Page 41 of Unlucky You

I swung my head in the direction of his voice and my glare matched his. “You just moved in because you were in prison?”

ELEVEN

Grand.

“You should leave.”

I crossed the room, snatched open a drawer, and removed a pair of sweat bottoms which I put on.

“You should answer my gotdamn question.”

I quickly crowded her space and snatched the papers from her hand, tossing them on the bed. “Making you cum doesn’t provide an open invitation to my personal shit.” I pointed to the papers.

“Maybe not but I think I have the right to knowwhojust made me cum.”

“Whether or not I’m a felon didn’t prevent me from holding up my end of the deal. We fucked, you can leave. And maybe now you’ll stay the hell away like I warned.”

She blinked several times before her eyes narrowed. “I don’t care that you’ve been to prison,Grand Sinclair.” The use of my entire government name caused my body to still momentarily but I pulled it together, turned, snatched up her boots and shoved them into her chest. She barely caught them before I stepped back and pointed to the door.

“You caring doesn’t change the fact that I’m not discussing my past with you.”

This was a bad idea. The way she was currently looking at me and the way my dick craved another round of exploring her pussy was conflicting like a muthafucker. I had no idea what Saniya thought about me before, nor did I care, but I could clearly see what she believed of me now written all over her face. Women loved the thrill of fucking with a man that pushed boundaries but rarely did they want to embrace the reality of what crossing them looked like.

“Manslaughter. Five years. You killed someone?”

My expression stoned over while I studied her face. Her expression was impassive. I was a killer. She let me fuck her and now the consequences of her actions were slamming into her like a huge fucking reality check. I didn’t say a word but I didn’t have to. She read my release documents.

“Was it in the ring? Is that why you fight illegally? You’re good, better than good…”

I almost laughed at her trying to justify me taking a life. It was time to shatter that fairytale so she would get the fuck out of my apartment.

“Would me killing a man in the ring make it more digestible for you? Killing is still killing, right?”

Her brows pinched. “Intention changes the perspective. You’re not a killer.”

“You read the papers. I took a man’s life. I don’t give a damn about fighting professionally. Fighting illegally is a way to make money. Don’t try to rationalize what you think you know about me to lessen the reality that you opened your legs for a killer. Please don’t get that shit fucked up, that’s what I am.”

I was being harsh but apparently that was what she needed in order to let this go, or so I thought…

“Tell me what happened.” She rolled her shoulders back like what I said didn’t affect her. It did. I saw the gut punch of my words flickering in her eyes.

“Go home, Saniya. We both got what we wanted.”

Without waiting for her response, I walked back into the bathroom, slammed the door, and placed my hands on the small ceramic counter. I dropped my head between my shoulders then slowly lifted my eyes and stared at my expression. A few minutes later I heard my front door slam and knew she was gone. I was grateful because arguing with this woman or dragging her out of my place wasn’t anything I wanted.

When I entered my room again, I sat on the foot of the bed and lowered, allowing my body to sink into the mattress. I raked both palms over my waves and down my face before I turned my head toward the stack of papers next to me. As fucked up as things were, this was my life and no matter how much I tried to convince myself that all I wanted from Saniya was sex, the lie felt weighted in my thoughts. Regardless, it didn’t fucking matter. She didn’t want anything to do with me and the way I just talked to her killed any consideration she might have been toying with.

After a few long minutes of staring at the ceiling, I lifted, snatched up the papers, and shoved them in one of my drawers before I left my room. In the kitchen, I removed a bottle of Hennessy from the cabinet, bypassed a glass, and took it to theliving room. My eyes landed on the backpack. I turned up the bottle and snatched it from the floor before I headed to the sofa. I unzipped the bag and removed one of the stacks of cash, running my fingers over it before I dropped it back inside and stretched out across the fabric-covered sofa which was too small to fully accommodate me. I lifted my head enough to take down several gulps and place the bottle on the floor.

I still had three grand from the first fight and the twenty-five I collected tonight, minus Tali’s cut, would give me a nice cushion. I planned on calling Walt to see if he was serious about putting me on, then figuring things out with me and Raiden. Tonight was proof that I had to stick to my priorities and women weren’t on that list as of now. Especially not one like Saniya. The reality fucked with me more than it should have but so did the reminder that I wanted things with us to work. The guilt was strong as hell and maybe that was a good thing. Either way I had a reality check and now it was time to get back on my grind.

Watchingmy son doing the most simple things was surreal. We spent the day at Gravity Zone. They had recently opened a branch in Diamond Falls. Raiden kept telling me how all his friends had been there and he was theonlyone who hadn’t.Fucking kid metrics. Regardless I was gonna make sure we pulled up.

As much as I wanted to let him enjoy the moment, he wanted me to be a part of the process. I was hesitant, allowing my insecurities of the type of parent I was get in the way of me enjoying my time with him. I missed so much and although I planned on making up for the absence, a small part of mefelt like the people around us could see through me and were judging.

Raiden’s enthusiasm had me quickly saying fuck anyone’s opinions but his. I spent hours on trampolines, climbing through obstacle courses, and playing laser tag. He and I existed in our own world and for the first time in years I felt at peace. At the moment, I had a smile on my face watching him carefully putting ketchup on his burger. His brows were pinched while his little hands worked to smooth the small packet, removing as much as he could but skillfully ensuring it remained on his burger and didn’t reach his fries.

Simple shit but the process had me feeling a love that I’d missed for the past five years. “I have two more. You want them?”

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