Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 151097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 755(@200wpm)___ 604(@250wpm)___ 504(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 151097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 755(@200wpm)___ 604(@250wpm)___ 504(@300wpm)
What the hell was going on?
The two women noticed me right away but didn’t react. The shorter one with shoulder-length dreads and a small gold hoop in her right nostril smiled politely while the taller one took her time looking me over before coming to the conclusion that she wasn’t impressed.
Rubbing the back of my neck, I mumbled, “Lord, give me strength.”
“As you can see, we weren’t expecting company.”
“Well, hurry up and introduce us, and then we’ll get out of your hair,” Priscilla ordered dismissively. Her tone made my brows rise.
Ocean glanced back at me and then sighed as he held out his hand to me. “Come here.”
I dutifully went to him, and it wasn’t until I saw the approval in his eyes that I realized I did it without hesitation. Ocean took my hand and tucked me into his side before returning his attention to the smiling women. They were watching the exchange like they were witnessing some new wonder.
“Sweetheart, these are my cousins, Chiara and Priscilla,” he introduced.
I waved a hand and greeted dryly, “Hey.”
Ocean—still peeping my unease and frustration at being ambushed by his family—squeezed my hip in reprimand before continuing. “Chi. Pri. This is my baby. Coby.”
“You’re bleeding,” Priscilla dryly informed her cousin. Her gaze flicked to me, so I boldly licked his blood from my lips like I was a vampire, and then lifted a brow that said, Yeah, I did it. Fuck are you gon’ do about it?
“Sorry for interrupting,” Chiara rushed to break the tension. “We just couldn’t wait to meet you. Ocean never brings anyone home. We wanted to see what was up.”
“Well, that’s good to know,” I said while finally offering the cousins a real smile. “This apartment is beautiful. I’d hate to make him burn it down.”
“Burn it do—” Chiara’s eyes lit up with humor. “Oh, I like her.”
“Why am I not surprised that Ocean likes ‘em crazy?” Priscilla asked with a shake of her head. “That’s good. You’ll fit right in.”
I wasn’t so sure about that, but I kept my feelings close to the chest and chuckled with no real humor. “So when you say you’re related, do you mean play cousins or real cousins?”
Priscilla smirked, and I could see the first sign of respect growing in her eyes. “Real, though distant. We share great-great grandparents, so that makes us third cousins, but our mothers and Malcolm grew up together like siblings.”
“Malcolm?” I directed at Ocean.
“My father,” he supplied. Leaning down to sweep his lips across my hairline, he whispered, “You’ll never have to meet him.”
“Oh.” I gulped, my voice cracking when I added, “O-okay.”
“The whole family has been talking about Ocean’s new girl. Who she is, what she looks like, where she came from…” Priscilla gave both of us pointed looks before adding, “And why she’s here…”
“How the fuck they find out?”
“Come on, cuz,” Priscilla said. “You have your spies and your dad has his. You know how it is. Do you really need to ask?”
The muscle in Ocean’s jaw ticked furiously. The cousins waited for him to fill in the blanks, but he just stared at them until I cleared my throat and attempted to plow through the ice. “So, do you guys live in the building?”
“Oh, no,” Chiara said. “The city can be too much sometimes, and not all of us can live under armed guards twenty-four-seven like our big cuz. Most of the family lives closer to Glamis.”
Chiara looked closer to my age—maybe even a little younger—while Priscilla looked closer to Ocean’s age. There were other differences between Ocean’s cousins that were hard to ignore. Priscilla was tall and thin, while Chiara was short with a little more curve. Both of them had Ocean’s dark eyes, though their skin was a fairer brown than his but not as pale as mine. Chiara was the warmer of the two—soft spoken and quick to smile. Priscilla was more reserved and observant, taking everything in quietly and rarely chiming in. Although that could just be because she was clearly a bitch.
“Uh…Glamis?”
“I guess we don’t have to ask how you two have been spending your time because it clearly wasn’t talking,” Priscilla scolded. “Glamis is the seat of our family,” she explained with an impatient sigh and a hint of loathing for both me and the Kilpatrick family estate. “It’s where the Boss and his family stay, but we’ve all called it home at one point or another.”
“Anyway, now that you’re here,” Ocean intervened before I could check her ass. “I have a job for you two.” He walked over to his wallet on the dresser and plucked a black credit card from it before returning to the door, where his cousins still stood. “Coby had to leave everything behind when she moved in with me. She needs a new wardrobe and all of the other bullshit y’all spend my money on. You think you can handle that?”