How to Love (28 page)

“Jules.”

“What?” She looked at him in the mirror and smiled.

“I love you.”

She went very still. Blinked. He held her gaze steadily in the mirror.

“I know you probably don’t want to hear that yet,” he murmured. “But I have to be honest. I’ve fallen for you in a big way.”

Something flared up in her, hot and dark. “Mike, you can’t be. Don’t even say that!”

His eyebrows drew down. “Huh?”

“What about Carlos?” she hissed. “Don’t be ridiculous. You love him.”

She glared at him in the mirror. There they stood, in a hotel bathroom lovely as it was, in their underwear. And he was telling her he was in love with her. While his other lover, his partner, was just in the other room. Fuck.

“I do love him,” he began. “But…”

“Just stop!” She wrenched herself away from him. “Just stop right there. Don’t even do this.”

“Jules…”

She caught the hurt expression on his face and it plucked at something inside her, but she ignored that. For God’s sake. What was he thinking?

Carlos appeared in the door. “Hey, come on now. We’re gonna be late. You two aren’t even dressed.”

She took a deep breath and forced a smile at him. “I’m almost ready.” She eyed his suit and tie, something she’d never seen either of them wear. This stupid party was formal, and when she’d told them that, she’d fully expected them to bail on her, but no, they were stubbornly determined to come. “You look very handsome,” she said, her voice coming out a little husky.

He grinned. “Thanks. Mike, leave her alone. Let her get ready.”

Mike smiled too, although the tightness of his mouth and the downward slope of his eyebrows made her stomach plunge to her toes and her chest tighten. He released her and with a shaky hand she picked up her mascara wand and finished her makeup.

When she emerged from the bathroom, Mike was tucking his shirt into his pants, his moves so masculine it made her insides melt. He zipped with a flick of his wrist then slid a leather belt through the loops. She moved to the closet where she’d hung her dress and slipped it off the hanger.

“Need help?” Carlos asked.

“Um. Maybe.” She slid it on over her head, a silky slide of gold fabric, then turned to him to let him zip it up. The faux-wrap style hugged her torso, the fabric criss-crossed over her breasts and gathered at her waist, where the full skirt draped and then swirled around her thighs. Narrow straps left her arms bare and the low cut V in front revealed the cleavage enhanced by her super-plunge, mega-push-up bra.

“Hot,” Mike said approvingly, looping his tie around his neck, watching her. Heat washed up under her skin.

“Very hot.” Carlos turned her with his hands on her hips then looked her up and down.

She slipped on strappy high-heeled sandals and transferred her cell phone and a lipstick into a small sequined gold and silver bag.

“You guys both look pretty hot too,” she said lightly, covering how unsettled she felt. Unsettled at Mike’s earlier words. Unsettled at being there in a hotel room with two guys. Unsettled at this whole weird situation. She took a deep breath. “Okay, I’m ready.” She smiled. “Let’s go.”

Mike drove, following Jules’s directions to her father’s home. “Holy effin’ crap,” he breathed as they pulled up out front.

“I know,” she said with a sigh. “It’s kind of overwhelming.”

They climbed a set of stone steps to the sidewalk that led to the immense tan colored house with a multi-hued clay tile roof. They approached the front doors through an entrance portico with an arched opening.

“You used to live here?” Carlos muttered.

“Yeah. The best thing was how big the house was. It was easy to avoid people.”

Mike snorted.

Jules rang the doorbell but didn’t wait, just opened the big door and stepped inside. Music and the chatter of voices reached their ears from somewhere inside the house. They walked into a foyer as big as his and Carlos’s whole house. A wrought iron chandelier with at least twenty-five lights hung above a table holding a huge flower arrangement. Beneath that, a silky Persian rug lay atop a marble floor.

“Jules!” A feminine voice called her name and heels clicked on the stone floor. They turned to see a blonde woman rapidly approaching down a hall. “You’re here! Lovely to see you, darling!”

The woman embraced Jules in a barely-touching hug, kissing the air near her cheek. She looked at Mike and Carlos. “Hello,” she said. “I’m Candy.”

Of course she was. She was barely older than Jules. On legs so painfully thin it was a wonder she could walk on them, she stepped toward Mike with a hand outstretched. “Hi,” he said, smiling. “I’m Mike.”

“And this is Carlos,” Jules said.

Candy blinked heavily-mascaraed eyelashes. “Pleased to meet you both,” she said. “Come in, come in.”

“Happy birthday,” Mike said.

“Why thank you!”

“This is for you,” Jules added, handing over the parcel she carried. Mike knew it was a photograph, an amazing photograph of Mosaic Cave beautifully matted and framed. “Happy birthday, Candy.”

“Oh you are just so sweet,” Candy said, taking the gift. “I’ll just put this in the den with the other gifts. I’m going to open them all later. Be right back.” She disappeared through another arched doorway and returned a moment later, her little stick legs carrying her rapidly. “Come and say hello to your father. He’ll be so happy you’re here.”

She led the way down a long hall to the back of the house and into a huge room full of people. Wood beams spanned the high ceiling. Furniture was grouped around a stone fireplace and big sliding doors were open to a brick terrace.

“Jules!”

Two little girls hurled themselves at Jules as she walked into the crowded room, and she grinned and bent to them with opened arms. “Hi, girls!” She hugged them both to her and Mike watched, bemused, as she closed her eyes and drew them tightly to her. “How are you, chick peas? Having fun at the party?”

One little girl rolled her eyes. “It’s boring.”

Jules laughed. “It’s a grown up party, isn’t it? But we can have fun. I bet there’s birthday cake.”

“Cupcakes!” the other little girl piped up.

Jules straightened. “Hey, guys, these are my little sisters, Olivia…” She drew one girl forward. “And Madison.”

“Hello ladies,” Mike said, extending a hand. “Nice to meet you.”

They shook hands politely, with murmured pleased-to-meet-you’s, their manners impeccable. They studied him and Carlos, trying to be subtle.

“Which one is your boyfriend?” Olivia whispered to Jules.

Mike sucked in a breath. He wanted to laugh, but this was a tough question. How was Jules going to handle this?

Hell. They all knew how weird this was, but explaining to two little girls made things even more complicated.

“They’re not my boyfriends,” Jules whispered back. “They’re friends and they’re boys, though.”

Olivia nodded.

Mike frowned.

“Do you like our new dresses?” Madison asked, pulling at the full skirt of a fancy purple party dress.

“They’re beautiful,” Jules said. “Your favorite color too.”

“I don’t like mine,” Olivia said. “It’s itching me.”

“You’d rather be in your jeans, wouldn’t you?” Jules said to her in a low voice.

“Yes! Mommy wouldn’t let me wear them to the party. She said we had to get dressed up.”

“You look pretty too, Jules,” Madison said. “I miss you. I wish you still lived here.”

“Ah, baby.” Jules hugged her again. “I miss you too. It’s time for you to come and visit me for a weekend again. I’ll talk to your mom and dad.”

“Yes, yes! I want to come stay with you,” Olivia said, her voice rising with excitement.

Mike and Carlos exchanged glances at this side of Jules, though her denial that they were her boyfriends still irked him.

“Where is Daddy?” Jules asked her sisters. She rose to her feet. “I’d better say hi and introduce him to Mike and Carlos.”

“I like your beard,” Olivia said seriously to Carlos.

He grinned. “Thank you.”

“Daddy’s out on the terrace,” Madison said and she ran ahead of them, followed by Olivia. Why did it seem that kids never walked?

“Wait,” Jules muttered. “I need a drink. There’s the bar.”

The gleaming granite top of a huge island in the kitchen had been set up with a generous assortment of bottles and glasses, ice buckets and bowls of lemon and lime wedges and olives for martinis.

“One beer,” Mike said. “I’m driving tonight.”

They found a selection of beers and he and Carlos each grabbed one. Jules poured herself a generous glass of white wine, then led them out through a double set of French doors onto the terrace that looked over roofs of neighboring houses, trees and the mountains in the distance.

“Nice view,” Carlos said.

“There’s my dad.” Jules gulped her wine, then started toward a man standing against the low stone wall, talking to a group of people.

“Hey, honey!” Jules’s father slid an arm around her shoulder and pulled her in for a one-armed hug. “You’re here! Did you say happy birthday to Candy?”

“I did. Hi, Dad.”

Her father was average height, a good-looking man in his late fifties with slightly graying dark hair and pale blue eyes. His expensive suit and tie gave him an elegant air, the men with him all similarly dressed.

“You look beautiful,” he said.

“Dad, I’d like you to meet my friends Mike and Carlos.” She turned to them and Mike picked up the tightness at the corners of her eyes as she smiled. “This is my dad, Brad Stockwood.”

“Nice to meet you.” Mike extended a hand and smiled as the other man looked him over, then Carlos. What was the older guy thinking? Wondering why Jules had brought two companions to the party? Mr. Stockwood had a little notch between his eyebrows as he turned back to his daughter.

“There are some people here I want you to meet,” he said and proceeded to introduce her to the three men with him, all about his age, all with the same professional, affluent air in their designer suits and silk ties. The dude named Norm struck Mike as particularly smarmy, holding Jules’s hand too long, looking her up and down with his gaze lingering on her cleavage. Mike’s gut tightened.

“I’ve heard so much about you from your father,” Norm murmured, moving closer to Jules. “He said you were beautiful, but that was an understatement.”

Jules shifted away from the guy, and Mike stepped forward and slid his arm around her waist. He gave the guy a look. The man released Jules’s hand and took a step back. “Er…your father mentioned you were single.”

Mike tensed. Jules’s father was watching and listening, that crease between his eyebrows deepening at Mike’s embrace of his daughter.

“I’m not married,” Jules said lightly. “That is true.”

She prevaricated. Mike’s chest tightened.

“They’re her boy…friends,” Olivia piped up with an obvious pause between the words boy and friends. She smiled. “Get it? Boy. Friends. Friends that are boys. Right, Jules?”

Jules smiled down at the girl. “Right, chick pea.”

“You’re a lucky man to have three such beautiful daughters,” Smarmy Norm said, still looking intently at Jules.

“Yes, I am,” Mr. Stockwood said. “Jules, Norm and I are golfing tomorrow. Join us.”

Jules gave her father a cool look. “You know I hate golf.”

He smiled. “You just don’t do it often enough. Candy is joining us too and we need to make up a foursome.”

“I’m sorry, Dad, we’re heading back tomorrow.”

Now Smarmy Norm frowned too, and Mike knew that Mr. Stockwood had already told him Jules would be golfing with them. His hand on her hip tightened and he once again caught Carlos’s eye.

“Do you boys golf?” Mr. Stockwood asked them.

Carlos smiled. “I have golfed, but it’s not one of my favorite sports. I’m more into extreme sports.”

“Extreme sports? Like what?”

“Carlos and Mike run an adventure tour company,” Jules spoke up. “They take people out kayaking and rock climbing and on bike tours. Carlos likes to hang glide too.”

“Oh. I see.”

“Golfing’s a little too tame for my tastes,” Carlos said. “Mike’s a good golfer, though.”

Mike shrugged. “I don’t get out much these days.”

“What’s the name of your company?” one of the men asked. What was his name? Dennis.

“Intrepid Adventures.”

Dennis smiled. “We just did a corporate event with you. Team building on the high ropes course. Quantum Energy.”

Mike smiled too and nodded. “Oh yeah. I recognize the name. Neither of us did the session with you, it must have been one of our other staff.”

“Pretty amazing stuff,” Dennis said. “Our executive leadership team was talking about it for days after. Made a big difference in some of our team dynamics. It really helped build some trust.”

“That’s the idea,” Mike said. “Glad it was positive for you.”