Arranged love

APRIL

I lie on my back. My entire body shaking and covered in sweat. Grave falls on his back next to me with his hand on his bare chest.

I look over at him. His eyes are closed, and his lips are parted as he tries to catch his breath. I slide my hand over his chest and run the tips of my fingers over his nipple piercing.

His eyes pop open, and his head falls to the side so he can look at me. “I didn’t use protection,” he says as if he just realized it.

I smile at him. “I’m on the pill.”

He lets out a long breath.

I laugh and joke. “Caught up in the moment?”

“Yes.” He nods once before licking his lips.

I get up and straddle him. I run my hands over his six-pack to his chest, exploring him. I sat across from him at dinner for a couple of hours, and all I could think of was this-us coming back to my place.

The more time I spent with him, the less I thought about Lucy and the more I thought about him and me. I wanted a taste. I was craving him.

He opens his eyes and grips my hips. His thumbs rub circles on my hip bones. His eyes on my chest.

“Stay the night,” I say, not wanting him to leave just yet.

His eyes meet mine, and I have an instant of panic.

“I mean … if you don’t have anywhere else to be tonight.” It’s still early. Not even ten yet.

He sits up, placing both his hands on my face, and places his lips on mine. I open for him as his tongue enters my mouth. My eyes close, and his arms wrap around my waist, holding me in place, and he pulls away.

“I wasn’t going to leave,” he states, before shoving me back down onto my back.

GRAVE

MONDAY MORNING, I walk off the elevator at Kingdom onto the thirteenth floor. I take an immediate right and enter the conference room. The guys already sit around it.

I plop down in my seat, and my brother looks at his watch, then at me. “You’re early.”

I say nothing.

“Have you even been to bed yet?” he asks, looking me over.NôvelDrama.Org exclusive content.

“I got five hours of sleep, not that it’s any of your business,” I say with a smile. I spent the entire weekend at April’s. I wouldn’t say I got much sleep because neither one of us did, but I was sober the entire time. “How was New York?” I ask him to make conversation.

He eyes me skeptically and answers slowly. “Fine.”

“I’m sure it was,” I say, and his eyes narrow on me. “So what is this meeting about?” I question, getting down to it.

Bones goes to speak, but the doors open behind me and I hear Nigel. “Grave, you have a phone call on line one.”

I get up from my seat and walk over to the far side of the room and pick up the phone, pressing one. “Hello?”

“Hey man, it’s Mac.”

“I’ll call you back,” I say, not even giving him a second to argue before I hang up on him. I exit the conference room and walk down to my office. Closing my door, I sit behind my desk and pull my cell out of my pocket and call him back. We have a jammer in the conference room. That way no cell phones can be recording of any kind. We do a lot of work in there with some very well-known Elite’s. Never know who wants to get blackmail information to fuck you over. And I don’t trust my brother to not pick up the office phone to listen to my conversation.

“Hello?” Mac answers.

“It’s me. What do you have?”

He sighs and I know it’s not going to be good. “Well, I ran the search through the database on the name you gave me … Randy Smith.”

“Yeah.”

“And he’s clean.”

I run a hand down my face. “No way.” That can’t be true. “The fucker was just arrested last week at Glass.”

“He was not.”

I know I was pretty fucked up, but the cops were called. He threw my glass of liquor onto the fucking stage for Christ’s sake. “What the fuck …?”

“He was escorted from the premises and told not to return.” He interrupts me.

They banned him? I need to talk to Luca about this shit. “Fuck!” Well … this isn’t going how I planned. “What if I talk her into pressing charges?” He beat her. I doubt the bruises have faded completely.

“You can, but it’ll get him locked up for maybe twenty-four hours at best. He’ll make bail and then it will just make things more difficult for her. You know how this shit goes. There’s not much I can do. If he’s been giving her hell for this long, he’s not going to give up now. Next time she may not get the chance to come to you for help.”

I throw my head back and close my eyes. Natalie and her son don’t deserve this. No woman deserves to be treated like this. They need to feel safe. Protected, and I’m all they have. “What if I delivered him to you?” I offer, getting an idea.

He’s silent for a long second before he finally sighs. “I don’t want to know any part of your plan.”

“What plan?”

“Fuck,” he hisses. “I’ll do this for you. But only because if someone would have helped my mother like you’re trying to help Natalie, maybe she’d still be alive. Message me when you’re ready.” He hangs up and I place my cell on the desk.

Bowing my head, I place my hands over my face and close my eyes. I have to do something. Nothing good can come from Randy being able to touch them. And Natalie has nowhere to run. He’d find her no matter what. Men like that don’t let their toys go. And that’s all she is to him.

I could kill him. But I’d prefer the guy rot in a prison cell, knowing she’s out there living her best life with his son. Someone else out there raising his son.

I pick up my cell, making up my mind and send a quick text to Luca.

Me: I need some supplies.

Luca: Whatever you need. I can meet you later on today.