Let Me Love You (McClain Brothers Book 1)

by Alexandria House

  As we stepped onto the elevator, I shrugged. “I’m tired. It’s late…or early.” As I said the words, I realized it was too late to disturb Ms. Sherry and Nat, and a sadness hit me.

  “Yeah, I hear you,” he replied.

  “I-I know you’re tired, too. I didn’t mean—”

  “I know what you meant. Just chill, Jo.”

  He walked me to our suite, which had been vacated by Sage and Bridgette, and said, “Let me go talk to Dunn and I’ll be right back.”

  “You want me to stay up and wait for you?”

  “Yeah.”

  I nodded. “Okay.”

  Then he left. No kiss. His touchy-feely ass had barely laid a finger on me since getting out of jail. Try as I did to stay awake and wait for him, I ended up crying myself to sleep.

  *****

  I woke up in the middle of the night, but I wasn’t sure why. He was all over me, leg over mine, heavy arm on my waist, his big body against the back of mine. I sighed as I tried to relax against him. He was here. He hadn’t left me.

  “I thought you were gonna wait up for me.” His voice was gravelly and laden with sleep.

  “I tried. Told you I was tired.”

  He pulled me closer. “Yeah.”

  “Ev?”

  “Hmm?”

  “I’m sorry about Sidney and you getting arrested and—”

  “Not your place to apologize, wasn’t your fault. Besides, I’m a rapper. This shit probably boosted my record sales, gave me some street cred.”

  I fell silent, not sure what to say next.

  “You’re not leaving me, Jo. Not over this.”

  “I wasn’t going to leave you. I thought you would want to leave me.”

  “I love you. I ain’t going nowhere.”

  “I love you, too.”

  “Then we’re good.”

  “Yeah…did you call Ella?”

  “Uh-huh, told her I was fine. Called my sister and brothers, my management, my publicist, fired Dunn. All business is taken care of.”

  I flipped over to face him in the dark. “You fired—why?”

  “Because he let you get out of that truck alone at the police station wearing a one-point-four million-dollar ring. And even if he didn’t think he had a duty to protect you, I had to walk through the paparazzi alone to get to the truck. Plus, he’s been too preoccupied lately. It was time for him to go.”

  I shook my head. “He’s gonna blame me.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  I didn’t answer.

  A lamp popped on, and Everett searched my eyes. “What’s going on, Jo?”

  “Uh…” I told him about the things Dunn had said to me in the truck on the way to pick him up. “He tried to get with me before we became official, so I don’t know if he really liked me or what it is, but he has a problem with us being together.”

  Everett scrubbed his hand down his face. “I knew something was up with him lately and I figured it had something to do with you. Wish I’d known he said all that shit to you before I fired him. I gave his ass too much severance pay for him to have disrespected you like that, and he tried to say I been fucking someone else, too? Man, I wish he would make good on that threat to do something to you. Motherfucker…”

  I rolled over onto my back and stared at the ceiling. “When are you going to hire someone else?”

  “As soon as I can. Got Tommy getting in touch with some guys that might be looking for work.”

  “Good, you don’t need to be short on security with Sid out here acting like he is.”

  “It was just Dunn fucking with you, right? Not Tommy?”

  “No, Tommy’s always been nice to me.”

  “All right. Get some sleep. I gotta be in court in the morning and I need you there with me.”

  “Court?!” I shrieked.

  “Yeah, my lawyer worked a miracle calling in all kinds of favors to get me ROR’d, but I still gotta face a judge.”

  The tears came before I could stop them. He grabbed me, squeezed me tight, and said, “I know this is all messed up, but I need something from you right now.”

  “W-what?”

  “To be my rock and have my back no matter what. You think you can do that? I need to know you’re not gonna fold on me, Jo, that you can be strong for me. That’s the only way we gonna make it through this or anything else people try to throw at us.”

  “I’m sorry for crying. I cry too much, don’t I?”

  “No, baby. That’s not what I’m saying. Shit is fucked up, all the way fucked up. Bugz is a fool that ain’t going away. Dunn said some stupid shit. I fucked up by staying at that show after the proposal, knowing Bugz wasn’t going to come shake my hand and congratulate me. You supposed to be upset. If you need to cry, then cry. I’m asking that you be upset and cry and still let me love you. Don’t use this as a chance to forget what I’ve been trying to show you all this time.”

  “What’s that?” I asked, as I wiped my face.

  “Your worth. You deserve the world, Jo, and I’ma give it to you. I just need you to let me.”

  “I can be strong. I will be strong…for us.” I held up my hand, gazing at my ring.

  “You think I spent too much on it, don’t you?”

  “Yes, but you ain’t getting it back.”

  He laughed. “You could try to give it back, but I wouldn’t take it. You’re mine and I’m yours, Jo. Forever and always.”

  “And I’m thankful for that.”

  28

  The next morning, a trial date was set and I was allowed to leave New York under the condition that I only travel to LA or Houston, where I owned homes. Any work-related travel would have to be approved by the court on a case by case basis, including the European leg of my tour, which was scheduled to begin after the holidays. Luckily, any other business could be handled via phone or Skype.

  I chartered a plane to take us all home, including Jo’s friends, knowing she’d be more comfortable that way. I was trying my best to keep her calm, because I could tell her ex knew which of her buttons to push to get what he wanted out of her. Not that I was worried about her going back to him. I was worried about the guilt she felt over his crazy-ass antics running her away from me. See, I knew he didn’t really want Jo. He might have still loved her, but if he wanted her, he would’ve stayed with her. Shit is really that black and white for us men. The truth was: he just didn’t want her with anyone else, and evidently didn’t expect her to ever move on. Why, I don’t know, but now that she had, he was losing it. Would he marry her again if given the chance? I believed he would, but would he treat her any better? Behave like a man who truly regretted his actions? Hell, no. Bugz was the type of nigga who’d woo a woman back, dog her out worse than he did before, and convince her she deserved it. And so many good women fell for that shit over and over again. But like I said, I didn’t think Jo would go back to him, she’d just be alone, and she didn’t deserve that either.

  I watched as Nat stared out the window at the clouds and Jo stared at nothing. At first, I thought she was looking at me but could tell her eyes weren’t really focused on anything in particular. So I left my seat, picked up Nat, who was next to her, and sat down beside Jo, placing Nat in my lap.

  “What you thinking about, Jo Lena?”

  Her startled eyes met mine. “Oh…just wondering if you ever furnished your new house.”

  “You mean our new house? The one I bought for us?”

  She gave me a slow smile. “Yeah, that one.”

  “Yeah, mostly. Why?”

  “Um, after we get to LA, I’ll need to drop by my place and grab some things so we can move into our new house. All three of us.”

  “Word? For real, Jo?” I had planned on convincing her to move in since all the shit that had gone down, but never expected her to make the decision on her own. Jo didn’t want to take anything from me, no matter how willing I was to give it, and I knew she saw the house as a gift, too.

  She nodded. “F
or real. I can’t expect you to stay in that house now with all that’s happened and knowing Sid still thinks it belongs to him and might pop up starting mess at any moment, and I don’t wanna be there anymore or apart from you, so we’re moving. I already talked to Nat about it over breakfast while you were making phone calls. Not sure if she really understands, but hopefully, she’ll adjust okay.”

  As Nat laid her little head on my chest, a sure sign she was about to fall asleep, I said, “You’re her constant. As long as she’s with you, she’ll be good.”

  “And you. The first thing she asked when I told her about the new house was, ‘Is Ebbwitt coming?’”

  I smiled and kissed Nat’s forehead. “I’m crazy about y’all, you know that?”

  “Gotta be to be willing to deal with Sid to be with us.”

  “He ain’t nothing. Just a gnat. I swatted his ass once. Don’t mind doing it again.”

  “Ass,” Nat mumbled in her sleep. How she managed to home in on curse words like that was just strange and kind of ingenious. I gave Jo a guilty look, telling myself I was really going to have to start watching my language around Nat-Nat.

  *****

  I smiled at the look on Jo’s face when we pulled through the gate onto the property. Jo was used to money and nice stuff. Bugz might’ve been a fool, but he wasn’t stingy or cheap when it came to her and Nat with the exception of that baby-ass car he got her. He had been paying good child support, gave her a huge settlement when they split, and didn’t really fight her on anything during their divorce. So to see the look of awe on her face as we approached the house made me feel like I’d really done something. Jo wasn’t easily impressed, and even when she was impressed, she was uncomfortable with what she deemed inflated prices. We often argued over my spending habits, especially when the money was spent on her. But at this moment as she turned to me with her mouth hung open, I could tell she was speechless, possibly too awestruck to fuss over a house with an obviously hefty price tag attached to it.

  “Ohhhhh, pwetty!” Nat squealed from her car seat, pointing toward the house.

  “It sure is, Nat-Nat. It sure is,” Jo said softly.

  “I’m glad you two like it. Thought I was gonna have to buy another one,” I said, trying not to appear as geeked as I felt as I ran down the stats for Jo—over seven thousand square feet situated on one-and-a-half acres of land. Six bedrooms, eight baths, a family room, formal living and dining rooms, an office, and a theater. It was an Italian villa-style house with tons of windows and high ceilings, including a twenty-one-foot entryway.

  Tommy pulled the SUV around the circular motor court, stopping in front of the house. I hopped out and opened Jo’s door while she pulled Nat out of her car seat. Nat beat us to the front door, excited to see the inside.

  I showed her around downstairs first and grinned when she gasped at the sliding wall in the kitchen that opened up to the backyard for entertaining purposes. Most of the house was furnished and decorated with the exception of the theater and four of the bedrooms.

  We took the elevator to the second floor to Nat’s pure delight, and the first room I showed Jo was the master suite, which was decorated in shades of blue, because I knew that was her favorite color, and had his and hers bathrooms and closets, plus a huge sitting area. Our last stop was Nat’s room, which had a lion theme from the jungle painted on the walls to the lion print comforter on the little twin bed.

  Nat climbed onto the low bed, jumping and squealing loudly. Then she let out a “Rawr!”

  “Stop jumping on that bed, Nat,” Jo fussed, then turned to me before letting her eyes sweep over the room, stopping at the open bathroom door. “She has her own bathroom, too?”

  I nodded. “All the bedrooms have en suite bathrooms, except ours, of course, which has two.”

  “We’ll have to, uh, put a lock on that door or she’ll be playing in the toilet all the time. She does that, you know?”

  “Most kids her age do. That’s why it already has a safety lock on it. Key’s in our room. And I had the toilet in there replaced with a toddler-height one, so she can easily get on and off it.”

  “Wow, you thought of everything,” she said softly, her voice wavering.

  I reached for her, pulling her close to me. “I know this is a big change, a lot of big changes, but we’ll be okay. I promise. Nat seems to like it, and—”

  “That’s not it. I just—you told me you bought a house for us and I didn’t even ask to see it. You’ve been having it furnished and decorated for us, all of us, even Nat. You did this for us, and I just dismissed it trying to hold on to something I knew I needed to let go of. I’m so sorry, Everett.”

  “It’s all right, baby.”

  “No, it’s not, and I promise to stop fighting you on stuff and just accept your kindness.”

  “Thank God, because you were wearing me out.”

  She laughed into my chest. “Ev?”

  “Hmm?”

  “How much did this house cost?”

  “Nope. Not telling you. Come on. I’m hungry, and I think Courtney had the fridge stocked.”

  “I’m hungry, too. I really gotta learn to cook now with that kitchen. It’s gorgeous!”

  “You can if you want to, but that ain’t why I’m marrying you.” I wiggled my eyebrows at her.

  After she rolled her eyes at me, she said, “Come on, Nat. Let’s go eat-eat.”

  “Eat-eat!” Nat replied.

  29

  I’d thought my home was a secure one, but living in a gated property with a state-of-the-art alarm system inside a gated community was a whole other type of security. It’d been a week or so since we moved into the new house, and in that short time, I understood the sacrifices Everett made when he lived with me in my old house. There was a guest house where his security—Tommy and the new guys he’d hired—could stay when they were on duty and be available when he needed them. There wasn’t enough space for that at my old house. There was much more room at the new house, and he had an office where he could conduct his business instead of holing up in my guest room hoping Nat wouldn’t disturb him. Plus, he seemed more at ease now, much more comfortable. His siblings, who all lived in LA, too, would drop by pretty often, and that was always fun for both of us because they were all some nuts. And to be honest, I loved being there with him. It just felt like ours, something we were both new to. When he asked me if I wanted to finish decorating or pick out the furniture for the guest rooms and the theater, I told him the decorator was doing a great job, so why mess with that sister’s money?

  Sid had called twice since the awards show debacle. The conversations were mercifully abbreviated with him only calling to check on Nat…and me, of course. He acted as if he hadn’t cut a fool and provoked Everett into kicking his ass on national TV, causing him to get arrested. Sid had avoided arrest since he never even got a shot in on Everett. I probably should’ve filed charges against him for feeling on my ass in front of millions, but much rather preferred not to even have to think about the whole situation. Besides, that ass-whooping Everett put on him was more than enough punishment. I’d seen a TMZ video of him in New York after the show, and the entire left side of his face was swollen. He couldn’t even open his left eye. Yeah, he’d been punished enough. Plus, Everett said to let it go, because he was confident Sid would back off now. I wasn’t so sure about that.

  A little over a week before we were to travel to Houston to have Thanksgiving with his family, Everett insisted I sit in on a meeting with Courtney, and as we sat in the sitting room portion of our bedroom, I had to wonder why. Maybe he wanted me to really feel like I was a part of his world? I already did. Not that it wasn’t interesting to hear about all the working parts of his life, the commitments and all that stuff, but we’d been in there for nearly two hours and I was getting sleepy from just sitting there contributing nothing.

  “Jo, I have a couple of things I need to go over with you,” Courtney said.

  I frowned slightly as I t
urned to look at Everett beside me on the love seat, then gave Courtney my attention. “Me?”

  She nodded. “First, Everett is scheduled to do an interview and photo spread for Essence. It’s something he agreed to awhile back, but now they’re asking that you be included.”

  “Me?” I repeated, as if that was the only word in my vocabulary.

  “Yes, they initially wanted to talk to Everett about his career, longevity, future goals. Now they want to include your love story. How you met. All that jazz.”

  “Wow, Essence? That was my mom’s favorite magazine. Hands down. If she couldn’t afford to buy a copy, she’d steal it. She loved that magazine,” I rambled.

  “You wanna do it?” Everett asked, skepticism in his voice. He knew I wasn’t a spotlight whore. But this was Essence we were talking about.

  “I—what would I say? I’m probably the least impressive woman on Earth. No education, no job, not enough ambition to get one. I’m just a mom who’s in a relationship with a famous man.”

  “You’re more than that to me. You give me balance, make me smile, give me a reason to look forward to the future in addition to watching Ella grow up.”

  My eyes misted almost instantly. “Everett…”

  He smiled at me. “You do, baby, and you do some other stuff you probably don’t want me to bring up in front of Court.”

  “You better not!”

  Chuckling as he leaned in to kiss my cheek, he said, “I won’t. Look, this’ll be my chance to tell the world all that you do for me, but I can do that whether you’re a part of the interview or not. It’s up to you. I’ll understand if you don’t—”

  “I do. I mean, I’ll do it. I think my mom would like that if she was here. It’d probably make her smile to see me in Essence. She would be…she’d be proud of me.”

  “You’ll be in it and on it. They guaranteed us the cover. That would’ve really made her proud, huh?”