Free Trouble: A BWWM Bad-Boy Billionaire Romance by Alyse Zaftig Page A

spending time with our family. But he texted me that he's spending Christmas with us. It's not like he's going to the moon or anything." Laila sighed. "I don't know. Chris annoyed me when we were growing up, but now that we've been apart so long, I sort of wish that we were all in one place again."
    "I have no idea what that feels like." I didn't really have a family, just a house. And honestly, the Kings were more like my family than my biological father was.
    "Come home with me. Let's tell my parents about us. I've kept it a secret, but now that we've been together for this long..." She hugged me, and I wrapped my arms around her and smelled the sweet, light scent of her shampoo. 
    I couldn't stop myself. "Okay. Yeah."
    She jumped up on me, and I caught her in my arms. She made out with me enthusiastically. I knew that I'd made her day by agreeing to come clean to her parents. I prayed that Chris would not come home for Thanksgiving.
    I packed up a few pairs of shirts and a spare pair of pants. Since I had practically lived at the Kings' house, I didn't need much. Frankly, they were used to me being around just wearing swim trunks. I kept some clothes in the closet of their guest bedroom. Mrs. King kept a bunch of my spicy beef jerky in the pantry. She knew what I liked.
    I drove her home on Thanksgiving Day. We would spend the weekend with her parents before coming back. I sweated a little, thinking of the man-to-man talk that I'd have to have with Mr. King about his daughter. I had never been through it before, because I had never dated a girl for long enough for it to matter or for me to meet her parents.
    I already knew her parents. They knew me as Chris' best friend. How were they going to react to the man who fucked their youngest child every night. Oh god. I regretted ever touching her or thinking about her naked.
    By the time that we came up the driveway, my face was white. My hands were shaking. I took some deep breaths. Laila got out of the car, and I followed her to their front door.
    She unlocked the door, but somebody inside heard her keys jingling and yanked it open before she could finish.
    It was Chris.

25

Thanksgiving Dinner
    Trouble
    I f I made a run for it now, maybe I would still be breathing tomorrow. I looked back at my car. I looked at Laila.
    "Chris!" She hugged him. "Oh my god, what are you doing here?"
    "Half of my buddies got alcohol poisoning at our pre-gaming session before we went, so we canceled our trip." He squinted at me. "What is he doing here?"
    "His dad is in Singapore," Laila explained. "So I invited him home. Mom asked. Mom said he didn't even need an invitation."
    "Okay. Hey, man." Chris still looked like he thought something was up. I prayed to God that Laila would think twice about introducing me to her parents as her boyfriend. I had no idea how I was going to tell her to back off right now. This was like sitting at home, watching a tornado come at you and being helpless to move.
    I squirmed a little bit inside. I clapped Chris on the back. "Hey." By the way, I'm fucking your younger sister, the one thing that you didn't want me to do. Surprise, surprise. I hoped I still had a windpipe after dinner.
    "Baby!" Mr. King came out and picked Laila up. "You're home."
    "Hi, sugar," Mrs. King said, giving Laila a kiss on the cheek. "And oh, you did bring Trouble. How are you, kiddo?"
    She kissed me on the cheek, too, as if I were their third child.
    "I'm great, Mrs. King." I smiled at her. She was so warm and natural that it totally disintegrated all the tension that I felt. I didn't feel like there was a monkey on my back anymore, which I didn't even notice until it was gone. It would be okay.
    I clapped Mr. King on the back when he came over to whack me on the shoulder.
    "I'll talk to you about dating my little girl after dinner," he said in a low voice in my ear. "Alone."
    And the monkey was back. Now I didn't have one King ready to beat my ass to a bloody pulp. I had two. Why had I