I smile.
Jaheem is leaning over and pressing his lips to Ebele, who is smiling and communicating with him. I can’t help but laugh. I catch Landon staring at me from the corner of my eye. I bite my bottom lip and turn, finding him still staring at me. A look of endearment crosses his face as his upper lip curls into a smirk.
“What?” I ask, trying to get a handle on my giggling.
“You. That laugh, it’s…” He pauses, swipes his tongue across his lips, and looks back at the gorillas. “It’s something else.” My cheeks heat, as does the rest of my body. My heart, once cold and questionably dead, is warming and growing with need. The worst part is it’s because of Landon, who has the potential to rip it from my chest and make it to where I’m dead to anyone following his footsteps.
Looking back at Jaheem and Ebele, he has her cradled in his lap, still trying to kiss her. They look so lost in one another, and I’m jealous. I want that.
“They seem to have it all figured it out,” I mutter weakly.
“What?” Landon grabs the bars, his hands brushing against mine and causing a tingle to spread to my toes. I don’t move my hand, just leave it next to his and take my gaze toward him. He looks at me as if he might feel the same pull I do.
“Love.”
Landon’s face softens, his eyes holding a fire behind them as he stares at me. I watch his Adam’s apple bob as he swallows and turns his head back to the primates, his profile hardening and jaw clenching.
“There is no such thing as love. Not here,” he rasps. “Love is an amateur term to diagnose one’s affection for another. In reality, we’re all animals, and that so-called love is just us wanting to reproduce. To fuck. Love has nothing to do with it.”
I sigh heavily. At one time, I would’ve said Landon was right, but I’m not so sure anymore. There’s a difference between the throbbing between your legs and the longing in your chest.
“I refuse to believe that,” I whisper.
Landon’s head whips in my direction and he smirks. “Oh, yeah? Are you one of those ‘love fixes everything’ kind of girls?” he jokes.
I laugh. “No, quite the opposite actually. I’m just talking about those old couples who sit on the porch and hold hands throughout the day. Or a husband who sits by his wife’s grave day after day after losing her from some terrible incident. They don’t need to fuck. They care about each other. They love each other.”
Landon worries his bottom lip between his teeth as he sucks in a breath. His eyes narrow in a way I’ve never seen before. Almost like he’s confused, yet intrigued.
“Well, I’ve never seen it.”
SIXTEEN
LANDON
I pour myself another scotch and sit in my chair. I’m… confused, but that word doesn’t even come close to what I’m feeling. Tormented, depraved, outraged. I feel insane from all the mixed emotions cocooning themselves in my head and chest.
“Do you know what Father and Veronica were just talking about?” Roman flies through my office door, his hair disheveled and, of course, his shirt is untucked.
“No, what?” I ask, uninterested, but I know he’s going to tell me anyway. Might as well amuse him.
“You and Charlie. Father says you’re taking interest in this escort and he doesn’t like it. Veronica said it was all Charlie, that she’s some whore seeking love. I-I—” Roman stutters, pacing my floors frantically. Roman is afraid of our father. Miller was a very powerful man at one time, well-respected around Vegas. I once was scared, too, but then I grew up and realized my father is just some old man. He’s served his term and is dead-weight now.
“Let them believe whatever they want. Harron shouldn’t have touched Charlie. I was doing my job,” I defend, downing the rest of my drink. There are cameras in a few places of the estate, one being the dining room with all the fine china we have in there. I saw how he was talking to her, and it was pissing me off. But when the hall cameras showed Harron grabbing onto her like that, I lost all control.
“You fucking punched him, Landon. Are you kidding me right now?”
I swirl my drink, lost in the amber color.
“Are you listening to me?” Roman slams his hands on my desk, grabbing my attention and angering me. I set my drink down and clench my jaw.
“You tell Father that I was doing my job, which is protecting the escorts. The women come first. If it weren’t for them, this place wouldn’t be here,” I seethe, my teeth gritted. When my father was sitting in this chair, the simple principle of making the women come first was never in his line of sight. I aim to redeem that.
Roman chuckles, the sound of his laugh a mockery to my anger.
“Have you given her any clients?” Roman crosses his arms and stares at me.
“She’s in training.” I exhale an irritated breath.
“You should be working her a list of potential clients.” Roman runs his hand through his hair and chuckles.