When A Playboy Loves

|| 44.

Utianle

A hand snaked around my waist, I slapped it and moved away from it, close to the edge of the bed. I heard King grumble in the semi-darkness, his breathing was closer, he must have shortened the distance between us. I didn't turn to look at him, instead, I pulled the duvet up to my chin. If he was going to keep things away from me, then he should be ready to bear the consequences.

"Uti," he said in a voice that was barely above a whisper, "I will tell you tomorrow."

"Okay." 

"I promise."

King tugged on the duvet but I refused to let go of it. There were two duvets on the bed, he could use the other one, it was free.

"I want to cuddle," he whispered in my ear.

A pleasant chill went down my spine at his proximity but my back remained turned to him. "Go and cuddle with your laptop."

I felt rather than saw him inch away from him and when I twisted my neck to confirm my suspicion, he was at the opposite end of the bed. A disappointed sigh left my lips, I pulled the duvet down to my chest and rolled my eyes. He could have tried harder.

My side dug into the bed as I shifted to have a better view of him. He was facing away from me but the stiffness of his back told me he was still awake. I was partly annoyed that he had gotten Emma to lie to me. There was no use asking Esther, she wouldn't say.

Emma couldn't keep secrets and he had done that today, I even went to their room later and he had maintained his answer. I couldn't say if I was irked at the fact that my baby lied to my face or that he had grown the ability to seal his lips when it came to King, either way, I was annoyed. And there was only one person to blame.

The room was thrown into utter darkness when King turned off the bedside lamp. In a voice that was tinged with hurt, he murmured, "Goodnight."

His tone struck me and my annoyance gave way for guilt. I felt bad, not bad enough to close the distance between us but enough to accept his cuddle invitation if he tried again. He didn't, so I turned to the ceiling.

Minutes after he turned off the light, I continued staring into the darkness. Plenty of thoughts swirled in my mind, most of which were influenced by the events of today. A particular one stood out. The more I tried to bury it, the quicker it rose to the surface, asking me to deal with the issue now or I wouldn't be getting any sleep.

Tossing on the bed, the question swirling in my mind had my fingers digging into the bedsheet. Would I have to start competing for Emma's attention with King? He was smitten by him and a part of me was worried that with time, King's words would hold more power over him than mine.

Maybe my worries were unfounded but they stemmed from a place other than jealousy. It was from a mother who didn't know how to handle her son showering more affection on an adult that wasn't her. Maybe it was just jealousy masked as worry. No, I shook my head. It wasn't, it couldn't be.

I wasn't used to seeing Emma that way with anyone that wasn't me or Esther. Esther. I groaned and switched positions again. This must have been how she felt seeing me with King. I bit my lower lip and sighed.

With Umoh, it didn't seem like much of our dynamics changed. I immediately chided myself for thinking that way. It didn't seem like anything changed because he was not actively involved with me or my babies. But with King. I sighed again. It was a big adjustment for us and maybe I had not fully adapted to life with him like I thought I had.

"Uti."

"I can't sleep," I said before he could ask.

"Me too."