Page 41 of A Hood Wife And A Rich Goon

“Yo, Chai, what you doing?” He briefly peeked over his shoulder and saw that Toni had vanished, but he nudged Chai out of his space anyway when she tried to press into him.

Her features crumpled into a frown when he resisted her.

“You know I was looking forward to getting some work done today,” she purred. “I know you had to be on daddy duty and everything, but I thought maybe you could make some time for me tonight.” She moved her hand to reach for his pole, and Bull snatched her by the wrist.

“The fuck is wrong with you?” he seethed, gritting his teeth.

“What?” Turning up her nose, she yanked away from him.

“This is my fucking house where I live with my family.”

“So what? It’s not like it’s a real family,” Chai countered. “We both know Toni doesn’t make you happy, Bull. How long are you going to do this? How long are you going to fuck me and keep coming home to her!”

“First of all, don’t fool yourself into thinking that me fucking you is turning into anything other than that!” he hissed, getting in her face to make sure she heard every fucking syllable. “Secondly, don’t ever come to my fucking house again where I live with my family and disrespect them or my wife!”

“Your wife?” Chai laughed. “The fuck out of here, Bull. Everybody knows this shit is all for show. I won’t lie, though; you make it look real.”

“My son and my daughter are very fucking real, Chai, and nobody disrespects they fucking mama when I’m around. We clear on that?”

She blinked rapidly, and the smile on her lips wilted from his words. Something about the fire in his eyes sent her reeling. Bull hired her a year ago to help run his locksmith business. One thing led to another, and he’d been fucking her for at least eight months regularly. It was usually at the office, maybe a hotel, but never anywhere personal like his place or hers. Somehow, she’d grown attached to Bull and hadn’t meant to. She didn’t know how she didn’t see it before. He had real feelings for Toni, and the shit blew her. Timid, plain Jane, and basic as hell compared to Chai, she couldn’t fathom Bull standing there defending her.

“Very transparent.”

“You dropped the paperwork off. Now you can leave.” He nodded to her car waiting for her, and she slowly turned to walk back to it.

Bull didn’t wait for her to get into her whip before he went inside to follow up on the order. It took him thirty minutes to get everything confirmed. He decided to peek in on the kids and then check on Toni, thinking she was in their bedroom. He found the space dark and empty but paused at the window on her side of the bed they shared. She sat outside next to the pool in a lounge chair, staring off. As he started down the steps, his stomach growled from the warm aroma of the roasted chicken.

One thing was for sure; shorty could burn. He found that out early, and if she didn’t know how to cook it, she would teach herself until she mastered it. Both times she was pregnant, she was trying to make all her favorites from different restaurants since they couldn’t go out all the time. He was impressed with how she self-taught herself by simply watching YouTube or the cooking channel. She set the dish on the counter to cool off, but he bypassed it when he noticed the bottle of tequila nearby. The sliding door leading to the pool area was left open, so he ducked outside in the cool early September air.

“Is this it? Is this what our life is going to be?” Toni sniffled and gripped the glass of tequila tighter while her wet eyes stared into their pool.

Already tipsy off the wine from earlier, she’d tossed a few shots back, too, and Bull didn’t know her to fool with hard liquor as much.

“What you talking about?” he asked, releasing an annoyed sigh.

Part of him really wanted to know what was on her mind, but he wasn’t for all this emotional shit.

“What am I talking about?” Toni’s eyes narrowed into slits. “Is this how you want to live? Not ever having anybody to share this already hard life with?”

“I’m sharing it with my kids… and you.”

“But you don’t love me, Bull! This is an arrangement for us! I’m starting to wonder if this shit was even worth it.” Shaking her head, she stood and slightly bumped him on her way back inside to pour herself another shot.

He locked his hand around her wrist, stopping her.

“You think your life and those kids’ lives aren’t worth it?” he asked, brows fusing together. “I do every fucking thing for you, and yo’ ass want to stand here ungrateful like⁠—”

“What does it mean if I’m not happy, Bull? Or you! We’re both fucking miserable and walking through this shit, faking for everybody, including ourselves. How is that good for our kids?”

He understood her reasoning, but seeing her crying was a trigger. Toni in any kind of pain brought out a fierce, protective side that Bull had developed over the years. Shielding her from the dark shit out here was something he did out of sheer habit now.

“I don’t disrespect you in front of them. I provide for you, I protect you⁠—”

“And you do that all with your Superman costume on like we are some contractual obligations for you to uphold! Anytime we get close, you yank away, at least from me.”

“What you want from me, Toni?”

“I want… you know what… it doesn’t matter.” She sniffled and wiped the tears that crowded under her nose.