Destructive Luxe-A Luxe Novel: Book 2 Page 13

  "This one only goes about fifteen miles per hour." Pulling it out, I accidentally run over the yellow bow before quickly sticking it to the seat.

  "My uncle bought me a huge doll house when I was a kid. Never got me a four-wheeler."

  "You're a girl."

  "I never played with the doll house. It held books."

  Something has me doubting that. She seems more like a girly girl than a bookworm type of girl.

  "You're the best uncle ever." The smile on her face runs deeper than playing up her paid for part and it makes me want to kiss her.

  I've had that urge a thousand times but this time it's different. It's her compliment, or her face, or her mannerisms, or I'm forgetting again that this isn't real.

  "Uncle Justin!" I hear Pete scream my name and I look away from El to grin at the kid barreling full speed at me. I know he's going to try and knock me down.

  I can either let him and risk looking like an idiot in front of El, or I can stop him in his tracks and make him think he's a weakling. I opt for the hit. He slams me to the ground and throws his body onto mine, somehow connecting his knee with my nuts.

  "Crap, dude," I gasp as he laughs. Pinning him to the ground, I use him to push myself up and now he moans painfully. "Dude," I whisper seeing my sister coming and I hand him the four-wheeler key. "Here. Take it, hurry."

  "Alright!" he shouts, jumping onto the four-wheeler.

  "Peter!" Beth, my sister, is screaming. "Peter, don't you dare!"

  Pete's gone, he's zooming around at eight miles per hour like a madman.

  "Justin," Beth snarls and punches my arm. "He needs a helmet."

  "Quit makin' the kid a huge dork, Beth."

  "You're a huge dork if you don't wear a helmet." She crosses her arms watching Pete ride in circles.

  Trouble's coming though; here comes his brothers. Beth tried six times for a girl; Beth got six boys.

  Now that the boys are fighting, I'm staying out of that. She makes her way over and her husband, Steve, approaches looking beat. He's carrying the newest family member, Jonah, who's nine months.

  "How's it going?" I slap my hand into Steve's and he puffs.

  "Going on two hours of sleep and nine cups of coffee," he mutters, his eyes slowly drifting to El.

  Somehow I forgot El's here. I'm not used to having a 'girlfriend' at these types of things. Even when married to Layna, she didn't attend family functions with me.

  "Steve, this is El. Steve's my brother-in-law."

  She puts on a sweet smile and shakes his hand.

  "She's your friend?" Steve's confused and I think getting turned on by El's nipples standing at attention through her blue sweater. He's flush and keeps shifting like he's trying to adjust himself in his pants.

  Poor dude. I can't imagine what six kids does to your sex life. There was a point in time when I wanted that though. The wife, the litter of kids, now…

  "Girlfriend," I answer, bringing my attention back to the fighting boys.

  "Justin Lorenzo Borg!" My cousin Katie shouts my name. "Why would you do that? You know that's going to start a fist fight!" Katie has four boys and one little princess.

  "What?" I laugh.

  All nine boys are fighting over the four-wheeler and I realize how dumb my decision was.

  "I'll pick up a few more. I didn't think about it," I mumble.

  In an attempt to help Beth, she's trying to stop the fighting and organize some semblance of control. The entertaining quarrel has me in laughter. I still would have chosen this life with the right person.

  "Whelp." Steve shoves the baby at me. "I should probably help."

  Jonah's cooing away while I grin at him, bouncing him in my arms. I turn toward El who smiles but keeps her arms folded tight to her chest.

  "He's so cute. What's his name?"

  "Jonah."

  The bouncing game continues because I don't know what else to do with him and this seems to be keeping him occupied enough not to start crying.

  A stocky figure catches my eye over El's shoulder. "Christ," I mumble. She glances back and I lean a little closer to her, quietly telling her, "This is Katie's husband coming up. He's a complete knob scumbag. Avoid him if you can."

  She steps closer to me but coos and smiles at Jonah.

  "I'm sorry I didn't introduce you. There's a lot of commotion."

  "You've started a war." She smirks and squints, lifting her hand to block the sun and watch the boys fight.

  There's this thing inside me…this feeling. An urge to protect her, care for her, and I don't know what the fuck I'm thinking, but I pull my sunglasses from my face and carefully set them on her nose. I just gave her my favorite glasses… The smile she gives me erases my irrational worry about fucking sunglasses. Goddamn, she's sexy.

  Jonah's fussing reminds me we're not alone and I try making baby noises at him, but he's not havin' it. El lifts the pacifier attached to his shirt and pops it into his mouth. He shuts up.

  LILITH's reflection no longer seems the same

  Nine boys are in a battle to the death over a four-wheeler. Justin's intentions were sweet, but bringing one toy like this amongst nine kids, that was just stupid.

  He wants me to interact with this baby but I don't know how. I've never been around a baby. Ever. Never held one, talked to one, barely even look at them, so I have no idea what to do.

  "Justin," the short man Justin referred to as a 'knob scumbag' says his name with a nod. The stature on this man is similar to an ape the way his head looks like it's sitting on his shoulders with no neck. "Sup," he says to me, his eyes automatically going to my chest.

  I smile and turn toward Justin, hoping to hide my breasts that I'm almost positive my erect nipples are drawing attention to. The cool breeze has managed to keep them at attention.

  "El, this is Rod, my cousin's husband," Justin says, wrapping his arm around my back.

  "Hi." I don't offer a hand to shake; he even looks like a creep.

  "Where'd you come from?" Rod asks me and I'm grateful Justin's glasses are hiding my now narrowed eyes, but he probably saw my eyebrows initially shoot up at his stupid question. "Did it hurt?"

  My immediate thought is my arm has split open and there's blood, so in confusion I glance toward my arm, not seeing anything.

  "What?" I ask bewildered.

  "When you fell from heaven." He chuckles.

  Through my irritation I manage a smile.

  "You should probably wrangle your boys." Justin looks over his shoulder at the mess of screaming, kicking children.

  When he walks away I mutter, "Oh boy."

  "Yep," Justin says then turns to Jonah and starts baby talking, saying, "He's a tool. Douchey douche."

  I'm laughing as he insults Rod in baby talk until I hear a very girly shriek come from the cluster of fighting boys.

  "You should probably go help. This is your fault," I tell him, nodding toward the mess of boys.

  "Hold this." When he shoves the baby at me, I realize I've made a big mistake. I don't even know how to hold a baby!

  God, he's heavy and I don't want him to hit my arm. There is no way I can carry him around. I wonder if he walks. I feel for shoes and he's wearing them so I squat and stand him up.

  "Big boy," I keep saying over and over because he's smiling and drooling about it. "Jonah's a big boy."

  Softly poking his pudgy stomach, he laughs. This is kind of easy. I just have to act like he's adorable and he likes it.

  Paul is waddling his way across the rocky parking lot and he's got a cute little girl at his side. Taking Jonah's hand, I stand and start walking toward Paul because I'm hoping he'll take him and save me from making Jonah cry when he realizes I know nothing about babies. The baby's slow but he's moving tiny step, by tiny step.

  To my surprise, Paul bends down and puts his arms out for Jonah and coos him over. Where's the rancorous old man?

  I let Jonah's hand go and the little boy walks to his grandfather with drool rolling down
his face. All of a sudden a shriek jolts me and I spin around to see the sister staring, mouth agape, holding her hands out in front of her.

  "Oh my god!" she shrieks.

  I think I did something wrong! I look back at the baby. He's fine, safe in Paul's arms.

  "He walked, Steve! He walked!" she screams.

  Oh crap, I don't think I was supposed to let him walk or something. Oh god, what if he's handicapped and I was making him walk? My stomach is feeling sick and I have no idea what to say.

  "Big boy!" she coos, running toward the baby. "Who's mommy's big boy? You are! You are!"

  She's excited he walked…maybe he doesn't walk yet. He's a huge kid not to be walking. I'd die having to carry him around.

  "Great, ZP. Give you a kid for five minutes and you teach him to walk," Justin teases with a grin.

  "Shut up," I whisper with a laugh. "I didn't know he didn't walk. I just assumed he walked. He was walking good with me."

  Laughing, Justin drapes his arm around my shoulders and I grab his hand, biting his finger because he won't stop laughing at me.

  "Is she mad?" I whisper looking at his sister.

  "No." He laughs again. "I think she's stoked. Look at her."

  She's swinging the boy around and kissing him over and over. Jonah doesn't look like he likes it.

  "Good job, ZP," he says genuinely and kisses the side of my head.

  I lean into him and wrap my arms around him, holding him like this is real. This isn't real but it feels so natural with him.

  His sister is laughing and headed my way. "Hi! I'm Beth." She puts her hand out.

  "Beth, this is El," Justin quickly says.

  "Nice to meet you. Thank you for getting him to walk!"

  "I thought he walked. I'm sorry."

  "God, don't be sorry! I've been waiting for him to walk. He's a big boy!" She looks over at Jonah who's with Paul. "I'm Justin's sister." The expression on her face is telling me she wants my title.

  "She's my girlfriend." Justin's curt tone indicates he doesn't like that she's prying.

  She smiles, sizing me up like maybe seeing if I'm good-looking enough for her brother.

  "Are you going to talk for her the whole afternoon?" She looks at Justin and I smirk.

  "I may," he responds.

  "Does he do stupid stuff like that with your family?" Beth points to the four-wheeler. "Bring one four-wheeler for nine boys?"

  I laugh. "No, I can't say he has."

  "It was El's idea!" Justin boasts and I hip check him. "Put two on at a time. That battery's gonna die soon anyway. It's crankin' at about three now."

  "How fast does it go?"

  "Only goes like ten-ish. Chill out, overprotective mom. How much damage can they do going ten?"

  "If they're anything like you, they'll figure it out."

  He grins then glances around, asking, "Where's Barry?"

  Shutting herself off a little, she shoves her hands into her hoodie pocket. "He's not coming."

  "Douche," Justin mumbles and I can tell there's some sort of family issue there.

  "Yeah, so once again the boys wonder who the heck Uncle Barry is. Thanks for being around for them." In a sweet gesture she rubs his arm and I feel I should be nowhere around for this but I can't run away.

  "I'm not gonna miss out on them growing up." He's focused on the boys but there's a trace of resentment on his face and I have a feeling it's toward his brother.

  "You could have a few of your own." Beth grins and her gaze slowly drifts to me.

  An abrupt laugh expels from my mouth and Justin hip checks me.

  "Whad’ya say, ZP? Wanna pop out a few of those for me?"

  "Oh no." I'm still laughing. "No kids for me."

  "How old are you, El?" Beth's wide smile is doing a lot of talking as I flush pink at thoughts of bearing Justin's children.

  "Twenty-two," I manage without girlishly giggling.

  "There's still time to change your mind. I had my first at twenty. He's eleven today. I'm old," she grumbles.

  Justin laughs. "Yep."

  Paul tried to give Lilith a hard time about her career but she sweetly knew how to defuse him. And as much as he portrayed he didn't, he liked her company.

  While Pete opened his gifts, her phone began to ring. Justin nodded toward a tree and she discreetly slipped away to answer Ian's call.

  "Hey, baby," she whispered.

  "Are you home?"

  "No. I'm at a birthday party. Are you home?"

  "I'm still in the office. This is going to be a long day. Whose birthday party are you at? Is this a family thing I should be at?"

  "No, baby, it's Justin Borg's nephew's party—"

  "Your date ended two hours ago," he snapped.

  "You want to fight about this now?" she bitched.

  "I don't want to fight, baby," he breathed. "This day has been long. I want to go home to you. I'm going to lose a lot of fucking money." A loud banging noise sounded over the phone and she jumped, realizing he hit or threw something.

  Cautiously, she asked him, "Why are you going to lose money, Ian?"

  "I'll talk to you about it at home."

  "When will you be home?"

  "I'm not sure yet. I'll let you know."

  "I love you," she whispered.

  "I love you, Lily."

  Lilith walked her way back over to the crowd and put her hand to Justin's back as she put her phone away. His arm pulled her closer and he leaned to kiss the side of her head.

  When they were back on the road after Justin's family treated Lilith with such kindness, begging her to come back around, she seemed more distant. Her mind and emotions were sitting in a dangerous place as she began developing critically damaging feelings for Justin.

  "You hungry?" He glanced at her, noticing the mood shift.

  Putting her hand to her stomach, she scrunched her nose. "No. I've eaten a donut and two cups of cider. I'm not hungry."

  He smiled at her and reached over, pushing hair from her lip. Such a small gesture made her emotions want to take over for her brain.

  "I had a lot of fun today, Justin."

  "Being around a bunch of kids is like being at the circus." He smiled at her.

  She chuckled and said, "I have fun with you," taking his hand.

  His thumb caressed her skin as he responded, "I do too, ZP. You have plans?"

  "When?" She cocked her eyebrow.

  "Now, tonight, like now."

  "I don't have plans. Do you?"

  "I do and if you're interested…" He threw a glance her way.

  "I am. What're your plans?"

  "I'm meeting a couple friends to play paintball."

  "I've never played." She grinned at the idea.

  The critically damaging emotions had already taken residence inside him, and his feelings were already controlling his words. She met his family, now she could meet his friends. These steps were going against his normal private life. His escorts were supposed to strictly be for the public eye and family was supposed to be told about her, not meet her. To make himself at ease with her invading everything he'd shut off from women, he told himself she was a friend.

  A wooded area behind one of Justin's friend's house was the playing grounds for paintball. It was dark out but there were floodlights lighting the area enough to faintly make out hiding spots.

  Justin got Lilith geared up then pushed the faceplate down. "You look cute." He grinned.

  "I can't wait until this outfit is one of your date requirements."

  Having no idea what she was doing, she stayed hidden most of the game. She'd gotten hit on her unprotected side and the pain was a jolting shock.

  Justin approached her, grabbing her vest to unsnap it. "You alright?"

  Grabbing her side, she laughed. "That really hurts."

  "Let me see." He took his phone out to illuminate the area with the backlight and pulled her sweater up.

  "It's fine." She tried to push her shirt down but he stoppe
d her.

  She saw the silent demand on his face before he squatted to examine her side. On his knees, he looked at the hickey-like wound and softly kissed it. The sharp inhale from the tingles that spread over her flesh had her stepping back. A secure grasp of her hips pulled her toward him as his lips pressed to her cool flesh. When his tongue tasted the silk of her skin she let out a small moan and her fingers delved into his messy curls. Tasting kisses wrapped from her side to her navel before inching to the waist of her jeans. If he went any farther she'd have no qualms about fucking him in the woods behind a canoe.

  Quickly dropping to her knees, they locked eyes. The crunching of approaching footsteps made him glance over his shoulder while pushing his finger to her lips until they went unnoticed. When his gaze found hers again she felt the same buzz winding her up inside the way Ian's stare did to her.

  There was no hesitating when he dropped his finger; she pressed her cold lips to his, releasing a dizzying build up that had been escalating since they met. Emotions backed by endorphins made this kiss feel more than just a sexual release. The puzzle pieces of their lips locked while their tongues moved in sync like one muscle controlled them to slide with the grace of dancing eels. The low voltage zapping through their bodies from the kiss had Justin pulling her sweater off, and as he moved to remove his vest, he unintentionally hit her arm.

  When she whimpered into his mouth from pain, they both pulled away.

  "Shit, ZP. God, I'm gonna fucking kill you with this arm. I'm sorry." Cupping her face, he begged, "Don't cry, okay? I'm sorry." After seeing no sign of tears, he gently took her arm and began unwrapping the gauze that she didn't need to be wearing, but it protected her from catching a glimpse of the unstable mutilation she caused.

  The cool air began dropping her raised body temperature that had been escalated during their kiss. Her eyes dropped to his lips, wishing they hadn't stopped kissing hers.

  "What happened? Did someone hurt you?" His push for an explanation pulled her thoughts back to the chill peaking her nipples.

  The cut didn't look like a scrape, it looked like she was cut into. The factual explanation was pushed to the back of his mind, but it kept creeping forward; he couldn't believe it.