Page 126 of Heir

“Baby, what do I do?” he asked.

I blinked, and the remaining tears fell and touched his hands. “You work for your dad. For the King’s Men.”

“And what does the club do?”

I shook my head. “Blue doesn’t go into details—”

“The rumors. What have you heard?”

“They’re not good rumors,” I said, looking away briefly before bringing my gaze back to him.

His lips twitched. “I know. And if you know that much, then don’t you know how capable I am of protecting you? I won’t fucking let them get to you.”

“It’s not your problem.”

He laughed, but it didn’t sound like he thought anything was funny. “Oh, this is definitely my problem. And unluckily for those bastards, it’s personal.”

I frowned.

Why would he take on my problems like that?

We were just having fun, right?

I didn’t know anymore.

He leaned over and kissed me before I could really voice it.

I went soft against him, and he groaned against me, the vibration doing crazy things to my insides.

“Kai,” I whimpered.

He rested his forehead against mine, looking into my eyes. “Here’s what we’re going to do, baby. You’re going to give all your problems to me. I’ll carry them for you. Look at me. Got big shoulders, baby. I’m more than capable.”

I sniffled. “That doesn’t seem fair.”

“Do you believe that’s what a relationship should be about? A contractual agreement of fairness? You do this for me, and I have to do something of equal value? A quid pro quo?”

I shrugged. I hadn’t thought of it in those exact words, but yeah, when he put it like that.

“Why?” he asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Ah, pretty girl, that doesn’t sound like a good relationship to me.”

“It doesn’t?”

He shook his head, smiling softly. I thought I might be in love with this smile.

“A relationship where we both keep score?” he said. “Sounds miserable.”

I guess when he put it like that…

“And you’ll help me carry some of my weight, too,” he said.

“Really?”

He nodded. “Really. I won’t tell you shit about the club, obviously. I won’t let that darkness touch you, but stay with me long enough, and you’ll see I got a lot of shit to deal with. You’ll probably get tired of me.”

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