Star-Crossed(67)

“He has an addiction to those high caffeine energy drinks,” Romeo said as if that explained Tino.

Sitting next to him, bare-chested and sweaty after a long session of grappling, Clay turned to give Romeo a dubious look. “That’s more than a caffeine problem.” Yeah, Tino certainly had more of a problem than caffeine. Romeo could take the party away from Tino, but he couldn’t take the party out of Tino. He was getting positively twitchy without a place to go to dance and fuck and do whatever the hell he did with his free nights back home.

“I think he needs to get laid.”

“It’s been two months,” Clay said in disbelief.

“Well.” Romeo shrugged. “That may be a record.”

“He can’t keep it in his pants for a few months?”



172



“He’s twenty-two and full-blooded Italian,” Romeo reminded Clay, thinking it was obvious. “No, he can’t.”

“What the hell did he do when we were on the tour?”

“Oh, he got plenty when we were on the tour.” Romeo laughed that Clay even had to ask. “Groupies everywhere. He had a great time.” One of the classes released and young, pretty women who looked like cheerleaders playing dress up poured out. In their white karate gis tied tight with either black or brown belts, it was like a martial arts parade as they giggled and eyed Tino.

Clay snorted at the spectacle. “Doesn’t seem like he should have a hard time finding someone interested.”

It was true, Tino attracted attention anywhere he went, and Garnet was no different. Romeo spied the girls giggling in the corners, making no move to leave as they watched Tino do his thing.

Romeo wasn’t real sure how old these girls were, high teens, early twenties, but it was odd to see an all-female martial arts class. Every class Romeo had ever taken or taught had been unisex, no special favors. If you were going to learn how to fight and defend yourself, you learned the same things regardless of your sex.

“What sorta class is that?”

“That’s one of Jules’s,” Clay said with a snort. “It started as a self-defense class.

She’s got four going a week, but this one’s for all the high school and college girls, and they’ve been taking classes since they could walk. All of ’em are advanced. Lot of ’em compete and are just looking for one more way to get a practice in. So this class isn’t really self-defense even if that’s how it’s labeled; instead it turned into all that kill-and-maim shit Jules loves. If you’re gonna volunteer to be an uke for training, that class is not the one you wanna volunteer for. Wyatt and me avoid it like the plague, and she’s always looking for fresh meat. Chuito did it for a while, but he got wise real fast.” Romeo turned to Clay in disbelief because the girls looked a little too pressed and perfect to be hard-core. “Really?”





173

“Oh yeah,” Clay said with a laugh. “Those ones are all on the offense. All their daddies got ’em convinced every man’s out to take advantage of ’em, and Jules has every single one of ’em hitting low and stomping when you’re down. It’s a dangerous combination, and lemme tell you, Garnet girls ain’t ones you wanna piss off. They’ll hurt ya.”

Romeo laughed, shaking his head and trying to push down the surge in his bloodstream that stirred at the idea of Jules stomping on some guy when he was down.

One thing he’d discovered since he’d started working out at the Cuthouse Cellar ten hours a day—watching Jules fight turned him on.

“This is a very different sorta dojo you guys got going here,” Romeo said, mostly out of pride, knowing Jules had been part of the driving force that created this beautiful place in the middle of nowhere. “You got chicks learning how to kill with their thumbs in one room and taking aerobics in the next.”

“Well”—Clay shrugged—“there ain’t much else to do ’round here. Ya kinda got to cater to everyone.”

“Right,” Romeo said distantly as he watched Jules walk out of the class. Flushed and sweaty, with her long blonde hair in a ponytail, she reminded him of how she looked panting and breathless after sex. “Think I’m gonna take a break.”

“Be my guest,” Clay said, rolling his shoulder, making it obvious he was still fighting the ache from the shooting in December. “Fuck, Wellings, but ya got a way of making me feel like I ain’t all that retired.”

“You love it,” Romeo said knowingly. “I see you fighting with Conner. It’s like you’re still training.”