Wicked Surrender (Hollis Brothers Book 3) Page 15

  “Are you serious right now?” She glared at him for a long time. He returned her glare with one of his own. She swallowed as if to calm herself before saying tightly, “PS; the Xin Monsters perform here only on weekdays. Another team comes in during the weekend.” She gave him a smile, so filled with faux sweetness he was surprised it didn’t melt him. “So you can rest easy. Your guests were well entertained.”

  He’d never felt more foolish in his life – or less satisfied with an answer. He still wanted to know why the hell she’d gone for that concert with Enzo. But before he could ask, London had stomped off in a huff. Enzo was the first to come up to her when she drew closer to the stage.

  His eyes on Zeke, Enzo lowered his head and said something in London’s ear. The tightening of Zeke’s muscles was as immediate as the bile that rose to his throat at the intimate picture Enzo and London made. He wanted to storm past every single guest and haul her away from Enzo to some deep, dark cave where no other men could talk to her - or even look at her.

  It was then that Zeke understood exactly what was wrong with him - why he was so annoyed. He was jealous – of Enzo.

  Damn it!

  Here he was deluding himself that he and London were just friends with benefits, meanwhile his feelings were wrapping themselves tighter around her and growing. First comes jealousy, them comes…

  Damn it all to hell!

  ZEKE WAS UNBELIEVABLE. And to think that she’d been missing the idiot.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” Enzo asked for what had to be the one hundredth and sixty-third time this evening. Why, it was almost as many times as he’d walked off-stage to talk on his phone.

  “No,” London said, trying very, very hard not to snap at him since she knew he was just being a concerned friend.

  “It’s not about something we did, is it?” Maurice asked.

  “No, it’s not,” London returned tightly. “Let’s just focus on the performance. Please!”

  All the boys threw her wary glances before they started on their next set. Music always made her feel better and by eleven she was feeling much calmer - but not calm enough to talk to Zeke. When Enzo offered her a ride home, she took it with both hands. He’d behaved himself well enough on Saturday that she felt marginally more comfortable with him.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Enzo asked as he navigated towards her place.

  “Yes,” she returned wearily, staring past the window to the cars cruising along the highway with them.

  “You sure?” he persisted. She didn’t even bother answering.

  Hardly thirty minutes later Enzo parked his blue Ford Mustang in front of her apartment complex.

  “Thanks for the ride,” London said as she opened the car door.

  “You’re welcome.” He also exited the car. “Let me walk you up.”

  “You don’t need to do that.”

  “I want to,” he insisted.

  After him bringing her home, it seemed churlish to refuse his gentlemanly offer. She shrugged and started towards the complex. He fell into silent step beside her. When they got to her floor, she reached into her purse to extract her keys but before she could, Enzo jumped in front of the door. “I want you to see something.”

  “Yes, I see you blocking my way in to my apartment.” She shook her keys. “Move.”

  “No, I want you to see something before you go into your apartment.” He smiled brightly as he pushed back a loose strand of his dark hair. “I have a surprise for you. On the roof.”

  “What kind of surprise?”

  “Well, it wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you, would it?” He grinned cheekily.

  “Enzo, I’m tired,” she huffed. “I’ve been standing on heels all day and I just want to put my feet up and-”

  “Come on,” he wheedled. “It won’t even take five minutes. And it will cheer you up.”

  She leveled a narrow-eyed gaze at him. “Five minutes?”

  “Five minutes,” he promised.

  She mulled over at for a long second then sighed. “Fine. What’s on the roof?”

  Had she known what was there, she would never have capitulated.

  The moment she pushed the metal door that opened out onto the roof, her heart sunk. The roof had undergone a makeover. It’d been converted into a restaurant for two. There were roses sprinkled on the dusty concrete, music playing from the radio at the corner of the roof, and a table set up right in the middle of the space. And, man, was that table set up. White tablecloth, lit candle in the middle, bucket with wine next to it, covered plates with what could only be dinner…

  This was awful!

  “Enzo,” London said slowly as she stared at the set up. “What is this?”

  “Your surprise.” He rocked on his heels as he beamed at her.

  “You did all this for me?”

  “Yes.” He paused briefly to add. “Well, with a little help from Farah. You looked so pissed off tonight that I thought I’d do something nice for you. I know dinner isn’t much, but hopefully it will be enough for now.”

  It sounded very sweet and romantic, which made it all the more horrible when she had to say, “I’m sorry Enzo, I can’t do this.”

  “What you can’t eat dinner?”

  “I can’t eat a romantic dinner with you.” Her voice softened as she said, “Enzo, we’ve talked about this.”

  “Talked about what?” His voice rose with each word he spoke. “What’s so bad about eating a romantic dinner with me? So what? Now that you hang out with all those rich people you can’t even have dinner with your poor friends?”

  “You know that’s not what I meant, Enzo,” she said, calmly.

  “Then what did you mean?” he asked. But before she could even answer, he thrust in with. “You can take my tickets but you can’t eat dinner with me?”

  What? Her own anger lifting to the surface, she said, “If I’d known there were strings attached to those tickets I never would’ve gone to that concert with you.”

  “Yeah! Right,” he scoffed.

  “I have made it clear more than enough times that you and I are just friends,” she said firmly. “And that’s not going to change anytime soon. If you think that tickets and dinner will make me so grateful I’ll just fall into your arms, then you’re wasting your time, Mister. Not. Gonna. Happen.”

  “Well, I’m not interested in being just friends with you,” he said. And before she could respond to that, he threw his hands up and declared, “Fine. You don’t want to eat dinner - you don’t have to eat dinner.”

  He stomped towards the table, grinding all the rose petals beneath his heels on his way there. With one rough yank at the tablecloth, he upended everything on the table and sent them crushing to the ground. The sound of glass shattering and metal clanging shattered the night’s still silence.

  “Fuck you, London. Fuck you,” Enzo screamed as he picked up a plate that had somehow escaped The Great Yank and tossed it over the roof.

  Ugh! She was not in the mood for this nonsense tonight. Kissing her teeth, she turned on her heels and left through the same door they’d come through. Even as she descended the stairs, she could still hear Enzo yelling his head off. To who? Who cared.

  The commotion upstairs had attracted a lot of attention, and several of her neighbors were outside their apartments. Her descent down the stairs was slowed by people stopping her to ask what was going on.

  “Just some guy going crazy up there.” She waved off their concern.

  “Do you want me to call Joe to come and deal with him?” Mrs Lakshmi from the fourth floor asked.

  London hesitated for a moment. If Joe, their building manager, came he’d ban Enzo from ever entering the building again. Which would be convenient. However, despite all his faults, Enzo was still her friend. Sighing deeply, she said, “No, I’ll deal with him.”

  Continuing down the stairs, she shot him a text. ‘Our sup is on his way. Keep acting like a little bitch up there and you’ll have to dea
l with him.’

  She found Farah and Amani standing outside their apartment. The moment Farah spotted London, she started in with, “Did you refuse to have dinner with him?”

  London came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs. “I don’t see how that’s your business.”

  “Do you know how hard he worked to set that whole thing up for you?” Farah squeaked. From what London had heard it was Farah who’d done all the work. But before she could say anything, Farah pushed her way past her, climbing up the stairs and muttering beneath her breath, “Some people are so ungrateful.”

  London stared at Farah’s retreating back, anger and disbelief boiling within her system. As if she didn’t have enough problems with Zeke and Enzo, now her housemate was angry with her too? Great. Just great!

  CHAPTER 17

  A week later, Zeke was doing hard labor. Literally.

  “I should’ve known it was too good to be tr-” Zeke’s breath hitched as he heaved the mattress higher and took another step down the hallway. “-true. Danny? Offer free food for nothing? Over his dead body.”

  “I told you there was a catch,” Nathan, who was hanging on to the other side of the mattress, shot Zeke a dirty look. “This is your fault.”

  “Are you two ladies still whining?” Danny called out from the open door. “It’s just a mattress, not a car.”

  “Then come and carry it yourself, you ungrateful punk,” Zeke retorted as he took another step upwards.

  “I can’t. My hands are full here.” Danny smirked as he hiked Colin higher up his body. “Aren’t they, buddy?” He nuzzled his face into the toddler’s neck earning himself several happy gurgles. He turned back to his brothers and said, “Lift that mattress higher, boys! What are all those muscles for?”

  “That’s it,” Zeke let his side of the mattress down just as Nathan did the same thing. “I’m done.”

  “Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.” Danny laughed. “You can lift as low or as high as you want.”

  “Say one more word and we’ll walk away,” Nathan threatened.

  His eyes twinkling with amusement, Danny made a zipping motion over his mouth. Of course that promise only lasted until the mattress was safely installed in his new guestroom then he commented, “Took you long enough.”

  “You really have a death wish, don’t you?” Zeke laughed as he stepped in front of Nathan to keep him from jumping their youngest brother.

  “I swear, sometimes…” Nathan shook his head as he shot daggers at Danny. “I don’t even know why you’re moving into such a big house. Wasn’t your apartment big enough for your overgrown head?”

  Not at all put off by the insult, Danny shrugged. “It was Misha’s idea. Her way of convincing me that we should have another baby.” He shuddered.

  “I take it that’s you way of saying you don’t want to another child,” Zeke commented as he held out his arms for Colin. The little tyke came to him eagerly and snuggled against his shoulders.

  “Hell, No. Have you been in the labor room?” Danny made a face. “I am not doing that to her again.” He turned to Nathan to say, “Trust me, bro. You were lucky. Shakira saved you when she banned you.”

  “That’s what she says too.” By the annoyed glint in Nathan’s eyes it was obvious that he hadn’t gotten over that whole event yet. To be fair to Shakira, he’d deserved it. With the way he’d been so panicked, pacing the hallways, yelling at doctors and nurses, and demanding she be flown by chopper to a better location, it was a wonder the man hadn’t been banned from the hospital.

  “Are you sure you only want one kid?” Zeke spoke to Danny even as he sunk his nose into Colin’s neck, inhaling the baby’s clean, powdery, sweet smell. This was the only gift he was looking forward to from marriage. Children. Yes, children! There was no way he’d be satisfied with just one.

  “No, I want more,” Danny confessed. “But I’d prefer we adopted them.”

  “Do you think Misha will agree to-” Nathan’s words were cut off by the arrival of his wife and daughter.

  “Daaa,” Talia squealed the moment she spotted her father.

  “The little horror has been crying for you for the last five minutes.” Shakira rolled her eyes as she handed the toddler over to Nathan.

  “That’s because she knows who the fun parent is.” Nathan chuckled as he kissed his daughter’s forehead. “Don’t you, baby?”

  “No, she knows who the wimpy parent is,” Shakira teased, before asking, “Are you guys done here? Your step-dad just got in.”

  All three men instantly stiffened. Zeke was the first to ask what were all thinking, “Is Mother with him?”

  “Nah! Winston came alone,” Shakira said, “Apparently Edya had better things to do with her time.”

  “Thank God.” “God answers prayers.” “Hooo, for a minute there…” The universal sighs of relief drew a chuckle from Shakira.

  “You’re all awful.” She shook her head as she exited the room. “Now hurry up. The burgers aren’t going to grill themselves.”

  The men and toddlers followed after her, descending the stairs to find the rest of the family gathered on the patio of Danny and Misha’s new home. Danny and Nathan joined Winston by the grill while Zeke found himself automatically searching for London. His gaze landed on her a distance away at the picnic table, cutting up salad ingredients and chatting with Misha. The moment he spotted her, a fist curled tightly around his heart.

  One week.

  It’d been a week since she’d acknowledged him, let alone even spoken to him. She was icing him out so hard, he felt cold every time he walked into the hotel bar for one of their performances. Not that he blamed her - he’d behaved quite unreasonably. Normally, he would’ve apologized by now, but for the moment her anger at him was serving a purpose. It was supposed to give him the distance he needed to shed the confusing feelings he had for her.

  Not that it was working.

  If anything those feelings seemed to be growing. Each day they didn’t talk was another day of hurt for him. He felt like he was missing an important part of his life - like the darkness and dissatisfaction was creeping back in. Make that flooding back in. It was so bad, his personal assistant had commented that he was more irritable these days and his staff were walking on egg-shells around him. He missed having London in his life, and it was affecting his mood. Maybe cutting her off wasn’t the best idea. Maybe having her back in his life was just what he needed to ground himself.

  “Mmph,” Colin sighed in Zeke’s arms drawing his uncle’s attention.

  Zeke looked down to find the little guy rubbing a fist over his eyes as if in obvious need of sleep. Zeke settled on one of the lounge-chairs and leaned backwards so he could set Colin more comfortably on his chest. As soon as he did, the baby closed his eyes. Still smoothing his hand over Colin’s back, he lifted his gaze upwards again and back to London, just in time to find her looking at him too. As soon as their gazes locked, she immediately turned her eyes away.

  His heart sunk with immediate disappointment. He missed the days when a meeting of their eyes would automatically mean a smile from her.

  ZEKE LOOKED SO good with a baby in his arms. Not that there was ever any time when he didn’t look good. But to see him being so fatherly with Colin sent a prick of yearning through London. Would he be that fatherly with his own children? What did it even matter? It wasn’t like she’d ever be a significant participant in that part of his life - maybe just a witness. And a jealous one at that.

  Sighing, London turned back to slicing the yellow peppers. Honestly, she wasn’t even angry at Zeke anymore. The one week apart had done more than just cool off her anger – it’d also clarified things for her. Being around Zeke was bad for her. Without a doubt, her feelings for him were nowhere in the vicinity of platonic. What she felt for him was beyond just friendship.

  Whenever Zeke came close to her, his presence seemed to suck the breath from her lungs, her throat closed up, every cell in her body seemed suddenly hypersensitive. N
o one felt that for just a friend. And they certainly didn’t feel jealous when they thought of that man being with another woman. Even now, even knowing what she knew about Meredith and Zeke’s non-existent engagement, London still couldn’t think of that woman without wanting to wring someone’s neck.

  If he was any other man these feelings would be perfectly okay. But he was the heir-apparent to the Landa-Hollis empire. A man who could never love a woman like her, and her feelings were wasted on him.

  The only consolation in this whole mess was that he had no idea how she really felt about him, and she intended to keep it that way. She’d run through her options; either keep denying her real feelings and messing with him thus digging herself deeper into that dark hole, or accept it and take steps to keep from falling deeper than she already had. She’d decided to go with the latter.

  No more Zeke for her. No more seducing him, no more sex. No more going up to his apartment because that’s how her journeys into his bed always started. From now on, she’d try her best to keep all their meetings in public places where they both had no other choice but to keep their hands to themselves. And if they did end up alone together, she’d make sure that nothing - nothing - happened.

  “Damn! What did those carrots do to you?” Misha interrupted London’s musings. “You’re hacking them up like they stole your hair-dye.”

  “They probably did,” Shakira added, as she joined them at the picnic table. “I have never seen you with pure black hair.”

  “I’m trying something new,” London smoothed a hand over her short hair, now its natural color. No, this had nothing to do with trying to be more like a woman Zeke might love. Like she’d said, she was trying something new.

  Shakira studied her then shook her head. “It doesn’t suit you.”

  “You’re supposed to say I look good.” London bumped her friend’s shoulder with her own. “With friends like you…”

  “… everyone would be much happier,” Shakira finished for her with a laugh. She turned to Misha to say, “Speaking of happiness. I heard your man saying that you wanted another baby. Are you crazy?”