Page 20

Chapter Twenty

Zeland

I have zero impulse control. It’s how I found myself stalking, no , studying Arlo—where he goes, the places he gets his coffee. It is how I “accidentally” bumped into him last week, and now we have coffee together every morning. Aspen has sent him another location and time, and she wants to tell him it’s us, though I’ve asked her to give me a little more time to get to know him first. She gets to spend most days with him, and he is comfortable around her, but if he found out his boss lied to him and fucked him, he might run. I can’t have that.

I don’t obsess over people, not until Aspen bulldozed into my life. Now Arlo... there’s something special about him. Maybe it’s his innocence that I like—it’s refreshing.

Everyone at Ridgeland blows smoke up my ass. I know it and they know it, yet I let them continue. It’s great for my ego.

Arlo seems to be starstruck by Ridge, but not by me. He watches Aspen and me together with an almost curious avarice. I know she has told him about us and how our dynamic works, so here I am putting in the effort to get to know the guy. It’s why I’m standing at his front door with a box of pastries and three coffees. I know he lives with his mom, which is adorable. I wish my mother was an actual mother and wanted to be my best friend.

After I knock on the door, a woman early to mid-forties opens it with a smile. “Hello, can I help you?”

“Hi, I’m Zeland. I’m here to see Arlo.”

A smile breaks out over her face. “Come in, I will go get him. He is probably still asleep. My boy works hard, then stays up all night talking to that girl on the internet.”

She chuckles to herself as she leads me through her house. It’s small but homely and has a mother’s touch. I take in all the pictures of Arlo that hang on the walls as she leads me into the kitchen.

“Take a seat. I will be back in a second.”

After sitting down at the table, I remove the coffees from the tray and flatten it out. Why the heck am I nervous? I’m Zeland Reid-Ellington, I don’t get anxious.

A few minutes pass, then Arlo walks into the kitchen in only a pair of gray sweats, his tattoos on full display, and his hair a disheveled mess of curls .

“Sleepyhead was snoring. And how rude of me, I’m Rowena, Arlo’s mom.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Rowena. I’m sure you hear this all the time, but you do not look old enough to have a son Arlo’s age.”

Arlo groans. “You didn’t come here to hit on my mom, did you?”

“No, I didn’t. But I did bring you both coffee and pastries,” I say with a laugh as I hand Rowena a caramel frou-frou bullshit the woman sold me at the coffee shop. It’s similar to what Aspen has been drinking this week, since she is trying all the different flavors at the shop next to our office building.

“Thank you, Zeland, that’s nice of you. Elaine will be here shortly, Arlo.”

Arlo groans. “I don’t understand why you are friends with that woman. She is such a bitch and looks down on us every chance she gets.”

“Arlo Atlas Kross, you mind your manners. I wish you would get along with Sunny—she is a lovely girl.”

Arlo snorts. “Never going to happen. She is a conniving bitch who wouldn’t be seen dead with me in public. Zeland, let’s go to my room.”

I get up from my spot. “It was nice to meet you.”

Rowena smiles politely as we leave the kitchen, but I hear her call out to Arlo. “Make sure you leave your door open.”

Arlo shakes his head. “Ma, I’m twenty-three, I don’t need you to protect my innocence anymore. ”

Rowena cackles, and it’s then I know she is just trying to embarrass her son.

“Don’t mind the mess,” he says as we head down to the basement.

It’s really not as bad as I thought it would be—there are only a few shirts thrown around the room and maybe a handful of dirty socks.

“So what brings you here? Are you firing me?”

I laugh and take a seat on one end of the battered old sofa lounge, and Arlo sits down on the other, as far away from me as he can.

“No, I don’t actually have that much say in the hiring or firing of people on your floor. If you didn’t notice, I’m a very impulsive person, so feel free to tell me to fuck off if I have stepped out of my lane. As hard as it is to believe, I don’t actually have too many friends, not ones I would tell people I’m friends with anyway. In my world, most of our friends are people who we do business with or could do business with.”

“Sounds lonely.”

He reaches out for his coffee, and as I hand it to him, our fingers brush, the same ones I had buried in his ass just days ago. As he pulls away, I want to reach out and grab him, but I don’t because I try to respect people’s boundaries.

“Is Aspen okay?” he asks.

“She’s fine. She’s with Ridge today. He gets a little possessive and needs to stake his claim.”

“I hope it was okay that Aspen told me about your relationship. ”

“Of course it’s okay, and it’s kind of why I’m here. My girl raves about you and it has me curious who this man is that she’s always talking about because he sounds like someone I want to get to know. And before the thought crosses your mind, it’s not because I’m a jealous asshole and I’m here to warn you away. I want to get to know you, Arlo, and maybe hang out.”

He eyes me suspiciously, and he is so damn fucking cute. “But why? I’m nothing special. I’m really very boring.”

“Well, people around me are fake as fuck, so boring sounds perfect. What would you do today if I wasn’t here?”

“Honestly, I would have slept for a bit longer, then probably watched the View4U app.” His checks go pink as he realizes he has spoken the words out loud.

“No shame in that,” I reply. “It’s a good app.” He laughs at my response and nods. “That app was my baby. I started it alone in my office with content of myself, and before you ask, it’s been erased from this planet. It was so cringy I had secondhand embarrassment watching it back. Thank god we have the best of the best working for Ridgeland who could make it disappear forever. So after sleeping and playing with your cock, what else would you do? Unless you want to focus on the playing with your cock part.”

His eyes fly to mine. Wide, innocent, and full of lust. He clears his throat. “I would probably just play online and avoid Elaine. That woman is a stuck-up bitch who thinks her shit doesn’t stink. I don’t even know why Mom is friends with her. They were friends in college, apparently, just before she fell pregnant with me. They were partnered in some class and hit it off. Ever since I hit puberty, they have tried to shove her daughter down my throat, but she looks at me like I’m shit on the bottom of her shoe and tells me as much when I see her.”

I scoot a little closer to him. “Well, today is your lucky day. Let’s go out and do something. I was disappointed when I realized it’s your day off and you weren’t coming for coffee—I really like our morning chats. So get dressed, or don’t, and let’s go to my place. What’s the point of having all the money I do, and all the fun shit in my house, and no friends to share it with?”

Arlo smiles and nods. “Fine, you pulled my arm, mainly because I’m curious about what your house is like. Aspen talks about it all the time.”

“Hmm, does she? And does she also tell you how amazing and handsome I am?”

Arlo stands and walks over to his closet. “No, but she told me how big?—”

“My cock is. I know, it’s huge.”

Arlo snorts. “How big your gaming rooms are. And that you have more than one.”

“Oh, yeah, they’re big as well. I might have to tell her to talk up my game. What’s the point of having a huge dick if my girl doesn’t talk about it?”

Arlo gets dressed, and when we go upstairs, his mother’s friend is sitting at the table. She looks vaguely familiar—maybe I do business with her husband.

“Rowena, you didn’t tell me Arlo was friends with Zeland!” At that exclamation, Rowena looks at her friend, confusion in her eyes. “He is part owner of Ridgeland Enterprises,” the woman continues. “I’m surprised he is on this side of town with someone like Arlo—no offense, but your reputation?—”

“I don’t like what you’re insinuating, lady, but I’m here to take Arlo on a date. And your sources must not know me very well at all. I would prefer not to be seen on my side of town or be associated with half of the people there. If it wasn’t for Ridge and his huge cock convincing me to move into the mansion, I would probably live around here.”

Rowena’s mouth has fallen open and Elaine sneers at me as Arlo grabs my arm to pull me away.

“I apologize, Rowena, for the disrespect, but your son is pretty cool, and I won’t have anyone looking down on him around me. And, Elaine , tell your husband to call me because I’m sure he knows who I am. I think we need to have a little chat about how his wife treats people.”

With that, Rowena winks at me, and I stop resisting Arlo’s pull on my arm and follow him outside.

Once the door is closed, his laughter rings out. “Did you see her face?! It looked like a cat’s asshole. And date! I love how you threw in that you’re taking me on a date—hopefully that keeps the vapid girl away from me.”

I laugh. “Would you like me to take you on a date, Arlo?”

Arlo’s face goes multiple shades of crimson. He stammers, “W... what? You’re, uh, you’re with Ridge and Aspen, and I mean, I value my job—a lot. I’ve worked my ass off to get this position, and I really can’t risk everything for a date. I... god, I’m sorry, I just...”

“What does your job have to do with a date? Plus Aspen told you about how our relationship works. We don’t really do labels. If someone asks me, I will tell them she is my girlfriend, but we are all happy with how it works. Ridge isn’t crushed down by the thought of love, the same as Aspen really, and I love affection—I love to be touched. And I really, really, love to fuck.”

Arlo swallows hard, and I pull back, ushering him into my car and closing the door on his side. I will drop the subject for now, afraid I have come on too strong and I have scared him away. I do that a lot when I know what I want, charging full steam ahead until I get it. It’s always been that way in my personal life, at work, or in any situation really.

Arlo is quiet on the drive to the house, but when we pull into the gated driveway and wait for the gates to open, I wave to Conrad, who mans them during the day. Arlo’s nose is pressed against the glass, taking in everything around him.

“Obnoxious, isn’t it? Who needs hedges that fucking manicured? Wait until you see inside.”

I park at the front door, rather than in the garage. Normally I would be quick to show off our cars, but I can see he is overwhelmed already.

When we walk inside, the smell of something baking fills the air, and so I lead Arlo to the kitchen. Aspen and Ridge are standing together with their backs to us, Ridge in a pair of my sweats. He never wore them prior to a comment Aspen made about my dick, and now he wears them every chance he gets—damn, that man’s ass was sculpted by gods.

Aspen wears one of my T-shirts and it hangs to her knees. “No,” she giggles and jumps up onto his back, wrapping herself around him like a spider monkey.

“Should we be spying on them?” Arlo whispers, and I laugh, making Ridge turn around with Aspen still on his back.

“Zeland! Ridge is ruining my cupcakes. They look like deflated boobs.”

Arlo laughs.

“Arlo!” She beams. “What are you doing here?”

“We’re going to hang out for a bit,” I say, and Ridge raises a brow.

“You guys have fun. Ridge and I are going to get these cupcakes right, even if we take all day.”

Ridge grunts. “I told you I will just buy you a cupcake shop, and then you can have cupcakes whenever you want.”

“If you want, I can show you how to make them before Zeland gives me a tour.”

Aspen’s eyes light up. “You know how to bake?”

Arlo blushes as he nods, and I lean into his side. “You look fucking edible when you blush like that.” Arlo smiles and I place my hand on his lower back, leading him into the kitchen. “I guess we are baking cupcakes. I just know I’m going to be amazing at it.”

“Is that so?” Aspen counters. “I bet mine are better than yours. ”

“You’re on. Ridge and Arlo can be the judges.”

That is how the rest of the day goes. Arlo shows us how to make cupcakes, and there may have been sabotage—Aspen is a dirty cheat. It’s confirmed that I can’t use a piping bag when she is sneakily touching my cock; she did it so easily behind the other guys’ backs, while Arlo was showing Ridge how to make frosting. It’s funny that something this simple is the most fun I have had in a long time. Even Ridge acted like he was having fun, and I don’t think I have ever seen the man let loose—he is always in work mode.

Neither Aspen nor I won because our masterpieces ended up thrown at each other, and we both now know we are sore losers. Ridge declared a ban on any future competition between us—the party pooper. Even Arlo joined in the fun until I had to drop him home. I took my sweet-ass time because Aspen will want to talk when I get back, and I already know how this conversation will go, but I still need a little more time to work my magic.