Page 34 of A King’s Obsession

That was probably why he hadn’t said much after asking me what the fuck she was doing there.

He was still pissed, though. I could tell.

“Why you sitting over there looking like somebody died?” Ashlynn asked, pulling my attention away from the shit running through my head.

I looked across the kitchen, finding her sitting on the other side of my island wearing one of my T-shirts, her bare legs tucked beneath her. Her bonnet was halfway off her head, and she was eating bacon off my plate even though the same damn bacon was sitting untouched on hers.

This wasn’t new.

For damn near ten months, I’d been flying her to Westhaven whenever our schedules lined up. Sometimes she stayed a weekend. Sometimes longer. Somewhere along the way, she’d stopped asking where shit was in my house.

She had a toothbrush upstairs, clothes in one of my drawers, hair products underneath my sink and enough shoes in my closet to piss me off every time I opened the door. Truth was, that was part of the reason moving her ass to Westhaven had made so much sense to me in the first place. With as much as I was flying her back and forth, she damn near stayed here already. I was paying for flights, sending cars, working around schedules and doing all that extra shit just to get her right back here every chance we got.

Getting her an apartment fifteen minutes away had been the smarter move financially, and I liked knowing she had her own space while she got settled in Westhaven. At the time, it made perfect sense.

Now, sitting there looking at her comfortable as hell in my kitchen, wearing my shirt and eating my fucking food while half her shit was already upstairs, I was starting to wonder why the hell I was paying for an apartment at all.

“What’s on your mind?” she asked, watching me over her plate.

I rubbed a hand down my face before dragging my fingers through my beard. “E pissed at me.”

Ashlynn immediately looked interested, her attention shifting away from the bacon she’d been stealing. “What you do?”

“Why I gotta be the one that did something?” I asked, giving her a look.

She didn't even bother answering. The expression on her face said enough.

I shook my head. “Man, if I tell you this shit, don’t get mad at me.”

Her fork stopped halfway to her mouth, and she narrowed her eyes. “Why would I be mad?”

“Because it got something to do with Jru.”

Her whole expression changed, and I could already see the questions forming before she opened her mouth. I told her E hadn’t wanted me to hire Jru. Before she could get worked up, I explained that I’d interviewed everybody worth interviewing and none of them could do what I needed.

“Then what was his problem with her?” Ashlynn asked, leaning forward like she was trying to figure out what the hell she was missing.

I stared at her for a second, debating whether I even wanted to open my mouth. Knowing Ashlynn, this conversation was about to turn into something I didn't feel like dealing with.

Fuck it.

“Man, that nigga want her.”

Ashlynn’s eyes got big as hell, and she damn near jumped off her stool. “I fucking knew it!”

“Why you hollering?” I asked, frowning at her sudden excitement.

“Because I knew it!” She slapped her palm against the island, looking entirely too pleased with herself. “I told Jru! His old ass was watching her all fucking night.”

I frowned harder. “Why he gotta be old?”

Ashlynn looked at me.

I looked back at her.

“You thirty-nine,” she reminded me, her lips already twitching.

“Exactly. Watch your fucking mouth.”