Page 49 of Temptation
“Hey, you two, what can I get you?” Susie smiled at them from behind the bar as they approached.
“Other than our apologies for showing up on Christmas Eve?” Juliet joked. She was mostly joking, though she did feel a little bad, despite her relief that Black Light was open. Thankfully, Susie laughed.
“No worries. Everyone working tonight volunteered for the shift and we’re beingverywell paid for it. Plus, it’s not like it’s going to be a late night. You know we close down in an hour, right? There’s not much time to play, so I won’t be insulted if you decide you don’t want a drink.”
Keenly aware of the plug still firmly seated in her ass, Juliet shifted her weight as Orlando shook his head.
“Thanks for the heads up, but we definitely each want a drink and then we’re going to grab a table,” he said firmly. At least he didn’t want to sit at the bar. The place wasn’t exactly crowded, but sitting at a table would give them a little more space from everyone else. And it wasn’t that she didn’t trust Susie, but she wasn’t sure she wanted the friendly bartender to be able to overhear their conversation either.
Taking their order, Susie reassured them that she’d bring them their drinks to whatever table they sat at and shooed them away. Again, Orlando put his hand on the small of her back rather than the back of her neck. Juliet didn’t like that.
She really wasn’t sure which way this was going to go. She knew what she wanted — she wanted to keep going. It didn’t matter what her dad and Mona thought, there was something real between her and Orlando that had nothing to do with their step-sibling relationship. Juliet wasn’t ready for it to end yet. She wasn’t ready to give up.
She just wasn’t sure if Orlando felt the same.
“I’m going to go to the bathroom,” she said, sliding away from his hand. “Pick out a table, Sir.” She tacked on the ‘Sir’ to remind him that they had a relationship outside their parents. One he’d wanted. One he’d agreed to. Whether or not it worked, she had no idea. He gave her a nod and turned away, heading for the tables, while she tilted her chin in the air and moved off to the bathroom.
Because if she was going to get dumped, she was not doing it with this plug still in her ass. Nope, that thing was coming out and she was going to be sitting comfortably. Even if she wasn’t getting dumped, she could tell this was going to be a serious conversation.
Walking into the bathroom and seeing she was alone, she felt her shoulders slump as the energy to keep up her act of confidence left her.
One of the stall doors opened and she jumped. Crap. Turns out she was less alone than she thought. And less observant.
“Hey, Juliet, are you okay?”
And because of the way her luck was running, she couldn’t get a total stranger or anything. Nope, she got the gorgeous Emma Cartwright-Davidson. She hadn’t seen Jaxson or Chase out on the floor, but if Emma was here, so were they.
As she looked at Emma, she realized that Emma might actually be the perfect person to talk to. Because Emma wasn’t exactly in a conventional relationship. She was married to two men. It wasn’t the same as being in a relationship with a step-sibling, but it might be as close as Juliet could get.
“Um… I don’t know?” Because it wasn’t like anything terrible had happened yet, but she had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach like something bad was coming. Whether it was having to confess to her dad and stepmom that she and Orlando didn’t feel like siblings at all or that she and Orlando were going to break up.
Was it a break-up when they’d never really been able to say they were boyfriend and girlfriend? They hadn’t even gone on a real date outside their houses. Everything had been done in secrecy, inside. Black Light was the closest they’d gotten to being out on a date.
Emma’s eyes filled with sympathy as she headed to the sink to wash her hands.
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked gently, not pressing, but making the offer. Which made it all the harder to refuse.
“Yeah, let me just get this plug out of my butt, because I need to be more comfortable before I start spilling my guts.” Juliet smiled as Emma’s laughter echoed through the bathroom.
* * *
Orlando
Sitting at the table, waiting for his drink and for Juliet, Orlando wasn’t sure what he was going to do. The answer seemed obvious.
They now knew how their parents would react to finding out they had a non-sibling relationship. It wasn’t going to go over well. The smartest thing to do was break up.
But I don’t want to.
And that was the crux of the matter. Selfishly, he didn’t want to end things with Juliet. Not yet. Things were still good. He wanted to wait till they were bad, or at least not good, and mitigate the hurt feelings on either side.
Breaking up now would probably mean yearning. Sadness. He’d fucking missed her while he was away. He didn’t want to be missing her again when their… well, whatever they were doing hadn’t run its course. They were still in the fun stage. The happy stage.
The ‘I can’t keep my hands off you stage.’
Was he really going to give up a good thing before it went sour just because his parents wouldn’t approve? Or could they keep this going a little longer, until they were past the initial infatuation and things had started to go stale or worse? That was the question.
Looking around the club, he could see quite a few singles, scening together or hanging out and talking. Some that looked like they could be budding romances. Some couples were there as well, spending their Christmas Eve at the club rather than with family.