Moment of Weakness (Embracing Moments Book 1) (24 page)

“
Now
where are you going?” Roman questioned, his tone sharp. “The car is in the opposite direction, you know.” I didn’t answer him because a moment later he figured it out. “Wait, is that?”

I stopped walking and ran my hand down my face. I couldn’t hide anymore. In less than a month, I’d be back here. I had no choice but to face them. “Yup. That’s them.”

“Them?” Roman’s brows knitted together.

“Robby and Megan. I guess she meant something to him after all.” My voice cracked, and I leaned back against the brick wall behind me, knowing I would need some kind of support.

Roman’s gaze shifted from me to them. “They look happy.”

I rolled my eyes.
Thank you, Captain obvious!

“Who wouldn’t be happy?” I said, a crippled laugh leaving my throat as I hugged my arms across my chest. I tried to force a swallow. “I mean, look at her. She’s everything I’m not.”

I don’t even know what possessed me to say that. I wasn’t jealous of Megan per se, but I was jealous of how they looked right there in that moment. Megan pulled into his side, his eyes looking at her like she was all he could see. The way they laughed at what each other was saying. She had everything I suddenly wanted. Roman was right. Hiding behind walls was lonely, but I didn’t need him to tell me that. I figured that out on my own a long time ago. I looked away, clutching my arms around my waist, bracing for the moment they would spot me.

Roman positioned himself in front of me. His thumb and pointer finger tugged at my chin, bringing my face up so I couldn’t look anywhere except for at him. His eyes pierced mine, and as he moved in closer, he pressed his body against mine, pinning me to the wall. Breath hitching, I moved my hands to his chest, trying to find the strength to push him away. “What are you doing, Roman?”

His fingers grazed my jaw, his thumb running the length of my lip. “You have five seconds to stop me.”

My eyes widened. “Stop you from what?” I questioned.

He licked his lips. “From making you realize that everything
she is,
doesn’t even come close to everything
you are.
” His chin dipped, and his face moved in closer, invading my space.

Stop him, Julia. Push him away.

My mind battled a war that my heart had already won.
Roman’s mouth covered mine, and my heart pounded in my chest. Instead of pushing him away, I tugged on his blazer, bringing him closer, and captured his bottom lip between my teeth. Roman left out a pleasing groan, and I grinned against his lips, loving the sound of it. I could feel him harden against me, and I no longer cared about the bubbly blonde, Robby, or Megan, or the fact hundreds of cars passed by us less than ten feet away. All that mattered was Roman.

“Julia?”

Robby’s voice snapped us back to reality. Roman’s lips broke from mine, but he didn’t move, didn’t pull away from me. He kept me wrapped in his grasp as he turned to look over at Robby and Megan.

“Oh, hey!” I said, trying to play it cool. “Shouldn’t you guys um . . . I don’t know . . . be in Europe?”

Robby’s voice was shaky, and Megan didn’t even bother to look at me. “We were. We just got back a few days ago. We’re home for a few days, and then we’re heading down to my parents’ beach house.”

I smiled at him. “Oh. Isn’t that where you were going to take me?”

Robby stiffened and Megan winced.
Assholes.

I looked back at Roman and placed a kiss on his lips. “You ready to go, baby? The realtor is waiting to show us the next condo.”

“You guys are moving in together?” Robby asked, his lower jaw muscle clenching as he spoke. Ignoring his question, I grabbed Roman’s hand and pulled him along, trying to force the lie of words from my mouth.

“We gotta go. It was good seeing you.”

Roman’s hand never let go of mine as we walked down the street. It was only when I had pulled it away that he let it fall. We made it to the parking garage, and as I approached my driver’s side door, Roman’s hand fell to my shoulder. “We need to talk about what just happened.”

I shrugged off his hand and reached for the door handle. “Nothing happened, Roman. That was just you helping me out of an awkward situation.”

Roman’s hands fell to my car door, preventing me from opening it. His arms caged me in around my waist, and he made no effort to turn me around. I didn’t move. His breath ran across the back of my neck and a layer of bumps covered my skin. “Is that all it was?” he whispered into my ear.

I couldn’t swallow, let alone speak, so I nodded my head.

“Are you sure? Because this”—he pulled my hand back and brushed it against the hardness in the front of his jeans—“tells me it was so much more than that.”

I closed my eyes and focused on breathing. When I managed a swallow, I pulled my hand from his grasp. I forced out the words, “Just another moment of weakness
,”
before yanking my car door open and getting in.

MY BIRTHDAY WAS
never something I looked forward to. The date was just too close to my mother’s passing. How was I supposed to celebrate when I was still feeling the pain of her loss? This year, I still missed her, still wanted her here, still hated that she would never be around to experience another birthday with me, but this year—it was different. She somehow felt closer than she ever did before. All I needed to do was close my eyes, and I could see her—see her smile, hear her voice, and feel her embrace.

As I stood in front of the mirror, staring at the slinky blue mini dress Lacey wedged me into, I placed my hand over my chest. Roman’s words from the meadow replayed in my head. As long as I kept her in my heart, she’d never truly be gone, a part of her would
always
live on within me.

Smiling, I turned to get a better look at the dress. Lacey and I laughed the entire time I tried to slip it on. She stood by pinching and pulling at the material. When I had enough, I said, “This is like trying to shove ten pounds of potatoes into a five-pound bag. It’s not gonna happen.”

She wrinkled her nose in laughter. “Oh no, this is totally happening. This dress is drop-dead gorgeous, and it matches your eyes. Guys will be begging to buy you drinks.”

Twenty minutes later, the dress was on.

“Just remember, don’t bend. Squat.” She spun me around. “On second thought, if you drop something, let someone else pick it up.”

It wasn’t every day I dressed up. While I wasn’t crazy about people doing stuff for me, I knew for damn sure if I bent over, my entire ass cheeks would be on full display. I couldn’t even fathom trying to squat. The dress was so tight, with my luck I’d bust a seam, and then I’d have a lot more to worry about then my exposed backside.

I blew out a deep breath as I twisted in a circle. Lacey was right. It was drop-dead gorgeous. Silky, light-blue material hugged my body, accenting curves I didn’t even know I had. The dress left my entire back exposed, and the thin straps that held up the rest of the material wrapped around my neck. The silver stilettos that tied up my legs made me four inches taller.

Lacey also took the time to do my makeup. She knew I wasn’t one to wear a lot, so she went for a more natural look, focusing on my eyes. By the time she finished, I barely recognized myself.

“He’s going to kick himself in the ass, you know. When he sees you . . . he’s going to be sorry he ever let you slip through his fingers.”

Frowning, I glanced at Lacey through the mirror. Her emerald green dress clung to her in the same way mine did. While her statement caught me off guard, I knew who she was talking about. I had told her everything that had happened between Roman and me. I needed someone else to wrap their head around it because I didn’t understand it. I didn’t understand why we’d take two steps forward to end up five steps back. We spent a whole afternoon tossing around theories, but she was just as puzzled as I was.

“I want to have fun tonight. I want to forget he is even there,” I said, sighing.

She came up next to me and wrapped an arm around me, her head resting against mine. “I’m sure Shane can help you with that. I know I’m a little biased because he’s my cousin. But he really is a great guy. And at the end of the day, if all you decide to be is friends, he’s great at that too.”

I smirked at her and grabbed my clutch from the dresser. “Let’s party!”

My stomach flipped back and forth the entire way down the stairs and as we walked toward the garage. I knew Roman would already be next to my car waiting, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. It had been a few days since apartment hunting, and I hadn’t seen him since. It was hard to be around him. Hard to act like nothing happened between us, because no matter how many times I told myself they were just moments of weakness, I knew that wasn’t true.

Walking through the garage, I tried my best to ignore him, ignore his dark faded jeans and his unbuttoned light gray Henley, but ignoring him became impossible the closer I got. Roman had his sleeves pushed to his elbows, the muscles in his forearms on full display. I wanted nothing more than to walk up to him and run my hands across the stubble that covered his jaw.

As soon as he saw me, he rose from his leaning position and turned toward me, his hands resting in his jeans pockets. Roman’s slow perusal of me caused a rush of heat to swirl down my spine. If Lacey hadn’t recommended I wear my hair in a ponytail, I’d most likely have sweat coating my back just from his stare.

Lacey tossed me a quick smirk that said, “I told you so,” and then walked to the passenger side door. I was glad walking in heels felt as natural to me as walking in sneakers, because if I ever wanted to show confidence in my walk, it was now. Roman’s hooded gaze traveled up my legs as I walked toward him, and when I stopped in front of him, his eyes once again met mine. “Hey,” he murmured, his lips expelling a heavy breath.

A small smile graced my lips. “Hey.”

Roman shifted on his feet. “You um . . . you look—”

“We got to go, Jules! Shane’s waiting for us,” Lacey hollered, interrupting him. Roman’s lips dipped into a frown as he turned around to open my door. He slid in the back seat, and as soon as I got in, I directed my attention to Lacey, determined not to allow the tension between Roman and me to ruin the evening.

My stomach twisted into a nervous ball of knots as we pulled into the VIP parking section. Lacey wasn’t kidding when she said Shane had connections; there was no need to wait in line, and a private table already had our names on it. My car door swung open before I even took off my seat belt.

Shane stood beside it, his palm right side up, waiting for me to rest my hand in it. Swinging my legs out the door, I placed my hand in his as he pulled me to my feet. His sandy blond hair was shorter than I remembered and styled into a messy faux hawk. His hazel eyes glittered in the light as he took in the sight of me. “You look incredible.”

“Thanks,” I said, blushing. My eyes scanned over his black button-down shirt and gray boot cut jeans. “You look great too.”

His lips lifted into a smile that reached his ears, revealing his dimple. Now
that
was a smile you could get lost in. The sound of my car door slamming shut behind me pulled me from my daze. Roman stood beside me, his jaw clenched as he stared at Shane.

“Hey, man,” Shane said, nodding at Roman. Roman nodded back as he crossed his arms over his chest. If this wasn’t awkward, then I didn’t know what the heck was.

I threaded my arm through Shane’s and tugged him along. “Come on, I need a drink.”

Lacey, Shane’s friend, whose name I had yet to learn, and Roman followed behind us. I could feel the weight of Roman’s stare on me, and I knew if I was going to survive through this evening, I would need more than just a few drinks.

The loud music echoed against the walls of the club, and as we weaved through the crowds of people, Shane pulled me closer to his side. His arm fell around my waist and his hand landed on my hip. When we made it to the bar, Shane introduced us to the bartender. He was tall, and his dark brown hair was a nice contrast to his olive-colored skin tone. “Guys, this is Louis. You need anything, he’ll take care of you.” Louis raised his hand and gave a quick wave. “And this is the birthday girl.” Shane wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me in closer.