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It was club shit and I had to take care of it now.
Either the look on my face or my body language let Lily know what was going down. She was used to me taking off to deal with things, and never had a problem with it. But today I didn’t miss the disappointment that flashed briefly in her eyes before I said, “I have to go.”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
As she bent to retrieve her clothes, I gripped her arm and pulled her close. Kissing her, I forced my tongue into her mouth, demanding she kiss me back.
Lily could never fully shut down on me. Not when a glance or a touch or a kiss had the ability to fuel her desire.
She needed me as much as I needed her.
By the time I ended the kiss, her arms were wound tightly around me, her body was pressed hard against mine, and she was moaning into my mouth.
As I exited the room a couple of minutes later, she called out, “King,” and hit me with another kiss before pushing me away and saying, “I fucking love you.”
One of her rules was to never let me leave for club business without telling me she loved me. One of her other habits was not to calm down fast from a fight if we left it unfinished.
Hell fucking help me.
2
Lily
“Why are you stomping around this house all feral?” Adelaide asked half an hour after she’d answered my plea for company, which was approximately fifteen minutes after King had left to take care of club business. She’d met me at home with a bottle of wine and my favourite snacks. Three different kinds of cheese plus an assortment of gourmet crackers. My girl knew me well.
I slammed the cutlery drawer closed and passed her a knife for the cheese. Every cell of my body blazed with irritation and frustration. God, how I loved King, but God how the man pissed me off sometimes.
I met my best friend’s eyes. “It’s like he’s fucking built with weaponry that zeroes in on which button to push which day for maximum capability of pissing me off.”
Addy’s brows pulled in. “So what happened today?”
“Fuck,” I muttered, pulling my hair up into a messy bun. I was so worked up that even my hair was annoying me. “It’s more like what’s he done this week. He’s stressed about something and has been in a foul mood. I can deal with his moods, but this is something else.” I stopped, but only for a second. I had more shit to get off my chest. “And the way he takes care of all of us but never lets us take care of him. I’m over it.”
Addy arranged the cheese and crackers on a platter. “Well, we all know what I think of King’s moods, so I won’t go there. But that bit about being over him taking care of you, even I have to admit that’s one of his best qualities. And a far cry from how Linc used to treat you. So why the issue with it?”
Adelaide and King were still figuring each other out. She hadn’t fully come around to accepting my choice in a life partner, but she was at least trying. Usually I’d hesitate to whinge to her about my problems with him, but I was frustrated enough today to let them all out.
I threw my hands up. “Ugh. I don’t have an issue with him taking care of me. God, not at all.” Some of my frustration disappeared as I thought about how much I loved being with a man whose actions lined up with his promises. “But he needs to let me take care of him too.”
Addy nodded as she handed me a cracker with cheese she’d prepared and a glass of wine. “Here, honey, drink up while we accept the fact you’re marrying a man who will probably never give you that.”
I took the wine and drank some. More than some. A lot, because at the root of my crazy emotions was, I suspected, the feeling that she was right. King loved me. I knew that down to my bones. But that didn’t mean he was suddenly going to change his ways that were so deep in his blood that they ran through him like his blood.
The thing was, I didn’t want to change him. Not at all. I loved everything about the man, even his weapons of mass frustration. I just knew that for us to weather this storm of life, we had to figure out how to live with each other’s ways. Me blindly accepting his extreme mood swings and putting up with all of them? Nope, that was never gonna happen.
“I don’t accept that he can’t or won’t budge a little. I’ve already seen him make allowances for things that have come up between us. But, I think you’re right. It’s going to take some work and a lot of communication to g
et him to see how much this means to me.” I raised my glass. “I put up with Linc’s shit for a long time. I’m a strong woman. And I’m in this for life with King, so I’ll keep pushing him.”
Addy grinned as she took a sip of wine. “Oh I expect nothing less from you, honey. I just want to know if King’s ever been with a woman who has as much perseverance and backbone as you. I’m not sure he knows what’s coming.”
Adelaide left around 8:00 p.m., at which time I ran myself a bath. I took the remainder of the cheese platter in with me, along with a new meditation I’d found on Spotify, and did my best to calm myself down before King came home.
That was easier said than done.
I found it impossible to shut off the constant stream of thoughts about him. I loved King so damn much it physically hurt sometimes. I woke up needing him; I went through my days counting down the minutes until I saw him again; I lived for the nights with him once the kids were all asleep; and I went to sleep dreaming of the life we were building together.
I was consumed by King.
