Page 44 of A King’s Obsession

That apartment was hers. More accurately, it was the apartment Malachi paid for. And I seriously doubted he was going to keep paying for a luxury high-rise apartment so his woman’s best friend could live there alone.

I had a job now. A good one.

But good money and thirty-something-floor luxury Westhaven penthouse money were two entirely different things.

I needed to start looking for my own place.

“Everything good?”

I nearly jumped at the sound of Ezra’s voice. I hadn’t heard him come downstairs, but there he stood on the other side of the bar with his hands tucked into his pockets, looking entirely too comfortable for somebody who was already getting on my nerves.

“Fine,” I answered, locking my phone and reaching for the tablet without giving him anything else.

His eyes moved toward the two bartenders gathering their things at the other end of the bar before coming back to me.

“Training?” he asked.

“Fine.”

“Inventory?”

“Almost finished.”

I tapped through the liquor counts, fully aware that my answers were short as hell and not caring. I had spent the last hour wondering what he and Yara were doing upstairs, then another ten minutes getting irritated with myself for wondering in the first place.

I wasn’t in the mood to stand there and make pleasant conversation with him now.

The problem was, Ezra didn’t leave.

I could feel him watching me while I checked the same line twice. Finally, I lowered the tablet enough to look at him.

“What?” I asked, meeting his eyes.

His head tilted slightly. “You always this pleasant when people is around?”

I gave him the sweetest fake smile I could manage. “Only when I’m blessed with your presence.”

A slow smile spread underneath his beard, and I immediately regretted giving him something else to be amused about.

I rolled my eyes and went right back to the tablet.

God, he was irritating.

And fine.

I should’ve left it alone.

Instead, I kept my eyes on the tablet and said as casually as I could, “I see your little girlfriend left.”

Ezra was quiet just long enough to make me glance up. The smile underneath his beard told me I should’ve kept my mouth shut.

“My girlfriend?” he repeated, looking entirely too pleased.

I shrugged and went back to the inventory. “Whatever she is.”

“Yara?”

“Is there another one?” I asked before I could stop myself.