Billionaire Brothers 2 : Love Has A Name (53 page)

A warm hand brushed across my forehead, and then there were footsteps marching off on marble tiles, accompanied by intermittent words of assurance. The voice I recognized as my father’s. Flapping my eyes into sight, I noted that I was sprawled on the cozy daybed in my father’s living room. Seemed I’d been too tired to make it upstairs when Romaine brought me home.

Twisting and stretching my cramped limbs, I looked out of the floor-to-ceiling glass on the right at the setting sun. The cirrus clouds were a kaleidoscope of colors, an effect of the descending sun. The calming feeling of waking up in the Blacksilles’ residence wasn’t one I’d ever tire of.

I got up and plodded to the kitchen where the distant mumbling of my father’s voice traveled from. He seemed to be on his phone. An angry growl sounded from my stomach as I did. Need for food was the cause of its rage.

“ … I assure you, she’s fine … No, she’s just been asleep more than she’s awake. But it’s no big deal, it’s usual for her to stay in and sleep when she visits … Why? … Stop worrying, boy, she’s
okay
… No, I just checked on her and…”

Vince spun around when he heard me enter the kitchen and quickly ended his call. Was he talking about
me
? To whom?

“Who was that?” I inquired through an emergent yawn.

“Ah, no one. Just a friend,” Vince waved off as he came towards me. “Feeling any better? Romaine brought you through the door half-asleep.”

“I’m good, Daddy,” I laughed. “My stomach’s not okay, though. I’m starving.”

He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and kissed my forehead. “Well, why don’t you go shower? Dinner’s in thirty minutes.”

“I don’t think my stomach can wait for —”

I was cut off by the sound of the heavy front door opening and closing, followed by the unmistakable purring of Seleste D’costa-Blacksille. “Blacksilles? Are any of you home?”

Vince and I stood quietly as we listened to her heels cluck through the house and straight into the kitchen. In sashayed my breathtaking mother, wearing a red mini-dress and spiky black Louboutin heels. Her perfect bow-shaped lips were painted harlot-red, and her dark waves cascaded down her shoulders.

The gulp Vince made next to me was more than audible, and I almost laughed out. Would he ever get over his ex-wife’s attractiveness?

Seleste tossed her Louis Vuitton purse on the kitchen counter and rushed towards us with arms opened wide. In her over-sensual fashion, she threw her arms around me first and purred, “Oh my darling, baby. How are you?”

“The same as I’ve been since I’d seen you in, um, let’s see, I dunno, a couple of
months
ago,” I dripped in sarcasm.

The woman had come to San Fran to see and spend time with
me
. But once she’d begun jacking up with Trevillo, I never even glimpsed her. Until now.

On a roll of her eyes, she waved me off, knowing damn well that she’d been more than neglectful with me. Releasing me, she sexily wrapped her hands around my father’s neck and kissed him square on the lips. But Vince barely returned her hug and scowled, showing that he was still miffed about her Trevillo fling. “What did I tell you about calling before you come here, Seleste? You can’t just pop up at anytime, whenever you feel like it.”

Seleste kept her arms locked around his neck, kissing him longer this time. The temptress knew the game she was playing. She knew Vince wasn’t immune to her, and probably won’t ever be. “Why ever not, babe? Am I no longer Seleste
Blacksille
?”

Vince deepened his scowl and glared at her, but made no attempt to remove her arms from around him. Shaking my head, I walked away from their annoying presence and headed over to the refrigerator in search of something sugary to wet my arid tongue. Knowing that this was usually the part where my parents would start arguing, I stuffed a piece of cold bologna in my mouth and grabbed a
V8 Splash,
thinking to myself that the sooner I could get out of the kitchen, the better.

Except, though I waited for it, there was no yelling and cursing. That, of course, made me turn around in shock, only to find that they were both trying to rip each other’s tongue out.

Gross.

“Upstairs,” I heard Seleste moan, dragging my father out of the kitchen by his shirt collar.

Vince stopped at the kitchen archway and glanced at me over his shoulder. “Axia, tell the cook that dinner should be served in an hour instead of thirty minutes.”

And then they were off, giggling like high school students, making me want to gag.

Again,
gross
.

After I went to the other kitchen on the left wing of the house to inform the kitchen staff of the change in dinner time, I journeyed upstairs to grab a shower and had to cover my ears to block out my parents’ sex noises streaming down the hall. They’ve always been like this. Uninhibited. Not caring who was in the house or in their presence. They had a burning lust for each other and they weren’t coy about it. Ever since Romaine and I were kids, they’d never hid from us. They were always touchy-feely in front of us and as loud as porn stars in their bedroom. That was the story of Vince and Seleste Blacksille. The good part, actually.

Showers were meant to leave you refreshed and invigorated, yet I emerged feeling as if I’d been dipped into a tub of depression milk. Wrapping a towel around my head, I trudged over to the music system to connect my iPod and selected Exposé’s
I’ll Never Get Over You Getting Over Me,
then flopped back on the bed. Without warning, the latch on the sluice-gates flew open and streams of tears cascaded down my face. There were no reasons for my tears. They were unexplainable. But I couldn’t control them. My only postulation was that I was dosed with a dash of depression and needed to get out of it. And soon.

This was not me. Not even post-Zane was I this weak and sappy. Flipping over, I buried my face into the pillow, pulled the duvet over my head and cried myself into darkness.

A faint knocking on my bedroom door dragged me from the comfort of sleep. I barely muttered a “come in” over the soft music, then Lynn pushed open the door and stuck her head in.

“Mr. Blacksille wanted me to let you know it’s time for dinner.”

“Okay. Yeah, whatever.”

Lynn hesitated, regarding me with crinkled brows. “Are you okay, Axia? Can I help you with anythi —”

“
Yes
, I’m goddamn okay! I wish you all would stop asking me that!” I snapped.

Lynn nodded and quietly closed the bedroom door.

Dragging my lethargic body off the bed, I went to my drawer and grabbed the first piece of fabric my fingers touched, hauled it over my head, then lazily slipped on underwear and denim shorts. Having slept with my hair wet, it was now a fuzzy mess. But I couldn’t have cared less, so I bundled it into a bigger mess atop my head, while
The Flame
by Cheap Trick seeped through the speakers of the music system.

I snatched up my cellphone from the nightstand and saw ten missed calls from Zane. Sometimes I was led to believe that there was no escaping him. His determination was alarming. Ever since that night at The Golden Seven, he’d agreed to give me time. Each week he’d call and I’d tell him the same thing: “Zane, I don’t love you. Just let me go.” To which he would say, “I’ll give you more time to heal, my heart. Time is all you need. I’m patient.” The man really believed in his heart that I was his. That I was his possession.
Manipulative bastard.

Clearing the missed calls, I replied to a text message from Trevillo who wanted to know how I was doing. I assured him I was fine, then made my way downstairs for dinner.

“Oh heavens, Seleste! It’s
my
body, I’ll eat whatever the hell I want…”

For maybe about the hundredth time since I sat down at the dinner table, I sent my eyes heavenward. As it tended to be whenever Vince and Seleste got together, there was bickering about
everything
. Back and forth, back and forth, jeez, it was never-ending. Why they continued to do this to themselves, I had no idea. They couldn’t get enough of each other. Sexually. But out of the bedroom, they couldn’t stand each other. Romaine looked on in amusement, shaking his head at them. One would think we’d be immune to this by now. Nope.

Vince’s cellphone rang and he glanced at the screen then eyed me oddly. Excusing himself from the table, he wandered off a few feet to answer it. Curiosity wrapped its strangling fingers around the cat’s neck, so I tuned out the chattering at the table and zoned in on his conversation.

“ … Heavens
yes
, she is … No. We’re having dinner now, actually … I don’t know, maybe she was just lacking sleep. She’s got as much rest now and she’s fine …
Yesss
… Okay, I won’t.”

When Vince returned to the table, I narrowed my eyes at him. “
Who
was that, Daddy? You were talking about me, weren’t you?”

“No. I was — okay, I’m far too old to play this game. You two need to sort your issues out.”

“You two, who?”

“Nelson’s boy. He’s been phoning all day, inquiring about your well-being. Says he saw you earlier and you looked ill. And for some unknown reason, he doesn’t want me to let you know he’s inquired.” Vince took a sip of his wine and waved his hand dismissively. “But right now, I’m done. You two are grown adults, not college students.”

“Well, the next time he calls, tell him I said he would be doing me an
immense
favor if he buys himself a gun — preferably one of our brand with the
Blacksille
print — and curl himself into a ball in a very dark corner, stick that gun into his mouth and pull the damn trigger.”

“Axia!” my father scolded.

Romaine laughed out, pounding the table with his fist, while Seleste stared at me in question.

“You do know that he is a treasured business partner of mine, and I will tell him no such thing. I make
a lot
of money working with that genius, sweetheart. At this very moment, I’m trying to be his most trustworthy partner, in the hope that I can convince him to let me in on this new project he’s working on. There’s lots of talk that it’s going to be
the
social network of all social networks. So get your act together, because you won’t ruin this for me,” Vince chided.

I pretended not to hear him, and also ignored Seleste who continued boring her questioning eyes into me. She didn’t know about the break-up with Lovello and me either, because, well, she just didn’t care enough about anyone but herself to know anything. She would, nevertheless, motherly proclaim her ignorance on the matter in three, two, one … “Axia, you never told me you and Lovello broke up.”

There was no time to respond to her query, because my eyes were instantly drawn to the impeccably dressed Eve Tomb who was standing in the archway to the dining room. Dressed in white loose shorts, a gray tank with a white cropped jacket to match the shorts, and red high heels that looked exclusive, Eve resembled wealth. She’d no doubt been flapping her wings in Vince’s money. The caramel-skinned woman stared wordlessly at us all gathered as a ‘family’ around the table. Seleste followed my gaze and everyone else followed suit, finally noticing Eve Tomb, my father’s girlfriend.

For a moment, there was just stunned silence, Vince clearly not knowing how to react, who to choose. Eve cleared her throat and directed her gaze to Vince, conducting a poor job at concealing the hurt in her eyes. “I-I guess I should just come back tomorrow, babe?”

“How about not coming back at all?” Seleste spat.

Vince shot Seleste a withering stare. “Don’t you
dare.
“

“What? You think she loves you for you, darling?” Seleste rejoined. Her pain was evident. “She’s young, rapacious, fame-hungry and is using you to push her career in the media business. She’s in love with your money and your
name
, Vince, not you.”

A gasp exploded from Eve’s throat as tears welled in her eyes. Vince shot up from his chair. “
Enough
,” he pointed at Seleste, then started toward Eve.

“Oh, the tears trick,” Seleste muttered, gesturing to Eve. “How old school. Who would’ve thought it still worked on you, Vince?”

Vince stopped midway on his jaunt to Eve, ran a hand through his hair and looked between them both. To Eve, he instructed, “Go and wait for me in the living room. I’ll be there in a second.”

Eve took a minute before she nodded and turned to leave, then stopped when Vince’s sturdy, commanding voice said, “I didn’t say you should leave the
house
, Eve. Wait for me in the living room. Understand?”

Eve nodded again and left the room as Vince walked over to Seleste and crouched down by her chair. Before he could speak, Seleste said, “That’s what you want, isn’t it? Someone you can give a command to and they listen to you like an obedient puppy.”