The Duke and the DJ (The Rebel Royals 3)

Zhi had been neglecting many of the repairs while Spin and Lark were in residence. He didn’t want them to catch him in his overalls getting his hands dirty. He’d tried to keep them from the third floor, but that hadn’t worked.

Spin had found out the big secret of his parents, something he hadn’t discussed with even his closest friends. Though he knew that Alex and Carlisle had always known there was trouble at home. There had been similar trouble in their own homes. Zhi supposed that’s what happened when people didn’t marry for love.

He and his friends rarely spoke of their troubled homes. They went wild outside of it instead. Now, Alex was settling down, happily in love and engrossed in a new business. Carlisle wasn’t looking for love. The baron-to-be’s every waking moment was spent on saving his own family’s business and fortune.

Zhi wondered if he could tell Spin the truth about his intentions with Parker. It was clear the two weren’t an immediate match. But Zhi was determined to make the woman happy if she’d give him a chance.

He still needed Spin’s help with ensuring that chance. Perhaps she could help him make a mixtape. Was that still a thing? The thought of sifting through music with Spin warmed him. It soothed the tension that had been building in him since leaving his father’s room.

“Here we are,” said Oswald.

Zhi snapped back to attention and closed his eyes with a groan.

Oswald had brought him down into the basement. The exposed pipes before him were corroded and leaking. He could hear the strain on the metal. Zhi pinched the bridge of his nose, the tension returning.

“It won’t hold much longer,” said Oswald. “We’ll have to get a professional in if there’s any hope of keeping our heads above water.”

“Let me give it a try first.” Zhi stripped off his jacket a

nd got to work. He might be able to get the pipes under control for a few days, a few weeks at most, but if he didn’t solve the problem soon, everything would burst.

Chapter Eighteen

Spin watched from the corner of her eye as Zhi rose and strode from the room. When his gaze had caught hers, she’d felt her heart quicken. Her mouth had gone dry, and suddenly her lower lip felt the need to be tugged into her mouth for moistening. Something passed between them, she didn’t know what, but it was something.

She didn’t like it.

He’d been quiet through dinner. She’d felt his eyes on her the whole time. Each time she’d deflected a question about herself and redirected the conversation to Lark or back to Nian, Zhi’s eyes had never left her face.

Spin got the feeling that he knew she was hiding. Worse, she was certain his lowered lashes told her that he wouldn’t let her hide from him. She’d avoided his gaze until that last moment when he’d bowed to her, and their gazes had caught and held.

Tearing her gaze away had been a chore, but she’d done it. Now she’d need to tear herself away from him. He had no idea that he’d gotten closer to her in one day than anyone had in years.

She found herself wanting to tell him that he wasn’t alone in how he’d been raised by termites. Why termites? Most animals in the wild weren’t monogamous. Termites were some of the few.

They were known to mate for up to twenty years. Unfortunately, the lifetime partnerships had human statistics when it came to divorce. Nearly half broke up before death could part them, and when they broke up, it was violent. There were scientists who’d seen them chew the other’s antennae off.

Spin wanted to tell Zhi that she understood the dysfunction between his parents. She wanted to tell him that she understood how a mother could love someone who hurt her emotionally and physically and still go back for more. She wanted to tell him that it was okay to hate his father, that he should go through with his threat to send the monster away because it would never get better.

But she had done none of those things for her own mother. So instead, she’d bit her tongue, and she’d looked away.

He left the room without knowing any of that. He’d looked so tired, so alone. Guilt filled her heart, and she wanted to run after him.

“I hope you’ll stay with us your entire stay here in Cordoba,” said Nian.

Spin turned back to the duchess. Her gaze immediately went to the bandage on her forehead where antennae might have been were she of a different species.

“We’re only here until tomorrow, and then we have to go back,” said Lark. “I have shows and Spin … well, she always finds work.”

Spin smiled evasively. She did always find work. She had the healthiest relationship with money that she knew. The secret was to not chase after it. She’d known from a young age that things came to those who didn’t chase after the object of their affection.

“What is it you do, my dear?” asked Nian.

“I’m a DJ.”

“Do you mean you’re on the radio?”

“No, ma’am. I play records, but not on the radio. I play in clubs.”