Billionaire Brothers 2 : Love Has A Name (14 page)

Tossing my messenger bag across my shoulder, I wrenched open my room door and started for the stairs. Soft mumblings traveled from the foyer, so I stopped and peered over the corridor banisters. Lovello was standing in the foyer looking every bit as tempting as he did a few hours ago, and the pretty blonde maid, Lynn, was standing in front of him, her hands twisting behind her back as she swayed from side to side like a shy five–year-old waiting patiently for her reward of a promised chocolate chip cookie.

They were talking in low voices so I couldn’t hear what was being said, but the look on Lovello’s face was the flirtatious one he used on the women at the gym, and Lynn was all shy smiles and lip biting. My features arranged themselves in a scowl, and at that moment, Lovello, as if sensing me, flicked his eyes up to the corridor and saw me peering down at them. His lips lifted in a smile but I didn’t return one. I continued down the stairs instead.

By the time I got to the foot of the stairs, Romaine strolled through the front door. Lynn’s face blushed as red as beetroot, which made Romaine frown and glance between her and Lovello in suspicion.

That made me smirk at her. “Which one do you want? The millionaire or the billionaire?”

Lynn’s face paled in mortification. She peeked up at Romaine longingly through her lashes then ducked her head and scurried away.

Romaine glowered at me. “Why did you do that?”

A glower was returned as I gestured to Lovello. “Because, as you can see, you’ve got competition here, Baby Face.”

Romaine eyed Lovello up and down in cool assessment, then snorted. “No I don’t.”

I wanted to roll my eyes. I’d forgotten just how confident my hotshot brother was. He wasn’t intimidated by anyone and was acutely aware of his good looks and striking features. And whenever he went after a girl, he always won.

By this time, I’d earned another glower, but this one was from Lovello.

Romaine cast Lovello a cold side glance then shot his eyes back to me and said, “Keep your shaggy, tongue-hanging dog on his leash, will ya?”

“What? He’s not my —”

“I don’t wanna hear it, hermana,” he snapped as he stormed off in Lynn’s direction. The fact that he was so touchy about Lynn told me she was more to him than just another maid conquest. Well that’s a first. But the sneaky wench was flirting with my Pretty Boy, so …

Lovello continued glowering at me and I returned a narrowed glare. “You’ve been here for less than five minutes and already there’s anarchy.”

“If anyone’s stirred up anything, Axia, it was you. You seriously need to stop.” He strode to the door and held it open.

In a huff I stomped through it. “Me? I should stop? You’re the one who came into my house flirting with the staff!”

The door closed behind me and he stalked up to my side, holding my pace with his long, manly strides. “I wasn’t flirting. She told me I had really nice lips and I merely acknowledged her compliment.”

“Sounded like a heck of a lot more than that to me.”

“What did you hear?”

Nothing. That’s the whole point. I couldn’t hear anything and it irks me!

When I marched down the steps in silence, he chuckled. “If you’d heard the things spoken, then you’d know that all I told her was that I thought her outfit was cute.”

I held back a laugh. “Lovello, she’s in a plain black and white maid outfit.”

He shrugged. “Well, that’s all I liked. It’s short and cute. But I wasn’t attracted. Therefore, I wasn’t flirting.” He chuckled again. “Though I almost started flirting with your brother.”

My laugh manifested itself this time, and I couldn’t suppress it. “Is this the part where you tell me you swing both ways?”

He was clearly enjoying himself. Damn, he’s like July sunshine when he laughs. “What? I just thought he was … what do you girls say?”

“Hot?”

Pretty Boy’s grin widened. “Yeah, hot.”

He continued smiling as he held open the door to a sleek, silver sports car. One of those dream cars that guys have for their wallpaper on their computer or mobile phone screen. It was damned sexy, and I think I liked the sharp contours of it more than his
Bugatti Veyron
. Once I folded into the low silver baby, Lovello closed the door and rounded to the driver’s side.

On the center of the steering wheel there was a crest with the word
Zenvo
printed into the black leather. “Zenvo…” I mused.

Lovello drew his attention away from buckling his seat belt and flashed me a kiddish smile. “Yep.
Zenvo ST1
.”

“Hmm … You seem to have a thing for sports cars. Typical twenty-eight-year-old rich kid’s taste.”

“And you seem to have a thing for big, manly jeeps. Typical twenty-five-year-old control-craver.” His tone sounded a bit acerbic as if he were affronted.

I drew my attention from the touch-screen monitor I was messing around with and cut my eyes over to him. “Love, I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just musing.”

He revved the car and started creeping off the complex. “Sure you were.”

Ignoring his snit, I sat back in my seat and waited for his panties to untwist themselves.

“Are we going to be toeing like this all day?” he asked in a voice heavy with sulk as soon as we were on the main road.

“You tell me,” I murmured, picking at my nails. “You’re the one who seems to have a thong chafing your ass.”

Lovello compressed his lips, and instead of answering he leaned forward, tapping a few icons on the monitor until Maroon 5’s
Stutter
began pouring through the car speakers. At the choice of song I arched an eyebrow at him, but he simply bit his lower lip and mashed the gas. The car literally felt as if it lifted off the ground as it flew down the main.

Minutes later Lovello swerved the car to an outside arena with streams of tents and bikers, and hundreds of people wandering about. He pulled up where a cohort of guys were slumped idly over their bikes, chatting and swigging beers. One of the guys I recognized as his brother, Natalio. Switching off the ignition, Lovello stretched over to the glove compartment, took out two black ball caps and thrust one to me. “Put this on. Sun’s gonna be scorching.” His tone was flat, making it difficult to tell if he was still sulking or not.

Whilst eying him closely for any clue of his mood, I fixed the cap on my head, pulling my ponytail through the gap. Lovello ran his long fingers through his untamed hair repeatedly, trying to rake the wild strands into submission before hauling on the cap, all the while staring straight out of the windshield, while I stared at him. Without looking at me, he snapped, “What, Axia?”

“Are your thongs still chafing, Pretty Boy?” I struggled not to laugh. “We could always switch undies if you like. Or…” I dragged out. “I could just give you mine and go panty-less. Might it make you feel better knowing I’m not wearing any undies? Or will it fog up that sex-crazed little brain of yours and send you into a tizzy?”

On a heavy breath, he turned his heated eyes to me. “Axia…”

“Friends, remember?”

“But you just —”

“Friends,” I repeated, biting back a smile.

At that, he smirked. “Oh. Yes. Friends.” He opened the car door and hopped out. “C’mon,
friend
. Let’s go.”

We started towards the group of men, and Lovello stuffed his hands inside the front pockets of his jeans. It occurred to me then that he hadn’t touched me, not even for a second, since he came to pick me up. The realization made me eye him suspiciously.

Once we caught up with the group, a burly, tattooed hunk groaned and grumbled, “Both Nelsons today? Shit.” Again he groaned, more exaggerated this time, and took a long swig of his beer. “Guess I’mma have to settle for third place, huh?”

Natalio chuckled, likewise Lovello.

“Guys, meet my friend, Axia. She’ll be sporting with us today.”

A few of the guys leered at me, looking a bit dazed. Others gawked at Lovello in disbelief while Natalio raised a brow at Lovello, no doubt surprised to see his whore of a brother out with the same woman twice.

A slender, buzz-cut guy looked at me with sympathetic eyes and said, “Don’t worry, sweet thing. You’ll get through it. That’s just how life is, shit happens sometimes.”

Bewilderment marred my face. “Huh?”

“I don’t know what it is, because we’ve just met. But I’m sure you must be going through something painful or life-threatening for this walking, talking
dick
to stroll in here with his hands in his pockets and call a creature as breathtaking as you his
friend
. Is it cancer? Doctor said you only got a couple of months to live? Someone just died for you? You murdered someone? Going through depression? PTSD? HIV-positive? What is it?”

Never before had I felt such a deep urge to laugh, I simply couldn’t help it. Laughter howled from me and I slapped my palms on my thighs and doubled over, releasing hard, cathartic laughter. Why was it so funny to me? I had no idea. All I knew was that I was laughing so hard that everyone else started laughing. It was one of those moments when your ridiculous laughter was funnier than the joke itself. When I glanced up at Lovello through watery eyes, he was grinning down at me with wonder.

Seeing that I was unable to respond to the man, Lovello did that for me. “No, jackass. None of the above. She doesn’t want me. It’s that simple.”

The man widened his eyes and gazed at me in awe. “Ya’ gotta be kidding me. You’re truly not attracted to Mr. No-Girl-Can-Resist-This-Smile? Damn.” He straightened up from his bike and rubbed his hands together while licking his lips. Then he licked the tip of his forefingers and smoothed them over his brows. “Wow. Then that means I can —” he stopped short when Lovello shot him a death-glare and he held up his hands in defeat.

Lovello peered down at me, seeing that a smile now resided on my face. He removed a hand from his pockets, but only to point at the men one by one. “Axia, this Ben, Tiger, Max, Leon, Tyler, Nick, Ferron, and you know my brother, Natalio.”

Tiger was the burly, tattooed one who’d groaned about settling for third place, and Ferron was the one who’d given me the laugh of the day. I shook all their hands, and, as expected, each man’s eyes widened at the firmness of my handshakes. I tried to ignore the annoying fact that Lovello no longer held me around the waist while he introduced me, nor did he hold my hand when he walked with me.

“Need a beer, Axia?” Natalio ask as he went towards a wide steel drum of ice and beverages.

“No. I don’t drink. A cranberry juice if you have it. White.”

Natalio glanced over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow at me. Damn, I can imagine women swooning for him just by that eyebrow thing alone. How was it even possible to arch your brow like that? “Pregnant?” he asked, then darted his eyes to Lovello in question.

“No. I just don’t drink anything with alcohol.”

Natalio shrugged and dipped his hand into the drum bringing up a bottle of cranberry juice and handing it to me. Lovello frowned. “You serious?”

“What?” I asked, twisting the cork of the bottle.

“You don’t drink alcohol at all?”

“No. Alcohol weakens the flesh and distorts the mind. And once you’re inebriated, you lose all sense of control. I don’t want anything messing with my train of thought. I like to be in control of my body, my thoughts and my actions.”

And Pretty Boy Nelson was everything analogous to the effects of alcohol
.

When I was around him I seemed to have no control over my body, thoughts or actions. He weakened and distorted me just the same. So I might as well ban myself from him, too.

Lovello shook his head at me as he took a beer from Natalio. “Jeez, Axia. Live a little.”

Before I could answer, Tiger whistled and bellowed, “Ass and boobs delivered! Let the day begin! Yeahhh!”

I followed his gaze to see two BMW convertibles, tops down, bouncing with music, and had scantily dressed girls overflowing from them. Each car had about eight girls gyrating on top of the seats and doors. Don’t ask me how they got that done.

The convertibles braked up beside Lovello’s car and the girls poured out screaming and dancing, drawing the attention of everyone around the area. The arena music got noticeably louder as the girls giggled and rushed over to where we were. It was then that I realized that these girls were for this group. I carefully stepped aside to give the girls way as they hurled themselves onto the guys and their bikes.

A dainty brunette danced up to Lovello and ran her hand across his chest, slowly scraping her teeth over her pouty lip. “Nice to see you again, Nelson. Later? Terr wants to join this time. She didn’t believe me when I told her your size.”

When Lovello scrunched his face and scratched his forehead as if trying to remember something, she smacked his chest. “It’s Kadie!” Her eyes rolled. “Your memory that bad?”

Lovello shrugged and looked at me over Pouty Brunette’s shoulder. He stepped around her and came to stand beside me, which made Pouty Brunette scowl and huff off.