Page 29 of Allured
“Did you set us up?” I ask outright.
Suddenly, Knight stands up, buttons his suit, and hurries past me to walk over to his desk on the opposite side of the room. I don’t know why he’s even wearing a three—piece suit if he’s in his own damn house.
“No. I thought you two would annoy each other and I would get a good laugh out of it. However, other business kept me from visiting you two in the kitchen. It wasn’t my intention to play matchmaker. Although, it seems I should make it a business venture if Ezekiel’s already spending the night,” he smirks.
“Did you know he was going to that bachelorette party at Garden of Eden?”
“Anna’s party? Ezekiel was part of that?” he calls over his shoulder, confusion in his tone.
“Down to the pink boas,” I reply.
“Oh, I need to get a video of that,” he laughs but it sounds odd, like he’s hurrying to do something behind his desk.
Suspicious at his tone, I follow Knight over to the other side of the room and I see him quickly shuffle some papers into a file and slam it closed.
“You’re being weird and not weird about this.” Choosing to ignore whatever the Hell that was with the file, I instead bring up the elephant in the room. “Knight, you hired me as an escort ten years ago.”
“I was there, Alek.”
“You don’t think Ezekiel’s going to freak out over this?”
“Ezekiel doesn’tfreak out. He is the most understanding person I know. While he is not aware of thespecificsof that time of my life, he was there through it all.”
“You really don’t think he’s going to have a problem with it?” I ask with a worry in my voice. I’ve been stressing about keeping this from Ez.
“Will he have an issue with us having had a few lackluster dates with awkward intimacy before becoming business partners instead? No, I don’t believe so, and it was a decade ago, Alek.”
Flopping onto one of the chairs facing his desk, I let myself sink into the velvet cushions. I run a hand through my hair and push it out of my face before looking back at Knight as he leans against his desk.
“You are serious about him, aren’t you?” Knight asks with an eyebrow raised in my direction.
“Yeah, Knight, I am.”
“Then you need to speak to him. I’m sure both of you have things you need to disclose.”
It’s my turn to look at him with a questioning expression. Things webothneed to disclose? What does that mean? Is he talking about Ezekiel’s childhood?
A sudden, loud notification goes off. Knight quickly picks up his cellphone and glances at his screen before tucking it into his breast pocket.
“I need to go, Alek,” he says cooly, though I see small beads of sweat gathering at his temple. He’s being really fucking weird.
“Yeah, sure.” I get up and rub at the back of my neck. I’m still worried about all of this. As much as I’m not ashamed of my past and think that Ezekiel is an understanding guy, it’s not information that’s easily said and shared.
“I wouldn’t be an elder sibling figure if I didn’t say this—” Knight walks right up to me, meeting me toe—to—toe. “Donothurt Ezekiel, Aleksander.”
“I’d never hurt him,” I reply just as steely.
“Wonderful, make sure to say bye to the Queen on your way out!” Knight pats my chest a little too hard, turns me, and pushes me out of his study.
CHAPTER TWENTY
EZEKIEL
An empty space.
Aneat stack of full moving boxes and a very perturbed Peaches meet me in the foyer when I arrive home. The bowling ball shaped cat could surely go a night without her food but she is looking at me like I have committed the ultimate betrayal.
“I apologize, Peaches.” Setting down my messenger bag onto the hall tree, I turn to pick up the fluffy cat and cradle her to my chest.
