Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 124320 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124320 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
I’ve only seen her in real life once, at my father’s funeral, and that was from a distance. The photos on the bedroom walls didn’t tell the full story of her beauty. Her face is a pale oval, her lips red as cherries, and her hair swings in a dark curtain to her waist. The expression on her face belies her fragile petiteness. She’s delicate and steely, a lovely weed in my garden.
“You have two seconds,” she says, venom dripping from her words, “to get this bitch out of my house.”
Bitch?
Hold up.
“What are you doing here?” Ezra stands, his expression strangely calm in the face of her obvious rage. “You aren’t due back until next week.”
“What am I doing here?” She steps closer to him, only coming to the middle of his chest, and points a slim finger at me. “This is my home. What’s this bitch doing in our bedroom, Ezra?”
That’s two. You got one more strike, Aiko.
I’m losing patience with this one fast. Ezra knows. He glances between the two of us like he’s caught between two she-bears.
“Don’t call her that,” he snaps, the words clipped, a frown marring the harmony of his features. “Her name is Kimba, and you won’t disrespect her.”
“Disrespect her?” Aiko’s voice breaks, and she takes her trembling bottom lip between her teeth. “What’s she doing here, Ezra? In our bedroom? Really?”
He scrubs his hands over his face and releases a heavy sigh. “Look, I know it’s disconcerting to come home and find someone else here like this, but this isn’t our bedroom anymore. I was just changing clothes because my stuff is still here.” His voice, his expression gentles. “You know I wasn’t sleeping here even before you left, Ko.”
“Yes, but I didn’t think…” She lowers her eyes to the floor. “So soon?”
“Babe!” a voice calls from downstairs. “Everything okay?”
“Chaz, I’m fine,” she yells down, her eyes never leaving Ezra’s face. “You can leave the bags at the door.”
A silence booms following her words, those few seconds after a bomb drops before you can hear again.
Ezra looks back to her, brows skyward. “Your new lover is downstairs in our house and you want to talk to me about soon? I can say for sure that you found someone new before I did. You found someone new before you even left, so don’t come in here calling Kimba a bitch and trying to make me feel guilty. You don’t have grounds for that.”
He has to sort this out and my presence isn’t going to help. Besides, I’m tired of being both the center of and the bystander in this drama. And if Aiko calls me a bitch one more time, I can’t be held responsible.
“Ezra,” I say, standing and focusing on him, not Aiko’s malevolent gaze burning through my clothes. “I should go.”
“Yeah, you should,” she snaps. “We have family business to discuss.”
She should be glad I have enough control left to ignore her. Ezra shoots her an exasperated glance and then turns his heated gaze, midnight blue, blazing, to me. “I’ll walk you out.”
We start toward the bedroom door, but Aiko steps in front of me, running her eyes over my sundress and flats, my hair and face. “I know you.”
I’m not famous. My candidates are. The average Joe wouldn’t recognize a political analyst on the street from a few television appearances, so I’m not sure that’s where she thinks she knows me from.
“The funeral,” she whispers, turning an accusing look on Ezra. “We went to her father’s funeral. I remember because it was the day my grandmother had her heart attack.”
I remember, too. Seeing her on the phone, pacing in the grass, distress etched onto her pretty face.
“You said she used to be your best friend.” Aiko sputters, shakes her head. “Did I really find someone else first, Ezra? How long has this been going on? Oh my God.”
“No.” Ezra closes his eyes, and I can see the discipline it takes for him to remain calm in the face of her rising hysteria. “You’re right. We did attend Mr. Allen’s funeral, but Kimba and I hadn’t seen each other since. That award I received, the event Mona and Noah attended with me—Kimba’s family foundation sponsored it and we saw each other there.”
She draws a deep breath and releases it in an indignant puff. “I’d only been gone a few days.”
“And nothing happened right away,” Ezra says, his gaze drifting to me and softening with something so much more than affection. There’s no way Aiko will mistake it for anything other than what it is.
“You care about her,” she whispers, horrified. “Do you think you’re in love with her? Already?”
There’s a part of me that doesn’t want him to tell her, doesn’t want to hurt her any more than she obviously is already. But the alpha part of me that feels like he’s always been mine since the day we were born wants to pin her to the wall and growl that he was on loan, but he’s mine again and she will back the fuck down.