Billionaire Brothers 2 : Love Has A Name (10 page)

Lovello continued with our conversation as if he hadn’t just insinuated to everyone present that I belonged to him, and whatever he says, goes. “I’ve been in L.A. since yesterday. A message in a bottle made me aware that you were here, too. So, I thought I’d stop by and say ‘Hi’.”

All the while I kept strawing down my delicious
Milky Way
, never minding the brain freezes.

“That look on your face right now,” he added, “was worth the stop. Who knew a cup of
Milky Way Malt
could melt off that cold exterior? Even if it’s just until the cup empties.”

“Thanks, Pretty Boy,” I mumbled over the straw. “You’ve seen me, fed me and said your ‘Hi’. Appreciated. Now, as you can see, I’m busy. Please leave. You’re a distraction.”

Before Lovello could answer, Tish stepped between us and handed me a small
Cartier
gift bag. “Was just delivered for you.”

“What? Who else knows I’m here? Is there any privacy in my life anymore?” I asked, exhausted, exasperated and frustrated.

Tish shrugged, then she flashed Lovello a vicious grin and sauntered away.

Lovello’s brows furrowed as he eyed the gift bag in my hand. I opened the bag and withdrew a small card that wrote:

My heart,
Heard you were in my city.
Thought I’d say thank you for the other night. We could be really good together if we gave ‘us’ a second go.
Think about it…
Love you always,
Zane

Trying not to scoff at the words I used to long for Zane to say to me, I pulled the flat red case from the bag and opened it. It held a white-gold necklace which had two connecting hearts studded with tiny diamonds. Shaking my head, I snapped the case shut and shoved it back into the bag. Zane knew I didn’t wear fancy jewelry, so I wasn’t sure why he would send me a necklace. A sexy lingerie or a six-inch heel thigh-high or even some sex toys would’ve done the trick.

Glancing up, I realized Lovello was no longer there. Hard to believe he’d leave without giving some annoying goodbye. Oh well, I shrugged, at least he’s gone. Don’t know why he was here anyway, or why he continued digging up information about me. He needed to stop.

Zane was one of the few people to whom Tish was allowed to reveal information about me, so I understood how he would know where I was. But Lovello? He needed to give it up.

Do you really mean that, Axia? Stop sending your brain in a tizzy, child. You know you don’t want that.

I felt a tap on my shoulder, and I glanced up to see Tish vibrating with irritation. “Mr. Nelson is asking to see you.”

“What?”

“He’s in the hall. He says it’s urgent.”

“Tell ‘Mr. Nelson’ that I’m busy, Tish. My hair is being straightened, as you can see, and I have no time for him and his games. If it’s a medical urgency, tell him to call the paramedics; otherwise call the police. I can’t help him either way.”

Tish nodded and left, but in a few short minutes she was back. “He’s insisting that he wants to speak with you, Axia.”

By the look on Tish’s face, I could tell that she was irritated to the highest degree. I know, because he does that to me, too. Knowing he would only continue harassing my assistant if I continued to ignore him, or worse yet, come back here and cause me more embarrassment, I excused myself from the stylist’s chair and went in search of the plague.

As I stomped down the hall, a squeal escaped my lips when I was suddenly yanked off into a room and pushed up against a wall. The door slammed, the lock turned, and I was looking up into the exasperated face of Lovello Nelson. His hands were pressed flat against the wall on either side of my head, while the lower half of his body pinned me to the wall. The room was dimly lit, but enough to tell that it was a storage room, as it was packed to the ceiling with lighting fixtures, power fans and background sheets.

“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?!” I raged at him.

Lovello’s face was implacable, no humor, no flirt. “Shut. Up. Axia.”

“Don’t you dare —”

“I’m going to tell you this just once: I don’t play the sharing game. I share
nothing
at all. Therefore, you’re going to cut it off with whatever clown you’re running around with or leading on. Because
I’m
interested in you now. And I won’t tolerate any other man touching you, calling you or sending you gifts. Do you understand?”

Was this man serious? Maybe he was deluded. He must be. Who the hell did he think he was? “No. I
don’t
understand. I think you need to see a psychiatrist. You’re giving orders to the wrong woman, Pretty Boy. It seems whoever is giving you a daily report on me forgot to tell you that.”

Lovello revealed a sly grin. “Oh, they did. And I’ve heeded, stood back, and studied you.” He brought his hand down to my cheek, brushing his knuckles against it, and I automatically leaned into his touch, like magnet to steel. “What do you think I’ve been doing all week, Axia? Staying away because you asked me to?”

His thumb passed over my lower lip, and I parted them, exhaling hitched breath on his fingers. Though I wanted him to stop, I
couldn’t
help myself when he touched me. “No, sweet girl. I wasn’t. For the past week, I’ve been going over and over the details of that Friday when we spent those few wonderful hours together. Trying to find some clue to you; to your weakness. I refused to come close to you again until I did.” His fingers traveled under my chin and tipped up my face so I could look at him. “I’m here now. So you can guess I’ve found my answer.”

I could only gaze back into his grays that were now like melted steel, and into me he poured all that heat and steam. My body was so hot beneath my robe, I felt I would combust. Words remained elusive.

“You want to know what that is, Axia? Your weakness to me? The one thing you
can’t
resist?”

My eyes shuttered down at the caressing of his warm minty breath against my lips. “W-What?”

Pretty Boy Nelson brought his hands to cup my face, pressed his forehead against mine, then whispered, “My touch.”

A whimper escaped me at the verity of his words. Oh sweet Lord, I was doomed. “That’s not true.”

“You know it is,” he breathed, before slipping his tongue inside my mouth.

My pushes at his chest were lame and half-hearted, because seconds later I was returning his kiss and that made him groan. His sweet tongue explored the depths and crevices of my mouth, gliding over the ridges of my teeth, pulling on my lips with small tugs, chasing my tongue with his. I relaxed into it, resisting the urge to grip his neck and pull him into one of my usually aggressive kisses. An aggressive kiss wasn’t what I wanted from him, surprisingly. The gentleness of this kiss, of him, was different. And I loved it …

Hell, what was I doing? I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t. With every iota of strength I had left, I cleaved away from the kiss and took advantage of his vulnerable state. In swift movements, I switched positions so that he was up against the wall with me against him. He started to smile and I slapped his face.
Hard
. The penetrating connection of skin against skin bounced off the walls in an echo. “Don’t you
ever
do that again!” I hissed.

But Lovello didn’t even blink; it was as if he were expecting it. “You kissed me back.”

Grabbing his chin in a firm grip, I spoke in a tight voice, “Yes. So I did. And you’re a really good kisser, Pretty Boy. But you do that again and I swear to God I’ll…” My words tumbled away when my nipple puckered under the pad of his thumb. I was wearing a tube top and gym shorts, but also had on an ivory silk robe. Yet, his touch penetrated so intensely through the materials.

“You swear to God you’ll do what, Axia?” His voice was like that of a serpent in my ear.

“I swear to God that I’ll…” Again, my words drifted away like chaff in the wind when his other hand came up to my breast and squeezed. My hand fell away from his chin and I dropped my face to his chest, my breathing erratic.

“Tell me to stop.” He pulled the ties of my robe and his hands trespassed inside, traveling up and down my sides before clasping my hips and pulling me hard against him. “Tell me, Axia. Tell me to stop.”

Power and control were out of my reach. I couldn’t even control my own breathing when he touched me, let alone tell him to stop. I buried my face deeper into his chest, for that was all I could do. He smelled like clean linen and … and … rain. It wasn’t fair that his heart was beating at its usual pace while my heartbeats were all over the place.

Lovello’s hand slid into the waistband of my shorts. “Aren’t you going to tell me to stop?” His fingers traveled lower down. “You’re going to allow me to touch you
there
? You’re a naughty, naughty gym teacher, Miss Blacksille.”

A whimper from me muffled into his chest when his fingers brushed over my mound. “Dios, I…”

The fiend bent his head and pressed his lips to my ear. “You can’t, can you? You don’t want it, but you can’t tell me to stop. Isn’t it so?”

A knock sounded on the door, followed by Tish’s voice. “Axia, your food is here. The photographer will resume shooting in forty-five minutes and your hair isn’t done straightening yet.”

Lovello slipped his hand from my shorts and I raised my head from his chest and strengthened my voice. “Thanks, Tish. I’ll be there in a minute.”

We listened as Tish’s footsteps traveled down the hall, then I lifted my face to my seducer’s. “Listen, Lovello, I can’t do this with you, okay?”

“You mean you don’t want to. But guess what,
I
want to.
I want you.
So no, it’s not okay. Okay?” He closed my robe and retied it. “
Why
exactly don’t you want this with me?”

“Because … I … you don’t … I just can’t!”

His eyes frosted. “Is it because of that Zane idiot who sent you that lame-ass necklace? Are you in love with him?”

“How do you know his name?”

“Because I was standing over you reading the damn card, Axia.” He pushed away from the wall, slightly angered. “And from what I’ve read, you’ve been with him recently.”

I folded my arms. “And what the hell does that have to do with you, exactly? Do you have it in your head that I’m your woman or something? Because if you do, then you need to get rid of those deluded thoughts,
asap
!”

“As a matter of fact, I
do
…”

He took a step towards me and I instinctively backed away. No, I couldn’t bear another touch of his. “Don’t touch me, Lovello.”

He gave a cocky grin. “Why?”

Oh how I wish I could smack that grin off his face. “Because … it’s repulsive!”

In a quick dash, I made it to the door and fumbled with the lock, but before I could get it open, Lovello was there right behind me, bracing his length against mine, his lips trailing kisses along my shoulder. “Is it?”

Slumping myself against the door in patent weakness, I breathed, “Love, please stop. I can’t bear it.”

“Hell, that sounds so damn good. Call me that from now on instead of ‘Pretty Boy’. Or call me both. I can’t decide which sounds sexier coming from your lips.” He flexed his hips inward, and I felt the rigidity of his erection digging into my back. “Feel that? That’s what you do to me, Axia. Every single thing about you makes me burn. Achingly. Intensely. Unbearably. I
burn
. For you.” He brought one hand around, slid it under the robe and cupped me. “Hmm, your sex is on
fire
,” he moaned.

Feebly, I turned around in his embrace and made an involuntary thrust of my hips upward, loving the feel of his hardness now against my stomach. “Please, Love, let me go. They need me out there.”

“Kiss me first, and then I’ll let you go.”

“Can’t you jus —”

“Why argue? Do you want me to just take it, then?”

Feeling debilitated but at the same time excited for him, I brought my hands around his neck and pulled him into a slow, passionate kiss. Finding unexplainable peace in his arms, I didn’t want to let go. And when he tried to part, I tipped on my toes and kissed him deeper, wanting so much more of him. More than his kiss. More than his touch.

Lovello pulled away. “They need you out there, remember?” He brushed his thumb over my swollen lips. “I’ll get your cell number from your assistant and phone you after the shoot, okay?”

“Okay” was all I could say as I pulled out of his embrace, turned the doorknob and walked on numbed legs out of the room.

VI