Arranged love

CROSS

I PULL MY black leather jacket on, then glance down at my Rolex. “Fuck! Fuck!”

“What?” Alexa asks. She’s hopping around my tattoo shop, trying to get dressed.

We’ve been meeting up for a couple of weeks now. And when I say hooking up, I mean fucking every damn chance we get. Which is twice today so far. “We’re going to be late,” I tell her just as I feel my cell vibrate in my back pocket. I pull it out to see it’s Titan. “Hey, I’m on my way-”

“You’re late,” he interrupts me. Titan has this thing about punctuality.

“I know.”

“And so is Alexa,” he adds. “But you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

I roll my eyes. “Nope.”

He chuckles softly. “I knew you wouldn’t. Anyway, get your ass over here.”

“I’m coming …”

“I’m sure you were.” Click.

“Fuck,” I hiss.

“What now?” she asks, pulling on her white T-shirt before moving on to her black heels. She then goes back to her jeans, zipping them up, and I wish I could remove them again. “I think Titan knows about us.”

Her wide green eyes meet mine, and she sucks in a breath. “What? How? Did you say something?”

“Of course not.” But honestly, I haven’t been all that secretive. At first, I was, but I’ve been pretty careless. The guys know I’ve been up to something or someone, but I thought they all had their own shit going on and wouldn’t notice my absence. I was wrong. Well, Titan and Bones are always watching. Grave doesn’t give a fuck what anyone does. He couldn’t care less. But if he knew I was fucking Alexa? He’d care. He’ll know I broke my promise. He’s been busy with his own shit the past couple of weeks. He hasn’t come to me, but I think it’s April’s brother. Grave’s been going to the Airport a lot.

“Then how would he know?”

“Doesn’t matter.” I grab her hand and yank her out of Tit for Tat.

I lock up the doors to the shop and take her hand once again, turning to the floor. Slot machines are lined up row after row, going off.

“Cross, this isn’t good!” she shouts as I drag her across the floor to the elevators.

I rush into one that is open. I’m about to tell her it’s okay, but a girl who doesn’t look a day over twenty enters behind us with a man who could be her dad. By the way his hand grips her ass, though, I’m guessing that’s not the case.

I lean up against the mirrored wall and pull the Zippo out of my pocket with my free hand. I start flipping it open and closed.

Feeling eyes on me, I raise mine to see the girl staring at me. She lets her eyes run down over my Kingdom shirt and to my ripped jeans. Then she looks at Alexa and frowns. Like she’s not good enough for me. It’s the other way around. I’m not good enough for her. I’m just a plaything. A guaranteed fuck. She’ll get tired of me and move on, but until then, I’m going to take advantage of it for now. Men like me don’t settle down. We’ve got too much to prove to the world. Too many wrongs to right. There’s no time in our life for women. Not the good kind anyway.

The man’s hand slides down her ass and between her legs. She closes her eyes as he leans down and whispers in her ear. The elevator dings, interrupting them, and they walk off.

“Well, that was interesting,” Alexa mumbles.

I snort. That’s an understatement.

She turns to me, and I do the same. I can’t help it. Letting go of her hand, I cup her face with it. Her green eyes search my face. She looks terrified, her white teeth nibbling on her bottom lip. I pull it free with my thumb.

“I told April and Jasmine,” she rushes out.

“Okay.”

“No, Cross.” She steps into me. “I told them about us.”

I nod once. “I understood what you meant.” I just don’t give a fuck.

“I mean, it was right after the first night. But only Jasmine knows we’ve been hooking up for a few weeks now.” She pulls away from me to pace the small space. “I couldn’t keep it a secret from April. She’s my best friend. They both promised me they wouldn’t tell anyone. And I believe them. But if Titan knows …”

“Hey.” I grip her arm, yanking her to a stop. “It’s okay.”

“But-”

“It wasn’t April or Jasmine. It was me,” I interrupt her, but she goes on.

“We said that no one was to know.” She looks on the verge of tears, and I wonder why she’s so upset. We’re allowed to do whatever we want to do.

“Alexa …”

She pulls away from me, and I let her go. “Grave cannot know what we’re doing. You said so yourself. You promised him.” She runs a hand nervously through her bleach-blond hair. “April thinks Grave is fragile right now.” I frown at that because he seems fine to me. A little preoccupied, but definitely okay. I haven’t seen him this determined to be his best self … since ever. “And if he found out you’ve been lying to him …”All content © N/.ôvel/Dr/ama.Org.

“Alexa, calm down.” I bring her to a stop once again. “I’ll tell him tonight, okay? Does that make you feel better?”

She averts her eyes to her heels and nods her head once.

“Come here.” I pull her into my chest and hug her tightly, kissing her forehead. “You’re getting all worked up over nothing.”

“I just …” She sighs heavily, wrapping her arms around my chest. “I just worry about April and Grave, you know? I want them to be happy. They deserve that.”

“Hey.” I pull back just enough to cup her chin and force her to look up at me. “They are happy. And you and me having sex isn’t going to ruin that.”

The elevator comes to a stop once again. “Come on.” I grab her hand and pull her off at our stop. A man who I know as Mack stands by the outside of the elevator. “Hey, Cross.” He nods at us, and I don’t like the way his eyes linger on her chest. I hold her hand a little tighter.

I nod back and walk down the long hallway. Taking a right at the end, I come to a door that reads Grave across it.

“Maybe we should go in separately,” Alexa offers, pulling me to a stop.

I think about that for a second. Titan is the one who guessed it, but that doesn’t mean he’s told the others. “Sure.” I nod. Alexa is already upset about the situation, and I don’t want to make it worse. “You go in first. I’ll come in after.”

Letting go of my hand, she enters, and I wait a beat before doing so myself. I’m not going to stand out here forever. If they figure it out, then they figure it out.

Ten heads turn to look at me. “Made it!” I throw my hands up.

Bones stands, leaning up against the counter to the far right with his tatted arms crossed over his chest. Titan stands next to him, legs spread while Emilee stands between them with her back to his front. His arms around her shoulders. Grave sits on the black leather table, his legs dangling over the edge in nothing but a pair of black shorts that reads KINGDOM in gold letters on the waistband. April stands next to him. Alexa is beside her. She avoids looking at me directly while pretending to read something on her phone. A thought crosses my mind that it’s that fucker, Mitch. I have yet to ask her about him. I’m afraid she’d take it the wrong way because women always overthink shit. And when you start asking about exes, they think you’re considering a future with them. Case in point-what just happened on the elevator.

Jasmine sits on the counter next to Bones, and Nite stands leaning up against the far wall. Luca and his wife, Haven, stand to the left of him. All conversations come to an abrupt stop, making me feel like I interrupted something. I’ll ask Alexa later if they did the same thing when she entered.

“About time,” Titan announces.

“Yeah, well, I was a little busy.”

Grave snorts. “I hope you weren’t fucking that assistant of yours.”

Alexa’s head snaps up, and her eyes land on mine. I don’t say anything to that, but I do see that Titan notices Alexa’s gaze burning a hole in me, confirming what he was already guessing. We haven’t had the Rachel speech. She’s never asked, and I’ve never offered any information on her.

“Your assistant at Tit for Tat?” Emilee is the one who speaks. “She was very rude to me that one time I was looking for you.” She crosses her arms over her chest at that memory when she was trying to find the Palace suite. “She acted like I was going to fuck you right then and there in your shop when I just needed help finding Titan.”

I watch Jasmine tense. She and April both know about Alexa and me. So, they think I’m fucking both of them. Why do I want to correct them? Biting my tongue, I decide now is not the time. I need to tell Grave first and not in front of everyone. After his fight, I’ll get him alone and fill him in.

Grave adds, “Yeah, Rachel’s had a thing for him ever since Cross hired her.” He shakes his head with a laugh. “I told him not to fuck her, but he couldn’t resist.”

Fuck!

Titan’s eyes go back and forth between Alexa and me, but she’s no longer looking at me. Her eyes are back down on her cell, and she’s typing away. It better not be to fucking Mitch.

“Grave …” April stands in front of him, patting his legs. “It’s none of our business who Cross gets with.”

He just laughs as she tries to divert the conversation.

“I’m not sleeping with her,” I add quickly, watching to see how Alexa reacts. Nothing. Her eyes stayed glued to her phone.

“Maybe not right this very second.” Grave snorts.

Emilee smiles. “I hope you fired her then.”

Nope. But it’s on my list of things to do now. She’s been acting weird ever since I told her I didn’t give a fuck who she slept with. And then add the fact that she saw me with Alexa. Rachel has left me alone, but she still seems to linger around the shop after her shift is over. The other day, I caught her standing behind me, silently reading my text over my shoulder. I think she thought she’d get a glimpse of a text between Alexa and me, but I was talking to Titan. Should have fired her right then and there, but I was in a hurry to get out of there to meet up with Alexa. I was running late.

The door behind me opens, and a man speaks. “You’ve got five minutes, Grave.”

April pats his thigh. “We’re going to go take our seats. Be careful, okay?”

He reaches out, sliding his hand into her purple hair, and leans forward, kissing her. “Always,” he tells her when he pulls away.