Page 106 of Royal Desire

She nods with a smile.

I hate that I have to pull out, but I do and tuck myself back into my shorts. I bend to pick up her panties and hand them to her. “I didn’t know it, but I need these new memories almost as much as I need you. I think I’ll be able to sleep now.”

She wraps her arms around me and presses her cheek to my bare chest where I can feel her tears against my skin. “We have a lifetime of memories to collect. As long as we’re together.”

This was too good.

As I walk her up the stairs to our bedroom, it’s all I can do not to think about my fucking father, free and roaming the earth.

I wonder if he really knows I was the one who pulled the strings to put him in jail and throw away the key.

I shake off that thought.

Because if he does...

Fuck.

If he does, I need to be ready.

CHAPTER THIRTY

BABY DADDY TO BE

Payne

Knowing my father was released from prison is one thing.

Not knowing where he is might make my head explode.

This is the first Saturday I haven’t gone straight to my office since I moved back to take over Deacon Financial.

It was a late night because of their show at The Speakeasy, but an even later one for Ruby and me. Sadie is off for the weekend at her daughter’s house. Blake and Alice just walked out the back door to go for a walk so Alice could get her steps in. She’s also taken to watering the flowers and asked if she could plant some vegetables. I told her she can do whatever she wants. That’s happening next week.

I slide eggs from a skillet onto two plates and pass Ruby the butter for her toast.

She looks from her breakfast to me. “When did you learn how to cook?”

I put the skillet in the sink. “This is hardly cooking. And don’t forget I spent a decade without Sadie. I had to survive somehow. I can’t maintain my summer bod eating takeout every day.”

She forks a bite of eggs into her mouth and raises her mug of steaming coffee at me. “Thank you for that. Your summer bod has not gone unappreciated.”

I lean down and press my lips to the top of her head before I sit next to her at the kitchen island to eat when I hear the needle scratch across the record, stealing all my joy.

“Payne! Where the hell are you? Payne!”

My mom.

I checked on her before we came down for breakfast like I always do. She was passed out on her sofa. I did my usual—made sure she was still breathing and left her be. That was thirty minutes ago.

It sounds like she woke up in a mood, which means she has more energy than normal. I fight every instinct to rush her back up to her room so Ruby doesn’t have to experience the ugly side of living here.

I might help hide my mother’s vices from the rest of the world, but Ruby isn’t going anywhere. Ever. There’s no point in trying to hide the random outbursts that happen within the walls of this house.

“Payne!”

Ruby’s eyes flare as my mother’s irate tone gets closer.

I give her shoulder a squeeze before I answer. “We’re in the kitchen.”