and he wasn’t a former anything. He was still very much involved with the mafia whether he wanted to be or not.
153
“I think you have an inclination toward the dangerous, Miss Conner.” Romeo folded his arms over his chest and moved a little closer to Jules because he couldn’t resist. “And you seem to jump into everything with both feet.” Jules gave him a sideways glance as they both stood there leaning against her car.
“Are you admitting to being dangerous?”
Romeo thought about Nova’s constant warnings. If he cared about Jules, he wouldn’t get involved with her. Yet here he was, right in the heart of Garnet, and lie to himself all he wanted, it wasn’t to perfect his jujitsu.
“I am dangerous,” he admitted, turning to give her a serious look. “You should probably kick me to the curb right now.”
Jules studied him, her light gaze running over his body in a hungry sweep. The look affected Romeo, and he found himself shifting where he stood, fighting down a deep-seated instinct that had him wanting to grab Jules and kiss her right out in the open.
Lunch had been horrible, sitting next to her as the memories of Vegas had assailed him, mixing with new recollections of hearing her voice against his ear every night as she came calling his name and all those times when the two of them had gotten naked for each other in front of their laptops.
With that thought, Romeo leaned into her without realizing it, inhaling her perfume, which smelled like pure, unadulterated sex, simply because of what it reminded him of. He admired her eyes in the sunlight and the way her hair glinted white and gold under the winter sun.