Chapter 12 #2
“Sometimes I wonder. Was that it? Do you only get one shot at this shit?” His head turned to Ayla, and she empathized with the somberness residing there.
It was something only someone else who’d lost something could identify.
“Twyla put up with a lot from me. She was a good girl. She wanted the house, the kids, the fucking dog. I just wanted to give her whatever her heart desired.”
“Sounds like you really loved her,” Ayla whispered.
“Never knew I could love somebody like that. Which makes me sick to my stomach with how I’ve dealt with the kids since she died.
Kara was a baby. Kyro was so young he doesn’t even remember his mother.
I have to live with that every single day, and when I try to talk about her…
” He shook his head. “I feel like I’m failing every time I turn around,” he confessed.
“I hate myself for feeling like that because it’s not their fault.
I just can’t help but look at them and think about all that I lost.”
“You might have lost her, but she left behind two of the greatest gifts that parts of her still live in.” Ayla reached for his hand, taking Kong by surprise.
His smoldering eyes looked at her hand on his first before he raised them to hers. There was something so soft, so sweet about this girl that he feared her being around him too long might taint her.
“My turn.”
Ayla caught her breath and picked her head up from the seat.
“Why did you really decide to take this job?”
Looking down at her hands, she fidgeted with them briefly, and bit at her bottom lip before picking her eyes up.
“I don’t know. I could say the money, right?
” She tittered, gaining a simper from him.
“But… I don’t know. It’s like you don’t perform.
Neither do the kids nor anyone else in your house.
I can see you all have dealt with some darkness, because I have, too, but you’re not looking to be fixed.
None of you. You just… allow me into the mess.
” She swallowed slowly, and Kong examined her closely.
“Your kids don’t look at me as something temporary either. ”
Something fractured in his expression, and he turned briefly, dragging a hand over his face once again.
“That fucking scares me,” he admitted.
“I know.” Her gentle response left his head whipping in her direction.
Silence settled between them, but it wasn’t awkward. More like weighted. Ayla moved a little closer, the soft aroma of her perfume striking his nose and making his dick stretch against his slacks. She hadn’t touched him, but the warmth from her body near his was enough.
“Can I ask one more?” she pried gently.
Hesitant, Kong nodded. “One.”
“Do you believe that you aren’t allowed to want happiness again?” Her voice was so low it was barely a whisper.
Kong’s eyes roamed her frame, lingering on her thighs exposed in her dress as he inhaled deeply.
The question hit harder than he expected, sitting right on his chest like an anvil.
Closing his eyes, he saw Twyla’s pretty smile flicker through his mind, and when he opened them, Ayla stared back at him with admiration.
Women looked at him all kinds of ways, but this was different.
She had no idea the darkness that lived inside him, but she didn’t seem to care.
It was like she saw him as something no one else did.
“I don’t know,” he answered honestly.
“From what I see, you’re a good man, Kong.
” She reached for his cheek, resting her small hand there as her big doe eyes burned into his.
“If nothing else, your children deserve the best from you. It takes a lot of healing. When our parents died, and Inari found out she was pregnant, as a kid, there was a lot to process. Everyone told her abortion was her best option if she wanted any kind of future, but my sister has never listened to the majority. It was hard, but we managed to get through it together. I guess that’s why I’m kind of invested in this.
I want you and those kids to have the best life together. ”
“I guess I need to work on being more of a present father. Not just there,” he concluded.
“And don’t keep yourself closed off.” She admired his lips. “It’s okay to want more. Don’t you think your wife would have wanted that for you and the kids?”
Grabbing the back of her head, Kong pressed his forehead to hers and stole a soft, yet passionate kiss off her lips.
Ayla was taken aback, but it was something she’d thought about since the day she laid eyes on him.
She wanted to take on all the emotional baggage that came with him, too.
Which was scary as her tongue carefully eased into his mouth.
The soft moan that slipped through her lips left Kong stiff as a roll of quarters.
Pulling Ayla onto his lap, he allowed her to straddle him as his fingers dug into the flesh of her back. The warmth between her legs was enough to drive him crazy as the back seat heated up from their extreme fervor for each other.
“I’ve never done this before,” Ayla panted between kisses.
Hearing those words startled him, and he pressed his hands against her shoulders to nudge her back. There she was, putty in his hands, ready to risk it all, but he couldn’t.
“Fuck.” Kong sighed and dropped his head against the back of the seat.
“What’s wrong?” Ayla frowned.
“We can’t do this.” He shook his head.
Disappointment crowded her face, and she eased off his lap.
“It’s not you.”
Ayla scoffed, adjusted her dress, and turned away from him to look out her window. She was still reeling from the fuck shit Qassen had done to her. This had to be some knee jerk reaction to it. She tucked her arms across her grapefruit sized breasts and nodded.
“No. You’re right. We shouldn’t.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to.” Kong rested a hand on her thigh, which she peered down at before looking back over into his shadowy orbs. “I’m just not in that space, and you don’t deserve that. You’re a good girl.”
“Just not good enough,” she mumbled, shoving his hand off her and gazing back out her window.
Kong had to eat that. Her feelings were obviously hurt, but he’d rather have that now than enter something with her that he couldn’t fully commit to and have it end worse later. The situation with Nay had already proven how shit could take an ugly turn.
“Did you see Moose with that chick last night?” Trini questioned her girl, Simone, when she used her key to unlock the door to Ink Realm that morning.
All night, she’d watched him in his own little world with Inari, his brothers, and those other girls.
It seemed that Moose had a new inner circle, and now she was on the outside looking in, which she hated, especially since she was trying to get back in herself.
Moose was a hard sell, though. With him, once he washed his hands of you, that was pretty much it.
Sex was something he used as a form of communication, which she’d grown used to over the years of dealing with him.
“Oh, yeah. I know her.” Simone sipped her iced coffee and closed the door behind her.
The shop didn’t open until 11:00, and it was approaching 9:00 a.m. Trini usually came in to set up things early and go over her own schedule and clientele.
The shop didn’t run without her, and Moose knew this, which was another reason he kept her around.
She knew business, and she had connections in the streets through her own family.
Her uncle, Lionel, had a business relationship with the Blackmoors, purchasing guns from them.
He’d always drilled in her head that Moose was better to have as a friend than an enemy.
Everyone in Ree Heights knew how that family got down and what loyalty meant to them.
“How do you know her?” Trini walked back to her booth with a sneer.
“She works over at Vintage Vault with my auntie, Tollie. I heard she’s one of their top ranked auctioneers too. She be bringing bank, so her commission is fat when she makes a sale,” Simone bragged.
Trini tossed her keys on the counter and dropped her big Dior bag on a chair.
She rolled her eyes. The last thing she wanted to do was hear how great Inari was.
She was clearly older than Moose, but that didn’t seem to matter to him.
What intrigued her most was the mention of the business she worked for.
Maybe she could somehow use that if she had nothing else.
For some reason the name Vintage Vault was ringing like alarms in her head.
“What?” Simone sheepishly shrugged. “You asked.”
“I don’t need to hear about that. What else do you know about her? Give me something good.” Trini squinted past her girl and peeped that the door to Moose’s suite was still cracked.
He never left his shit unlocked, so she was curious as she moved past Simone and across the hall.
Something hot lingered in the air, and when she peered into the darkened room, she spotted two figures draped across the tattoo chair.
Moose’s head was turned, tatted chest on display, with Inari between his legs, naked and sleeping peacefully against his chest. One of his arms was draped over her, and a small blanket covered her ass, but her back was exposed.
“What the fuck?” Trini mumbled.
“What’s wrong?” Simone came up behind her and gasped at the vision in front of them. “Well, damn.” She brought her straw to her lips and sipped. “Looks like a time was had.”
Moose stirred at the sound of their voices, raising his hand and wiping the sleep from his eyes before peeling them open one by one. He narrowed them both suspiciously when he spotted Trini and Simone in the doorway together.
“Shit.” He grumbled, looking down at Inari’s peaceful face as she shifted against his large frame and moaned sexily. His morning wood was with whatever as it flexed between his legs.
“Mmm, it’s too early.” Inari muttered. “Why is your dick that hard?”