Billionaire Brothers 2 : Love Has A Name (47 page)

Nicole had a right to be so calm yet cocky last night. After all, it was her quiet way of showing me that Lovello was always hers and never mine. She didn’t need to be all up in my face spitting venomous words or clawing my skin to prove it. To prove that, just like that, she could leave him, come back, and bowl away whomever he was with. Because he was
hers.

“You okay, Axia?” Trudy asked, concern coloring her voice. “What’re you going to do? Because I know that ‘break-up’ you told me about last night wasn’t really official.”

“What am I to do, Trudy, but move on with my life?” I answered simply. “He made his choice. There’s nothing I can do about that. Found a pack of condoms in his wallet this morning, you know. Two used. Figures.”

“Ah, so there was a ‘make up’ session last night, eh?”

“Yeah. He was at my house when I got home. But that’s shit now…”

“I dunno what to say, Axia. I know for sure that he’s loony about you but … maybe Nicole’s trying to frame him.”

Despite myself, I laughed. “Oh, sure. She just sunk her teeth into her own flesh like a desperate psycho-bitch. You’ve seen that woman in all her pomp and cockiness, Trudy. And you know, as well as I know, that to pass her off as a desperate ex would only be to soothe our own disappointment.”

Trudy sighed in defeat. “I know. It was the only thing I could come up with to plead Nelson’s case. But I guess he’s just what he is. And, no, I won’t say I told you so. I love you too much.”

“I deserve to hear it,” I mumbled.

The very second I ended the call, my phone started ringing. The four little letters that spelled the name ‘Zane’ flashed upon my phone screen. And I remembered his text message from that morning which said he was in town and wanted to have dinner with me. The idea suddenly sounded like a fantastic one. A
timely
one. The prospect of wielding a cane after dinner was all the more alluring. A remedy for ridding myself of this unrequested pain.

And so, it repeats. I was here again, heartbroken, mad, angry and desperate to inflict pain.

“Hello, Zane Zekiel,” I answered with a salacious drawl. “You have
purrrrfect
timing. I was just here thinking that dinner with you this evening would be such
painful pleasure
…”

XXV

I
pulled up to the curb of the restaurant that I’d agreed to meet Zane at for dinner, slithered out of my jeep and tossed the keys to the valet. The restaurant was new to me. Never been here before and had to use the jeep’s GPS to locate it. Titled ‘The Golden Seven’, it was exclusively tucked away at the dead end of a street, gobbling up the entire square footage from the left side of the street to the right, affording the restaurant’s façade the shape of a U. If captivating was what the architect was going for, then they’d nailed it.

Tossing my hair over my shoulders, I strutted up the gold-themed walkway where a tall doorman already had the door held open. His eyes zoned in on my breasts, and he had to swallow hard in order to mutter his pleasantries.

Shaded in all-black, I was provocatively dressed in leggings, with seven-inch thigh-highs and a sweetheart bustier that cinched my already slim waist and magnified my breasts. And I knew I resembled every bit the sinful temptress.

The elegance of the restaurant hugged me the minute I stepped through the door. Tastefully unique, The Golden Seven afforded a majestic ambience, with claw-feet tables covered under red silk tablecloths, and red velvet gilded chairs. Outrageous chandeliers were suspended from the ceiling, glimmering and bouncing their sparks off the crystal glasses, silverware and showy jewelry of the patrons. Esthetically enchanting, the ambience proclaimed affluence.

Espying Zane at a table on the far left, I navigated over to him. Zane was, as always, the epitome of dark and handsome. Shaded the same as I was, he wore a black button-down shirt and black jeans. His ever-present yet inconspicuous gold chain peeked out from beneath his shirt where the top three buttons were undone, glistening under the chandelier. His hazel-brown eyes looked at me in a heated way that only he looked at me. A way that made me feel like he really did love me and that I could believe everything he said.

I’m muddle-headed, I know.

“My heart,” Zane greeted, as he got up to pull me in for a tight hug. “You look … wow. Thigh-highs were
made
for you.”

Smiling, I pulled from his embrace. “It’s been a while, Zane. You never seem to get any less handsome and it pisses me off.”

Zane laughed aloud as he sat back down, as did I. “Ever the same, eh?”

“What on earth would make me change?” I smiled back. But that smile swiftly disappeared when I realized that I
had
changed. That I wasn’t
this
person anymore.
This
person was who I was trying to restore, now.
This
person was pretended. I had been changed. By Lovello. His love had changed me from a bitch to a …
girl
?

But now I was determined to exhume the Axia Blacksille that I’d buried six feet under for that stupid thing called ‘love’. And I was going to pump back into her the breaths of seven mongrel bitches.

“I’m glad you haven’t,” Zane said, grinning at me with so much affection that wasn’t the norm. Or was it because I hadn’t felt loved recently? “I’ve already ordered. Hope you don’t mind.”

“Why would I mind? You know everything about me. What I’d like and what I wouldn’t. I totally trust you, Zane.”
Besides, I’m dying to get this part over with so we can move on to the more fun stuff.

That earned me a bright, eye-blinding smile from him. “I’m glad you still feel the same way as I feel about you. You know me inside out, my heart. And that’s why I wanted to ask yo —”

His speech was interrupted by a curvaceous waitress who came to our table balancing a tray with soup appetizers. “Creamy wild mushroom,” she politely proclaimed as she set the soups down, then scurried off.

The aroma attacked my nostrils, reminding me that I was hungry, and I instantly dove in. Zane waited for me to consume a portion of my appetizer before he spoke again — he knew me well enough to know not to interrupt me while I ate, for the obvious reason that I
loved
food.

“Um, I want to enjoy this dinner, but I can’t, really,” he began. “My palms keep sweating and, um, maybe if I just get this out of the way … then I’ll be able to relax.”

He kept darting his eyes toward the entrance of the restaurant, while I wondered what on earth it was that he wanted to ‘get out of the way’. Zane didn’t do nervous: he was
overly
confident in all things. Unless he was pretending to be nervous, for whatever reason that might be.

“What’re you talking about?”

Zane took a deep breath. “Axia, I know I haven’t treated you fairly, and that I don’t deserve to have you. But you know, like I know, that what we have is
real
. Fight as we may, we’ll never be able to rid our hearts of each other. I love you. Always have and always will, and I
know
you love me, too. So, um, let’s just do things right this time, please…” He dipped inside his pocket, retrieved a red ring box and opened it, revealing an enormous diamond ring. “As I said, we’ll do it right this time. My heart, let’s … get married.”

It seemed all my inner organs had stopped what they were doing and began peeping through the pores of my skin, gaping at the man before me, because I was momentarily paralyzed, stiffer than
Spritz
on hair weave. Not even moisture was in my mouth.

Was he
crazy
! Did he just say
married
?!

Holy shit, I did not see this coming. All I wanted to do was have a good meal with the guy, take him home and beat the ever-loving shit out of him to let off some steam. And now he was
proposing
? Was I missing something? Did I step through a time machine and zoom past a
huge
chunk of my life towards the future?

Zane licked his lips in agitation. His eyes shot to the entrance of the restaurant then back to me. “I’m sorry for just springing this on you, Axia. But I can’t risk losing you. I’m sorry, but you’re mine and, although you’re speechless right now, I know the word you’ll say is
yes
.”

He removed the ring from the box, picked up my limp left hand from the table and slid the ring onto my finger. “There, there,” he soothed, bringing my hand to his lips. Kissing the ringed finger, he kept my hand tightly grasped in both of his.

My inner organs must’ve gotten bored with the show and went back to work, because my momentary paralysis was cured, and I was finally able to swallow past the lump in my throat to get my tongue wet and talkable again. “Zane, I —”

“Axia?” a familiar female voice said above me.

I snapped my gaze up to the sight of the sophisticated newly-weds, Natalio and Sadie. Natalio glanced from me to Zane, to the ring on my finger, to my hand in Zane’s, and anger flashed in his eyes, while Sadie’s face twisted in confusion.

“H-hi, Sadie,” I managed to get out. Natalio looked as if he opened his mouth, conflagration would toast me, so I didn’t dare utter his name.

Sadie’s eyes shifted to Zane on a frown, and then back to me. “Have you heard from Love?”

I made an I-could-care-less shake of my head and muttered, “Don’t know much about that guy these days.”

That seemed to piss Natalio off, because his sulfurous eyes torched me. Christ, the man was daunting. “You know that this is
his
goddamn restaurant, right? I can’t even … what the fuck is —”

“Babe, calm, please,” Sadie said, rubbing her palm down her husband’s chest in a calming manner. Turning her attention back to me, she spoke without acrimony. “Send Love a text message at least, Axia. Let him know that you’re okay and, um, occupied. He’s been frantic trying to reach yo —”

Her husband tugged her off before she could finish, biting out a “C’mon” while withdrawing his cellphone from his pocket. There’s no doubt he was phoning his brother. Not just Trevillo’s shit list that I was on now, I’d managed to make it onto Natalio’s, too.

“Well, that was awkward,” Zane blew out in a suspiciously casual tone.

Visible relaxation and contentment settled over him, which made me frown at the fact that he didn’t even care to inquire about this ‘Love’ person. Neither did he inquire about the miffed man and woman who had stopped at our table.

The peculiarity of it should’ve made me over-curious, but then zillions of thoughts were harrying my brain, causing it to puff clouds of smoke like an overworked machine. One thought being, I didn’t even know my boyfriend — er, ex-boyfriend — had a restaurant this lavish. Another thought being how coincidental it was that Zane had chosen a restaurant that was Lovello’s. A third thought being — well, more of a realization, actually — that this restaurant was where the ‘family dinner’ would be taking place.

Shifting, I glanced in the direction where Sadie and Natalio had ambled off to. Sure enough, at the right-end corner of the restaurant there was a crescent-shaped table, large enough to seat at least twenty people. And there sat Trevillo, Princessa and her husband, Natalio and Sadie, and two other couples that I didn’t know.

Had they been there all along, or did they all arrive at the same time? The restaurant was huge, so they could’ve easily come in without me seeing. Plus the positioning of our table was made at an oblique angle to theirs, so I had to turn slightly to see their table. Besides, it’s not like I was watching the entrance every two seconds like Zane.

A headache loomed in my forehead as I contemplated whether I should leave or stay. But why should I run as if I’ve done something wrong? I’ve done nothing wrong. Nothing … but
love
him.

Lovello’s been cheating on me with his ex, and they must’ve known about it. So why be surly with me as if
I’m
the villain? Sadie said Lovello was frantic trying to reach me? Well, he should be. Lying scumbag that he was.