Cousins In Love: An Alpha Bad Boy Romance (Book 3) (39 page)

Ugh. He won't let this shit go, and I'm about sick of it. I went to Baltimore on a fool's errand, but still, it was completely my own business. Then here he comes running after me. Inserting himself in my damn business.
 

Okay so maybe I did slip and fall on his dick in a Baltimore hotel, but while I may not have Jana's book smarts, I have plenty of common sense, and I know better than to do that silly shit twice. Not going to happen. No matter how much he pushes the issue.

Me: Stop texting me about this. We have to work together.

KingKong: Or I can work that tight pussy of yours again.

I'm erasing these messages as soon as I get up from this table. He is so disgusting.

Me: You didn't work it well before. So I pass.

KingKong: Such the little liar. You better bring your sweet little ass to the club by nine, or you and I are going to have a much bigger problem than my dick in your mouth.

Oh my God. I can't stand him. The worst mistake I ever made was spreading my legs for that arrogant, computer hacking, asshole. I mean seriously. He's touched in the head. Completely nuts.

"Where is our damn food?" I slam my phone down on the table livid by the exchange I've just had with Camden and irritated that it takes thirty minutes to get a chicken Caesar salad in this place.

"Excuse me!" Jana turns around and yells at a group of servers who are by the register. "Somebody better bring us our food real soon or somebody's going to catch a murder charge."

I can't help but laugh. Jana can be pretentious, and a pain in my ass, but sometimes I forget that she and I were raised in the same dysfunctional home, and sometimes some of
that
fire kicks in. Her approach works though, because lo and behold our food, which evidently had been ready and waiting for Mohawk to pick up is delivered.
 

"Sorry 'bout that," Mohawk apologizes. "We're short staffed today."

"Uh, huh," my sister says unconvinced. "Can you please just bring us some ketchup and some extra napkins? Like right now?" she snaps.

"Of course." He raises one of his eyebrows at that finger snap. "I'll be right back with that."

"He's going to spit in your ketchup." I chuckle. "This is a nice restaurant. It will be easy for him to do because they bring it in a little dish, not a bottle, and he's pissed."

"Nice restaurant my ass."

I take a bite of my salad. It's delicious like I remembered. They make a great Caesar dressing here. No one can pick an out of the way restaurant with great food like Roman.

"So how's school?" I ask, sincerely wanting to know.

"Professor Owens is working my ass off, of course. I'm staying up all night grading tons of papers, and he's taking all the credit."

"Well isn't that what teaching assistants do?"

"Yeah, but now that I am one, I see the gross inequality of it all. Seems like everyone in academia works their asses off when they're young, so that one day they can sit back and not have to work at all when they're forty. It's called tenure."

"Isn't that what you want?"

"I guess. It's part of my fifteen-year plan. Guess I shouldn't deviate from it now."

"Guess not."

"So tell me everything."

"Tell you what?"

"Tell me everything about the twin."

"Not a twin," I say annoyed with an edge to my voice.

"Right. What's his name?"

"Camden King."

"Right. So tell me about him."

"There's nothing to tell, Jana. You know I don't do relationships."

"I know you haven't had any relationships since Tyson, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't. For God's sake, Jade, you two were only kids then."

"I understand that, but it doesn't really matter. I have zero interest in ties or relationships. I work at a place where I meet sexy, amazing men every night. Who wants to be tied down to one man when I'm always in the middle of the best smorgasbord ever?"

Jana puts her fork down for a moment.

"Not every man is horrible, Jade."

I don't look at her and continue eating.

"I never said they were."

"Mom wouldn't want you sleeping with every Tom, Dick and Harry."

"Is that what you think of me, Jana? You think I'm a whore?"

"Of course not."

"And why bring our mother into this?"

Our mother died five years ago from ovarian cancer. She was a warrior. A saint. Bringing her up is just fighting dirty.

"I'm not. I'm sorry I said anything. Just tell me about your boss Camden. I want to know why after he texts you, something lights up inside of you. Like sparklers."

"You watch way too much television. I'm just annoyed. There is nothing
lighting up
inside of me."

"Then why does he annoy you so much?"

Did I mention that my sister is a psychology graduate student? On track to have a rewarding research and teaching career.

"Because he won't leave me alone."

"In a creepy way?"

"No, not like that."

I've called him a creep before, but I'm not going to let my sister think he's one.

"Did you sleep with him?"

Might as well confess.

"Yes."

"Does he want seconds?"

"I don't know what he wants."

"Ah, so that's it. He doesn't just want your body, he wants more."

"He doesn't want more. He's just playing around. He's never been in a serious relationship in his life."

"Oh so he's damaged just like you."

"I don't think he's damaged, and neither am I by the way."

"What's wrong with him then?"

I might as well tell her. She won't stop asking questions.

"I've known him for a long time, Jana. He knows all about Tyson. He was there when it all went down, and Rome got me out of there."

Jana looks down at her plate. This is exactly why I didn't want to talk about this. Anytime I mention Tyson, this guilty look spreads across her face. We had a falling out back then. She told me, begged me, many times over to leave my ex, but I wouldn't.
 

At the time I felt trapped. I think that I felt like if I left him, that no one would love me again. My warped thinking and inability to get out of my toxic relationship created a wedge between me and Jana, and we stopped communicating for a long time.

That's why she thinks she failed me, because she wasn't around to help me when the shit really hit the fan. But I don't feel that way at all. She's three years younger than me. We were both young, our mother dead, but she was really a kid. It was my job to take care of her. Look out for her. Not the other way around.
 

Unfortunately her guilt, our sibling rivalry, and my inability to put up with a lot of her passive aggressive bullshit is why I have to keep a certain amount of distance from her. So we talk occasionally. See each other rarely. And I think it works best that way. Especially since she started speaking to our father again. I want nothing to do with that sinking ship.

"So you're embarrassed that he knows about that part of your life or something?"

"I'm not embarrassed about anything. I've accepted that I've made some bad choices. People do it all the time. I'm just saying that we know so much about each other. Too much."

"You must be really attracted to him then."

"What? Why do you say that?"

"After everything you just said about what he's seen and how much he knows, you
still
slept with him. That tells me a lot."

"We all have slip ups now and then."

"I don't believe in accidents, Jade, only fate."

♥
♥
♥

I stroll into The Lotus at 9:23 p.m. on purpose. I know exactly where all the cameras are located in the club, and I know that my creeper is probably watching them from his perch up in the club's office.

I stop to talk to Marco, the bar manager. I flirt with him from time to time, because it's just fun. Nothing serious. Nothing that's ever going to lead anywhere.

I can feel his eyes on me everywhere though.
 

Watching me.
 

Clocking my every move.
 

He's probably sitting in his chair practically seething because I'm late. That and the fact that I'm being so cavalier about it.

Uh-oh, here comes the other one.

"I think my brother is looking for you, hobbit." Cutter King says with a mischievous smile.
 

He calls me hobbit as if I don't already know when I wake up everyday that I'm vertically challenged. It just baffles me why all three of these jerks have to remind me of it every single day of my life. I mean is that all they've got?

"Why?" As if I didn't know.

"The hell if I know, but it probably has something to do with the fact that he fired Ray today."

Ray is our night manager that we never really needed. He kind of did the work that the old manager Larry used to do. Day to day stuff. But with all three of us working out of the club, and the boys having only a few clients, there really wasn't a need for Ray. Yet, I have an inkling that his firing is about something else entirely.

I make my way to the office and knock, something I usually don't do, but I have a feeling that I better this time.

"Come in."

When I enter the office, Camden is sitting at the desk with his laptop open, but the screensaver running. He's in here stewing about something.
 

When his head pops up and it registers that it's me who's entered the office, some sort of fleeting emotion passes over his face, and then his demeanor returns to normal. Hard.
 

"You're late."

"You fired Ray?"

"My business."

"Can I ask why you fired him? We didn't need him before, but now that you all have these new Miami clients, you're going to be stuck doing all the shit work around here and still have to deal with Miami."

"Correction, you're going to have to do the shit work."

"What!?"

"You are now the night manager of The Lotus."

"Oh, hell no. That's not in my job description."

"You don't have a job description. You do whatever the hell we tell you to do."

I suck my teeth.

"That means I'd have to be here almost every day and night of the week, Camden."

"I know what the job entails."

"Roman will never go for that."

"Roman is working the Miami clients, planning a wedding, and having a baby. He doesn't have time to deal with the shit at The Lotus. Someone needs to handle it."

"So you do it!"

"I have a lot to do for the Miami clients too, and Cutter is handling Mendez on his own. Neither of us has the time to order olives and lemons for the bar or balance the books."

"Why did you fire Ray?" I challenge.

"We didn't need him."

I stare him square in the jaw. I locate a spot on his square jaw that I'd like to punch the hell out of, but I digress.

"Why did you fire Ray, creeper?"

"Why are you calling me names, midget."

"That's politically incorrect, asshole, and not even accurate. I'm short, but not that short. And you are most definitely a creeper. That's just factual."

"I should make you get on your knees right now."

Nasty.

"Shut up."

"You've done it before."

"Stop talking to me like that."

"Like what?"

"A whore!"

Camden stops talking for a moment and quietly stares at me in the careful and confident way that he always does. The look that sends shivers down my spine when no one is looking.

"I fired him, because he was in my way."

"How."

He glares at me angrily.

"You fucked him."

Something inside of me feels jittery.

"So."

"So, I didn't want to look at his fucking face anymore."

I look down at the floor, but I'm smiling. I don't want to feel this way, but I do. He's jealous, and I like it. A man lost his livelihood because Camden was jealous. What the hell. If I don't watch it, I'm going to turn into one of those girls I hate.

"I want thirty days," he says to me.

"What do you mean?"

"Work the manager job for thirty days. If you want to quit after that, you can."

"And what about my work for Roman?"

"I'll talk to him."

"So all I'll be doing is handling the club."

"That's right."

"I don't know if I'll like that."