Page 165 of Shâhzâdeh

“And people fuck their blood over all the time. Just open it up so I can see it.”

All of this was getting on my nerves. Despite our texting and trying to have an organic relationship, I didn’t want this lifestyle to put him off. “How long do we have to do this?”

“I know he’s good, I just like fucking wit ‘im.” Quentin went back to grinning and I popped his arm for stressing me out.

“Quentin, I don’t tell Xerx you cuss around me now, so I think you’re doing entirely too much.”

The grin dropped off his face, and now it was Ahmad’s turn to laugh. “Black mail?”

“No! You just need to be nice.”

“Whatever man. Let her have it.” He waved at the bag and I wondered what was inside.

“It’s just photo albums. The stuff that our people ain’t throw away when they got tired of storing it or couldn’t sell.” Ahmad held out the bag nervously and I took it with a grateful smile.

“That’s fucked up. Xerxes’ to do list just keeps getting longer.” Quentin folded his arms like the idea made him happy instead of sad.

“He might have to get in line for that one. I went through the pain of that. An assist is more than fine, but getting my hands dirty is the key to me keeping my head on straight.”

Ahmad nodded toward the bag in my hand hesitantly. “I had some photos reprinted and bound up for you and the rest transferred to a flash drive. It ain’t a lot—”

My heart was full but I couldn’t open that album. Not right now. The emotions that would overcome me would be too much and I would need to go home and climb under Xerxes. When we weren’t in the middle of a showing, I would sit down and share in memories that I couldn’t grasp but had somehow held onto the shadow of them for years. “It’s way more than I had. Thank you. This is truly something that money could never buy me.”

“I get it. I like to think our parents had a hand in this. The offer from Charlotte came out of left field. I wasn’t really feeling being in New York like that—”

Quentin chimed in from the peanut gallery just then. “Besides you, they suck—”

Ahmad’s laughter was his agreement with Quentin’s statement. “True. And I hated spending that kind of money to play for a team that wasn’t going anywhere. The shit was pissing me off. Charlotte ain’t cheap, but it is compared to up there. I wanted to be back south where winter ain’t half the year and my ass can get some color back.” He held out his hands that were a caramel color and I looked down at him in jealousy.

“You have way more than me.”

Quentin scoffed in melanin rich arrogance. “Barely. Both y’all asses pale.”

I was cackling because he truly didn’t care what he said. “Bruh!”

“I’m just speaking the truth.”

“We can look at this later when we have time. I know you bout to ask me about a thousand questions. I’mma have to dig real deep to remember and we can’t do that here since we’re on limited time. Now that we got that out the way, you wanna show me around this place?”

I felt so much relief that I hadn’t offended him by not stopping right now. “Thank you in advance for your patience with all the questions. I’ve been crazy emotional with all the changes that have gone on. I’m just so thankful.”

Ahmad’s brows shot up and eyed me up and down with hopeful eyes. “You pregnant?”

My mouth dropped open because who in the world just led with uterus talk? “Sir!”

He rubbed the back of his head like he knew he’d overstepped. “My fault. I’m just saying I don’t know my sister. I gotta see if this is normal or if I need to set up a trust fund or something.”

Quentin’s sarcastic laugh came from by the door and I looked behind Ahmad to see him leaned against it, shaking his head. “You trying to have that man hang you off the roof, huh? Acting like he can’t take care of his kids.”

Ahmad flipped him off, which only had Quentin laugh harder. “Again, he has my sister, but she’smysister—”

I cut him off and waved my hands because they were not about to give me a headache. “We are not about to do this. Y’all gone argue on your own time. We’re here to see this place.”

He glanced around like he cared about the space for the first time. I knew about his net worth based on the financial information I had sent over before I would work with any customer. The apartment we were in today was something that was typical for a Charlotte bachelor. I had no issue with him living in the penthouse in our building, but this location was one that was key with his work and security for him. He nodded as he looked at the large windows and the wall to wall wood floors before he turned back to me.

“I mean, it looks nice as shit. Would you buy it?”

“You don’t want me to give you the rundown?” His blind trust was sweet, but I needed to know it was going to actually work for him in the long run.

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