Arranged love

I open the door to my suite, and Emilee enters. I shut and lock it behind me.

“What did Sandy mean by you don’t sleep with Queens?” she asks the moment we’re alone. “Where would she have heard that?”

I undo the top button of my button-down. “The day she came into my office to audition for a queen, another girl asked if I sampled the product. And I told her no.” I’m not going to lie to her. I have nothing to hide.

She turns to face me and places her hands on her hips. “Why would you say that?”

“Because I don’t.”

She frowns. “I’m a queen.”

“And?” I shrug my shirt off my shoulders. Her eyes go to my chest and then fall to my hands as I undo my belt.

“And we’ve had sex.”

Cute. “Having.”

“Huh?” She licks her lips while I lower my zipper.

“We’re having sex,” I state and kick off my shoes.

“I’m a queen.”

“We’ve established that.” I shove my pants down my legs along with my boxers. My cock isn’t hard, but it won’t take much. Just looking at the way she stares at it is doing the job. She seems to be in a daze. I bet her pussy is already wet.

“And we have sex.”

I reach out, grab her hand, and pull her body into mine. “Why are you still dressed?” I run my hands up and over her ass, gripping her jeans.

“I’m trying …”

“Shh.” I place my hand over her mouth. “Quit thinking about it. It doesn’t matter.”

“But it does.” She pulls away from me. “Are you breaking some rule by sleeping with me?”

“I’m the boss. I can do whatever I want.” All the Kings break the rules at some point. That’s how you succeed.

She snorts. “Spoken like a true gentleman.”

I arch a brow. “Is that what you want? A gentleman? Because I promise you, what I’m about to do to you is not something a gentleman would do.”

“I’m serious, Titan,” she growls.

“I’m standing before you naked, and you want to argue with me?” I ask, starting to get irritated. I don’t have a lot of time.

“I want to know how many queens you’ve actually fucked because you’re their boss and can do whatever you want.” She crosses her arms over her chest.

I open my mouth to say none, but she continues. “And how many have you and Bones shared?”

I don’t know why her words piss me off, but they do. Maybe because I expected her to see me differently. Maybe I expected her to understand the connection between the three of us. Either way, stepping into her, I say the first thing that comes to my mind. “You didn’t think you were special, did you?”

And just like that, I fucked everything up.

EMILEE

AS I TOSS and turn in bed, my mind is in a hundred different places right now. Plus, my blood is still boiling from Titan and what he said to me earlier today.

It hurt.

I don’t know why I thought I was special. I guess because of our conversation we had last week in The Palace. He had said that he had feelings for me once, but that doesn’t mean he has them now. Too much time has passed.

The Kings have always had girls falling at their feet. But even though me and Bones weren’t exclusive, I knew for a fact that he only slept with me. He didn’t have time for anyone else. Believe me, he kept me busy. But we never had to say it. And as much as we used each other, he never made me feel that way.

Titan was always fucking random women in high school and college, and apparently, he hasn’t changed a fucking bit. The fact that I did him and Bones at the same time should have been my first hint.

I didn’t expect him to be faithful, but I did expect honesty. He made me feel worse than any client could, but maybe that’s my fault due to the expectations I had. I thought things were going to be different. I allowed myself to fall for him. And why? Because I needed someone to save me? Fuck him. I never asked him for a dime. He hasn’t bought me expensive things or handed me money. He gave me a job. That I auditioned for. On my knees. That wasn’t even a job requirement.

Getting out of bed, I pick up the robe that hangs over the back of my leather chair in the sitting area. I tie off the sash and exit my room. Tiptoeing down the stairs, I stop on the second floor and take a peek in my mom’s room. She’s sound asleep like usual. The chemo takes so much out of her.

My fight with Titan allowed me to spend extra time with her today. I’ve been so wrapped up in him and spend too much time up at Kingdom. I’m needed here. I’m wanted here. Even if my relationship with my mother isn’t perfect, at least I know she loves me. Titan was just that itch I wanted to scratch. I wish it would have been a letdown.

I go downstairs and enter the kitchen to grab a drink but hear a noise coming from down the hall. It sounded like glass breaking. “Hello?” I call out.

My mother has two nurses that change shift. One is always here and stays upstairs with her. Maybe Liv couldn’t sleep tonight either. “Liv?”

No answer.

I make my way down the hall and see my father’s office door ajar. “Hello?” I ask again, pushing it all the way open. “What the hell?” I say when I get a look inside.

His desk drawers are open. One lies on the floor. Papers scatter the room. A picture has been removed from the wall and shattered on the Persian rug, to reveal a safe that I didn’t know was there. It’s still closed.

I place my hand in the pocket of my robe. “Shit.” I left my cell upstairs on the bed.

“Open it.” I feel something shoved into the back of my head.

My heart begins to pound, and I throw my hands up in the air. I don’t need to see it to know that it’s a gun. “I … uh …”

“Open it!” a man shouts, shoving me forward with his hand on my back.

I trip over the rug and feel glass puncture my bare feet. “I don’t know it.” My voice shakes.

“Bullshit!” he says through gritted teeth. “Fucking open the safe or I will put a bullet in your head.”

I’m trying to think of what my father would use for a combination. My mother’s birthday. Maybe their wedding anniversary. But I quickly squash that idea. It turns out, they didn’t like each other as much as they made me believe. “I don’t know …”

He grabs a hold of my hair, and I cry out. He shoves my face into the wall beside the safe but holds me up with his tight grip.

“Please?” I beg as tears run down my face. I try to catch my breath and can taste the blood in my mouth.

“Last time,” he growls in my ear. I feel his spit hit my neck, and I want to vomit. “Fucking open this safe or I will splatter your brains all over it for Daddy to find.”

I blink. My heart stops, and my body goes rigid at his words. This guy thinks he’s alive. “He’s … dead,” I manage to get out.

“Fucking open it!” He shakes my head, my scalp burning from how tightly he holds my hair.

I grit my teeth, place my hands on the wall, and try to get out of his hold. “He’s fucking dead!” I shout, thrusting my elbow back and making contact with his ribs.

He lets out a grunt and slams my head into the safe. Once. Twice. Then he shoves me to the side. My body hits my father’s desk before falling to the floor. I try to look up at the man in the room, but my busted face can’t see anything. I feel his shoe to my ribs, though. I curl up into a ball for protection when he does it again. This time, it was my back.

“I’ll get that money,” he growls, out of breath. “I’ll be back, and you better have the code.”

He runs out of the room.

I grab the side of the desk and manage to get to my feet as I hear the front door open and slam close. On shaky legs, I make my way up the stairs.

“Emilee.” Liv gasps as she exits my mother’s room at the end of the hall on the second floor. “What the hell happened to you? Are you okay?”

I nod and wrap my arms around my stomach. “Fine,” I hiss. “Check on my mother.”

“She’s okay. I was in there with her.”

I make my way to the third floor and enter my room and grab my phone. I dial the only person who I can think of to help me right now.