Page 23

Keyani slipped in at some point and pretended to scroll on her phone, but I knew her nosy ass was watching us closely like a good mother was supposed to.

She even managed to play off her fake ass disdain, smiling whenever one of them tried to show her something.

We’d made our way over to the couch and were watching some cartoon with Australian dogs when she finally cleared her throat, and the twins instantly started whining.

“Maaaa!”

“Nooooo, not yet!”

Shaking her head, Keyani stood and pointed at the big clock on the wall.

“Nope, y’all already know what time it is.

Say good night to Cruz so y’all can go to bed.

” Without any more of an argument, they both slid off the couch and begrudgingly did what she’d told them before moping away, only stopping to give her a kiss.

She watched them disappear up the stairs, and by the time she turned her head back to me, her expression was filled with anger.

“You sneaky ass nigga! What the fuck are you doin’ here?

” She tried to keep her voice controlled even though her body told me she was pissed off.

“I came to see y’all.” I shrugged, relaxing and stretching my arms across the back of the couch.

“Didn’t I tell you I didn’t want to pursue shit with your crazy ass?

Like, nigga, is you cool? Obviously not, Key, he’s out his damn mind.

” She shook her head, talking to herself, and that shit was low-key sexy.

Letting out a heavy sigh, she pressed her hands together in the prayer position and pointed them at me.

“You need to go. I’m literally going through too much to entertain this right now. ”

“What you mean? Y’all need something?” Concerned, I leaned forward, ready to make her problems my problems, despite the cold shoulder she was trying to give me.

Somewhere between that last night in Fiji and now, she’d reverted back to pretending she didn’t fuck with me, but I wasn’t about to let her keep pushing me away.

She let out a bitter chuckle and shook her head.

“I shouldn’t have even said that. We don’t need anything, Cruz. I’m good— we’re good. I really just want you to leave that shit in Fiji there and go find you a woman that has time for this type of shit, because I promise I don’t.”

Frowning, I scratched the back of my neck as I searched for the right words.

I wasn’t trying to scare her, but I also needed her to understand that I wasn’t about to keep letting her pretend with me.

“I mean, I probably would’ve just accepted you sayin’ that before you came and baptized me in your pussy, but now I ain’t too sure about that.

” She gasped, and her eyes widened at my words, but I kept going, getting off the couch and closing the space between us.

“We going steady now. Shit, we been together since you let me put my mouth on you, to be honest. I only let you say all that shit back in Fiji ’cause I knew you were lying, but I figured you’d come to your senses.

You still lying to yourself and me though, which is something we need to work on.

I heard lying is like one of the easiest ways to fuck up a relationship, and we should be better than that.

” Despite my calm tone, she was staring at me like I had two heads or some shit.

“You really sound crazy as hell right now,” she tried to deny and took a step away from me, but I pulled her back by the hem of her shirt.

“So you not lying? You really don’t wanna fuck with me?” I pressed her small body into mine, and for as much shit as she was talking, she didn’t pull away. I watched her swallow hard and defiantly lift her chin.

“No, I’m not, and no nigga, I don’t.” She barely sounded convincing, and I smirked down into her face.

“Come sit on my face. I’m tryna drown before I go to sleep tonight.”

She tried to bite back a moan as her lids dropped a little, but she quickly got ahold of herself and shook her head. “ No , I can’t go there with you again. Plus the kids are here and…”

She trailed off, and I lowered my head, catching her lips in a kiss that had her melting against me.

Inside, I was gloating because she could say what she wanted, but she couldn’t stop her body from responding to me.

She was probably already soaking up the fabric in her panties.

Her tongue found mine as she wrapped her arms around my neck, but as soon as I started moving her toward the stairs, she stopped me, panting.

“No, the kids .” She pushed at my chest, forcing me away from the stairs and back toward the living room.

She looked around, flushed, before ushering me into the kitchen, and I peeped a pile of bills on the counter.

All of them were final notices, and I stopped to pick them up.

“What are you—don’t read my mail, nigga!

” she hissed in a loud whisper, snatching them out of my hand.

“Why you sittin’ on so many fuckin’ unpaid bills? Does Avery know about that shit?” My dick was already deflated in my jeans as I mugged her, and she rolled her eyes.

“Obviously, she doesn’t, or else she would have made sure they were paid.

I didn’t want to bother her with shit like this while she was getting ready for the wedding.

” She tried to make it seem like it wasn’t a big deal, but I could see the stress forming on her face from me even seeing that shit.

I looked from her to the envelopes she’d placed back on the counter under her hand and swiped a hand down my face with a sigh.

“They not payin’ you shit at the club? You need me to go beat that nigga ass down there?”

“No! No, I don’t even work at the club anymore,” she huffed. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m in the process of finding another job, I?—”

“Your bitch ass baby daddy don’t try to help?

” I couldn’t help but ask, and she cut her eyes at me like yeah fucking right.

I’d only met the nigga one time, and although he was a bitch, I didn’t think he was that much of a bitch to let his baby mama and kids suffer.

The shit had me wishing I’d done more than just knocked him the fuck out. “Don’t trip, I can?—”

“Look, don’t try to be Ilyana, Fix My Life now, okay.

I already told you I don’t need your help.

” She glared up at me irritably like I’d done something besides tried to help her stubborn ass, but I knew she was just trying to hide her embarrassment behind that fake attitude.

I put my hand on top of hers and inched closer, already noticing her putting her defenses up.

“Key, baby, I respect you being on your independent shit, and I know it’s probably from you having to do so much on your own, but for the sake of the twins, let me help you out.

Shit, if it makes you feel better, you can work it off if you want.

” I laughed as her eyes narrowed. “Nah, it ain’t nothing like that.

I had to fire my receptionist, so I actually need somebody to fill her spot ’cause I ain’t tryna be dealing with customers like that.

I had to do that shit today. Shit had me ready to quit, and I own it. ”

Her eyes softened a little, but she still twisted her lips up at me in disbelief. “So you just magically have an open position available?”

“On the guys, I do.” I held my right hand up to God. “Her and the manager had some crazy shit going on while I was out of town, so I let them muthafuckas go. At least if you fill her spot, then I can focus on getting my office redone. It’s a win-win, and you’ll be getting a competitive wage.”

“As a receptionist?”

“Yeah man, shorty was making like five grand a month,” I lied quickly.

Tisha’s ass was barely making three thousand, but Keyani wasn’t Tisha.

Plus, she had to get on her feet, so she needed the extra money more than anybody.

Still, she didn’t seem to believe me, and I could see it all over her face.

“It’ll just be temporary until you find another job and, in the meantime, take this and handle these.

Consider it an advance,” I said, shoving a wad of cash into her hand before she could object.

I folded her fingers around it and kissed them.

“Okay, but I’m going to pay you back, and as soon as I find something else, I’m giving you my notice.” She finally sighed and threw out those petty demands. Even if she did try to give that money back, I was going to figure out a way to return it to her.

“Bet,” I told her, releasing her hand and dropping a kiss on her full lips. “You think you can start tomorrow at nine?” I knew the kids were still out of school, so she’d probably need a sitter, and this shit was short notice. If worst came to worst, I’d pay for her to get a daycare though.

“Yeah, I should be able to do that.”

Relieved, I pulled a business card out of my wallet and handed it to her. “Be here at nine and I’ll meet you there so I can show you around and shit. Come on, so you can lock the door.” She’d been studying the card, but her eyes shot to me fast as hell.

“You’re leaving?”

“Yeah, you’re on dick punishment for trying to keep secrets from your man.

You need to get to bed anyway.” She looked less than enthused, but she fought the urge to argue at the risk of sounding like she actually wanted me, and that only had my chest swelling as I headed for the door.

Once I crossed the threshold, I tried to lean over for another kiss, but she turned her head, making me grin. “See you tomorrow, bae.”

My soft ass was grinning the whole way home, proud that I’d killed two birds with one stone.

Not only would I be spending more time with Keyani now that she was working for me, but it also gave me another way to be in her and the twins’ lives.

Shit was definitely a win-win. Instead of going to the bachelor pad, I decided to take my ass to my actual crib, and as soon as I stepped inside, I could smell the cleaning products that let me know my home staff had at least been on their jobs.

The head maid, Natasha, was German and ran her crew like a drill sergeant, so I wasn’t even surprised.

Seeing a box in the middle of the foyer table, I started to just wait until the morning to open it, but something told me to do that shit right then, and I was glad that I did.

It was an Amazon box, so I thought nothing of it until I reached in to find Raven’s head wrapped in plastic, and I already knew exactly who’d done that crazy ass shit. Damn!