Hate to Crave You Read online

  He didn’t have the heart to tell her it was America.

  She probably had to go to boarding school like he did. He remembered how rough it had been when he’d first left home. But then he’d made a bunch of new friends here and it wasn’t so bad.

  “Is that why your mom and dad aren’t here? They’re back in America?” he asked as he moved to the foot of the bed to sit down. He’d already talked to his mom and dad. They’d said they’d try to be on the first flight out to check up on him, but he’d told them he was fine.

  Whether or not they’d listen, he had no idea. But he wasn’t a little kid like they seemed to think.

  And he definitely wasn’t like this girl. She was really young. Probably too young for any boarding school he was aware of. She should have her mom and dad with her.

  She nodded at him, looking kind of pitiful.

  “Are they going to come see you?” he asked.

  “Mama said they would,” she whispered. “Daddy was saying they didn’t have enough time, but if Mama says so…”

  Her heart was in her eyes so he hoped she was right about her mother.

  “It’s getting kind of late,” he told her. “Are you having trouble sleeping?”

  “It’s too quiet.” Julianna watched him with big eyes. “I can’t sleep when it’s this quiet.”

  He nodded, understanding. Even though there was noise out in the hallway, the hospital they were in was in a quiet part of the countryside. He was used to New York, where it was never quiet. It had taken him forever to learn how to sleep at the boarding school. The silence of the mountains around him had been weird.

  “Maybe I can tell you a story?”

  Her eyes widened and for the first time, a hint of a smile curled her mouth. “I’d like that.”

  He’d always liked telling tall tales, and Julianna turned out to be a great audience.

  She listened far better than his friends, his parents, or anybody else ever had. Well, his teachers might count. He wrote some of his stories down and the teachers liked those, but nobody had ever listened.

  And she liked it best when he told the stories, not just when he was reading her books to her.

  He had a deck of cards a friend had given him the day he’d smacked his head a little too hard. One afternoon, he spent a few hours teaching Julianna how to play War. He tried to teach her poker, but that was a little too involved. So instead, he showed her how to play solitaire, and let her keep the cards so if she got bored she’d have something to do.

  He was positive he’d be out of there any day—any minute, really.

  But one day turned into two and then three, and he was still there. It didn’t help that the headaches weren’t getting any better. A couple of times he had a hard time telling if the nurse was holding up two fingers or four.

  One afternoon, the only halfway nice nurse, a pretty blonde who said he could call her Miss Léonie, told him that his parents were on their way.

  He rolled his eyes and said, “Fine, whatever.” But he was a little excited to see them. It had only been a month since spring break and he knew he’d see them before too long with summer getting close, but he missed his parents. Well, he missed his mom. Sometimes, not that he’d ever tell them, he kind of wished he didn’t have to go to boarding school. He knew his father had attended this same school and he had fun here, but it wasn’t the same as living at home.

  Now, a couple of hours after Miss Léonie had told him about his parents’ impending arrival, he sat with Julianna as she carefully drew another card, studying it before looking at the spread in front of her before choosing where to lay it down.

  He grinned at her. “You got the hang of it.”

  “It should be I have the hang of it.” She wrinkled her nose as she grinned at him.

  He did something he hadn’t done in years—he stuck his tongue out at her.

  Julianna laughed.

  The sound was cut short by the door opening and they both turned their heads to watch, expecting one of the nurses with another breathing treatment for Julianna.

  But it was a tall man with nearly black hair, edged silver near his ears. With him was a slim woman with brown hair, her eyes looking out behind a neat pair of gold-rimmed glasses.

  “Mama! Daddy!” Julianna’s face lit up with a bright grin and she held out her arms.

  The woman came rushing over and bent over to hug Julianna.

  Roman stood up at the side of the bed, politely backing away. He said, “Hello, sir,” as Julianna’s father approached.

  The man gave him a polite nod but said nothing as he settled on the edge of the bed, close to where Roman had been just a few moments earlier. “How are you doing, Julianna?”

  “I feel better.” She smiled at him. “I hardly cough anymore. Are you going to take me home?”

  They didn’t give a direct answer. Roman managed not to roll his eyes about it, but he knew what that meant. She wasn’t going home. Once she was better, she was going back to the boarding school.

  Julianna’s mother looked over at him finally and offered him a smile. “Hello,” she said in a pleasant, soft voice. “I’m Mrs. Castle. I hear you’ve been keeping Julianna company—strep throat is making its rounds.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He nodded at her, his eyes straying over to Julianna.

  She was trying to still smile, but the glow had left her eyes. Apparently, she knew what that lack of answer meant, too. Poor kid.

  As her father looked me over, he remained quiet.

  “What’s your name, son?” he asked.

  “It’s Roman, sir.”

  He nodded at Roman. “Sounds like you’re from the States, just like Julianna. Are you attending school over here?”

  “Yes, sir.” Roman offered the name of the school. “I’ve attended since first grade.”

  “It’s an excellent school, I hear.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  They spoke a few more minutes, the polite small talk that adults make with children they don’t know, then Roman rubbed at his head, claiming that his head was hurting. Retreating to the bed, he stretched out and grabbed the blanket that was neatly folded at the foot of the bed.

  He wasn’t tired, but he could fake it.

  Rolling over onto his side, he tried not to listen as Julianna’s mother fussed over her.

  It had been a long time since his mom had fussed over him…

  At the sound of raised voices, Roman jerked awake.

  A quick look out the window showed a sky awash with the colors of sunset. Getting late, but not quite night. He wasn’t sure what time it was other than that. He must have fallen asleep. His head wasn’t hurting much at all and he might have been grateful for that, except the sound of a young girl’s labored breathing had him scowling.

  Julianna’s asthma was acting up.

  She’d been doing so much better.

  What the eff was wrong?

  He kicked his legs out of bed and stood, ignoring the spinning in his head as he strode to the foot of his bed so he could see around the partially drawn curtain.

  “What’s going on?” he asked. “You’re upsetting Julianna.”

  “Roman, go back to bed,” his father bit off.

  He jerked to attention at the sound of his father’s voice. Earlier he’d been thinking that he’d almost missed his parents, but now he wished his mom and dad were on the other side of the globe. “Hello, sir,” he said politely, ignoring the order. “How are you?”

  “Son,” Michael Montrose said stiffly. “I asked you to go back to bed.”

  “Yes, sir.” He nodded again, but couldn’t stop himself from looking over at Julianna. Her shoulders were rising and falling rapidly with the struggle it took to breathe. “She’s having trouble breathing. She probably needs the nurse to get her another breathing treatment before she starts to wheeze.”

  He expected Julianna’s father to snap at him judging by the way the man’s face looked, but all he did was give him a short nod.
The mother reached out for the call light and hit it before turning her gaze to the two men.

  As Roman retreated to his bed, she said in a cool voice, ‘Surely there’s a better place for the two of you to do this.”

  Roman lay in bed, struggling to make sense of what was going on.

  He’d heard a little bit before he’d gotten out of bed, but the raised voices had woken him up. No telling how long they’d been talking before they woke him.

  He curled back up on his side, but this time, he faced the curtain that separated them as he waited for the nurse to arrive with Julianna’s breathing treatment. Miss Léonie would be gone by now, if he had their shifts right. It would be Nurse Schmid. She was the worst of all of them, but the good news was, she was mean enough she just might scare Roman’s dad into behaving. Roman’s dad and Julianna’s father with his stiff jaw and shoulders.

  Why were they fighting?

  He had no idea, but he’d ask Julianna about it as soon as everybody was gone.

  He never had the chance.

  Less than a half an hour after Nurse Schmid brought a breathing treatment for Julianna, one of the hospital orderlies arrived with a wheelchair for Roman.

  He eyed it narrowly.

  “Do I get to go back to school?” he asked, glancing at his parents as he sat up on the side of the bed.

  “No.” His mother brushed his hair back from his face while his father stood by the window, staring out over the quiet countryside. “You’re going to a private room. Both of you are ill. You need room to rest and heal.”

  “I’m fine,” he bit off. “I get headaches. And Julianna gets scared—”

  “She’s not your concern,” Father snapped, turning around to glare at him. “You’ve got no business being roomed with that girl and that’s all there is to it. Do you understand me?”

  Roman lapsed into silence, rising at the prodding look from his mother. He moved into the wheelchair and sat down. On his way out the door, he glanced at Julianna’s parents, then once more at Julianna.

  “Get better,” he said, not knowing what else to say.

  She stared at him miserably, her big, dark eyes looking almost black in the pale circle of her face.

  That image lingered with him. For a long, long time.

  2

  Julianna

  Present Day

  Julianna Castle was just as at home in her luxurious five-star hotel boardroom as she was in one of the labs owned by her family’s jewelry dynasty. The practice of referring to all the stores they owned, the mining operations, the labs where stones were cut and polished as simply a business, well it seemed… lackluster, and if there was one thing Julianna disliked, it was things that lacked luster.

  It had to be a family trait. Her parents were the same way. It wasn’t because they were flashy. Not at all. Everything about her parents screamed understated elegance, from her mother’s stylish chignons with the faint streaks of silver, the strand of pearls that was her signature piece, the gold-rimmed glasses she’d worn for as long as Julianna could remember, to her father’s silvery hair, stately habit of only wearing three-piece suits, and his deep, well-measured voice.

  But as lavish and elegant as the boardroom Julianna was now sitting in appeared, as well-appointed as it looked, she’d rather be in one of her company labs, or better yet, out at one of the mines, no matter how hot and tiresome it could get out there. She wasn’t cut out to work behind the counter of one of the jewelry stores, and she definitely wasn’t cut out for the boardroom. But explaining that to her father was pointless. He’d sent her to college, making sure she had the business smarts and the training necessary to follow in the family tradition, never understanding that if she had her way, she’d spend her days in the labs, handling the unpolished, rough-cut stones.

  Still, while she might not be as happy to be in the boardroom, she was perfectly comfortable there and smiled at the uniformed attendant who’d been assigned to handle the room during the upcoming meeting. He’d already poured coffee for her father and two of the company’s legal team. She nodded at him when he offered to fill hers, letting her eyes stray across the room to the second party.

  The Montrose family.

  Her family’s most formidable corporate rivals in the industry—their only real rivals, as it were.

  She’d met the senior Montrose, but his sons, no.

  This particular son was a handsome son of a bitch, she had to give him that. Dark hair carefully styled, except for a few roguish strands that fell across his forehead. They framed a face that somehow seemed sensual and cruel at the same time. His narrow yet cupid’s bow shaped lips, and his parted mouth, well they were almost too beautiful for his face. Too soft, somehow, she decided. He flicked a glance in their direction and she caught sight of his eyes. It was enough to make her breath catch, but she modulated the reaction.

  He had amazing eyes. Like a gemstone of the palest blue, those eyes glowed against skin that was tanned a warm gold, either from time in a tanning bed or time under the sun.

  She hoped it was the latter.

  Somehow, she suspected it was. There was an arrogance about him and she suspected a sense of vanity, too. But she doubted that vanity ran so deep that he’d lounge under artificial lights just to maintain that warm golden glow.

  His gaze left her father and moved to her, but this was no lingering glance.

  He held her eyes boldly and she didn’t look away.

  After a moment, a faint smile curled his lips and he looked back at his father.

  “Julianna, have you read over the material?”

  She glanced over at her father, frowning. “Of course, I have. It’s a gamble, you realize that. We don’t even know what this new technology is.”

  The older Castle grinned at her. His eyes, dark as her own, gleamed with interest. “Now, we don’t. I’m hoping you’ll be able to help me with that.”

  “Am I supposed to sneak out of here and break into Templeton’s inner sanctum to figure it out?” she asked lightly.

  Her father laughed. “I doubt you’ll need to take that route, darling. Just be your normal charming self. Convince them we need more data than what they’ve supplied…read between the lines. It’s what you’re good at.”

  Julianna was about ready to get up and pour herself some more coffee when the door to the boardroom opened a third time. She’d arrived first, along with her father and their legal team. Not long after they’d taken their seats, the doors had opened to admit the group from Montrose Jewelers.

  Now, as the team from Templeton entered, she ordered her body to relax in the seat. It was just as good she hadn’t gotten any more coffee. If she had, she might have ended up needing to use the facilities halfway through the meeting. Or at least, fighting the urge to use the facilities. Not that she’d ever give in to the need to pee in the middle of a business meeting. How gauche.

  But it was a pain the ass to be listening to the pros and cons of a deal, trying to weigh those pros and cons, while she was clenching her thighs together and pondering the quickest way to get to the toilet.

  “We’re sorry to keep you waiting,” Edgar Templeton said.

  Head of the Templeton’s expansive jewelry operation, he was a robust man in his mid-fifties, although he could easily pass for early forties. He was a tall man, nearly half as broad across the shoulders as he was tall.

  Julianna had heard rumors he liked to join his miners, just to see how a day’s operations were going.

  His team was on the cutting edge as far as technology went in the gemstone and precious metals industry went.

  “I’m not going to beat around the bush,” Edgar said, gesturing for the man at his right.

  Without speaking, the black man with spectacles rose and began to distribute heavy folders of rich burgundy.

  “My company has decided to move more in the direction of mining, particularly the mining of precious metals. We’ll be divesting ourselves of the gem mines we own so we can focus on
the others.” He paused, clearly giving them a chance to take in the news he’d just delivered.

  A pause was definitely welcome.

  Templeton Legacy Jewels was just one of the offshoots of the overall Templeton Legacy Corporation, but while they weren’t the name that either of Montrose Jewelers or Castle Jewels were, they were a name. And the gems and metals from their mines were first rate.

  “We won’t be selling our stores,” Edgar continued. “That’s another part of the company and my daughters will continue with the stores. However, my sons and I are eager to embark on this new venture. But first we need to sell the gem mines.” His eyes gleamed as he added, “And to sweeten the deal, if you read the material I provided about the company, if you know anything about Templeton Legacy, then you know we’re on the cutting edge of technology. For the past several years, one of my sons has been working with our lab team and they’ve developed a prototype that…well, let’s say it revolutionizes the way gemstones are handled and cut.”

  Julianna’s mind was whirling. Her father turned to her as Edgar lapsed into silence but before he could say anything, she held up a hand to silence him.

  Cutting was everything in the gem industry. You could have a flawless stone and a bad cut would render it almost worthless. Some of the best developments in the industry in the last few decades had come from Templeton Legacy’s labs, so she wanted to know more about this.

  Her father settled back in his seat, clearly content to let her lead, even though the legal team was already battering him with questions.

  Julianna had questions herself.

  One in particular. Catching Edgar’s eye, she smiled warmly and leaned forward. “This all sounds fascinating, Edgar. As I’m sure you are aware. But…” She laughed, keeping the sound amused and dry. “You have to know that dangling a carrot in front of us isn’t going to be enough to make us bite. We need to know more about this new prototype. Let us see it.”