Page 163 of The Fire We Make

Her touch was light and reassuring. It held the kind of warmth Joy imagined came from a mother figure.

Not corrective or controlling, just reassuring.

Joy wasn’t used to that but she welcomed it.

Ella smiled then went over to the marble island in the middle of the kitchen and poured two glasses of bourbon. She walked over and handed one to Joy.

“I know a little something about being raised by a powerful man,” she mused with a sigh. “Back in my day, there was no room for women like us at the table. We were… extensions of the men. Ornaments to be brought out and toted around when you were useful.”

Joy scoffed. “Sounds familiar.”

Ella nodded, turning to face Joy fully with a soft expression.

She took a sip of her drink before she spoke. “I see a lot of myself in you. I was an angry woman who had to hide who I was and make myself smaller, but King men…” she shook her head, a smile tugging at her lips.

“They don’t require that of you.”

Joy’s lips curved in understanding.

“They know how to make you stand in your power.”

Joy nodded with a smile. “They don’t flinch.”

Ella’s smile widened. “And neither do we.” She raised her glass and Joy clinked hers against it.

Ella plated the desserts with practiced ease and efficiency.

“From what I’ve heard, you’ve only been around people who need something from you.” Ella met Joy’s eyes. “We don’t.”

“Well,” she smirked, pausing. “I may need you to show me what you did with that stiletto.”

Joy’s lips split into a slow smile before the two of them burst into cackles.

As they worked side by side, preparing to serve the family the only thing Ella knew how to make, Joy’s smile never faded. The interrogation she’d expected when she entered the estate was not what she found.

She wasn’t being sized up.

She wasn’t being used.

She wasn’t being handled.

She was being welcomed.

Not in spite of who she was – but because of it.

Something loosened in Joy’s chest as they laughed again.

Ella picked up a few plates and Joy did the same, the two sharing one last smile as they brought the dessert out to the table.

Joy sat Ace’s in front of him last. She suppressed a giggle as he slid his hand up the back of her thigh, following the path to her ass.

“Stop it,” she hissed quietly, trying to swat him away.

She sat down in her chair and Ace gave her a salacious grin, dragging her chair closer to him with her still in it. His rough hands caressed the skin of her thigh and just that was enough to start an ocean in her panties.

Through eyes low from lust and bourbon, Joy looked up at him, squirming in her seat to relieve the sensation just a simple touch elicited.

He leaned in and kissed her neck, right below her ear, then kissed the shell of her ear.