Roses, Pearls, and Hot Summer Nights: Four brothers. One broken girl. A summer that changes everything. A steamy found-family romance with secrets, scars, and slow-burn heat. by Rebecca Royce

Author:Rebecca Royce [Royce, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rebecca Royce
Published: 2025-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

15

The city continued to thump around us as my face throbbed, but neither Phoenix nor I said a word for a few long moments. Maybe, like me, he was just feeling particularly hopeless and couldn’t be bothered to pretend?

Finally, though, he cleared his throat. “So far, I haven’t seen you drink or do any drugs. Despite the fact you could be prostituting yourself, I find it extremely unlikely. I’ve spent a lot of time with prostitutes, and to be honest, you don’t have what it takes. You haven’t stolen anything or committed any noticeable crimes that I’ve seen. Why on Earth would they be trailing you?”

“I don’t know.” My voice sounded small, even to my own ears. I couldn’t muster up the strength to pretend in that moment, though, so I admitted, “I’m just their poor relation, so I honestly don’t know why anyone would waste the money. They haven’t made any secret of their plans to send me to boarding school as soon as possible, and they guilt trip me over every bite I eat, so them spending money on a tail? I … I just don’t know. I can’t make it make sense.”

My head throbbed again, more insistent, so I placed my cool palm against it. I didn’t want to cry any more in front of Phoenix, not even from pain. He wasn’t the kind of person I wanted to trust with my weaknesses, despite them being bared to him regularly. He winced as he looked at me.

“Your poor face. You’re going to be black and blue. Stay here a second. Here, hold my board.” He didn’t wait for me to reply before he passed me his skateboard, one of the wheels still spinning.

The green crossing symbol had appeared on Fifth Avenue, so Phoenix rushed across the street. I sighed. Despite following him without hesitation to catch the PI, I wasn’t sure if I could keep up with him normally, since he was all over the place. I didn’t want anything more than to go home and ice my face, yet I would be forced to stand on the sidewalk holding a skateboard for who knew how long?

A few seconds passed, and a woman on her cell phone almost collided into me. I sighed, shifting the board to my other hand. I couldn’t just stand in the middle of the sidewalk, I would need to get out of the way. I backed up a little bit, toward the nearest building rather than the road. I forced myself to breathe, trying to remember the calming videos I looked up online one night for giggles. If I lost my self-control and cried, I would never get my shit figured out, and I was tired of being in the dark. Maybe the tail had to do with what happened in Chicago? Were they worried I might … what? Seduce my uncle? The only other possibility was that they might want to see if I told anyone about what happened, but I wasn’t even sure what difference that would make.

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