Page 159 of Pregnant By A Rich Demon 3

“You almost did it right now.”

“I know.” I set the glass down and reached for her hand, pulling her closer until there was no space left between the words and the truth of them. “The house is yours to use. Not yours to be stuck in. There’s a difference, and I’m not going to blur that line just because it’d be easier for me if you stayed.”

“Easier for you,” she repeated, softer now.

“Everything about this is easier when you’re close. I’m not going to pretend otherwise.” I tilted her chin up, met her eyes directly. “But I’m not going to take Mimosa Ct from you to get what’s easier for me. That’s yours. It stays yours.”

“Promise me something,” she said, and her voice had that quiet weight to it, the kind that meant she wasn’t asking for a small thing. “Promise you won’t let temporary turn into permanent just because you decided it should. If I go back there, I go back there because I chose to, not because you ran out the clock waiting for me to give up.”

“I promise.”

“Say it like you mean it.”

“I mean it.” I pressed my forehead to hers and felt her breath slow against my mouth. “You built something for yourself. I’m not stupid enough to tear that down just because I like having you close.”

She exhaled, some of the tension leaving her shoulders, and when she kissed me, there was nothing soft about it—it was a claim, same as mine, two people choosing each other without either one disappearing into the other.

“Good,” she murmured against my mouth. “Because I meant every word.”

“So did I.”

Honor came around the corner, still holding her plate, syrup from the pound cake she’d found in my kitchen smudged at the corner of her mouth. “I should’ve brought a bathing suit,” she said, eyeing the pool through the wall of glass like it was calling to her.

“Don’t you need to get back to Terrance and the kids?” Truth asked, though I could hear the smile underneath it.

“Fuck Terrance and them kids.” Honor said it with no hesitation, like she’d been holding it in her chest all day, waiting for permission to let it out. “I deserve a damn break.”

Truth burst out laughing, the kind that came from her stomach, and I found myself laughing too—not the polite kind I gave at business dinners, but something real. Surprised the shit out of me.

“There’s suits in the pool house,” I told her, once I got my breath back. “New. Different sizes. Y’all are welcome to change in there too—it’s basically a small apartment.”

Honor’s whole face changed. She screeched, actually screeched, loud enough that Saroya came jogging in from the kitchen to see what she was missing.

“Bathing suits?” Saroya said.

“Bathing suits,” Honor confirmed, already moving toward the French doors like the building was on fire and salvation was on the other side.

Saroya didn’t need a second invitation. She was gone behind her sister before I could say anything else, both of them disappearing toward the pool house in a blur of excitement I hadn’t seen from anyone in this house in longer than I wanted to think about.

“You getting in?” I asked Truth.

She shook her head, settling against the doorframe instead. “Not tonight. I just want to sit on the deck and watch them.” Her eyes followed her sisters through the glass. “I want to feel this. The house, the pool, all of it. They deserve nice things too, Amai. They’ve been carrying so much for so long, and nobody ever stops to give them something like this.”

I understood it then, watching her watch them—this wasn’t about the water or the house or anything I owned. It was about her sisters getting to be soft for one night, getting to be loud and silly and unguarded in a way the world rarely let them be.

“You’re going to be an amazing mother,” I said, because it was true and because I wanted her to hear it before the night got away from us.

She looked at me like the words had landed somewhere deep, and when she kissed me, it wasn’t rushed. I took her hand and led her out onto the deck.

Raven had already claimed a corner of the yard with Priest, the two of them low-voiced and close together near the fence line. I made a note to leave that alone—whatever it was building into wasn’t mine to interrupt.

Honor and Saroya emerged from the pool house minutes later in suits that still had the tags half-torn, screaming and cannonballing into the water like grown women who had never been given permission to be children again.

I grabbed the tablet off the side table and pulled up the house system—music first, something with bass but not too heavy, then the pool lights, shifting from white to a deep blue that made the water look like something out of a dream. I dimmed the deck lights last, leaving just enough glow to see by.

Honor came up gasping, hair slicked back. She looked around at the mood I’d built with a few taps. “This is sexy as fuck, Amai!”

I laughed, and it came out easy. “Just trying to set the scene.”