Billionaire Brothers 2 : Love Has A Name (13 page)

“
Yes
. You’re a cold-hearted bitch and you need to be bridled.”

Again, I raised my foot and stomped on his toes. “How’s that for a bitch, huh?” Before he could shift his foot, I stomped on it again. “A bitch is a female dog and bridles are for donkeys, estúpido!”

I aimed for his foot again but he grabbed my shoulders and shook me. “Axia, stop it! You’re acting silly. What the hell is wrong with you?”

“You’re what’s wrong with me! Why do you keep following me? Why don’t you leave me alone?”

Lovello screeched my chair around to face him, and without releasing me, he stood halfway up and used his foot to spin his chair around so we were both facing each other, our knees kissing. He then locked his ankles around each of mine, pinning them to the chair legs. That way I couldn’t get up.

I scoffed. “What are you going to do, hold me hostage in my own home?”

“I think your father will allow it. He likes me. Besides, he seems frustrated with you and your behavior.”

“Don’t take Vince Blacksille lightly. He likes to play nice, but when he plays dirty,
he plays dirty
.”

“Why didn’t you answer my calls yesterday?” he asked in an accusatory tone.

“Um, let’s see … because I’m my own woman and I do whatever the hell I want! I don’t owe you anything.”

“Yes you do. You owe me
you
.”

I tried to move but I was pinned, feet and arms. “Seriously, Pretty Boy, you need to give it up.”

“Kick and scream and fight as much as you want, Axia, I’m not gonna leave you alone. So
you
need to give it up. You’re a wild animal that needs to be subdued.”

“First I’m a bitch and now I’m a wild animal? Have any more disrespectful names for me, Pretty Boy Nelson?” I struggled again but he held my shoulders firm. “I swear, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see your face scrunched in pain and your skin red with welts.”

Lovello furrowed his brows then promptly let go of my shoulders, but still kept my feet pinned. “What do you mean by that?”

Mierda …
“Nothing.”

Thankfully he didn’t probe further on my gaffe. “You didn’t answer me yesterday, you know,” he said.

“What?”

“Yesterday when I asked if you loved that Zane person. You didn’t give me an answer. Now I’ve learned that he’s an ex who broke up with you. Why are you still seeing him? Are you in love with him?”

“You don’t have a right to ask me that question.”

“I know, but I’m asking you anyway.”

“That’s for me and Zane to know,” I shot. “And for you to take your nose out of.”

He made an exasperated grunt. “I don’t believe you’re in love with him, but I just want
you
to tell me that you’re not.”

“Why are you making Zane and me your problem?”

“Are you dense, or do you just insist on being difficult?” he snapped.

“What?”

Lovello leaned forward and cupped my face in both hands, locking his heated gray gaze on mine. “Axia, I
want
you. More than I’ve ever wanted any other woman. I’m used to getting anything and anyone I want. I’m used to my own way. I’ve never done shit like this before. Never chased anyone. Ever. And here I am chasing you like a dog after a bone, sponging your insults and your abuses. It’s not manly and it’s not
me
. Yet for some baffling reason, I’m drawn to you. You have something that a part of me wants, but I don’t know what that is just yet. The soul is quicker than the flesh. It takes a while for the flesh to know what the soul knows. And that is why I desire you. Ever since I saw you in my building that morning, I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind, Axia. Don’t think that this is a feeling that I embrace, I freakin’
hate
it. And if it leaves tomorrow morning, I’ll be ecstatic, because God, dear God, you are one frustrating woman.”

Whoa. I was baffled. But my heart softened at his words, and I willed my eyes to tell him that I desired him, too. Just that I couldn’t be with him. Judging by the intense feelings I felt for him now, I’d probably fall for him and he’d hurt me, no doubt. I couldn’t lay my heart out like that again. “And what makes you believe I’m not in love with Zane?”

“Because you wouldn’t look at me the way you do, just like you’re looking at me right now. And you wouldn’t react the way you do whenever I touch you. If my touches weren’t for you, they wouldn’t make you melt. If my kisses weren’t for you, they wouldn’t make you submit. You desire me. Burningly. I see it and I know it. Therefore, you could never be in love with someone else.”

He brushed his lips most gently against mine and, sighing, I closed my eyes and parted my lips, waiting for his tongue to slip inside. But he didn’t enter. Drunk on desire, I opened my eyes to find him staring at me. “Stop fighting, Axia, and give me you.”

“You don’t know what you’re asking,” I whispered.

“How so?”

Because I don’t know what a normal relationship is like. Because I don’t know how to be a normal girl. Because I’m scared. Because I don’t want to. Because you might break me down. Because there is a lot of ‘because’.
“Because … I don’t remember how…”

“Let me show you.”

“But I don’t want to…”

“
Why
?” he asked through clenched teeth.

Two maids came out with our breakfast just then, but neither of us paid them any attention. With nimble hands they arranged the food on the table and were gone as soon as they came.

“Love … I just don’t want to, okay? Would you stop pressuring me, please? I can’t … I can’t take it anymore.”

Lovello sighed and sat back in his chair, resigned. “Okay, fine. Well, let’s talk as friends then. Tell me, what is it that makes you so reluctant?”

Surrounding my ensuing silence was the soft cooing of the wind and the ruffling of tree leaves. A nimiety of tiny yellow butterflies fluttered about in the garden, and on the wind traveled the distant chirping of the birds. I’d forgotten how much I used to love sitting out on this patio with my mother. And when Zane came over, we’d take blankets and wander down to the far corner of the backyard behind the gazebo, laying in the grass talking about and doing things that a normal young couple shouldn’t. This home held a lot of memories and I’d never felt more peace anywhere than I felt here.

In contemplation of answering Lovello’s question, I closed my eyes. “I don’t know. I just don’t want anyone. I like my own way, you like your own way, it just wouldn’t work.”

Lovello revealed a slow, sexy smile. “That’s easy to solve. In the end, I’d be the one getting my way. And you’d be the one submitting.”

“Ha!
Never
going to happen!”

“I wasn’t asking you to marry me, you know. Believe me, that’s not my scene. I just thought we could have some dirty fun,” he said laughing.

“Lovello, I’m not dating you. I’m not sleeping with you. I’m not doing anything with you. Got it?”

He held his hands up in surrender. “And I said fine. As much as I want you, this chase is tiring. So I won’t ask you anymore. But I hope we can at least be friends.”

I was wary of his easy resignation. A minute ago he was all about the ‘soul’ and the ‘flesh’, and now, with only two denials, he was stepping down from the podium, hands in surrender? Either I didn’t trust him, or I was disappointed that he’d resigned. “Oh, not the old ‘let’s be friends’ trick, where later down the line you try to seduce me?” There was hope in that question.

Lovello chortled. “No. I’m serious. I won’t pester you anymore. But being friends means I get to be around you and converse with you, sans you shouting or fighting at me … unless you want to shout and fight with me in a different kinda way…”

“I don’t trust you.”

“What don’t you trust?” He freed my ankles from the chair legs, and I suddenly felt bereft. “See? Hands free. Trust me now?”

It was rather conflicting and frustrating that I didn’t want him, yet I liked having him so close to me, touching me, seducing me. Suffering the urgent need to feel contact with his body again, I awkwardly let my hand rest on his jeans-covered knee, moving my thumb back and forth. “Yes.”

Albeit showing a slight frown, he didn’t comment on my first ever volunteered touch. “Great. My brother’s here also and we’re going to a bike show later. I want you to come with me.”

“Bike shows are not my scene.”

“So what do you plan on doing today? It’s Saturday.”

“I plan on doing nothing but laying around and watching crap T.V.”

Lovello shook his head. “No. Just come with me. You’ll get to see
me
on a bike,” he smugged. “I won’t take no for an answer.”

Stifling a smile, I scoffed instead. “I’m tired of telling you to get over yourself, Pretty Boy. I’m saying no. How will you not take it for an answer?”

Lifting his lips in a crooked smile, he reached out his hand and smoothly trailed the tips of his fingers from the sensitive spot behind my ear, all the way down my neck, and lingered at my collarbone. At the awakening touch, my nipples puckered beneath my T-shirt and my eyes lowered halfway shut. “I can seduce a yes out of you. But I know you don’t want that. So it’s best to just do this the easy way.”

When I didn’t answer, he leaned forward and placed his hand on my bare thigh. My shorts were extremely short, not to mention ripped and ragged, and my legs were just there, naked. In slow movements, he drifted his hand further and further up my thigh. “Do you want me to force a yes out of you, Axia?”

The feel of his warm hand on my bare skin was sensitizing, and as his hand traveled further up, I leaned back in the chair and gripped the handles, because heat had settled right there between my legs. And for reasons I can’t explain, I didn’t want him to stop touching me. So much that I almost muttered the words ‘don’t stop’. I peered at him through hooded eyes, and the sonuvabitch was so damn sexy I had to tighten my grip on the chair handles to prevent myself from attacking him right there on the patio. When his hand was almost at the height of my thighs, unable to help it, I shifted and opened my legs wider.

At this, Lovello stopped and his hand left me. My eyes flew fully open to meet him staring straight at me. No expression. “Say yes.”

“Yes to what?” The breathiness of my voice made me realize that I’d been holding my breath, waiting for him to touch me where I desired him the most. And the bastard had stopped.

Lovello raised a brow. “You forgot what we were talking about already?”

“Huh?”

He chortled lightly. “To the bike show, Axia.”

“Oh. Okay. Yes.” My voice was barely audible.

Satisfied, Pretty Boy Nelson gave me a dazzling smile. “Good. I’ll pick you up at noon. Gotta go now. I have a meeting in thirty minutes.”

He stood up, but then placed his hands over my hands that were still gripping the chair handles and leaned down to my face, his breath hot and minty, his scent being of clean linen and male. All male. “Now, Axia, I want you to remember that you’ve turned me down. And I’ve settled for friendship. No biggie,” he shrugged. “So after this very second, we’ll be just
friends
. Okay? Only friends.”

“What do you —”

“See you at noon, Axia,” he sliced, straightening abruptly.

From his jacket pocket he retrieved his shades, then put them on at such a slow and leisurely pace that I felt as if I were watching a hot ass commercial for Ray-Ban aviators.

“Lovello, I —”

“Noon, friend. Ta-ta.” And with that, he was gone. Leaving me there on the chair aroused, bereft and confused.

VIII

N
oon came a little too soon. After a very
cold
shower, I’d casually dressed into tight black jeans and a purple V-cut top that revealed quite a bit of cleavage. At the sound of the doorbell I leaped off the bed a little too excitedly, then immediately frowned at my reaction. Not wanting to admit to myself that I was awaiting Lovello’s arrival with an eager breath at the prospect of seeing him again, or rather, feeling him again, I convinced myself that the doorbell had merely surprised me because I’d unknowingly dosed off.