Chapter 36 #3
A heavy silence settled between the women. Joy shifted her weight slightly, unsure what to do with the space.
Ella pulled small dessert plates from the cabinet.
“My grandson needs someone like you. Someone who understands the Menace and loves that part of him equally.”
“Menace?” Joy raised a brow in question.
Ella nodded. “He got that nickname when he was a boy. He’s always had a… darker side. Menace is who he is when he goes to that place. Ace is who he is when he’s making himself palatable.”
Joy nodded slowly, understanding.
“I see…”
And she did. She’d seen both. Felt both.
She wanted both.
Ella turned back to the counter and began cutting generous slices of the yellow cake with chocolate icing.
“You know,” she said. “Most girls would have come in here playing suzy homemaker and offering to help with the cake,” Ella smirked.
“I’m not most girls,” Joy shrugged.
Ella glanced over her shoulder. “No you’re not, are you?”
Joy dropped her gaze. Ella stepped closer, using two fingers to lift Joy’s chin gently.
“That’s not a bad thing, Joy.”
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.
“You better stop looking at me like that,” he warned, his voice low and gruff.
“Or what?” joy whispered back.
“Or I’ll take you into one of these 10 bedrooms and wear yo ass out.”
“Don’t threaten me with a good time, Mr. King.”
Ace’s eyes darkened and he opened his mouth to speak when Ms. Connie rounded the corner with Remy trailing closely behind.
The stone expression on his face said he wasn’t there for leisure.
“Hi Remy,” June greeted him with a soft smile. “Would you like a plate? We have leftovers.”
Remy turned to her, his expression softening. “Thank you mama June, I will definitely take you up on that later on, but I have something to discuss with Ace.”
June nodded her understanding. “I’ll warm it up for you when you’re ready.”
Ace stood and his siblings did the same, the atmosphere shifting from comfort to business.
“Pops, can we borrow your office?” Ace asked.
“Of course,” Zachariah said.
Joy sat, her hands folded in her lap and her eyes on the half eaten cake before her.
“Baby,” Ace called from above her.
She looked up to find him staring down at her. “You can come if you want,” he said. “Only if you want.”
Joy smiled. She held her hand up, palm down, and Ace grasped it, helping her out of her seat.
He interlaced their fingers and led them from the table and down the dimly lit hall.