Arranged love

I walk into the small coffee shop and pick the first round table to my right. There’s only one other person here at the moment in the corner booth, but they have their earbuds in while working on a laptop.

My knees bounce up and down as I try to think of an excuse to bring up Kingdom and ask how my brother fits into the situation. I don’t think saying hey, I googled you last night and saw you’re part owner. Do you know why my brother has a key card to there? Oh, and hey is your brother connected with the mafia? That would be a good conversation starter. Not. I look up just as a sport bike pulls into the front row parking spot. It’s a Yamaha R1, and Grave is driving. He turns it off, kicks the kickstand down, and gets off it. I watch him walk to the door dressed in a pair of dark wash jeans, black combat boots, and a black T-shirt that shows off his one sleeve and muscular arms. He wears a white hat backward that he takes off and spins around. It has that same black circle and K that sits in the middle. I now know that represents Kingdom.

He enters the coffee shop, and I stand from the table. “Hey,” I say lamely, all of a sudden feeling uncomfortable. I’m not sure what the fuck I’m doing or why I’m doing it.

He turns to look at me and removes a pair of black Aviators from his face. His blue eyes meet mine, and he smiles. “Hey.”

The guy is gorgeous. There’s no question about that. There’s just something about him that I like. Or maybe it’s the fact that I haven’t met someone new in a while. The last guy I crawled in bed with was Derek, and that was over a year ago. It was a random hookup because we were out and had some drinks. We’d had sex before, so it was familiar.

“Have you ordered yet?” he asks.

Right! We’re here for coffee, not to fuck. “I have not,” I answer.

He takes the few steps over to the counter, and asks, “What would you like?”

“Small coffee. Black, please.”

He places our order and then waits for them to make it while I sit back down.

“Come here often?” he asks, sitting down across from me with our coffees.

“Yeah,” I lie. I hardly ever come here. I’m not much of a coffee drinker. “How about you?” I ask and then inwardly curse myself.

“First time.” He chuckles.

This is so fucking awkward. I’d rather be having one of those dreams where you’re naked in front of a crowd instead of this. At least I know that wouldn’t be as embarrassing.

GRAVE

I FIND IT very off that April called me to meet her for coffee, but I didn’t question it. The moment I answered the phone and she said her name, I knew it was about Ethan. But I’m not going to willingly give her any information about him. If she wants to know, she’ll have to come out and ask.

She averts her eyes and blows on her coffee. I look her over. Her hair is up again today in that messy bun she seems to love. Her face is free of makeup. She looks gorgeous, but her ice blue eyes look tired, and I bet it has to do with Ethan.

“I like your bike,” she says, looking out the window.

“Thank you,” I say, taking a sip of my drink. I went out with Cross last night and got fucked up. I left my car at Kingdom and woke up at my house this morning, so I decided to drive my bike.

“So what is it you do for a living, Grave?” she asks, unable to look me in the eyes.

There it is. The million-dollar question. “I work at Kingdom,” I say vaguely.

Her dark brows lift. “Oh really? How long have you worked there?”

“Going on four years now,” I answer.

She nods her head.This is the property of Nô-velDrama.Org.

“How long have you worked at Roses?” I counter.

She places her cup of coffee down. “I started working there when I was twelve.”

“That’s a long time.”

“My mother opened it, and I helped her out. I took over when she passed away.”

My chest tightens at her words. Her mother is dead. Just like mine. “That was nice of you to help her,” I say before taking another sip.

“Yeah, well …” She shrugs. “It was all she had, but she loved it.”

A silence falls over us, and my cell vibrates in my pocket. I pull it out to see it’s Lucy.

Lucy: Where are you? I thought you were coming over this morning.

Ignoring the message, I lock my phone.

“What about your father?” I ask. “Does he help you with the shop?”

She shakes her head. “Left when Ethan and I were young.”

Well, fuck! This is going worse than I thought it would, but at least I know who Ethan is to her-her brother. That’s good to know.

My cell vibrates again but this time it’s my brother calling. “One second,” I tell her, then answer it. “Hello?”

“I need you to be in my office in an hour,” he barks.

“I’ll be there when I get there,” I say and hang up on him.

Her ice blue eyes go from my cell to mine. “You can go if you need to,” she says softly. Obviously, she’s changed her mind about whatever she wanted to meet me about.

I want to tell her that it’s fine, but I do need to get to Kingdom. I’m not in the mood to put up with my brother yelling at me all day, so I stand. “I’ll walk you back to Roses,” I say, tossing what’s left of my coffee into the trash can by the door.

She stays silent as we walk down the sidewalk and into Roses. She turns to face me once we step inside. Her eyes run over my neck tattoo and then my sleeve. She’s never treated me differently or looked at me any different than other customers, but I want to know what she’s thinking. Do they turn her off? Disgust her?

I can see the question written all over her face. The one that everyone asks-why did you get those tattoos? Do they mean something? Do you think you’ll regret them when you’re older? It’s always the same.

“I like art,” I say. Her eyes find mine, but she doesn’t say anything. “That’s what you were thinking, right? Why I have so many?”

She averts her eyes to her black sneakers, and a blush covers her cheeks. God, she’s gorgeous. In a dream sort of way. Like nothing I’ve ever seen in person.

“Can I show you something?” she asks shyly.

“Yes,” I answer, stepping away from her to allow her space.

She walks toward the back. I follow her without being told. She pushes a back door that reads exit only, and we enter a narrow back alleyway. She takes a few steps away from the door and then turns to face me. I come to a stop and just stare down at her. It’s a sunny day here in Vegas, and the sun hits her eyes just right. They look almost see-through. Hypnotic. “What did you want me to see?” I ask, clearing my throat.

Placing her hands on both of my shoulders, she spins me around to face the back of the building with her. “What the …?” I trail off as my eyes look over the building. It’s covered in various shades of blue, red, green, yellow, and purple.

I step up to it and run my fingers over the brick. Blue water plays its part of a river. Tips of white make it look like it has rolling waves. To the right are mountains with peaks covered in dark clouds. To the left are tall buildings at night. Silver makes up the windows as they shine from the moonlight. “Someone vandalized your building,” I say. “It’s beautiful.”

“You think so?” she asks softly, still standing behind me.

I nod. “Absolutely.” I take a step back, coming to stand beside her and place my hands in my front pockets, just taking it in. “Fuck, it must have taken them forever to do it.” It spans the entire back of the building. There is no way this was done in one night. Well, that’s not true. I guess it depends on how many people they had working on it at once. But it doesn’t look like several people did it. It looks like one. Art is like anything else. Everyone’s strokes are different. There is nothing in this pic that doesn’t match. No. One person did this. And it took them more than one night. They used paintbrushes. Not like they threw some spray paint on it and ran. Maybe she didn’t notice it at first. She doesn’t come out here very often, and they came back multiple times to do it. “I can pick up some paint and cover it up,” I tell her.

“What?” she asks, turning to face me.

I do the same and look down at her. “I can cover it up.” I sigh. “Not gonna lie, I’d hate to do it, but they shouldn’t have done that to your building.”

She tilts her head to the side, looking up at me. “If you could erase any of your tattoos, would you?”

I frown but answer without hesitation. “No.”

She looks over at the back of the building and smiles. “Me neither.” She steps up to it and places her hands on the brick. “I did this.”

My eyes widen. “What?”

She turns to look at me. “I painted this.”

My mind is a little slow at the moment, so I point at it. “You did this?” I ask stupidly.

She looks down at her black Converse and bites her bottom lip. All of a sudden, she’s nervous.

I step into her and place my hand under her chin, lifting it so she looks up at me. Her piercing blue eyes shine from the sun hitting them. Then she lifts her hands and runs her fingers softly over my neck tattoo. I can’t help the shiver that runs through me at her softness.

“I like art too, Grave.” She speaks quietly as though the world can’t know our secret.

My hand drops from her chin to wrap around her waist, and I pull her body flush with mine. She doesn’t fight me or push me away. “You’re amazing,” I say honestly. I’ve never met anyone like her before. She’s the exact opposite of me. Full of life. Breath of fresh air. Talented.

She gives me a soft smile. Her eyes drop to my lips, and I try to think of anything else but her hands on me because I don’t want to get hard and ruin the moment.

But when her hands cup my face, I lose the battle. Her eyes meet mine again, and she whispers, “Kiss me.”

I begin to walk forward, forcing her to walk backward. Her back gently hits the building, and I bring my left hand up and cup the side of her face. She leans her head back, staring up at me with heavy eyes.

“Fuck, you’re beautiful,” I whisper.

“Grave …” My nickname shakes on her lips. Her hands come up to my chest and grip my T-shirt.

“April,” I whisper, and she whimpers.

Lowering my lips, I gently touch mine to hers. She parts her lips for me, and my tongue enters her mouth. She tastes like sugar. Addictive.

She moans into my mouth, and my other hand comes up to hold the other side of her face. I tilt her head and deepen the kiss, memorizing every stroke of her tongue on mine. The way she pushes her hips into my hard dick and grips my shirt, greedy and wanting.

I pull away and rest my forehead to hers. We’re both panting. I open my eyes to look down at hers, and they’re still closed. “Have dinner with me tonight,” I say before she comes back to reality. Before she remembers who I really am and why she wanted to meet with me this morning, bursting this bubble she has built around me.

Her eyes open, and she looks up at me. “Okay.”