Page 36 of A King’s Obsession

That broke her. Ashlynn folded over the island laughing, one hand pressed against her stomach. “Good morning, Ezra!”

I closed my eyes, already regretting every decision that had led to me putting his ass on speaker.

“Fuck both of y’all,” E muttered before the call ended.

I stared at my phone, listening to the silence he'd left behind. Forty-one fucking years old. Rich as hell. Hanging up on niggas because he couldn’t have his way.

Ashlynn wiped underneath one eye, still laughing. “Oh, yeah. That man like my friend.”

“Stay out they shit,” I warned her, setting my phone back on the island.

“I’m absolutely not staying out of it,” she replied without the slightest hesitation.

I believed her. That was the fucking problem.

She was still smiling when I looked at her again, but my mind had already gone somewhere else.

Almost ten months.

When Ashlynn and I started fucking with each other, neither one of us had put expectations on it. I liked her, she liked me, I took care of her, and we enjoyed each other.

Simple.

Except somewhere along the way, the shit stopped feeling simple.

At thirty-nine, I wasn’t interested in doing this forever. I’d spent enough years moving like tomorrow wasn’t promised because, for a long time, it really wasn’t. I’d buried people. Watched niggas disappear into prison cells and graves. Made decisions I knew I’d eventually have to answer to Allah for.

The older I got, the more I thought about what came after all this.

Not money. Not streets. Not Vice.

A home. A wife. Children, if Allah blessed me with them.

And lately, whenever I pictured that shit, this loud-ass woman kept showing up in it.

“You want kids?” I asked, watching her reach for another piece of bacon.

Ashlynn slowly lowered her hand, giving me a confused look. “Nigga, what?”

I almost laughed at her expression. “It’s a question.”

“At nine in the morning?” she asked, glancing around the kitchen like she was checking whether she'd missed something.

“Kids only exist after noon?”

She stared at me for another second before apparently realizing I was serious. Her expression settled, and she leaned back slightly. “Eventually, yeah. Why?”

“What about marriage?”

Now the bacon went down completely. Ashlynn studied my face, searching for some sign that I was fucking with her.

“Okay. Where the hell is this coming from?”

I leaned back and studied her. “Where you see yourself in five years?”

“Malachi—”

“Ten?” I pressed, keeping my eyes on her.