Arranged love

ALEXA

“WHAT THE HELL happened last night?” April asks, holding her face in her hand while we sit at a booth in Empire.

“We got fucked up.” Jasmine laughs, cramming pancakes into her mouth. “Derek had to drive me home.”

“My brother?” I wonder.

She nods. “Yeah, he came with me.”

“But I thought he left us.” I don’t remember seeing him after Cross and the Kings disappeared.

“Damn, you were fucked.” She laughs. “How do you feel after the fight?”

“Like shit.” But it’s not from the fight. After I woke up alone in Cross’s bed, I managed to crawl my way to a shower, where I then threw up in it. Thankfully I was already sitting down, and the drain washed it away.

“Grave was … well, is so mad,” April adds. “I guess my brother ditched his fight last night after he found out we were there. Now he owes the Mason brothers again.” She knocks her fist on the table.

“Is she alive?” I ask, looking at Emilee. She has her arm fanned out across the table, her head resting on it, and her dark hair is covering her face.

“I’m resting my eyes,” she says in a rough voice.

We laugh.

“I’m pretty sure she’s still hammered. I’m not sure she ever went to sleep last night.” Jasmine wiggles her eyebrows. “If you know what I mean.”

“At least someone got some.” April yawns. “Grave was too pissed, and I think I fell asleep on the way home. Not sure. I woke up at six this morning dying of thirst.”

Emilee sits up, throwing her hair off her face, and takes in a deep breath. “I did get fucked. And no, I haven’t gone to bed yet.”

A silence falls over the table, and I think back to last night. I remember all of it. Ethan showing up and spilling April’s drink on her. The fight in the bathroom. Cross being covered in blood … the restroom fuck. Him carrying me upstairs. Our conversation. It was the first time I felt loved. Really loved. And I want to return that favor to him. Because I feel like he’s never experienced it.

_______________

AFTER THE GIRLS and I finish breakfast, I make my way down to Tit for Tat.

“Good morning, Alexa.” Rachel’s replacement smiles at me.

“Hello, Evelyn.” I really like her. She’s super nice and hasn’t tried to fuck Cross, so that’s a bonus. “Is he in?” I ask, pointing at the hallway.

“He just stepped out for a second. But you can go on back there.” She picks up the phone on her desk that starts ringing.

I make my way down the hall and back to his room. Stepping in, I close it behind me. I know he doesn’t have an appointment until later today because I heard him talking to Bones on his phone yesterday while on our way to the Airport last night.

Spotting his Zippo on the counter, I pick it up and run my finger over the engraved words. And they make me feel even better about my decision. To prove to him what it’s like to be loved.

“Hey, gorgeous.” I hear him enter behind me.

I turn to face him. “Hi.”

He’s dressed in a black Kingdom shirt that pulls tight against his chest, shoulders and tatted arms. Light wash jeans and black sneakers. You would never know he killed someone last night. The blood gone, probably washed down a drain. He shows no sign of remorse. And I didn’t expect him to. That’s not who my King is.

“Busy?” I ask, biting my lower lip.

“Never too busy for you.” He comes up to me, wraps his arms around my waist, and leans down, kissing me on the lips.

I open up for him, and he deepens the kiss. His large hand runs up my back to tangle in my hair. I moan into his mouth when he pulls on it.Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

He starts to walk me backward, and I pull away. “I didn’t come for sex,” I say quickly before I’m lying naked in his tattoo chair.

He sighs, reaching up and running his hand through his hair. “If this is about last night …”

“It is,” I tell him, but not in the way he thinks. Turning around, I pick up his Zippo.

“Alexa …”

I face him once again, holding it up, and he trails off, staring at it in my hand. I flip it open and light it up. I watch the flame dance gently in my hand from my soft breath. It’s beautiful. How something so deadly can also be harmless. That’s Cross. He is what he needs to be when he needs to be it. To a man stuck out in the cold, fire is what will keep him alive. To a man trapped in a car, fire is his enemy.

I was that cold, lifeless body freezing to death, and Cross came along and lit my world on fire.

Closing the Zippo, I look down at it, and my thumb rubs over the engravement once again. We all have a cross to bear.

“We don’t have to bear our crosses alone,” I say, looking up at him through my lashes. “You know that, right?”

He looks away from me, and I watch his Adam’s apple move as he swallows.

I set the Zippo back on the counter and walk over to him. Cupping his face, I force him to look down at me. “I love you. And whatever cross you bear, I will help you carry it.”

CROSS

I LIE IN my bed of the Royal Suite, the TV on but the sound off. Alexa sleeps curled up next to me. Her arm draped over my bare chest.

I rub my hand up her arm to her hand and turn it over, looking at the tattoo I gave her earlier today when she came to visit me.

She showed up at Tit for Tat. I thought she was going to walk away from me. After what happened last night, I wouldn’t blame her. I showed her who I really was at the Airport. She said she could take it, but I wasn’t sure how she would feel once she woke up this morning.

The tattoo she wanted proved she was right.

A cross on the inside of her left wrist. It’s burning bright like a fire. “A reminder you’re not alone.” She had told me. It’s a much smaller version of the one on my back. I got mine when I hated the world and wanted to cover up my past. She wanted hers to prove love is real and we have a future. A brand to show the world we bear the same cross.

I’ve only ever had the Kings. And although I love them like brothers, Alexa is my world. The piece I didn’t know I needed.

She’s not my redemption. No, she’s my reminder that you don’t need to be saved in order to be loved.

I kiss her wrist and set it back down on my chest, closing my eyes, knowing that when I wake up, she’ll still be here.