Chapter 35
Nyx went quiet for a half breath before blurting out, “holy fuck, Fam. What are you going to do? Do they want you to sign them off now or be a nanny?”
“Royal wants me to be her aunt.”
“Her aunt? How does that work?”
“By marrying him,” she held her breath as Nyx spouted a string of expletives and quite possibly an actual curse on the Robinson family.
“Famke, they fucked you over once. Remember all the things the woman told you about her in-laws? Rich, powerful, can’t take no for an answer, put all kinds of pressure on her. Hell, she even told you her mother- in-law asked her son to get a psychiatric assessment prior to getting married and insisted on a prenup.”
“So, about that,” she sighed, “turns out Mindy was a crackpot. Might have been verbally abusive to Precious. Had all kinds of meltdowns all the time to the point where Prince would take Precious and vacate the family home for weeks on end. I met Prince’s mom and dad tonight and they are strong minded people, there is no doubt, but they aren’t the monsters she created in my head. Don’t get me wrong, I know there isn’t anything they wouldn’t do for their family, including fight dirty if they had to, but I think Imani’s actions towards Mindy were more overprotective mom than they were monster-in-law.”
“No way.”
“Yes. His father reminds me of mom with the dancing and singing. He’s always humming and the way he loves Precious is something else. He also has his phone chock full of photographs of all of his brother and sisters’ kids and their kids too. He’s a family man who puts his family first. Royal joked about his dad putting the belt to his ass as a kid tonight and Cliff didn’t deny it, but he also said after every smack to the backside, they had long loving conversations about why he held his boys to such a high standard. He told me raising Black men in New York was a fine line. He said they had to be strong but not too strong or they were targeted. They had to be polite but not too polite or they’d be taken as weak. They had to work harder than anyone else in the room because nobody was giving them freebies in life. He said he was hard when he had to be, but he loved them, and he knew his kids knew they were loved.”
“Sounds like a deep conversation for a first-meeting,” Nyx whispered.
“It was a bit. He ended it by grabbing Royal around the neck in a headlock and kissing his cheek really loudly which made Precious laugh.”
“You’re contemplating it. You’re thinking of staying in New York to marry him.”
“She’s perfect,” she whispered. “She’s beautiful and smart but she’s also hurting and all I want to do is protect her, but I’m so scared I’m going to get hurt by them all again. If I let myself love her the way I want to, and they take her from me again. I could lose myself this time, Nyx.”
but get out of there.”
“He kissed me.” She silenced Nyx’s spiel. “He kissed me, and I almost ripped his clothes off.”
“It was good?”
“Better than any other kiss I’ve ever had. Ever.”
“Even the guy from the Magic Mike show I took you to a few years ago?”
“Uh, that wasn’t a good kiss. I was drunk and he was looking to get laid and paid.”
“It looked hot.”
“It wasn’t.”
“But this Royal guy can kiss?”
“My drawers are still wet and I’m so weak in the knees I’m still sitting on the floor by my bed.”
“Why are you in your room then? Did he reject you? He sent you to your room. Couldn’t close the deal?”
“I’m here calling you to be the voice of reason. He gave me two options. Come back to my room and stop things or go to his room and go all night. Well, he didn’t say the last part, but it was inferred.”
“All night?”
“Something tells me he’s not a minute man.”
“Famke, I love you. You know I love you more than anyone on the planet. You’re the only person who gets my kind of weird. Well, except Koda Braith,” she named her CEO, “but now I’m certain he’s stalking me and learning my behaviors.”
“Your point?” Famke redirected her.
“Oh, right. I love you but you’re fucking stupid. You haven’t gotten laid in years. There is a gorgeous, sexy beast of a man down the hall from you offering to let you ride the wild pony express for free and you’re holed up in your bedroom calling me? Go get laid.”
“He wants to marry me?”
“Test drive the car first. If it’s a good reliable ride you can put miles and miles on, sign a prenup. You get the kid, you get the D, and you probably also get a way to ensure Bram’s future, which is all you ever care about most times anyway.”
Chapter 35
“You think I should have slept with him?”
“I think you’re wasting precious time talking to me on the phone. Hang up. Go to his room. Knock on his door and tell him a woman’s prerogative is to change her mind more than her socks and you want to ride his dick. Hang up this phone.” Nyx hung up on her.
She stared at the phone in her hand and then jumped clear off the floor when someone knocked on her
door.
