Arranged love

EMILEE

THIS MORNING, I had rolled over onto my stomach and moaned at the pain my body was in.

I took inventory on my body. My hips hurt. My pussy hurts. My ass hurts. I had a pounding headache.

Fuck, it all felt so good. I can’t tell you the last time I felt like this after sex. There was always something missing-leaving me unfulfilled-even after all those years with Bones. He was great in bed and made sure to take care of me every time, but afterward, it was like my body never really reached that high you hear women talking about.

I hit it last night!

“You okay?” Haven asks.

“Huh?” I nod quickly, blocking out last night. “Yeah.”

I stand next to Jasmine and Haven in line at Starbucks inside Kingdom. It’s almost eight in the evening, and I needed some coffee. I’ve been dragging ass all day. I had spent the day with my mother, like usual and then called up the girls on my way back here for the night. I order and then step aside for Jasmine to place hers.

“Just fuck me up.” She has her red hair up in a high pony and sunglasses on her face. She’s dressed in an off the shoulder black T-shirt and a pair of cut off shorts that are so short the pockets peek out of the bottom. Pretty sure she hasn’t been to bed yet because her makeup looks like it’s a day or two old.

“Ma’am, this is a Starbucks. Not a bar.”

She sighs. “If I’m gonna spend ten dollars on a drink, it better make me …”

“She’ll have a salted caramel mocha. Venti,” I answer for her.

“Add some of those Xanax sprinkles,” Jasmine adds.

“Ma’am?” He arches a brow.

“She’s joking.” I give a fake laugh, pushing her away from the counter.

We find a table to sit down, and I sneeze. “Bless you,” Haven says.

“Thank you.” I lift my hand to signal I feel another one coming on.

Jasmine plops down in a seat across from me. “I once sneezed while on my period and gave birth to a jellyfish.”

The woman sitting at the table next to us gasps, obviously hearing her.

“Oh, like it hasn’t happened to you?” she asks. “I swear I just need to stay home. People don’t like me, and I hate most of them.”

“Or maybe you should just think before you speak,” Haven suggests.

She just snorts. “Where is the fun in that?”

Haven just shakes her head.

“So how’s the sex life coming?” Jasmine asks out of nowhere. I wanna say I’m surprised but I’m not. Sex is always on her mind. I’m pretty sure the girl has a sex addiction.

I clear my throat. “I don’t know …”

“Yes, you do. We can see it written all over your face,” Jasmine interrupts me.

“Well.” I push a stray piece of hair behind my ear. “I slept with Titan.”

“We know that.” Haven nods once.

“And Bones.”

Haven drops her blueberry muffin she was about to take a bite of. “Does Titan know?” she asks wide-eyed.

“Yeah, it was at the same time,” I whisper.

“Holy fuck!” Jasmine shrieks, shoving her glasses to the top of her head.

The old lady next to us gasps at her choice of language. I ignore her and wave them off. “I told you mine, now tell me yours.” Let’s move on.

Haven gives a laugh. “Well, I’ve never been with two guys at once, and there’s no way in hell that Luca would allow that. Not that I want to,” she adds quickly.

“I was about to have sex last night but got out of it.” Jasmine shrugs.

“How do you get out of it?” I ask curiously.

“I was with a client. It was actually a great one. We had a great dinner, then went back to his place. He wanted to go all the way, and I was totally willing. The guy was cute. But once he removed his pants, and I got a look at his dick, I was like nope. I’m out.”

“What was wrong with it?” I ask.

“It was too small. I mean I’m not saying I need an elephant trunk, but it was the size of a pinkie. And my pussy needs more than that to work with.”

Haven is coughing now, possibly choking. I’m laughing, and the old woman gets up, shaking her head as she walks away from us.

“Wait! What do you mean a client?” Haven asks, just picking up on what she had said.

I bite my bottom lip, and Jasmine smiles. “We’re Queens.”

“You’re what?” she barks. “I know you did not just say Queens?” She narrows her eyes on me. “You’re doing it too?” Her eyes dart around as she lowers her voice. “You’re an escort?”

“I need the money.” I shrug. “Not all of us are married to billionaires,” I tease.

“Yeah,” Jasmine adds.

Haven points a finger at Jasmine. “Your father is a millionaire. You don’t need to prostitute yourself out.”

Our table falls silent. Jasmine closes her lips tightly, and I watch her clench her fists. She has never had a great relationship with her dad, and I feel he has a lot to do with why Jasmine is the way she is. She has daddy issues. But we’ve never spoken about them before. Some things are better left alone. Talking about them to her girls isn’t going to make them any better. That’s something she needs to speak to her dad about. Only they know the problem and can fix it together.

The barista calls out our order number, and Jasmine stands to get it, letting us know the conversation is over. Haven gives me a look that tells me we will be getting back to it later.NôvelDrama.Org exclusive content.

I see Grave enter the Starbucks. “One second,” I tell Haven, and stand, walking over to him.

He looks over and sees me coming. “Hey,” I say clearing my throat still unsure how to act around him. First, I saw him fucking a girl, and then he caught me and Bones together. Not everyone is going to understand what me, Bones, and Titan did. Hell, even I don’t know what it was. But I know I’m with Titan and he didn’t mind sharing me with Bones. I have a feeling he won’t be that understanding if I asked to bring some random dude into the bed with us. Not like I need to. He and Bones are plenty.

“Hey.” He nods at me, coming up behind Jasmine in line. “Jas.” He recognizes her. His eyes on her ass.

“Grave.” She observes, turning and looking him up and down.

He smirks at her. Grave is six two but still the shortest of all the Kings. He has that cute baby face and panty dropping smile. His eyes are blue like his brother’s but they’re softer. More approachable. Bones’s are always hard and intimidating.

“I see you’re still alive.” She takes a sip of her drink and pulls her lip back after swallowing. Clearly she doesn’t like what I ordered her.

“There’s always tomorrow,” he states.

She rolls her green eyes and heads over to our table.

“What do you want, Emilee?” he asks, looking down at me.

“Have you seen Titan?” I ask.

He chuckles. “Did he ghost you already?”

I place my hands on my hips. “No.” He was already gone when I left this morning to go see my mother. And when I returned to meet the girls, Nigel said he was out for the day. He didn’t mention anything about going anywhere to me.

He pulls his ringing phone out of the back pocket of his shredded jeans. I don’t think Grave owns any type of business attire. “He’s up in The Palace.”

“Palace?” Where have I heard that at?

He nods. “Sixteenth floor. Code 1275.”

I go to ask him what the code is for, but his cell rings once more. “I have to take this.” And with that, he dismisses me.

I sit down and have my drink with the girls. But the entire time my mind is on Titan. Is that here in Kingdom? The girls and I hang out for about thirty minutes and then I tell them goodbye.

I go to the main lobby where the elevator banks are and wait with the crowd of people. I step in and frown when I don’t see an option for the sixteenth floor. “Excuse me,” I say and squeeze my way out before the door closes. I try five other ones, and none of them stop on a sixteenth floor. Strange.

Getting impatient, I turn in a circle, trying to think where the other elevators are that I could use when I see the tattoo shop. I walk over to it and enter.

“Hello. How may I help you?” a girl asks with a smile on her face from behind the counter.

“Is Cross here?” Cross is a tattoo artist among many other things. He opened this place up inside the casino when they took over. From what I’ve heard over the years, he does really good work. I wonder if he has given the Kings any of their ink.

Her smile drops, and she crosses her arms over her chest. Bitch mode activated. The spike between her eyes and hoop that hangs from her nose doesn’t help to make her look any friendlier. All she’s missing is the smoke coming out of her ears and she’d look like a cartoon bull about to charge me. “Do you have an appointment?”

“No. But he is here?”

“He’s not available. For you,” she answers slowly as if I’m hard of hearing while her hazel eyes sweep me over. Obviously judging me for what she sees-lack of ink and piercings I’m sure.

I push off the desk and walk down the narrow hallway.

“Hey, get back here,” she calls out.

I ignore her.