Page 134 of Heavy Is The Crown

Krys saw the way he was looking at her, and it made her smirk again. “You don’t like not knowing everything, do you?”

Kenyatta’s jaw flexed. “You like keeping secrets?”

Krys lifted a shoulder. “Only the ones worth keeping.”

Just as the air got too thick, Musa let out a low exhale, stepping slightly between them like he was tired of the silent war they were waging.

Krys finally broke eye contact first, reaching down to scratch the massive dog behind his ear. “You tryna keep me in check too, huh?”

Musa huffed.

“Nigga probably need to shit again, and I ain’t fuckin’ with him like that,” Kenyatta said, trying to contain his laughter.

Krys smiled, continuing to rub Musa. “Naw, he’s good for now.” She let a few seconds go by before she looked up at Kenyatta. “It’s your turn. You gonna tell me what that was about earlier?”

Kenyatta exhaled, jaw flexing just slightly. “It ain’t nothing. Rico just…on some shit.”

Krys lifted a brow. “That ain’t what I asked.”

Kenyatta glanced at her, the glow from the lamps lining the greenway catching the sharp confidence in her gaze.

She wasn’t pressed, but she wasn’t about to let it go either.

For a moment, he thought about telling her everything; even about how the K9 comments were bothering him. Whether he knew it or not, Rico tried to plant in his head a little seed of doubt.

But something told him to hold up on divulging it all to her. Instead, he turned to face her fully, his voice even. “You ever lie to me?”

Krys blinked, caught off guard.

Her arms crossed, her chin lifted slightly. “That’s random.”

Kenyatta’s stare didn’t waver. “Nah. It ain’t.”

Silence stretched between them. Tense. Charged. Heavy.

“I don’t lie,” Krys said simply. “Not to the people that matter.”

Kenyatta studied her. He asked, “Do I matter?”

“I can say with all honesty, yes…You do matter.”

The way she said it; sharp, no hesitation, no fidgeting, and no uncertainty.

He believed her, or at least he wanted to. Maybe it was instinct. Maybe it was just how she looked at him when she said it.

Either way, it settled something in him.

He didn’t think, didn’t process, didn’t weigh the consequences; he just reached for her.

She let him tug her in. Her body eased into his letting the space between them dissolve until there was nothing left but heat and breath and something unspoken.

Her pulse began to thrum. His did too. And when his hands slid lower, one gripping her hip, the other ardently cupping her ass, her breath hitched just slightly.

“Kenyatta…”

Only his name managed to escape her lips. It wasn’t how she said it but what it did to him.

Kenyatta exhaled slowly, tilting his head. “You ain’t telling me to stop this time?”

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