Arranged love

GRAVE

I’M SITTING AT my desk when my office phone rings. “Hello?” I answer.

“Hey, babe,” Lucy speaks.

I sigh. I’ve been ignoring her calls all week. “Hey.”

“I’ve been calling you,” she says, and I can practically hear her pouting.Please check at N/ôvel(D)rama.Org.

“Been busy working,” I say truthfully. We had meetings all day. My brother is up my ass, and Titan still looks at me like he wants to smash my face in for my comment about his fiancée sucking my dick. “What did you need?”

“I’m going to be at the Airport tonight. Want to go?”

“No. Not tonight,” I answer as my door opens. “Hey, I gotta go.”

“Wait-”

I hang up. “What do you want, Bones?” I ask, watching as my brother enters my office.

He comes to stand in front of my desk with his tatted arms crossed over his chest. “I’m leaving tonight for New York,” he states.

“And?” I ask.

“I’ll be gone for the weekend.”

“I thought you broke up with Lola?” She was some supermodel he’d been fucking for a few months. She wanted to introduce him to her parents, and he dumped her ass.

“I did. I’m going for other reasons.”

Ah, I bet it has to do with Kink. Some secret society sex club he joined. I heard him talking to Titan about it the other day in the conference room.

“Okay,” I say, dismissing him by looking down at my computer.

He doesn’t take the hint. Instead, he sits down. “Can you behave yourself while I’m gone?” he asks.

“Yes,” I say through gritted teeth.

He sighs. “Kyle …”

“Get the fuck out of my office, Dillan,” I growl, glaring at him. “I have work to do.”

He slaps his hands on his thighs and stands before leaving my office. Fuck, he’s been on my ass more than usual lately.

_______________

I pull up to a two-story house outside of Las Vegas. It sits on the end of a street all by itself. April had messaged me earlier with her address. I place my car in park and get out. Walking to her door, I run a hand over my hair. Once I get to the porch, I ring the bell and rock back and forth on my heels, waiting for her to answer.

She opens the door dressed in a little black dress. It has a V neckline with long sleeves. It stops at her thighs, showing off her long, thin legs. She wears a deep purple choker that matches her hair that is down and in big curls. She has her makeup done how I like it. Her ice blue eyes lined in black with that deep purple lipstick. Her six-inch black heels give her extra height, but she’s still shorter than me.

She averts her eyes, running her hands down her dress, and bites her lip nervously

“You look gorgeous,” I say, stepping up to her.

Her head snaps up, and her eyes meet mine. She licks her lips, and I cup her face, feeling her out. This morning was not a mistake. It didn’t go the way she wanted it to, but I can’t deny I’m attracted to her. And the fact that I stand here on her porch to take her out means she is attracted to me as well.

“So do you,” she whispers.

The corners of my lips curve into a smile before I press them to hers. I kiss her softly, just our lips when I really want to push her back into the house, tear off her dress and carry her to her bedroom.

“Come on,” I say, pulling on her hand without even allowing her to give me that option.

APRIL

I sit in his passenger seat, trying to calm my racing heart. I don’t know why he makes me so nervous. Maybe it’s because he holds so much power over this town. He tried to downplay what he does with Kingdom this morning over coffee, but he knows that I know the truth. There’s too much of him on the internet not to know.

“I love your dress,” he comments while he drives down the highway toward The Strip.

“Thank you. I went shopping with the girls today. Jasmine said I had to get it.”

“The girls? Jasmine? How do you know her?” he asks curiously.

“Met her through a mutual friend,” I say.

He nods and shifts gears.

“She’s really nice,” I add, trying to rub my sweaty palms on my dress without looking obvious. It’s been a long time since I’ve been on an actual date. Men these days would rather fuck you and then split than take the time to get to know you.

He nods. “She can be. She can also be crazy.”

“You know her well?” I ask, wondering if they have a past. Haven is married to Luca, who seems to be good friends with Titan, who is engaged to Emilee, a best friend to Jasmine. So it wouldn’t be farfetched to think he and Jasmine have been close at some point. They are all part of a very tight circle.

“Yep. Went to high school and college with her,” he answers.

That’s something I won’t find on the internet. “What makes her so crazy?”

“She used to date this guy name Trenton.” That’s who Haven mentioned when Emilee was talking about Jasmine’s plus one. “She would slash his tires. Got him kicked off the football team for drugs.” My eyes widen. “Pretty sure she would have lit him on fire if it wouldn’t have killed him.” He laughs. “He was a prick, though. He would have deserved it.”

I chuckle. “Now I know why she and Alexa are friends. She can be crazy too.”

He laughs, and his cell starts to ring through the Bluetooth in his car. He picks it up from the cradle on his dash and pushes ignore, but not before I see Lucy light up the screen.

Interesting. “You can answer that,” I tell him, and he gives me a side-eye. “You know, in case it’s important. I understand,” I add.

He shakes his head. “It can wait.”

A silence falls over his car, and a thought hits me. Lucy Mason. After the conversation I had with the girls today, I did a little research before our date tonight. It wasn’t hard to find. The girls hadn’t mentioned her last name at lunch today, but all I had to do was search Grave and I noticed the same woman popped up in pictures with him. One was even a mug shot of her. She had been arrested for DUI. It had said she was driving a car when pulled over due to speeding. That was just a few months ago. I had read comments that stated she was with Grave, and he is friends with a judge and was released on a technicality. Something about the cops hadn’t read them their Miranda rights. I’m not sure how true that is, and you can’t believe everything you read on the internet, but I do believe that Grave has connections all over this state, if not even further.