The F King: A Bad Boy Romance (Still a Bad Boy Book 3) by Ada Scott Page A

gang. They didn’t look like the kind of people concerned with the cosmetics industry either. What aren’t you telling me, Ryan?”
    Oh fuck. Looked like Sarina was already crashing like a meteorite into the world I was trying to take over. Fuck.
    My heart sank. If I told her the truth, it would drive her away, I’d be “with” her even less than now, not more. How the fuck could I explain this?

Sarina
    R yan probably wouldn’t have had any different expression on his face if he’d been tied to a post in front of a firing squad. The way that hopeful smile dropped from his face broke my heart. I felt like an ogre, taking this perfect, sweet, sincere moment and using it for my own purposes.
    I had to remember I was a cop, I was working here, even though a huge part of me wanted to scream “Yes!” and dive on top of him. A boyfriend? For me ? How fucking amazing would that be? Instead, I risked losing that beautiful thing.
    Then there was the fact that I’d also just put out an ultimatum for Ryan. If he didn’t think I was worth it, then he’d just tell me to get my things and go. Then where would the investigation be?
    My heart stopped what it was doing and focused on Ryan, to see if he’d been feeling these utterly forbidden things as strongly as I had. What was taking him so long? If only my life was as simple as his I’d have admitted everything by now.
    Just tell me, Ryan… the things I’ve already done have probably put you out of the reach of the law anyway. You won’t get prosecuted in the end, you’ll be safe. I won’t let them get to you. Just tell me you sell F, that’s all I need for now… say it and we can be together. We can work everything else out later…
    “I wasn’t lying about the cosmetics business,” said Ryan.
    My heart considered not resuming its work, but then reluctantly started beating, as I dealt with a shrinking feeling that made me try to retract my hands from Ryan’s grasp. He didn’t let go.
    “I wasn’t , the company exists and turns a good profit. But,” he took a deep breath and paused for an eternity, licking his lips and eyes looking upwards as if searching his head for the right words. “I don’t even know how to explain this.”
    “Just tell me, Ryan… It’s OK…”
    “I never tell anybody …”
    I squeezed his hand.
    “I’m an only child,” he began.
    What that had to do with selling drugs, I had no idea, but I didn’t press him any further. I just listened carefully, hoping that was all the encouragement he needed to keep talking.
    “Never knew my dad. Apparently he needed a girl who could take a beating a lot better than my mom. It took her finding out about being pregnant with me to work up the courage to get herself out of there and leave the cheating and the hitting behind.”
    Ryan shut his eyes, raised his eyebrows and sighed as if he couldn’t believe these words were coming out of his mouth.
    “For my whole life, it’s been just her and me. She had to work like a fucking slave to make ends meet. She had a part-time job during the day, looked after me between school and bedtime, and then a part-time job in the evenings, and odd-jobs all over the place. I can only imagine how exhausted she must have been.”
    I gripped his hands tighter and shuffled closer so my knee touched his. Ryan had noticeably paled as he talked, and the heat seemed to have been sucked out of the room.
    “I remember this one time, I must have been nine years old. I came home from school and she wasn’t there. We didn’t have a TV and there was nothing in the cupboards like the kind of packaged snacks my friends at school had. It’d been kind of a shitty day, kids being assholes like only kids can, and I was sitting there for a while feeling sorry for myself, angry at her for not having money like them. What a piece of shit…”
    I shook my head. “You were only a-”
    “Kid. Yeah. So I was sitting there on the couch and I heard her car kinda cough and