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“You remember what kind of pizza I like?” “Saturday pizza nights at your house were a staple of my childhood, Julian.”
“Of course you’re texting my mom,” he mumbled beneath his breath. “Your mom loves me.” He sighed. “I know.”
“Why do you care?” I shot back, instantly defensive as I careened into memories of that night in high school and all the other nights, too. Anxious energy filled my words. “As long as I’m not driving Gemma around, it’s not like it’ll matter to you if I end up in a ditch with a broken neck.”
Julian flinched at my harsh words, his eyes darkening as they swept over me. When he spoke, his voice was eerily low. Unsteady. “Don’t ever say something like that again.”
“You don’t need to wait for me.” “Yes, I do.”
“I need you to show me where your car is so I can look at it.”
“I’m not afraid of getting dirty, Lily,” he murmured before snatching my keys from the top of my car and stalking off to pop the trunk.
Julian and I were like magnets—always had been. We were two same-sided magnets, and the repulsion force was overwhelming. Undeniable. There were times, though, that one of us…flipped. And suddenly, there’d be a pull.
My brain wasn’t listening to my request to forget; it never did when it came to anything involving Juniper.
That accident changed everything. Juniper thought it was because I blamed her for it, and that was honestly for the best. Better than her knowing the wake-up call it gave me, the realization it caused me as a teenager of why she got so under my skin, of why her determination to sneak into my family bothered me so much when I—
“I know why I hate her.”
“Because no matter where I go, I can’t fucking escape her.”
Juniper St. James wasn’t supposed to look at me like that.
It had been so much easier in college, when she was on the opposite side of the country and I could forget her.
He made it sound easy. Like the fight within me was something that could be easily tossed aside. But he didn’t know the half of it. He didn’t understand the number of years she’d made me suffer.
“Then stop shrinking away from me and come over here.” He raised a brow. “I won’t bite.”
The guy who knew me better than anyone shouldn’t be my best friend’s brother.
Christ, I thought about her more than any man should think about a woman who was his coworker and sister’s best friend. And it was damn annoying, honestly.
“What’s it called?” “What’s what called?” “Your perfume.” “Bloom. Why?” “I’m going to buy out their entire stock so you can’t torture me with it anymore.”
“Why did you even volunteer to be my date?” “Because I didn’t want anyone else to.”
THERE WAS ONLY ONE bed in our hotel room.
“You’re bossy when you’re hungry.” “Sure am.”
“You should remember that for the future, Daisy.”
“I wasn’t looking—” “It’s okay, Juni.” He pushed off the bed without looking at me. “I was, too.”
“I’m not acting,” he said when our eyes met.
“I’ve spent years fighting my attraction to this woman,” I admitted.
When we were young, I resented that she acted like she was a part of our family because I never saw her as a sibling like my sisters did.
“God, you drive me up the wall.” Julian grabbed me by the throat and wrenched us back together. “I said shut up.”
“I want you. I desperately want you like this. You have no idea, Juni baby.”
“It wasn’t fake,”
Juni didn’t deserve that. She deserved the world. I wanted to give her the world. I wanted to give her the world so fucking bad,
“It’s like little pieces of you are coming back to me. And it’s not that I’m realizing how much I want you. I’m remembering it. Bit by bit, I’m remembering it. Even though I tried really fucking hard to hold on to the anger, I just couldn’t.”
It’s awful because I want you so badly. I want you more than I know how to explain.
“From now on, if you want someone to take you on a date, it’s going to be me,”
“And if you want someone to fuck you, that’ll be me, too.”
“What happened to just existing?” “At this point, I don’t even know how to do that without you,”
“I’ve never not wanted you, Juni. I’ve tried for years not to want you, but I can’t do it anymore. I want to be around you constantly.”
“Don’t be a moonflower, Julian,” I whispered. But his grin only grew. “I won’t be. I’m going to give you proof morning, noon, and night, Juni. Trust me. This is the easiest thing you’ve ever asked of me.”
Juni baby,”
Since when did you become an early riser? JULIAN: Since I had a pretty girl to impress.
The flattery is unnecessary. You don’t have to do that. JULIAN: Oh, it’s necessary. Been holding my tongue for far too long.
It was my little flower bouquet. And she was scowling at me. It was a little bit cute.
Juniper St. James was mine; there was no denying it any longer.
“You’re right that I never accepted you like the rest of my family did,”
It’s just that this…this was the only kind of Briggs I wanted you to be.” “And what kind is that?”
“The kind that’s mine.”
“Can I have a date for Christmas? I want to take you out.”
This was I’m-never-letting-you-go serious.
I loved making Julian speechless. Watching him grapple for words after so many years of verbal sparring? Incredibly gratifying.
“We haven’t even gotten drinks yet, and you already know you want a second date, huh?”
