As it fell into place, she touched her fingertips to the double hearts, her thumb rubbing over the diamond that held them together. “I don’t ever want to take it off.”
I trailed my fingers down her neck to the valley between her breasts. “I haven’t had sex with anyone but you in over two years,” I confessed. “And I’ve never touched Letizia. She’s drunkenly tried to seduce me, and the international tabloids have hyped it up that we were together. But I swear it was all lies. The only relationship I ever had with her was as her babysitter. My dad figured since I had so much experience in the past with being a spoiled and overprivileged brat, I should keep some of his friends’ and clients’ kids out of trouble too.”
Arella pressed her hands against my chest, pushing me onto my back. She came down over me, a sad smile on her face. “Promise me that no matter what, from now on, we tell each other everything that is on our minds. So much pain and heartache could have been avoided if we’d just talked openly to each other this entire time. We both made so many assumptions that weren’t even close to reality.”
“I promise.” Tucking a few locks of hair behind her ear, I let my fingers trail over her shoulder and down her back. “Now tell me when we can go house hunting and start planning the wedding.”
Her eyes widened for a moment before she rolled them. “The wedding planning usually happens after a proposal, Moreitti.”
“I have to ask your dad first.”
Her eyes darkened. “Um, yeah, about that…”
I tensed. “What?”
“Daddy kind of… Well, he isn’t your biggest fan at the moment, babe.” She sighed. “After my birthday party, he told me to give you a little while. That sometimes guys take a little longer to pull their heads out of their asses. But then you didn’t show up again until Pop-Pop died. By then, Daddy had been the one to push me to move on and even introduced me to Lyle…”
No wonder Drake had been so cold toward me at the funeral. He’d told his daughter to hold out hope, and I’d been too focused on work and trying not to think about Arella. I’d let them both down. Fuck.
“But he knew Lyle was just a rebound. Just like—”
I covered her mouth with my hand. “Please don’t put the names of the guys you’ve fucked in my head, love. Unless you really do want me to start a hit list, just keep that shit to yourself.”
She kissed my palm before pulling my hand away, the grin on her face sheepish. “Sorry.”
“I’ll still talk to your dad. I want to do everything right from here on out. Including getting his blessing to marry you.” I stroked her cheek. “Until then, can we please go house hunting? As much come as I’ve filled you with in the last few days, we need to get a bigger place sooner rather than later for all the babies I’m going to fuck into you.”
She licked her lips, squirming over my already steel-hard cock. “H-how many babies are we talking about?” she asked breathlessly, opening her legs.
I could feel how wet she was already and moved to flip her under me, only to have to force myself to keep from thrusting into her when she wrapped her legs around my hips. “Fuck,” I groaned. “I need to ask you something. And I need an answer soon, love. Because if you’re already pregnant, there is no way in hell I’m letting you do any stunts for the damn thing.”
“Stunts?” she repeated. “I’ve never actually done any stunts before. Is this about that part you were talking about yesterday?”
“Yeah.” It was hard to think when she was completely naked beneath me with my necklace glittering up at me in the sunlight shining through the window. All that separated my throbbing cock from her soaked pussy was the thin material of my basketball shorts. “I might possibly put some money into a new movie franchise if you’re willing to be the lead.”
Her eyes filled with curiosity, and I told her all the key points of the plot line. Her interest only heightened, and I could actually feel her excitement bubbling up. But then I had to tell her about her uncle. “Garon Steel is the one who approached me about investing. He will be the other executive producer on the project.”
“No,” she said, already shaking her head. But I could also see the disappointment on her face. She wanted this; she just didn’t want to have to work with Garon. “I can’t, Jordan. If it were anyone else, I would have already said yes. But not him. He’s evil.”
“How so?”
Her lips twisted into a grim line before she pushed at my chest. I sat up, and she pulled the covers over her as she sat facing me. “This isn’t public knowledge, but when I was a baby, he tried to sue my mom. The production company he had at the time was going bankrupt, and he needed some fast cash. He tried to scare her into paying him hush money to keep him from dragging her through the tabloid trash. Mom’s birth ended Pop-Pop’s marriage to Garon’s mother. Claudia Steel ended up with most of Cole’s money at the time because Mom’s very existence proved he’d cheated on his wife.”
Anger at the man for trying to exploit money out of people I considered my own family made me see red. “Did she pay?”
“Of course not.” She sighed. “Pop-Pop stood behind her, got her a lawyer, and showed Garon which of his two children he was supporting in the matter. But Garon still persisted. Daddy made a deal with him because he knew it was stressing Mom out. If Garon backed off and dropped the ridiculous lawsuit, Daddy would arrange for his next production to get the backing it needed by the right people. Obviously, it helped him, and that’s how he became a part of Strive Studios.”
“I didn’t know anything about that, love. If I had, I never would have even taken the meeting with him.”
She gave me a small smile. “I know. It’s not something we talk about, and thankfully, it never made it to the tabloids. I didn’t doubt your loyalty. Mom wasn’t worried so much about herself back then, but Nevaeh and I were little, and she didn’t want us to be dragged through that ugliness. Eventually, Mom let Pop-Pop publicly claim her as his daughter, but they did the story exclusively through Aunt Harper’s magazine, Rock America, so they could control what was printed as much as possible.”
Sadness filled her eyes, and I pulled her back onto my lap, needing to comfort her. After a moment, she spoke again. “Then when he died, it became a major entertainment story that she and us grandkids inherited everything even remotely associated with Cole Steel and the Steel Entrapment brand, while Garon didn’t get a single cent. Garon tried to contest the will, but after a few months, he dropped his case.”
Cuddling closer, she kissed my chin. “I want to do a project with you, Jordan. And I’m really interested in the part, but…I can’t if Garon is going to be a part of it too. I won’t betray my mom like that.”
“No, baby. I won’t ask that of you.” If I’d known any of what Garon had put Lana through, I never would have replied back to the first email he’d sent me, let alone taken the meeting with him. “I’ll tell Garon he’s going to have to find someone else to help back this movie.”
“But it could be a really profitable investment,” she argued. “Just because I won’t do it doesn’t mean you have to give it up too.”
“I’ll find a different movie to back,” I told her with a shrug. “One we can do together.” I carefully laid her back against the pillows, my hand flattening against her lower abdomen. “Preferably after this little one arrives.”
Her hand covered mine as a dreamy look filled her eyes. “We don’t even know if there is going to be a little one yet.”
“When was your last period?”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not refuting that it is a good time for me to get pregnant, just that we don’t know if I am yet or not.”
“How long until we will know?” I asked with a pout.
“I don’t know. At least a few weeks.”
“That’s plenty of time for us to find a house.” I gave her a long, deep kiss. When she started to cling to me, I hopped out of bed, causing her to whine unhappily. “You, my love, need to shower while I call a re
al estate agent.”
“Fine,” she grumbled petulantly. “But I’m going to want coffee.”
“Better enjoy it now, baby. Because as soon as we find out if you’re pregnant, it will be decaf for the next nine months,” I warned, standing over her.
She shrugged. “I’m okay with that.”
“While we’re talking about things you’re okay with…” I backed slowly toward the door. “I’m having Taylor find you your own personal assistant.” Her eyes widened in surprise, and I continued. “Preferably an openly gay, male assistant.”
“I’m okay with that too, but I don’t think you can legally make that a requirement.”
“I can’t, but Taylor can keep interviewing until she finds what I’m looking for. One who is as efficient as she is, but who won’t drool over my woman’s ass and tits.”
Arella grinned. “Taylor did like what she saw, huh?” Jealousy spiked in my veins, causing my nostrils to flare and her to giggle. “Go make the call so we can find our house, babe.”
“I don’t know.” I took a step back toward the bed. “Maybe I want to remind myself who you belong to.”
“If you get back in this bed, we won’t be leaving it for the rest of the day,” she threatened. “And then we will be one day closer to finding out if we’re pregnant and one day short of finding our forever home.”
Her logic stopped me from diving into bed. “Well played, love. Now get that sexy ass in the shower.”
Twenty-One
Arella
I didn’t think house hunting would be so much fun, but once we started looking at places, I realized how mistaken I was. At every property we were shown, I walked into each room and could actually picture how I would decorate it. But in the end, there would always be something that turned me off about the house, and I couldn’t see us living there forever.
As we stepped outside of the latest listing our real estate agent had dropped everything to show us that afternoon, I felt a little sad that even after seeing seven other properties, none of them had been perfect. We’d seen two houses in the same neighborhood as his parents, three closer to my own, and a few in between. They had all been big enough to accommodate a growing family, but none of them had felt…like ours.
“I do have a place that just went on the market in Beverly Hills,” Peter said as he handed over a printout of the house’s details. “But if you want to see it, we have to do it now. This place is a hot spot and won’t be available for long. Who the neighbors are alone will sell this place unseen.”
“What do you think, baby?” Jordan asked, skimming the paper in my hand over my shoulder.
With over twenty-thousand square feet, the house had six bedrooms and nine baths. I wanted a big home, but did we really need that much house?
Then I saw the address and handed the paper back to the real estate agent. “No thank you.”
Jordan frowned down at me. “You don’t even want to see it?”
I shook my head. “We don’t need that much space. Maybe we should give that place a mile from your mom’s house a second look.”
“You didn’t like the HOA woman who came over while we were viewing the house,” he reminded me. “If we bought that place and had to deal with her, you would murder her.”
I smirked. “The neighbors would thank me and then probably help me hide her body.”
Peter chuckled. “That has been a huge factor in everyone turning down that house. It’s perfect until Nancy comes over and starts snipping at potential buyers.”
I wondered if constantly being annoyed with Nancy was a better option than living at the Beverly Hills house. I mean, if Nancy did piss me off to the point I murdered her, would a jury really find me guilty once they knew the whole story?
Jordan pulled the paper out of Peter’s hand. “Let’s at least take a look,” he argued. “It’s in a great neighborhood, and Mia said the school district is good. It was why she picked—” He broke off when he saw the look on my face. Clenching his jaw, he turned to the real estate agent and shook his hand. “I’ll let you know if we want to view this property.”
“Let me know in the next few days. I seriously doubt it will be available by Monday.” He offered me his hand, but when I lifted mine to shake it, Jordan stepped between us.
“I’ll let you know,” he said in a tight voice. Putting his hand on the small of my back, Jordan turned me toward the SUV waiting for us at the end of the driveway.
The driver was quick to open the back door for us, and Jordan helped me inside before climbing in beside me. As soon as we were moving, he hit the button to put up the partition between the driver and us and pulled me onto his lap.
I cuddled close, feeling tired after the hours of viewing house after house.
Jordan gently grasped my chin and tilted my head up so I was looking into his eyes. “Want to tell me why you’re so against living in the same neighborhood as Mia?” he murmured.
“Not really.” I pushed his hand away and started to lay my head back on his shoulder, but he wasn’t going to allow me to avoid this particular conversation.
“Do you still think I have a thing for her?”
“I…don’t know,” I told him honestly.
His dark eyes softened. “The only woman I have ever been in love with is you, Arella. Mia and I have only ever been best friends. Nothing more.”
“The best friend you had sex with,” I reminded him in a voice tight with suppressed emotion.
Jordan released a heavy sigh. “Yeah, and I can honestly say it was probably the most awkward sex of my life.” He brushed his lips over my ear, making me shiver. “I’m going to tell you about this, but then can we please never speak about it again?”
I shrugged, unable to give him a verbal answer when I wasn’t sure I could make that promise.
Groaning, he tightened his arms around me. “Mia was in a dark place at the time. She’d just found out that the future she always had planned out wasn’t going to happen. With her knee so fucked up, she couldn’t dance professionally anymore, and it was breaking her. She came over to my house one night, and when I hugged her in an attempt to comfort, she kissed me. We were young and dumb, and things got out of hand. I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t get off, because I did, but it took some serious effort to get there. Because it…” He muttered a curse, and I saw his face actually turn green. “It felt wrong. Even kissing her was weird. I love her, but I’ve never looked at her and felt anywhere close to what I feel for you, baby. We grew up together, and she feels like family to me. Then afterward, she regretted it just as much as I did, and she couldn’t even look at me for the longest time. I was scared I’d lost my best friend.”
Something uncoiled deep inside me. The release of pressure was so intense, I actually whimpered in relief and threw my arms around his neck as I attacked his mouth with my own.
Ever since I’d found out that Jordan and Mia had slept together, I’d felt like there was this weight sitting on my chest. It hadn’t stopped me from loving my cousin, but it became difficult to look at her and not hurt when I thought about the guy to whom I’d given my heart.
Jordan groaned and cupped the back of my head, taking control of the kiss. Breathing hard, he turned me on his lap so I was straddling him, and I was thankful I’d worn a dress with a loose skirt. I’d never been so thankful for a partition before in my life. I needed him inside me, and I didn’t even think the driver being able to see us would have stopped me right then.
Jordan’s hands pulled the dress up to my waist and quickly pushed my thong out of his way as he stuffed three fingers into my pussy. Biting back a moan, I started working on his belt, needing him inside me. When he broke the kiss to help me, I was panting. “We… We can look at the house.”
“Tomorrow,” he growled, pulling his cock from his pants and thrusting roughly up into me. “I’m spending the rest of this day inside you.”
Dropping my head to his shoulder, I sank my teeth into his neck right b
elow his ear and whispered, “I’m okay with that plan.”
I felt his shudder of pleasure along with a spurt of his come hitting my walls. Knowing I could make him come a little like that gave me a feeling of power, and I bounced faster on his cock.
His fingers bit into my ass, but he didn’t try to slow my rhythm. “You have to know that I have only ever been in love with you,” he rasped as he lowered his head to lick across my collarbone. “No one has ever possessed my heart but you, Arella. Only you, baby. Only ever you.”
“Jordan,” I whined, my inner walls clenching around him as I fought hard not to come. “It’s always been you, too. No one else has come close to touching my heart but you.”
“Thank fuck,” he groaned. “Baby, I love you. Tell me you’ll always be mine. Promise me you’re only ever going to love me.”
“Yes, yes, yes,” I chanted before kissing him.
But he pulled back all too soon. “Say it,” he commanded, his jaw tight as if he were fighting to hold on just as badly as I was.
“I’m yours,” I vowed and felt him thicken even more inside me, telling me he was close to releasing whether he wanted to or not. “I’ll only ever love you.”
He jerked my head down and buried his face in my chest, muffling his shout as he came so hard his entire body trembled. Feeling his thick, hot come flooding my pussy, I couldn’t fight my own orgasm any longer. I rocked against him, prolonging the pleasure for both of us as we tried to catch our breath.
Sweat coated our skin, and I felt him licking my shoulder and neck. “You taste so fucking good,” he rasped at my ear. “I’m taking you home and eating you for dinner.”
Closing my eyes, I melted against him and closed my eyes. “Promises, promises.”
Twenty-Two
Jordan
The sound of my cell ringing pulled me from a deep sleep. Cracking open one eye, I glanced at the digital clock on the bedside table on my side of the bed and bit back a curse when I saw it was just after ten at night.
Needing Arella (Rockers' Legacy Book 6) Page 15
