Keeping Jahleel (Loving All Wrong #1.5) (7 page)

The party was supposed to be a lot bigger, grander, but I’d completely forgotten to have Stacey, my assistant, set a reminder for Alina’s birthday, and ended up remembering when it was down to the wire. So at last minute, I settled on renting out an exclusive night club and whipped up something quick. Still ace, though.

I wanted to be the “cool mom,” after all.

Not just that, but because of the relationship hiatus I was suffering through, adding to the fact that she had a crush on Jahleel, I’d been a bit unreasonable with her of late. Which she didn’t deserve.

When I sat down with her a couple days ago to apologize for my moodiness, I was happy to learn that her Jahleel-crush had died a slow and painful death the minute she set eyes on her new friend’s older brother, Davian. The garage band lead singer, son of once-upon-a-time legendary rock star, Dave Hamilton. Which was precisely the reason I invited his band, Ice Steam, to play at Alina’s party.

Hence her exuberance.

Seemed Davian had eyes for her, too, as he’d been sneaking longing glances at her when she wasn’t looking, even with their age difference.

Davian was freshly twenty-five. Alina was freshly eighteen—though unbelievably more mature that her age.

As huge as her crush was on Davian, you’d never guess it if you saw them together. She was a complete
woman
around her crush, never gushing or blushing, never giggling or flustered. She would stare him right in the eyes and spoke to him without batting an eyelash.

Alina, I was in
awe
of her, that girl. I was a grown woman, and I couldn’t even do that with Jahleel. Even at this stage where we were engaged. I was still a dumb klutz around him.

As Alina’s brilliant smile dimmed, a solemn expression tinged with a hint of fear supplanted.

“What is it, Alina?” I asked her, touching her arm.

The gorgeous new adult was resplendent in a gold-toned cutesy dress cropped mid-thigh. Her hair—long, dark, and straight—flowed down her back. Minimal make-up, and an inherent beauty mark above the left of her upper lip. She was stunning.

Lion had been trying to get her to make a portfolio so he could land her a runway model deal ever since he laid sight on her. Damn Lion. All that man ever saw were dollar signs.

Alina ran her thumb-pad over the tops of her nude painted fingernails. Nervous. “I was wondering…um, Cousin is coming back next week and, um…”

“You want to continue living with me,” I finished for her.

The thumb-pad over the fingernails thing continued. “I really like living with you. And Amanda and Ferbie and Sylvie. Even Amy and Jamie, and my new friends next door. And the noise and the fun and the love and I feel like we’re a family and—”

She stopped yammering when I placed an assuring hand on her shoulder. “Alina, I wanted to steal you before he even asked me to keep you for a while, and I don’t intend on giving you back.

Her dark eyes flashed with a gleam of hope. “You think he’ll let me stay? He’s so overprotective and—”

“Scary?”

“Quite,” she affirmed, holding back a smile.

“Well, I’m not afraid of the big bad wolf. He broke my heart. I rebuilt it with bricks instead of straws this time. No way can he blow this Brit down.”

Just then, Davian came over to interrupt, giving me an apologetic smile. “S’cuse me, but is it alright if I steal the birthday girl for a dance?”

Alina slid him a bored, uninterested glance then looked back to me. Fucking awesome.

Davian shifted on his feet. “You’re making me say ‘please,’ Ali. And I
hate
that frickkin’ word. Swear I’m a better dancer than
Fresh Prince
.”

Compressing my lips to fight back a smile, I watched as Alina looked at him again and shrugged, as though she were doing him a favor out of pity. She walked off ahead of him, and Davian had to catch up with her, snaking an arm around her waist.

Alina glanced over her shoulder back at me and, grinning, she mouthed, “Fight for me.
Please
.”

Oh, I would. I loved her too much. And I wasn’t afraid of her cousin as others seemed to be.

“You need to stop accusing me of breaking something I never had to begin with,” an all too familiar voice said from behind me.

I jumped at the deep, sexy rumble and spun around to see my sneaky ex-lover stepping out from his hiding spot behind a potted palm tree in a corner to the right.

My hot-as-hell ex-lover. Suave as usual, semi-formally dressed in jeans, dress shirt, and blazer. He looked fresh. Well-rested. Well-fed. Totally fuckable.

He looked like himself. Chad.

“Seriously?” I guiltily raked my gaze over him in a leisure ogle. “This a new hobby of yours, Chad? Camouflaging behind potted plants to eavesdrop on girls’ period talks? If you wanted to know what a tampon feels like up your arse, all you had to do was ask. I’d be happy to shove one up there for ya’.”

Chad raised a “not-funny” eyebrow at me, then came up and pressed a hand to my lower back, urging me forward as he ordered, “Walk.”

I fell in line with his strides. Not like I had a choice. He was practically pushing me along.

“You have no right touching me like this,” I muttered through a smile plastered on my face for the inquisitive eyes watching us as we wove through the throngs.

“You used to
love
it when I touch you like this,” he shot back, rebelliously making a swirl of his thumb on my bare skin, as my clothing was…sparse.

A red tie-front blouse cropped just above my navel, a black leather flare skirt cropped mid-thigh, and studded black biker boots.

“Chad,” I hissed in warning, smile still in tack for the crowd. “You think
this
is going to make JK forgive you any sooner?”

“I’ve tried repeatedly to kiss and make up with him. Keep failing. He’s never going to forgive me, so, what do I got to lose?”

“You don’t think it’s because he
knows
you’re not sorry, fuckwit?”

The name-calling was an attempt to get him to move his hand from my bare skin, but he wasn’t budging. And his touch was too warm and familiar. I knew all too well what those fingers caressing my lower back were capable of. How loud they could make me scream, make my toes curl and my heart pound.

“I’m sorry for
hiding
us from him, Saskia. But I’m sure as fuck not sorry about
us
,” he whispered deep into my ear with a serious, no-apologies tone. “If you could guarantee me, right now, that you want me for me and not as substitute, and I could actually
believe
you…”

“You’d do it all over again,” I finished.

“Damn straight.”

A sigh of defeat was all I had left.

The guy wasn’t just frustratingly arrogant, but incorrigible to boot.

As we were about to mount a set of stairs Chad navigated us to, Lion materialized in front of us.

“You two mind tellin’ me what the fuck is goin’ on here?” Lion demanded, his face a picture of pissed-the-hell-off.

Chad pressed his lips together and looked down at me. “Nothing damning. Mommy and Daddy are just heading up to the courtroom to settle on who gets to keep the kids. Now that we’re divorced and all.”

“Don’t start with me, Chad,” Lion warned.

Chad chuckled in sheer amusement.

I was afraid to.

Lion looked dead at me. “Where’s JK?”

Aiming for nonchalance, I shrugged my shoulders. “No idea. Last time I checked, he was taking a break.
From me
. Why don’t you call him?”

Before Lion could say more, I moved quickly up the stairs, but I didn’t miss him grumbling, “Fuckin’ knew this shit would happen.”

As Chad and I got to the top of the stairs, I sought confirmation on what I’d just discovered, “You own this club?”

After taking a right turn, he stopped at one of two doors facing each other in a dead end, produced a key, turned it in the lock, and opened the door as the answer to my question.

“How else would I have known a birthday party was being thrown for
my
cousin, which I wasn’t invited to?”

“You weren’t here!” I returned in defense. “We weren’t expecting you to be here until next week.”

Chad smiled, a tight, humorless one, and moved across the spacious office over to a one-way glass wall that gave view of the entire club below.

The office didn’t hold much despite the space. A modern office desk, an office chair, two regular chairs in front of the desk, and a built-in bar stocked with the finest alcohol on the opposite end.

“I’m like Judgment Day,” Chad said, looking out the glass, his jaw hard. “No one ever knows the day or hour I’ll show up.”

Sidling up beside him, I ignored his dark mood and broached, “So, Alina…”

“I heard her.”

“And?”

With a lift of his chin, he indicated Alina and Davian on the dance floor, grooving a little too intimately. “You know she’s crushing on him. You know he’s too old for her. Yet you still let her go off with him.”

“She’s of dating age, Chad. Stop being an arse, yeah?”

“He’s too old for her.”

“You
know
Alina. She’s way too mature for guys her age,” I pointed out. “Hand her a sod under twenty-three, and she’ll eat him alive, I guarantee that. A sucker who knows not his arse from his elbow won’t be able to handle her, Chad.”

“What if—”

“You don’t have to worry about her getting knocked-up either. She’s too smart. Don’t underestimate her. This sod is arse-over-tit for her, and I bet he’s gonna have to work damn hard for it. I already feel sorry for the fella.”

“Listen,” Chad said, swiveling his head to look down at me, “I get that you both adore each other yada yada, but you live a very busy life, Saskia. You’re
engaged to be married
now, and I can’t see how you’re gonna fit her into your life. Her safety is more important to me than anything else right now, and I’m not sure I want her making contacts with outsiders just yet.”

“You’re already having her home schooled! The bloody hell are you trying to do, suffocate her?”

“You don’t understand, Saskia. She needs to be safe right now, and she’s safer with me.”

“Safer with
you
?” Okay, time to play dirty. “You’re more dangerous for her than I am,” I hissed.

Squeezing myself between the wall glass and his body, so that my back was against the glass and my chest almost pressing up against his, I spoke in an uber-quiet voice, “When we were dating, you left your safe open one night, and let’s just say I was…curious. I took a peek. And the things I found told me you’re
dangerous
, Chad. Very dangerous. You had
fifteen
different passports with
fifteen
different names for
fifteen
different countries. I never asked you what you do with your life, because I was smart enough to know I was safer not knowing. But now I’m sure as shite gonna use it to argue that
I’m
the better guardian for, Alina.”

Chad watched me with complete impassivity for a moment before breaking out a smile as though he’d been waiting for this.

He was such a bloody mindfucker.

“This is why I—” He stopped and cleared his throat, shook his head. “I knew you saw the contents of that safe. I set it up. Deliberately left it open for you to see, only what
I
wanted you to see. To test you. Because I felt like I could trust you, but I needed to be sure.

“And you passed. You saw the contents and you kept your mouth shut. Never asked me a single question. Never went behind my back and tried snooping. You just accepted me for what you didn’t know I was. Do you know how fucking hard it is to find a woman like that? You won my hard-earned trust right there and then, Saskia. If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have entrusted you with my little cousin who’s worth twelve billion dollars.”

“Whoa!!” I exclaimed. “Twelve.
Billion
. Dollars?”

“Yeah,” he said, nodding, our words quieter than a whisper as though we were discussing top secret. Which it probably was, for all I knew. “But she can’t know that yet. I can’t divulge the gory details to you, but I’ve been busy trying to distort her identity and ensure her safety all around so she’ll be able to live a normal life. And right now, I’m far from successful. So if she’s going to live with you, what happened the other day—her being left home alone without security—
can’t ever
happen again, or I’m taking her. Got that?”

Score!
I was getting Alina. “How do you kn—”

“I’ve got my own securities tailing your securities, Saskia. I know everything.” Then an arrogant smirk popped on his face as he added, “I’m also co-owner of the company you hired them from.”

“Seriously? You’re co-owner of every goddamn thing here,” I said in disgust. “With who?”

“Silent partners are precisely that,
silent
.”

I switched to prying elsewhere. “So, are you going to tell me about your other life? Why you’re fifteen different persons?”

Placing his right hand palm-flat next to my head on the glass, he leaned in further so I could smell his oh-so-fucking-awesome scent, and moved his lips to my ear, whispering, “I wish… But that’s for the woman who whispers
my
name in her sleep every night.”

Crap.

Right then, the office door opened and slammed shut so hard the liquor bottles in the built-in bar rattled.

Chad looked over his shoulder. I looked under his arm. And standing there in the room, was my fiancé, Jahleel Kingston.

More crap.

“Heard I’d find you here,” he said, voice cold, glower like fire. “I take it you need an extended break?”

Ducking under Chad’s arm to get free from our
very
uncompromising position, I took a step towards the love of my life, my arms held out in desperation like a pathetic idiot. “JK, this isn’t what it looks like…”

How many buggers have used that same line when things were
exactly
what they looked like? Plenty. Except this wasn’t. It wasn’t, goddammit! And he needed to know that.

He moved so fast. In two strides he was at the office desk, overturning it with such force, it split down the middle and broke in two solid halves.

Okay. He wasn’t angry. He was fucking furious.