Needing Arella (Rockers' Legacy Book 6)

by Terri Anne Browning

  “Yes, but you should have informed us so we could have boosted security and kept them alert. Not only was your safety in peril but that of everyone else on the property.”

  Remorse filled me, and my shoulders drooped. “You’re right. I apologize. It was selfish of me not to consider the safety of the others.”

  “Relax, Winston, you fucking bag of hot air.” I stiffened at the sound of his voice, my hands balling into fists at my sides.

  I hate him. I hate him. I hate him.

  “If she didn’t think it was something to worry about, then she didn’t do anything wrong,” he continued. “No one was harmed, so relax and leave the girl alone.”

  That Garon Steel was defending me blew my mind, but it didn’t soften me in the least toward the man who was my uncle in name only. He wasn’t like Uncle Shane or Uncle Jesse. Not even like my honorary uncles, whom I adored. I despised Garon more than any other human being in the world. It was already making my skin crawl that I was in the same room with him, breathing the same air. But his voice was so similar to Pop-Pop’s that it made my heart ache.

  As if sensing my distress, Jordan touched my back. Just the feel of him, knowing he was so close and that I didn’t have anything to fear as long as he was with me, helped me relax, and I finally looked at Garon. His brown eyes, so much like my mom’s, were guarded as he met my gaze. But for a moment, he seemed to take in how close Jordan was to me, and I saw a flash of anger cross his face.

  It was there one moment and gone the next, making me think I’d imagined the whole thing, but it still left me uneasy, and I stepped closer to Jordan.

  “Detective Kirtner, did you find anything?” Jordan asked.

  “Unfortunately, no,” the man said, his eyes traveling dispassionately over the executives. “By the time I arrived, there were too many people in the room and the crime scene was completely contaminated. However, based on how destroyed this place is, I would say the stalker is escalating.” He shifted his gaze to me, and I softened. “Miss Stevenson—”

  “Call me Arella,” I interrupted. “Please.”

  He gave me a grim smile. “Arella, then. At this point, I think it is better to err on the side of caution and employ personal security.”

  “I’ll think about it,” I lied. There was no way I was going to tell my sister about any of this. Nevaeh would freak out and blab to our parents, causing them to freak out in turn. And there was no way I could go to Barrick and Braxton and expect Brax not to tell my sister about this. He would never keep something like this from her, and I wouldn’t expect him to.

  But I refused to be the cause of stress for either my mom or my dad.

  Fifteen

  Jordan

  From the moment we walked into Arella’s dressing room, I’d been shaking. The place was destroyed. Not a single object was left intact, and I knew in my gut that if my girl had been there when the motherfucker had done this, she would have been a casualty as well.

  Imagining Arella broken like the perfume bottle under my feet was a disturbing picture I couldn’t erase from my mind.

  I’d been concerned for her safety after she’d told me about the packages and then that she thought the stalker had messed with her phone. But this just shoved it in my face how dangerous the person who was obsessed with her seemed to be.

  After nearly an hour of answering questions for both Detective Kirtner and the executive dickwads, I decided enough was enough. “I’m taking her home,” I told Garon. We shared a look, his expression like stone, before he finally gave a firm nod.

  Not that it would have mattered. I didn’t need his approval to take my girlfriend anywhere. As we walked back to my vehicle, I shot a text to Mia. After seeing the way Arella shut down at the mention of personal security earlier, I knew it was going to be hard to get her to agree to it. She’d told Kirtner she would think about it, but I knew her too well not to be able to read that she was going to be stubborn about the issue.

  Maybe if I could convince her Drake and Lana wouldn’t find out, she would be more agreeable. But to do that, I needed Mia and her husband on board with a promise they wouldn’t let the Stevensons know what was going on with their daughter.

  Opening the passenger side door for her, I stopped her before she could slide into the seat. When she looked up at me inquiringly, I could see the tiredness in her pretty eyes. I hadn’t let her get much rest the night before, and she’d been nonstop busy all day.

  “I’m doing a shit job taking care of you already,” I berated myself. “I swear, I’ll do better, starting now.”

  “I wasn’t aware it was your responsibility to take care of me,” she murmured, a small smile lifting her lips. “But I like that you want the position.”

  “I don’t want the position,” I informed her as I lowered my head. This close, there was no way I could miss the hurt that flashed across her beautiful face. Skimming my lips over hers, I told her, “It’s already mine—you are mine, Arella.”

  Her eyes lit up, and she stabbed her fingers into the back of my hair, pulling me closer. “That means you’re mine, too.”

  “Always, baby.”

  --

  Arella fell asleep on the drive home. After parking in my usual spot, I carefully lifted her out of the car and carried her to the elevators. On the ride up to my floor, she started to awaken, but I kissed her brow and softly told her to go back to sleep.

  Inside my apartment, I placed her in our bed and tucked the covers around her. I ached to crawl in beside her and just hold her while she rested, but I had things that needed my attention.

  Closing the bedroom door behind me, I walked into the kitchen, the farthest room from where Arella was sleeping, and called Mia. She’d responded to my earlier text by telling me to call her whenever I got the chance, and the sooner I got her on board with my plan, the better.

  “Hey,” she greeted before the first ring finished. “What’s up?”

  I didn’t waste time with small talk but got straight to the point. I told her everything I knew about Arella’s stalker, how she didn’t want her parents to stress over her possibly being in danger, but after what happened earlier, it was apparent that she very much was in danger.

  “Holy shit,” Mia whispered. “Poor Arella, having to deal with all this crap without confiding in any of us.” She sighed heavily. “I get her being concerned about stressing out Uncle Drake. With how sick he was before his liver transplant, we all tend to walk on eggshells around him with serious stuff.”

  “She needs security, though, Mia. But I know she’s going to be stubborn about it.” I scrubbed my free hand over my face in frustration. “She told the detective she would think about it, but I could tell from the look on her face that she wasn’t taking him seriously enough.”

  “Yeah, that sounds just like her,” she muttered. “Okay, let me talk to Barrick about this. I’m sure he’ll have a suggestion or two on how to handle her.”

  “Thanks, Mia,” I told her, a small measure of relief taking some of the tension out of my shoulders. “Call me back after you speak to him.”

  “Will do, my friend.”

  I got a text and ended the call so I could deal with it. Seeing it was my mother, I sent a quick reply. After checking the clock, I decided there was plenty of time to take a nap with the angel asleep in our bed.

  Stripping down to my boxer briefs, I climbed in behind her.

  “Mm,” she sighed, turned over, and threw her arm around me. “Missed you.”

  I kissed the top of her head and rolled onto my back, taking her with me. She stretched out on me, pillowing her head on my chest, and cuddled closer. Within seconds, she was deeply asleep once again, making me smile. It wasn’t long before I followed her into dreamland.

  The feel of wet, hot suction on my cock had my eyes shooting open. I caught hold of Arella’s ponytail, wrapping it around my wrist as I looked down at her sucking me off. “Baby,” I groaned. “Fuck, that feels so good.”

  Her gigg
le caused vibrations along my entire shaft, making my balls tighten as I threatened to spill down her throat. Her silky-soft hands were stroking what she couldn’t fit into her mouth, her wrist twisting up and down, pumping a rope of come from me.

  She moaned it splashed onto her tongue, as if it were her favorite taste in the world. I knew if she kept making noises like that I wasn’t going to last, no matter how good the relief from the micro-orgasm was for me. It wasn’t enough, though. I wanted to blow every drop inside her tight pussy.

  Using my hold on her hair, I tugged her off me.

  “No,” she whined, her lips swollen from sucking my cock, pouting. “I wasn’t done.”

  “Shh, baby,” I soothed, pulling off her dress. “We have the rest of our lives for you to suck me off to your heart’s content. But right now, I need inside you.”

  Her eyes brightened, and she fell back onto the pillows, her thighs opening for me invitingly. “Condom.”

  Swallowing a curse because I kept forgetting, I opened the drawer beside the bed and grabbed the last condom. After all the times I’d fucked her the night before, I’d blown through the small stash I’d had in there. Not that it had mattered. We’d been so rough and they were so old, the damn things had broken more often than actually offered any real protection.

  I sheathed my cock then sank balls deep inside her tight heat. The pleasure was so intense, we both groaned as I made us one. She was so wet and primed for me, telling me she’d gotten worked up while she was sucking my cock, and within a dozen hard pumps, she was coming apart for me.

  “That’s it, baby,” I praised, slowing my pace so I could take my time with her and savor all of her. Lowering my head, I sucked one of her ripe nipples into my mouth and was rewarded with the flutter of her pussy spasming yet again around my shaft. “Your pussy feels so good, Arella. I want to spend the rest of my life right here, kneeling at this altar, worshiping you with my cock.”

  “Jordan!” she screamed, her eyes rolling back in her head.

  My girl loved it when I talked dirty to her. It got her off almost as much as the feel of my dick branding the inside of her pussy, rubbing over her ultrasensitive G-spot. When I felt her gush as she came again, I knew the condom had broken yet again, and I had to hide my triumphant grin in her neck.

  Call me a fucked-up asshole, but I wanted to get her pregnant. Needed the world to see that she belonged to me as her belly grew round with my baby. Just as I was going to brand her with the ring I was going to put on her finger very, very soon.

  Sixteen

  Arella

  Breathless, I clung to Jordan long after we were both spent from the hours-long fuck fest. From the way I was so sticky between my legs and it was leaking onto my thighs, I knew the condom had broken. Again. The night before, after the third one had broken, Jordan had told me his stash was several years old.

  His confession that he hadn’t had sex in this apartment had made me so happy that it didn’t even matter to me that I was overflowing with his come. He hadn’t seemed all that concerned either, so I didn’t freak out that it was very likely the best possible time for me to get pregnant.

  I would only admit it to myself, but I’d been thinking of babies since before I turned eighteen. Of course, those babies were part of the fantasy I’d built in my head at the time, of a life with Jordan much like the one my sister had with Braxton. Jordan had effectively shattered those fantasies, however, and even though we were currently sleeping together, I didn’t allow myself to imagine for even a minute that I could have that life with him now.

  But even when things did end between us, maybe I would have a little piece of that life after all. In the form of a baby we’d created together.

  Pushing those thoughts away, I lifted my head to look down at him. He was on his back, where he’d finally fallen, completely exhausted, only minutes before. He’d dragged me on top of him, and I’d nearly fallen back asleep from the way he was rubbing his fingertips up and down my spine. But my stomach growled, reminding me that we hadn’t eaten lunch earlier. A glance at the digital clock on the bedside table told me it was getting close to dinnertime, and I was about to venture into hangry territory if we weren’t careful.

  Jordan turned his head, following my gaze. Seeing the time, he muttered a curse and sat up. “Take a shower, baby. We’ll go out for dinner.”

  “But I just wanted to veg in bed with you for the rest of the night. Can’t we order in?” I pouted up at him when he climbed out of bed. “Jordan!” He picked me up with a grin and carried me into the bathroom. “I don’t want to go out.”

  “We’ll go somewhere small,” he said, setting me on the sink and moving to turn on the shower. “I promise you’ll enjoy the food, and we won’t be gone long.” When he walked back to me, I happily spread my legs to give him easy access to my naked body. But after a brief kiss, he stepped away. “You shower and get ready while I make a quick call.”

  As he walked out of the bathroom, I stuck out my tongue at him.

  “I saw that, minx,” he grumbled as he closed the door behind himself.

  Giggling, I hopped down and crossed to the now-steaming shower. An hour later, I walked into the living room to find him already dressed and ready to go. He was wearing a suit, so I was glad I’d gone with the little black dress I’d packed, as well as taken the time to do my hair and makeup.

  When his eyes landed on me, they darkened with hunger, and I watched as his jaw clenched. “Dinner and then I’m bringing you back here and fucking you all damn night,” he said, almost as if he were warning me.

  I picked up my purse and phone. “Don’t threaten me with a good time.” Winking at him, I walked to the door, calling over my shoulder, “But we need to stop at the drugstore on the way back and pick up condoms.”

  “Right,” he muttered, following me out of his apartment. “Don’t want to forget the protection. I’ve only filled you to your eyeballs with come in the last twenty-four hours.”

  I hid my smile as I pressed the call button for the elevator. It sounded like he was pouting, but I didn’t look at him to confirm if he was or not, afraid he would see how much I liked that he was sulking over the idea of having to glove up with something we knew wouldn’t break the next time he was inside me.

  The elevator doors opened, and I walked in, leaving him there to pout or to follow me. I heard him grumble something to himself a split second before he grabbed me around the waist and turned me to face him. After hitting the button for the garage, he backed me against the wall and kissed me senseless.

  I didn’t even notice when we stopped several times on the way down. It was only when he finally released me and I saw the others exiting ahead of us that I realized we hadn’t been alone.

  Jordan took my hand in one of his and lifted his other to brush his thumb over my kiss-swollen bottom lip. “You’re so beautiful, I lose my mind when I’m this close to you.”

  I sucked his thumb into my mouth, causing him to groan like he was in physical pain. That sound vibrating out of his chest made me feel oddly powerful. Releasing the digit with a wet pop, I moved toward his car. With his hand still holding mine, he was right beside me, and he opened the passenger door for me.

  Once we were in traffic and stopped at a red light, he reached out and touched my necklace, pulling my eyes to him. He had a smug smile on his devilishly handsome face as he skimmed his thumb over the interlocked hearts with the diamond in the center connecting them. “I was wondering if I was ever going to see you wear this,” he murmured. “I’ve been aching to see it around your graceful neck for almost two years.”

  I frowned. “What are you talking about?” I covered the hearts. “My parents gave me this for Christmas.”

  “No way.” He shook his head, reaching out to turn the hearts over. Whatever he saw when he did had his jaw clenching. “No,” he denied again. “I gave you this necklace for your eighteenth birthday. Only, the hearts were engraved…” He dropped the hearts and pulled back h
is hand, clenching his fingers into a tight first. “Didn’t my parents give you my present?”

  Swallowing hard, I looked out the windshield. “The light is green,” I told him, my heart aching.

  I heard his whispered curse, and then we were moving forward again.

  “Did they give you the present?” he gritted out after he’d driven several blocks.

  “They did,” I confirmed, keeping my gaze straight ahead.

  “So, why have I never seen you wear it?” He grasped my hand, interlocking our fingers. “And why would your parents buy you a necklace you already have?”

  “Probably because they didn’t realize I supposedly already owned it,” I told him honestly. “Neither did I.”

  His fingers squeezed mine, hard, before he realized what he was doing and eased his hold. “Why?”

  Everything I’d felt the night of my eighteenth birthday, from the moment his parents had arrived at my parents’ house until I’d sat on my bed, looking at pictures of Jordan in Italy with Letizia, swept through me. Needing some distance from him but unable to get it within the car, I pulled away from his hold and clasped my hands together in my lap.

  My eighteenth birthday was a day I thought would be the beginning of my forever with Jordan.

  Instead, it had been the day my heart had been irrevocably broken.

  I’d stayed his friend since then. Gone on as if nothing had changed between us. Even put on a brave face for my family when they thought I might fall apart.

  Slowly, I’d put myself back together, but there were still parts missing. Parts I knew I would never find again because they had been crushed into sand somewhere on my old bedroom floor.

  “The present your parents gave me from you is still in my closet back at my parents’ house.” I inhaled slowly, willing my voice not to tremble even as I fought the sting of tears. “Unopened.”