Needing Arella (Rockers' Legacy Book 6)

“That goddess is only sixteen?” I choked out as I turned my head back to run my eyes longingly over the beauty standing in a group of her cousins. Her smile lit up the whole room, her musical laugh pulling every gaze to her, and even though I knew the majority of the people in the room were related to her in some way, I wanted to hide her away so no one but I could have the privilege of seeing and hearing all that sweetness.

Mia grabbed my chin and jerked my head back to look at her. “Read my lips, Jordan. Sixteen. S-I-X-T-E-E-N.”

Jerking my face out of her hold, I stepped back from her. “Yeah, fuck. Okay. I get it.” I turned my back on Arella just as she started to look in my direction, telling myself that Mia was right. The girl was too young.

I locked down what I was feeling, told myself to stay far, far away from her, and focused on torturing Braxton and even Barrick a little.

Only, it didn’t work. I couldn’t help looking over at Arella every few minutes. Each time I did, I would catch her looking right back, curiosity shining out of those eyes, the blue-gray my new favorite color.

Blinking away the memories, I grasped Arella’s hand and tugged. She came willingly, and I pulled her naked body into my lap. Cupping her face in one hand, I kissed the tip of her nose then her lips. “I fell for you that night, baby. I fell so hard and so deep that I didn’t know which way was up. I told myself that we could only ever be friends, and I was okay with that. As long as I got a fix of you every now and then, I could survive without you. I threw myself into work, tried to fuck you out of my system with other women…” She flinched, and I kissed her again. “And every time I fucked them, I would feel physically sick afterward until I eventually gave up trying to work you out of my system. But I kept telling myself that I was okay with us just being friends.”

“I’m not sure I want to hear all of this,” she muttered unhappily.

“I’m not sure I want to tell you all of it, but I don’t want there to be any more misunderstandings between us.” I pressed my forehead to hers. “I told myself and anyone who even so much as breathed your name in my presence that we were only friends, but the lock I’d put on my feelings for you was starting to crumble. The closer your eighteenth birthday got, the more I could feel it breaking away, and it scared me. I knew if I let go and showed you how much I loved you, how much I wanted you, it would scare you away. I was worried it would make you run from me, and I didn’t know if I could survive that.”

“Never,” she said with an adamant shake of her head. “I would never run from your love for me.”

“You haven’t seen the full extent of how much I want and need you yet, Arella. It might scare you.” I glanced down at the present and picked it up. “I wanted to buy you a ring, but I figured your dad would have killed me if I’d asked to marry you while you were still in high school. And I still didn’t know if what I was hoping you felt for me was as strong as what I was feeling. My biggest fear was that it was just an infatuation and you would eventually get bored with me and move on.”

Twenty

Jordan

“If you had shown up at my party with a ring, I would have married you that night,” she confessed, blowing my mind. “It wouldn’t have mattered to me if my dad didn’t like it. I wouldn’t have cared that I was still in high school. All I have ever wanted was to be yours and for you to be mine.”

“I realize that now.” Placing the present in her hand, I wrapped her fingers around it. “I’m so sorry I wasted so much time. If I hadn’t been such

a pussy about your feelings for me fading, or of scaring you off, then we could have been together this entire time.”

The beginnings of a smile teased at her lips. “Jordan, you seem so worried about me being scared of your feelings, but I don’t think you truly understand my own. I’m just as possessive of you as you say you are of me.” The ghost smile disappeared, and her gaze hardened. “And I can promise you, if you cheat on me or I see any other woman who isn’t related to you or me within two feet of you, I will destroy you both.”

A relieved laugh escaped me. “Baby, you will never have to worry about that. I swear on everything I love, I am yours. Now and always.” Kissing her to seal the vow, I tucked her closer and lifted my head. “Please open your present.”

She huffed like it was the biggest inconvenience of her life, but I saw the glitter in her eyes. Taking her time, she lifted one edge of the wrapping paper. I sat there holding her as she finally unveiled the jewelry box and lifted the lid.

When she looked down at the necklace, her free hand touched the one that was still around her neck. “It really is the same,” she murmured.

“Not quite.” I took the box and pulled out the necklace. Laying the charm in my palm, I turned over the double hearts to show the inscription I’d had added.

Now and always, our hearts are one.

I watched as she read the words. Her chin began to tremble, and tears spilled over her lashes as she lifted her gaze to mine. “Jordan,” she sobbed. “You… Damn it, I should have opened this that night.”

“No,” I told her, wiping away one of her tears. “I should have given it to you personally.” Reaching around her, I unhooked the necklace her parents gave her for Christmas and placed it in the now-empty jewelry box. “You can pass this one on to one of our daughters. But this one…” I placed the one I’d bought around her neck and fastened the clasp. “I want to see it around your neck often, love.”

As it fell into place, she touched her fingertips to the double hearts, her thumb rubbing over the diamond that held them together. “I don’t ever want to take it off.”

I trailed my fingers down her neck to the valley between her breasts. “I haven’t had sex with anyone but you in over two years,” I confessed. “And I’ve never touched Letizia. She’s drunkenly tried to seduce me, and the international tabloids have hyped it up that we were together. But I swear it was all lies. The only relationship I ever had with her was as her babysitter. My dad figured since I had so much experience in the past with being a spoiled and overprivileged brat, I should keep some of his friends’ and clients’ kids out of trouble too.”

Arella pressed her hands against my chest, pushing me onto my back. She came down over me, a sad smile on her face. “Promise me that no matter what, from now on, we tell each other everything that is on our minds. So much pain and heartache could have been avoided if we’d just talked openly to each other this entire time. We both made so many assumptions that weren’t even close to reality.”

“I promise.” Tucking a few locks of hair behind her ear, I let my fingers trail over her shoulder and down her back. “Now tell me when we can go house hunting and start planning the wedding.”

Her eyes widened for a moment before she rolled them. “The wedding planning usually happens after a proposal, Moreitti.”

“I have to ask your dad first.”

Her eyes darkened. “Um, yeah, about that…”