“It’s sort of a tough class,” Jules said with a wince. “Do you really think—”
“He offered.” Romeo laughed. If Tino wanted some action, it sounded like he was going to get it. “Let him be uke. He teaches at the dojo back home. He’s fully certified.
You can’t do anything to him that hasn’t already been done.” Jules beamed. “Then great.”
“Yay!” Danielle turned around and shouted across the room. “She said yes!”
“Danielle!” Jules scolded.
“Sorry, sensei.”
Danielle ran off before Jules could change her mind, and Romeo frowned as he watched her run up and jump on his brother triumphantly, full of the same unabashed energy Jules was. “How old is that girl?”
“Twenty, why?”
“No reason,” Romeo said, thoughts of Tino forgotten as he turned back to Jules. “I think it’s sexy when you’re being all bossy and teacher-like.” Jules laughed again, looking around before she leaned forward and said, “My desk might need cleaning.”
“Maybe after I’m done cleaning it, we can play our own little game of sensei and uke.” Romeo gave Jules a wide, naughty grin.
Jules gave him a very serious lawyer look that she knew turned him on. “Whose gonna be the sensei?”
Romeo held up his hands in defeat and laughed. He was sort of hoping they could take turns being sensei, but he said, “We’re both black belts. Either way works for me.
What time?”
177
Jules looked at the clock across the room. “I got another class. I need a shower, and I’m closing up tonight. Ten thirty?”
“That’s good for me,” Romeo said, even as he winced internally knowing Clay was going to be calling him at six the next morning telling him and Tino to get their lazy asses out of bed. No fucking wonder he was gaining weight like crazy, but he wasn’t going to complain, not to Jules, because he didn’t want her to think he couldn’t take what this town dished out at him. “Meet you—here?” Jules was the only person he knew who worked at so many jobs he wasn’t real sure what desk she was talking about. She had an office here at the Cellar along with her personal law office up the street. He was fairly certain she had her own desk at the sheriff’s office too, but he’d never stopped by to see her working there. Jail cells. Romeo had enough post-traumatic stress to break out in a sweat just thinking about willingly walking into a sheriff’s office.
“Here’s good.” Jules spread out her arms to show off the Cuthouse Cellar. “We’ll have plenty of room to play. Money finally well spent.”
“It was well spent before now,” Romeo told her warmly. “This place is fucking amazing. You even got a cage in it.” He pointed to the eight-sided cage that was just like the UFC-regulated cages he fought in for all his professional fights. “That’s awesome.”
Jules gave him a smile and shrugged self-consciously. “It was kinda an indulgence, but the three of us couldn’t let ’em close it down and once we started dumping money into it, we just decided to make it into everything we loved.”
“It’s always packed here.” Romeo wished they weren’t out in the open, more so wishing they weren’t still meeting in secret so he could hug her and praise her accomplishments the best way he knew how. “And there’s jack shit to do in this town, so I know they appreciate it.”
“There’s things to do,” Jules argued, giving him a mock glare. “If you’d get out from under Clay long enough to go sightseeing, I’d show you.” 178
“Ha ha,” he said, though it wasn’t far off. Romeo spent so much time in the cage he was starting to feel like he was dating Clay instead of Jules. “Like you’d be seen in public with me.”
“I would, actually,” Jules said softly. “I’m gonna tell Wyatt ’bout us.”
“God,” Romeo groaned, holding up his hand to that. “Not this week. That’s gonna start shit I can’t deal with.”
Jules laughed. “Are you scared of my brother?”
“Yes,” Romeo said without hesitation. “He carries handcuffs, a gun, and a badge.
Bad combination in my world.”
“I carry handcuffs, a gun, and a badge. I carry several guns.”
“I noticed,” Romeo said, arching a dubious eyebrow. “You’re the only chick I know who carries a .45 in her glove compartment and a shotgun in her trunk.”
“You can never be too prepared.”
“For what, World War III?”