Page 58 of Lone King


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Marius looks down at the barely there chair and sighs. “Mental note to self: get some new fucking furniture for this house.”

I smile as I think about how much effort we put into buying bedroom furniture but nothing else in the rest of the penthouse. I guess you wouldn’t have to be a genius to figure out where we spend most of our time.

“That’s assuming I still live here,” he says in a low voice.

“You barely ever lived here, Marius. You sleep in your old room at Matthias and Ava’s house more than you do here.”

He winces before saying, “Fair enough. In my defense, though, I wanted to keep an eye on Ronan for the past few months. That won’t be much of an issue anymore, though, so I can be here every night from now on.”

“I know you were concerned about Ronan, but why couldn’t you stay here and go out to the house every day? It’s not like you have a job that forces you to be chained to a desk from nine-to-five, Monday through Friday.”

As much as I understand his concern for the youngest King, I’m not ready to let him off the hook as easily as he’d like.

Marius opens his mouth to respond to me but closes it again. Sitting down on the chair closest to him, he sighs. “Again, fairenough. I wasn’t thinking the right way about things when it came to Ronan.”

He doesn’t say it, but I know finding Ronan bleeding out was devastating for him. He’s always been very protective of that brother in particular, and going to his apartment and seeing him barely hanging onto life must have been terrible.

“I know, Marius, and I don’t want to fault you for anything you’ve done with Ronan.”

“I’m sorry that I got sidetracked with him and neglected you. I never meant to. It’s just that after finding him like…”

His sentence trails off, but I understand. I also know he’s been struggling with what happened.

I touch his hand, and he looks at me. God, his eyes are filled with so much sadness.

“Marius, I think you need to see someone about what you’ve gone through with Ronan.”

He looks at me oddly and shakes his head. “I’m fine. Really. He’s the one who went through something. Not me.”

Clearly, my husband doesn’t see what I’m seeing. “Baby, you found your brother bleeding to death when he tried to take his own life. That’s bound to affect a person. I know you want me to think you haven’t been sleeping because you miss me, but that’s not it. Not entirely. You have to deal with what happened.”

“I am. I promise. Right now, I need to make sure you know how sorry I am for everything that I did. I never meant to hurt you, Eden. I love you. You’re my entire world. I’m lost without you.”

Hanging my head, I sigh as the weight of missing him presses down on me. “I love you, too.”

We fall into an awkward silence until he says, “So, Matthias thinks Ava’s been giving you a list of guys she’s interested in setting you up with. Is that what you guys have been doing all this time?”

I can’t help but smile at how little Matthias and Marius understand us. Shaking my head, I answer, “No, that’s not what we’ve been doing. We watched Air Disasters, and then I told her how we got together. Between you and me, I think Ava is hoping you’ll do something incredible to fix things between us. I know she slapped you, but she’s still one of your biggest fans.”

“Air Disasters, huh? I bet it was an episode with that guy you like in it, wasn’t it?” he asks, and I swear I hear jealousy in his voice.

“If you must know, it was.”

“I get it. I’m not around enough, so you watch that guy. I’m a little confused since he looks nothing like me, though.”

As I sit down in the chair next to him, I ask, “Do you only fantasize about women who have long black hair and green eyes?”

Marius shakes his head. “I don’t fantasize about anyone but you, Duck.” He stops for a moment before adding, “Eden.”

For the longest time, I secretly hated that nickname he gave me, but now that he seems to not want to call me that, I’m sad. Still, I don’t believe him when he says he doesn’t fantasize about women who don’t look like me.

Leveling my gaze on him, I say, “You watch porn, Marius. Don’t tell me you don’t fantasize about those women, and let me remind you, they rarely look like me. They’re mostly blondes with giant racks and big asses, three traits I don’t possess.”

“I don’t make the decisions regarding who stars in pornos. Personally, I’d like more women who look like you to star in them, but that isn’t up to me.”

We’re clearly getting lost in the minutiae.

“Is this what you wanted to come to talk to me about tonight, Marius?”