Page 81 of A King’s Obsession

“So your solution was to secretly marry her?” I threw my hand out toward him, wondering what the fuck kind of logic he'd used to arrive at that conclusion.

“Problem solved.” He looked at me like there wasn't another damn thing to discuss.

A laugh came out before I could stop it. “You know she gon’ fuck you up, right?”

“She’ll be mad.” E rubbed his beard again, still looking entirely too satisfied with himself.

“Mad?” I opened the passenger door, shaking my head. “That girl damn near lost her mind because you moved her shit. Wait until she find out she Mrs. King.”

“She’ll get over it.” He headed around the truck, clearly convinced his little plan was going to work out exactly the way he wanted.

I climbed into the truck laughing. Ashlynn had asked me if we moved too fast, but compared to E’s crazy ass, we had taken our sweet fucking time.

I had Ashlynn and our baby waiting at home.

E had Jru—his whole fucking wife.

She just didn’t know it yet.

Getting out the streets might’ve been the smartest decision we’d made in years, because at the rate E was going, the streets weren’t the motherfucker he needed to worry about.

Jru was.

CHAPTER 17

I’d been staying at Ezra’s house for two weeks, and as mad as I still was about how I ended up there, I couldn’t lie. The place was beautiful.

The huge cream-stone house sat behind private gates, surrounded by enough land and trees to give him all the privacy in the world. Inside was dark wood, black-framed windows and expensive furniture in shades of brown, cream and gray. It looked exactly like a rich single man lived there.

Ezra had originally put all my stuff in his bedroom because apparently boundaries didn’t exist in his world. The first night, I moved what I needed into a guest room down the hall. He hadn’t liked it, and I hadn’t cared.

Things had been slightly awkward since Miami, mostly because I’d been avoiding him. We still talked and ate together. One night, I fell asleep watching a movie and woke up in the guest room, which meant his bossy ass had carried me there instead of taking me to his bed. I appreciated that, but I still wasn’t playing house.

Then there was Ashlynn. Every time I called, she either didn’t answer or rushed me off the phone. At first, I thought she was avoiding my attitude about her moving in with Malachi and letting him get rid of our apartment. After two weeks, I knew better. That girl was hiding something.

On top of that, Ezra had replaced me at Vice, and I hadn’t worked in two weeks. I figured we would be working on the restaurant, except he hadn’t said another word about it.

I owned forty percent of a restaurant that, as far as I knew, didn’t even exist yet, and I was sitting in a mansion with no paycheck coming in.

That wasn’t going to work for me.

This morning, I’m done avoiding his ass.

I find Ezra in his office behind his laptop. One look at my face and he leans back in his chair like he already knows I came in here with an attitude.

“What is going on with my restaurant?” I demand, stopping in front of his desk with my arms folded.

“Good morning to you too.” He leans back farther, looking entirely too comfortable for somebody I'm about to get into it with.

“Ezra, I’m serious. You replaced me at Vice, I haven’t worked in two weeks, and you haven’t said anything about this restaurant I supposedly own forty percent of. Right now, the only thing I own forty percent of is a stack of paperwork.” I gesture toward his desk, waiting for him to give me an actual explanation.

His eyebrow goes up at supposedly, and the corner of his mouth starts lifting.

“Don’t smile,” I warn him, narrowing my eyes.

“I ain’t smiling.” He presses his lips together, which only makes it more obvious that he's trying not to laugh.

“You’re about to.” I point at him, refusing to let him turn this into another one of his little jokes.