Needing Arella (Rockers' Legacy Book 6)

“Thank you,” I called after her belatedly. “I owe you one, Mia.”

“You’re damn right, you do.” The elevator doors opened, and she flipped me off as she stepped into it. “By the way, you look like you got into a fight with a wildcat. Apparently, the cat won.”

Confused, I glanced down at myself, wondering what she was talking about, only to find scratches and a few bite marks on my chest, arms, and shoulders. The sight of how passionate Arella was only made my cock harden, tenting my shorts. Closing the door, I turned to go back to the bedroom.

Arella was sitting up in the center of the bed when I walked in. The covers were pulled to her chest, and her glossy dark hair had been finger-combed and pulled over her shoulder. The sight of her stole my breath, and I just stood at the end of the bed, looking down at the angel that was all mine.

She loves me.

Her blue-gray gaze fell on the p

resent in my hand, and I saw her stiffen. “Where did you get that?”

I tightened my fingers around it, but I didn’t take my eyes off her. “Don’t be angry.”

Her brow furrowed, but after a brief hesitation, she gave a firm nod. “Okay.”

“I asked Mia to pick up the present my parents delivered on your eighteenth birthday.”

Arella sat up a little straighter, her arms crossing over her chest in a protective, guarded kind of way that made me ache to have the soft, cuddly version of my girl back.

“That was at my parents’ house,” she muttered.

“Mia made up an excuse that she needed to pick up something from your old room.” I sat on the end of the bed, turning so we were facing each other. Placing the present between us, I left it there as I watched her cautiously. “She tried to get it last night, but no one was home. So she had to wait until this morning.”

Her eyes dropped to the pretty metallic red wrapping before quickly looking away. “Why does it matter so much? It’s just a present.”

“If it’s just a present, why didn’t you open it?” I asked, trying and failing to keep the rasp of emotion out of my voice.

She lifted one bare shoulder. “I just didn’t.”

“But you kept it. Didn’t stomp on it or throw it away.” I touched my index finger to the matching red ribbon. It was still perfectly wrapped, even though it was over eighteen months later.

“It was from you. I might have been too upset and hurt to open the damned thing, but I couldn’t bring myself to destroy it or even toss it out.”

I nodded in understanding. “When you never mentioned the present, I just thought maybe you didn’t want to hurt my feelings or ruin the friendship we had. I had no idea you hadn’t even opened it.”

“Jordan, the only thing I wanted for that birthday was you. And then you bailed, sent your parents and that stupid present.” She nudged the box with her foot, pushing it closer to me and farther away from herself. “Then…” She swallowed roughly and started again. “And then I saw you all over social media with Letizia. You were leaving some nightclub in Italy. You had her lipstick all over you, and then someone tweeted that they saw you going into her place…”

“Open it,” I commanded when I heard the hitch in her voice.

Her gaze snapped to mine, and I saw hurt flashing out of those blue-gray depths. “I don’t want to.”

“Please,” I rasped out. “For me, love. I need you to open it.”

“No,” she argued mutinously. “If it was so important to you for me to see what was inside, you should have given it to me yourself in the first place.”

“You’re right,” I agreed. Taking a deep breath, I went for broke and started from the very beginning. “Nevaeh’s eighteenth birthday was a life-changing night for me. I know it was a hard time for you and your family, with your dad so sick, but I’ll always remember that night because it was the moment my heart felt like it finally started to beat.”

My eyes caressed over her lovingly as I remembered that party. Everyone standing around trying to put on a brave face for Nevaeh but failing because Drake was so sick, they didn’t know if it was the last birthday party he would ever share with his children. I’d been talking to Mia and Barrick, flirting with Nevaeh to piss off Braxton and distract myself from the utter boredom—and loneliness—that seemed to be my constant companion.

Then I’d heard this sweet, bell-like giggle, and something inside me had lit up. I’d glanced around, looking for the source of the sound that had made me able to actually feel my heart beating in my chest for the first time. When my eyes fell on Arella, I hadn’t even recognized her for a moment. It had been years since I’d seen her. With Mia living in Virginia at the time, I was rarely in California, and when I was, it was only to visit with my parents.

There she’d stood, with her dark hair flowing down her back in soft waves, wearing a red dress that clung to her perfect curves. I’d taken two steps toward her before I even realized what I was doing when Mia grabbed my arm and dug her nails in my arm. “You realize she’s only sixteen, right?”

“Who?” I’d muttered, annoyed that she was keeping me from my destiny.

“Arella,” she’d hissed. I reluctantly tore my gaze away from my angel and looked down at Mia, still not completely understanding what she was trying to tell me. “The girl you were about to grab and probably disappear with, that’s Arella. And you should really remember that she is sixteen.”