Arranged love

I STAND AND button my jeans while he zips his. “This can’t happen again,” I say.

He smirks, pulling his shirt up and over his head. Once again, I didn’t get to explore his body. He held me tightly to his body the whole time. I’m pretty sure he did that on purpose. I think the fact that I touched the cross around his neck put him on alert. “That’s cute.”

I roll my eyes. “I’m serious, Cross.” No, I’m not.

He walks over to me. “Why is that? We’re both adults having fun, right?”

“Yeah, but …”

“Then why would you turn down sex when you can have it whenever you want?” He arches a brow.

When I don’t argue, he knows he’s won. I’m pretty sure he already knew it, but I was trying to play hard to get.

The corner of his lips turn up into a sexy smirk, and I push past him. Turning the knob, I open the door and go to storm out but come to a stop when I see my brother standing on the other side. His hand is out as if he was about to open the door and enter. Thank God Cross and I are done and dressed because the door wasn’t locked.

“What the …?” He trails off as his eyes run over my knotted hair and flushed cheeks.

I quickly look down to make sure my shirt is covering my breasts and right side out. All good. “Can I help you?” I ask, pushing my right hip out while hanging on to the door for balance. My legs are still shaking.

Cross comes up behind me, wrapping his arms around me from behind like he’s pissing on his territory. He has no clue who this is. As far as he knows, this is just another Mitch. I have to refrain from smiling. Is he jealous?

My brother looks up at him, and his dark eyes narrow. He knows exactly who he is. My brother hates the Kings. He’s got all these conspiracy theories about them and talks about how evil they are. That’s the appeal.

“Cross, this is my brother. Derek, this is Cross.” I’m not going to pretend Derek is someone he’s not.

Neither one of them says anything to one another. Just an awkward silence follows. I push off the door and turn in Cross’s arms. “I need to close up.” It’s too late to deal with them right now.

He cups my face and leans his head down. “I’ll see you tomorrow, gorgeous.” Then he kisses my lips. It’s a slow and sensual kiss. I can still taste myself, and it makes me moan. When he’s done, he pulls away and slaps me on the ass before leaving the room, shouldering past my brother.

“What in the fuck are you doing, Alexa?” Derek doesn’t waste a second.

I exit the office as well and walk down the hallway back to the bar. Giving a quick look around, I see it’s empty, and he’s already started clearing off the tables.

“Who I fuck is none of your business,” I say and start picking up the empty glasses on the bar top.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he snaps. “Your best friend fucks a King, so you have to as well?”

I spin around on him. “Don’t talk about April like that.” My brother used to have a thing for her. Hell, he probably still does. He’s a sore fucking loser that she didn’t pick him.

“You have no idea what kind of person he is.” He points at the front door.

“It’s just sex.” I shrug. “Like you’ve known every girl you’ve fucked.”

“I …” He lifts his arms, running both hands through his dark hair, giving a rough laugh. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this.” They drop to his sides. “He is evil. They are evil. The Kings …”

“You’re not a saint, Derek, so quit pretending you’re better than them,” I snap, getting extremely pissy. Why does he care who I hook up with? Or what they’ve done? As far as I know, they’ve never hurt him. Cross didn’t act like he knew him. He definitely didn’t know he was my brother; he thought he was a threat to his newest fuck buddy.

“I am better than them!” he shouts.

“Get the fuck out of my bar!” I scream at him.

Silence fills the empty space before he lets out a long breath. “So that’s how it is?” he asks, surprised.

“Yes!” I hiss. I’m not in the mood right now. I’m exhausted, and my body feels hungover. Is that a thing? Orgasm to the point you need to recover. I still have at least an hour here cleaning up the place.Exclusive content from NôvelDrama.Org.

“Fine!” He laughs like I’m stupid. Then he turns around and storms out the back, leaving me pissy.

CROSS

CLICK

I flip my Zippo open as Titan glares at me from across the conference table.

We always start our day off with a meeting, even if we don’t have anything to go over. We shoot the shit for a couple of minutes, then go on with our day, but I know what Bones will want to talk about today. He currently sits at the head of the table, staring down at his watch.

“Sorry I’m late.” Grave comes rushing in the double doors with a water in one hand and a KitKat in the other.

Bones sighs but sits up straighter, ready to get down to business. “Were you guys able to find out anything last night at the Airport?”

“No,” I answer. “But we spoke to Turner, and he’s got his eyes and ears open. If he sees or hears anything, he’ll let us know.”

“You believe that?” Bones asks.

Grave nods. “Yeah,” he says through a bite of his KitKat-breakfast of champions. “He has no reason to lie to us.”

“Except for the fact that he’s a Mason,” Bones argues.

Grave rolls his eyes but doesn’t comment. Instead, he continues to shove chocolate into his mouth like he hasn’t eaten in days.

“Well, then I guess that’s all we can hope for.” Bones slams his palms down on the table and stands, exiting. Obviously pissed off. That’s pretty much how Bones is most of the time.

“I rushed into work for that?” Grave snorts. “I could have slept in another hour.”

“Welcome to being a responsible adult,” Titan says, slapping Grave on the shoulder and getting up before leaving.

I close my Zippo and put it in my pocket before I stand. I would usually ask him if he wanted to go to Glass-the strip club to blow off some steam, get fucked up, and fuck strippers-but Grave doesn’t do that now, and for once, I’m not in the mood to go.

I wasn’t surprised to see Derek at Lucky’s last night. I knew who he was the moment I saw him. I’ve done my homework on Alexa. Father left when they were younger. Mother’s dead. Derek is all she has. And he hates me, as he should. I’m not good for her, but it doesn’t mean I’ll stop seeing her.

“How did things go last night with Ethan?” I ask Grave, trying to get her off my mind for now. I know that’s where he had Nite take him. He wanted to keep me out of it for a reason. Maybe so Bones won’t find out. We all know Nite doesn’t talk, but he knows all of our secrets.

He shrugs. “Same ole shit, just a different day.”

I’m not sure what that means exactly, but I don’t dig. If Grave has a problem that needs to be fixed, he’ll come to me.

I make my way down to the casino floor and over to my tattoo shop. I opened up Tit for Tat about two years ago, and it’s my baby, other than Kingdom. The guys and I share the hotel and casino, but we each have something that is just ours.

Titan has the Queens. They are our ladies of the night. Our very discreet escort service we supply for the elites around the world. Men fly in from all over to be with one of our girls.

Grave has the nightclub-Crown.

I have the tattoo shop.

And Bones … well, he buries himself in Kingdom. His other businesses are outside of these walls.

I push open the glass door for Tit for Tat and see the brunette’s head snap up from behind the front desk.

“Cross …” She rushes out from behind it. “About last night …”

“Don’t care,” I tell her, walking through the lobby and to the hallway. I’ve been fucking my assistant ever since I hired her. Not my best idea, but we were both very open about it not being serious. She needed this job because she slept with her fiancé’s brother, and he called off the wedding. So, it wasn’t like I expected her to belong to me. I know men get shit for this, but not all girls are for you. Some are just to use. And women see men the same way.

“It’s not what it seemed.” She goes on, trying to explain herself.

“I don’t care,” I say honestly. Why she thinks I care who she fucks is beyond me.

“Cross …”

I come to a stop and spin around, her body running into mine. I reach out and place my hands on her shoulders. “It’s fine, Rachel. You are free to fuck whoever you want.” I’m not going to tell Alexa what I saw at the Airport. I highly doubt she’d care what Mitch is up to. She has definitely moved on from him no matter what their past is. They weren’t married-I checked-and they don’t have kids together. So she is free of his ass.

“But …”

“Now, I have an appointment in twenty minutes, and I need to get set up.” I push off her and turn, giving her my back and entering one of my many rooms, ready to start my day with a gorgeous bleach blonde with green eyes still heavy on my mind.