An Arrangement of Love (25 page)

“What are you doing here?”

Chase’s gaze shifted to me. He opened his mouth and then closed it. The candlelight flickered off his face, drawing my attention to those luscious lips and piercing eyes. He wore no shirt, just black pajama pants that hung low and exposed those curves of taut abdominal muscle I’d enjoyed trailing my tongue along when we were in Paris. My heartbeat increased, but this time it wasn’t due to fright.

“His heart is under steel locks and unbreakable bars, but once you find the key he’ll always be yours.”

“Are you going to answer me?” I lifted the blanket so I wouldn’t trip over it as I returned to bed.

“Truthfully, I don’t know why I’m here.” Chase averted his eyes and blew out air. “I guess I just wanted to see you and make sure you were doing okay. That this situation isn’t overwhelming for you.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re lying.”

My mouth dropped open, but no words came out.

“Make believe lover, he’ll take you to butterfly gardens and worlds with no wars. He’ll guide you along a path of rainbows and help you fly toward the stars.”

“What can I do for you?” he asked.

What could you do? Stay with me, like this is just a regular relationship, like it’s only me and you, not three other women vying for your attention and love.
But then it would just be one night, and tomorrow night I’d have to adjust to this crazy place all over again.

He moved around the bed and headed toward me.

“No. I’m fine,” I said.

He paused.

“Plus, you being here is against Dawn’s rules.” I playfully wagged my index finger at him, slung my blankets on the bed, and climbed back on it. “You know you can’t stay.”

“Damn the rules.” He plopped on the bed next to me. I blocked his hands as he attempted to embrace me.

“What’s wrong?” he whispered. “What’s bothering you?”

“Seriously.” I covered his mouth with my hand. “I’m okay.”

He hovered over me. “I watched you from my window while you stumbled out of the limo. You seemed different. I know your laugh and it wasn’t the same sound from when you laughed a few nights ago. At first, I wasn’t going to come, but...”

“But what?”

He said nothing else. A sinking feeling hit me. Insecurity drifted my way and replaced the little peace I’d been feeling. I bit my bottom lip. “Will I be the only room you visit tonight?”

“Of course.” He shifted to his side and lay next to me. “Jasmine, I swear I never do this. Dates are done by ten at night and I’m back in my apartment minutes later. I don’t do secret visits at any time. Especially on others’ date nights.”

“Then why are you doing this now?” For some reason, I was afraid of the answer. Nothing but bad thoughts jumbled my head.

Did he think he could just slip in, have sex with me, and slip out undetected? Would that be wrong or right?

He sighed and slid his fingers from my chin and down the curve of my neck.

I gently pushed him away. “Haven’t you already had sex with Dawn tonight?”

He groaned, but remained where he was. “Yes. We had a date. No. We did not have sex, and for your information, I’m not here for that.”

I centered my attention on the ceiling so he couldn’t see the doubt swimming in my eyes. “You should leave. Later, I’ll just wonder on one of my nights if you’re going to do this with someone else.”

“I won’t.”

“You don’t know that,” I mumbled.

“Please look at me. I won’t be doing secret visits for anybody.” He targeted me with those green eyes. My whole spirit floated his way like a traitor, leaving me to fend for myself.

“In his eyes are wishes, and in his lips are kisses, that will last well past when you’ve woken up.”

“Am I just a new toy to you?” I asked.

“Hell no. I’ve had many toys.” He shook his head. “What’s going on between us is different.”

“No. It’s not.” I closed my eyes.

“Why does it feel different to me?” He leaned in. His soft lips smoothed against mine. It felt so good to have him near me. His leather and vanilla scent wrapped around me, trapping me to him.
This is why I haven’t walked away.
Inhaling him, I relished in the press of his body. When his tongue entered my mouth, I groaned and collapsed into the mattress. He pulled back.

A hungry look replaced his usual expression, and I feared he would swallow me whole. “All night, even on my date with Dawn, I thought of you and our trip. I couldn’t get your scent out of my head or the way you moaned.”

“Don’t say that,” I muttered.

“For the first time in five years, this arrangement is...difficult.”

My body tensed.
But what did that mean for us? How did that relate to me?
I turned my head away from him. The satin pillow flattened against my cheek. Part of me craved an answer. The rest was too scared to hear it. Most likely nothing would change.

“He flies down to you, his wings flowing in the wind. He captures you with firm arms and soft skin.”

“Don’t make me leave.” He decorated the side of my face with tender kisses. “I’m not asking for us to have sex. I just want to be next to you.”

“For a few minutes?”

This is probably a horrible idea.

“I’ll stay as long as you’ll let me.” His voice caressed the loneliness deep inside my heart. In that undisclosed place where no one but only intimate lovers were acquainted with.

“Fine. Just for tonight.” I turned over, put my back to him, and switched the song to repeat. He pulled me closer to his body. His hardness molded onto the curve of my behind. Warmth pooled between my thighs. I heard an intake of breath as he smelled my hair and then brushed his nose against the back of my neck. I trembled in his arms, but he made no further move and stayed true to his promise of not coming to my room for sex. We remained on the bed, draped in each other’s arms and legs, silent, with only the lyrical stream of the song to serve as our conversation.

“I love you, Jasmine.”

And as usual, I offered him no reply, not ready to gift him with that final confession when I’d already presented him with my heart and body.

“And all the time you play among flowers and rise within the sky, He sees what’s in your heart and he never wonders why.”

Chapter 26

S
unlight seeped into
my bedroom. I woke up to Chase’s kisses on my skin, as delicate as if someone slid a feather against my arm. A sigh escaped his lips as he slipped his hand along the outline of my hips. Sometime during the night, he’d blown out all the candles and switched my music from Sapphire to the Beatles. Their voices lifted in flawless melody.

“I didn’t give you permission to change my music,” I mumbled. “You’ve lost serious cool points.”

He gripped my pajama pants with his hands. “Do I at least get points for not taking your clothes off in the middle of the night?”

“No.” I rubbed my behind against his erection as it pressed hard into me.

He groaned and edged away. “You’re making it tough to get out of bed.”

“Do we even have to go to work? You’re the boss and I can make it worth your while.”

“No, seductress. I’ve messed around enough with you these past days. I’ll bet there’s a pile of contracts on my desk.” He rolled out of bed. “Not to mention the fact that I haven’t worked out in days.”

I twisted around to watch him. His waves were ruffled into a funny mess. He dove his hands into his pants and adjusted his erection so it wasn’t pushing out and stretching the silk.

He’s so sexy.

He raised his arms over his head and stretched. “All that French food and eating out with you is going to fatten me up. I have to figure out how I’m going to squeeze in two workouts today.”

I rubbed my eyes with my hands. “I’ll probably run around your estates this morning and then—”

“No. Come with me to the gym.”

“To box?” I grinned. “I’m a pretty pitiful fighter. My brothers always handled my battles.”

“And now I’ll fight your battles.” He smirked. “You can run at my gym. I think there’s a treadmill in there. If not, I’ll make sure a top-of-the-line treadmill is in there by the time we arrive at the gym.”

“Maybe.”

He paused and tossed me a weird grin. “I love how you think my orders are suggestions.”

“I worry that you think your delusions of grandeur are reality.”

My phone rang before he could throw back a reply. He raised his eyebrows as I answered it.

“Hello?”

“Jasmine, it’s about time you answer your phone,” Mom said. “I haven’t heard from you in two weeks. Anything could have happened. That white girl said—”

“Vivian. Her name is Vivian, Mom.” I rolled my eyes. As long as I’d been friends with Vivian, my mom called her
that white girl
. Thankfully, she referred to Benny by his actual name so I only had to reprimand her for one person.

“Whatever. That white girl said you went to Paris.”

“I did.” Tension swelled in my shoulders. I got out of bed. “Mom, it’s early.”

“Well, while you were in Paris living the good life, your family was in South End with no electricity. They cut our power off. And it’s cold at night. Tee-Tee couldn’t even do her homework by candlelight. You know Sherman Jr. has asthma and we need the nebulizer to give him his treatments.”

“How much is the electric bill, Mom?”

“Three hundred and fifty dollars and there’s a fifty dollar late fee each week it’s off. They won’t take any checks or credit cards.”

I shut my eyes and chewed the inside of my cheek.
You would think she never knew the electric bill was coming. Every month we go through the same thing.
“How long has it been off?”

“Two weeks.”

Fuck. So an extra hundred bucks.

“Just as long as I’ve been calling and calling you,” she said. “Every day, not one time did you call me back.”

“I’m sorry. I was busy.”

“Obviously.”

Chase touched my arm. I opened my eyes.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

I covered the mouthpiece of the phone. “Yes. I’m sorry. I’ll just meet you at work later.”

I’d have to borrow more money from Vivian. The last thing I needed was Chase handing me money when he was already signing my paychecks and paying my rent. I didn’t want him to have any more power over me.
When do I get paid anyway? I’ll have to ask Lucy and figure out a good time to get down to the utilities company to pay the bill. What time did it close again, four or five?
Last month, I’d rushed down there right when they closed. They’d refused to take my cash and so my nieces and nephews lived in the dark another night.

Fuck.

Two weeks they’ve moved around in a cold and dark apartment in South End. Guilt coursed through my veins. Here I was, traveling the world, staying in a room in Paris that was worth over seven thousand a night, and living in a mansion, while my family was barely getting by.

Mom continued to rant. Chase remained standing in front of me. I stepped around him. He blocked me, wrapped his arm around my waist, and whispered in my ear. “How much do you need?”

“...you left South End and I understand why,” Mom continued. “But you can’t forget your family and where you came from. God gifts you with blessings so you can give back to those who need it, not so—”

“Mom, hold on.” I muted the phone and looked at Chase. “I’d rather not start borrowing money from you. I have this taken care of.”

The muscle in his jaw twitched. “So where would you get it?”

“Benny or Vivian.”

He laughed. “Don’t you think that’s a bit silly when your boyfriend is a billionaire?”

“You can pay me my salary when I earn it, but when it comes to my family, it’s my responsibility.”

He released me and headed to the nightstand. “That’s ridiculous. I’ll send Xavier over to your mother’s house and give her some money. How much does she need?”

It would be that simple.
I could just tell him the amount and she’d have it there in no time, but then how long would that continue?
Once my mother spotted a man showing up at her door in a limo with a stack of cash in his hand, my phone would never stop ringing. Even worse, it would get to the point where I depended on Chase to support my family and me. I’d witnessed men use the hell out of my mother and hurt my brothers and me. The entire time she allowed it just because she didn’t think she could financially survive without them.

“No. I can take care of it.” I walked to the bathroom to try to finish my phone call in private.

He seized my arm. “Why? Explain to me why I can’t simply give it to her.”

Mom and him are driving me crazy this morning!

“I don’t like to depend on other people to help me with my mom.”

“Too bad,” he said through clenched teeth. “I’d rather not have my woman race around town trying to gather a few hundred dollars that I could give her in seconds.”

“Why are you annoyed?”

“You look stressed out and I don’t like it.” He tapped my phone. “How much?”

“It’ll probably be around five hundred or so.”

“I have that in my wallet. Ridiculous.” He stomped off. “I can’t believe you would rather ask someone else for a few hundred when I have it.”

“If you give it to me, then I want you to take this amount out of my check on payday,” I said. “And I always go pay the bill myself so don’t worry about Xavier doing it.”

“You’re not going to South End.” His eyebrows furrowed.

“Yes I am. Stop worrying. I have four gorilla guards who monitor my movements.” I hung up on my mom. She’d just go on and on about what I didn’t do and how I hadn’t been there for her. I slid my pajama top off without unbuttoning it. “Besides, I have to go down to the utility company. The bill is in my and her name so he couldn’t do it.”

Chase’s eyes followed my movement and directed his attention to my nipples as they hardened from the cool morning air. “Why can’t your mother just pay the bill herself?”

“She’s raising my nieces and nephews. One of my nephews is four years old and he’s disabled. My youngest niece just turned two. It’s difficult for Mom to run errands with them by herself, especially when she will have to wait in a long line to pay a bill.”