by Ella Fox
“There’s nothing wrong, Belleza. All is well—but Elvis is over at my house.”
“Are you kidding me?” I yelped. Throwing off my covers, I jumped out of my warm bed and raced to open the drapes that currently concealed the patio doors. Throwing them open, I glanced out to Elvis’s normal spot on the sycamore tree and then to his favorite perch atop the waterfall at the back of the pool. Sure enough, he wasn’t in either spot.
“Is he eating your trash again?”
“No, nothing like that. It isn’t trash this time. Rafe just called and told me he was pecking on the glass of the French doors to his bedroom. Apparently, the idiot fell asleep without closing the blackout film or the shutters on his doors and Elvis saw him. When he was describing what was going on I realized Elvis wanted him to play catch. I explained to Rafe what he should do and now they’re out in the yard playing. Everything is fine, but I didn’t want you to panic when you went outside and realized the little criminal wasn’t around.”
“How did you know he wanted to play catch?” I asked, confused.
Alejandro’s husky chuckle made my core clench. “Rafe sent a picture of a small pile of toys that were right outside his doors. It was three baby teething rings, a bracelet, a car key, a hair tie and some lip balm. I figured he was either showing off to my brother that he’s an accomplished thief or he was hinting that he wanted to play.”
I had to laugh at that. I was sure Alejandro had never imagined he’d be dealing with a rogue peacock when his family built their vacation home next door.
“Sounds like maybe it was a little bit of both. Emery and I call that kind of thing the presenting of gifts. I’ve only ever seen him do it to the two of us, or Emery’s family. Apparently, Elvis has taken a shine to your brother, which is a surprise. I just woke up, and I can’t go over practically naked. Tell Rafe I’ll be over as soon as I get dressed.”
Something that sounded a hell of a lot like Alejandro expelling a tortured groan caused another flash of heat at my core. The man was proving to be lethal to my sex drive.
“Take your time,” he rasped. “My brother has made his first new friend in years, which is good for him. I’m not even upset that the friend has feathers.”
“Well, I guess I’m glad that Elvis’s new penchant for escaping to your house isn’t making you all feel like you’re in neighbor hell,” I murmured.
“Hey,” he said softly, “without Elvis, we might never have met. I have love for that bird—even if he is a little criminal.”
I spluttered, uncertain of what to say. Thankfully Alejandro kept the conversation going.
“What’re you up to today?”
I let out a snort of laughter as I opened drawers in the whitewashed dresser in my room and pulled out a pair of running shorts, a sports bra, a Nike t-shirt, a pair of underwear and some socks.
“I finished editing the video I did with you late last night, so once I reclaim my runaway ward, I’m going to run on the treadmill. After that, I’ve got nothing. I’ll probably binge watch some more Grey’s Anatomy while I try to decide what my next video will be about.”
“How about you hold off on that binge watch and come to the movies with me? Since Rafe is up playing with Elvis now, there’s no way I’ll be able to wake him up before dinner. They’re running The Breakfast Club as the Monday matinee at a theater in Sherman Oaks. You know you want to.”
My mouth opened in a small O as I realized why he was asking me to see The Breakfast Club. “Oh Lord,” I said with a choked laugh. “You’ve been going through my YouTube channel, haven’t you?”
I’d done segments on many of my favorite movies—The Breakfast Club, Grease, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Mamma Mia, Die Hard, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Dark Knight, The Departed and Inception. There was no way he’d just randomly chosen The Breakfast Club without knowing that.
“You caught me,” he said dryly. “For the record, you’ve got good taste in movies. Your taste in music, however…”
We both laughed at the same time. “What have you got against Justin Bieber?” I asked.
Alejandro groaned dramatically. “That was one I hadn’t caught. I was referring to your love for Britney Spears. She can’t sing, you know.”
He wasn’t necessarily wrong, but that didn’t negate her talent. “She might not be the best singer,” I conceded, “but it’s not like I’m listening to her for her range. I like her stuff because it’s catchy and I can dance to it.”
“You dance?” he asked, his voice husky.
“Sure, sometimes,” I lied, majorly downplaying what I did. I said a silent prayer that he’d lose interest in my YouTube channel before he found the videos of Emery and I dancing when we were teenagers. We’d once had pipe dreams of being a choreography team. Thankfully that phase had passed, but I still had a love of dancing. In fact, I’d just wrapped up a twelve-week pole dancing. The idea of Alejandro knowing that about me made me feel oddly hot inside.
“When my family gets here you’ll have to come with us when we go clubbing. My sister-in-law loves to dance, even though she can't actually find the beat. My brother makes us all go as some kind of personal security in case someone looks at her funny.”
“Sounds like he’s a little over-the-top,” I chuckled.
“That’s what I thought too, but now that I—”
I waited for a second for him to finish his sentence but he didn’t, so I prodded him.
“Now that you?” I prodded.
He let out a dry sounding cough. “Sorry, Belleza. My assistant just came in to remind me that I have a conference call with the New York office in five minutes. Are we a go on the movies for this afternoon?”
“Sure. What time do you want to go?”
“I’m leaving here just after eleven, and the movie starts at three. How about we leave around twelve-thirty and grab some lunch? I can look up some restaurants in and around Sherman Oaks to see what’s good.”
“No need,” I answered. “I’ve taken care of a few houses in that area, so I know a ton of places. Do you have any food preferences?”
“I’m easy, Belleza. My mamá made sure none of us were picky eaters. If it’s put in front of me and it looks and smells good, I’m eating it.”
“That makes it easy,” I joked. “Alright—I’ll see you when you get home. Just text me and I’ll pick you up.”
He chuckled wryly. “Do you have something against other people driving or is it just me?”
“My bad. A lot of the people I’m closest to hate driving, so I’m just used to being the designated driver. You can take charge if you’d like.”
“I’d enjoy being your driver, as long as it won’t bother you.”
I was grinning as I headed toward the bathroom to get dressed. “It’ll be great. All right, I’ll let you get to your conference call. If you could shoot Rafe a text and tell him, I’ll be there in a few minutes that would be great.”
“I’m on it. Our gate code is 2-1-9-7. Just let yourself in—Rafe and Elvis are playing in the back. I’ll see you at twelve-thirty, Belleza.”
“See you then.”
After quickly brushing my teeth and throwing my hair up into a messy bun I got dressed to head over to the Alejandro's. I entered the code into the gate before I made my way into the backyard where I spotted Elvis dashing across the lawn toward Rafe, who was sitting on the grass.
“You’re damn good at catch, for a bird,” he laughed. When he spotted me as he threw Elvis’s yellow teething ring through the air, his entire demeanor changed. Gone were the easygoing smile and the relaxed posture, both of which were replaced with something I could only think of as an invisible steel wall. I wondered if he suffered from social anxiety or if he just didn’t care for me for whatever reason.
“Hey,” I said cheerfully as I made my way across the lawn, “I'm sorry for this. It seems like Elvis has taken a shine to you.”
Rafe nodded as he rose to his feet. “It’s not a big deal. Now that I know he
isn’t hostile, he’s welcome to explore this side of the wall,” he said as he walked past me to one of the outdoor seating areas. He gestured to a pile on the table. “Here’s all the stuff he brought over today.”
My brows snapped together as I looked it all over. I’d assumed the car key Alejandro mentioned would be mine, but except for the teething rings that belonged to Elvis, everything on the table belonged to Emery. Judging by the dust on the key, it’d been outside in one of Elvis’s hiding spots for quite a while. I shook my head in exasperation as I felt him tap at my hip. Turning, I looked down at the little thief.
“Elvis!” I scolded with a laugh. “Mommy is going to lose it when I tell her about all the stuff you’ve been stealing, mister.”
He made a few bird sounds as he blinked up at me as if to say, stealing? Come on, Kaya. This all belongs to me. I stand wrongfully accused.
“Nice try with the innocent act, but we both know you don’t need lip balm and you don’t own a big white truck.”
Elvis cocked his head and looked at me like I was the crazy one. I stopped talking to him when I heard Rafe taking a bite of something. Turning, I found him holding a bowl of sliced watermelon.
“I gave Elvis some of this as a treat,” he said as he raised the bowl a bit to draw attention to it. “Hope that’s okay. It was one of the things he seemed to be digging on in our trash the other day so I figured since it didn’t make him sick it would be okay. He seemed hungry.”
I shook my head and glanced down to Elvis, who was giving me the world’s most innocent look. It would be almost impossible for him to be hungry since he pretty much grazed nonstop. I’d never seen an obese peacock before but I did not doubt that left unchecked Elvis would pork right up.
“Watermelon is fine,” I answered. “He loves most fruits and vegetables, except apples which he’s never taken to. His real love, though, is bread.”
Just saying the word bread perked Elvis up even more. He started dancing from foot to foot, looking around for his carb addiction.
“It’s at home, buddy. Wanna go to our side of the wall and have some nice warm wheat bread?”
The sight of him turning and hauling ass back home was the answer to the question. I grabbed up the treasures he’d brought to Rafe and took a step back.
“Thanks again for being nice to him.”
“He’s welcome anytime,” he answered. I noticed the way Rafe stressed the he in that sentence, but I let it go and figured I’d mention it to Alejandro. To be honest, I was kind of miffed that Elvis seemed so interested in Rafe. Then again, Dennis the Menace had basically lived to hang out with Mr. Wilson. Even the ornery had their fans, apparently.
As for me, I much preferred the oh-so-kind and easygoing—not to mention ridiculously hot—Alejandro. And speaking of Alejandro, I had lunch and a movie to look forward to and I was anxious to get my run over with so I could start getting ready. I waved goodbye to Rafe and made my way back to Emery’s, planning what I’d wear that afternoon as I walked.
I kept assuring myself that it wasn’t a date, but the rational part of me knew that wasn’t necessarily true.
10
Alejandro
When I’d agreed to open the Malibu house with Rafe to make sure everything in the brand spanking new house worked as it should before the family descended I’d done so with the intention of working full time until our vacations officially started. That all went out the window when I met Kaya. I was fortunate enough to be in a position where work could be done remotely on a regular basis, and I’d decided to take advantage of that. I left the office after working slightly less than half a day and headed home with a hell of a lot of anticipation about seeing Kaya again. I figured I could catch up overnight, after I dropped her off.
I could hear the smile in her voice when I called her from the car to say that I was about to take the final turn off PCH toward our neighborhood.
“That’s good since I just walked through your front gate,” she sighed. “I swear Elvis knew I was getting ready to leave the house because he ditched me again. I’d be panicking if I hadn’t heard him squawking happily in your yard. I don’t know how I’m going to explain this insanity to Emery.”
I grinned as I pressed the gate opener in my Range Rover so that I could pull into the driveway. My eyes went right to her like her body held magnets that would make it impossible for me to look away. She’d just reached the front walkway of the house, and the way the sun bathed her in light was almost ethereal. She was crazy fucking petite but somehow perfectly curvaceous, and I ached to touch her all of the time. My cock stiffened in my pants as she turned toward my car and smiled. Fuck, she was making me so crazy. I hadn’t jerked off as much at fifteen as I did after meeting Kaya. I stopped the car just next to where she was standing. After putting it into park, I jumped out and strode toward her with what I’m sure was a shit-eating grin.
“Belleza.”
She was wearing a pale blue form-fitted sleeveless cotton dress with a long sleeved white cotton shirt tied around her waist. The pair of white Converse sneakers were oddly sexy, but in my opinion, she’d look hot as hell in anything. Her hair was down in a style my sister-in-law described as loose beachy waves. Kaya had finished the outfit with a pair of mirrored aviators that she pushed up onto her head as she smiled at me. I got lost for a second staring into her eyes and enjoying the way they sparkled. She was so beautiful that it was all I could do not to pull her into my arms and kiss the hell out of her. When her cotton candy scent wafted toward me, I had to stifle a groan.
“Um, hi,” she said softly. “So… I didn’t realize you’d be in a suit.”
The way she bit her lip as her cheeks went pink had me doing a little victory dance in my head. Kaya was shy, but I knew she was as interested in me as I was in her. Our chemistry was electric, so much so that you could almost see it arcing between. I’d do whatever needed to be done to get her on board with being mine. Already I knew I was hers.
“I’m getting changed before we leave,” I assured her. “I imagine that going to the movies in a business suit wouldn’t be the most comfortable thing in the world.”
She pretended to wipe sweat from her brow. “Phew. I was feeling seriously under dressed for a minute there. You go do that while I walk around back to give Elvis what-for.”
When she turned to walk away, I reached out and gently ran my hand down her arm. She stopped immediately, her little gasp music to my ears. The feel of her skin was the softest silk.
“Wait, Belleza.”
The color on her cheeks was more pronounced when she turned back to me. There was no missing her reaction to my touch.
“Come through the house,” I instructed. For reasons I couldn’t even fully identify, I wanted her in my space.
“Oh. Okay. Right. Sure.”
It was crazy fucking adorable how thrown off she was by the connection between us. I ached to haul her into my arms, to be connected with her in some way so that I could feel her pulse beneath my fingertips. She wasn’t ready for that, yet, but I planned to make it clear to her in no uncertain terms that I wanted to be with her as soon as I possibly could.
“How was work?” Kaya asked as we walked toward the front door.
“Long,” I answered without hesitation.
“Your super-short half day was long?” she teased.
I shrugged because it was true—the day had dragged. “Things always seem to go slower when you have something to look forward to. I wanted to come home so we could get our afternoon started,” I answered as I entered the code to unlock the front door.
I turned to look at her as the door opened and when her eyes met mine, she bit her lip and looked away nervously. Her soft inhalation when she took in the house made me wonder what kind of sound she’d make when I worked my way inside of her for the first time. She was fucking tiny, and I was—well, not. I knew it would take work, and I couldn’t wait until I could touch her freely. Once I had a solid green light from her, I pla
nned to spend a hell of a lot of time buried inside of her.
“Wow.” Her tone of voice conveyed her surprise as she looked around and took in the house. “This is incredible. I wasn’t expecting it to feel so…”
“So?” I prodded when she didn’t finish her sentence.
She shook her head as I tossed my key fob into a bowl on the large entry table against the wall to the right of the doors.
“Warm,” she answered as she continued looking around. “I knew it would be beautiful—the outside made that clear—but with how big it is I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had been stiff and formal. I’ve often found that a lot of space and a lot of money can quickly become a museum style space with too much stuff going on. This isn’t like that at all. It’s perfection. The way the spaces are open but not cavernous is genius. Whoever the architect was, they’re a genius— and your decorator was worth every cent.”
I grinned as I guided her through the house. “Hart International designed and built it. When it was completed, my mother and sister-in-law did the interior. This family is too big for formality, to be honest. When we’re all together, it’s loud and a little crazy. Comfort has always been key.”
She nodded and smiled as she gestured to the custom-made fifteen-seat sectional sofa in the living room as we came to the thirty-foot wall of glass that led out to the yard. “Before now I would’ve said it would be impossible for a couch of that size to look cozy, but it really does. I could imagine binge-watching in here.”
I laughed as I pressed one of the buttons on the wall next to the glass doors so that a small portion of the wall of glass slid open to let us out to the yard. If I’d pressed another button the entire wall would’ve retracted. I made a mental note to show her that the next time she was over.
“It is comfortable,” I answered, “and you’re welcome to binge-watch to your heart’s content over here anytime you want. If it’s a streaming service you’re looking for, we have them all. My father is kind of fanatical about his television.”
