The King Next Door by Maureen Child Read Free Book Online Page A

moment.”
    “Lucas will take care of that, too. He’s got a master electrician who will fix all the wiring and just tack it onto the cost of the kitchen redo.”
    Fabulous. An inner shriek resounded loudly, but at the same time, Nicole had to admit that the house definitely needed rewiring. She’d never be able to sleep soundly in her bed again if she was lying there every night, terrified that a fire would erupt and endanger her son.
    “Hopefully,” she muttered, “my insurance company will see it that way, too, or I’m going to be making payments to Lucas until I’m eighty.”
    “No, you won’t.” He laid a few onions on top of the cheese bubbling atop the sizzling burgers in the smoke and steam. “I’ll take care of that.”
    She stiffened at his presumption. It was one thing to accept Griffin’s offer of a place to stay, but she wasn’t about to let him pay for the kitchen rehab. “No, you won’t. It’s my kitchen, my house, my problem.”
    He frowned at her. “Don’t be stubborn.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “I mean it.” He shrugged. “I can afford it. It’s not like it’ll kill me to handle the cost of the redo, Nicole.”
    This wasn’t stubbornness, this was pride, and hers was taking a beating at the moment. Well, she might not have as much money as a King, but she could take care of her own problems.
    “I’ll kill you if you try,” she said and waited until his gaze met hers again. “I don’t care how much money you have, this is my responsibility. I can take care of myself, my son and my house.”
    He frowned at her. “Who the hell says you can’t?”
    “You just did,” Nicole snapped, irritation blowing through her as fast as the electrical fire had moved through her kitchen. “Or implied it, anyway. I don’t need to be rescued.”
    “Look around,” he shot back. “I’m nobody’s white knight.”
    “Not how it looks from where I’m standing.”
    “Yeah? Well, I don’t see a horse and I’m not wearing armor.”
    No kidding, she thought grimly.
    Nicole took another long breath, trying to steady herself. Griffin was just trying to help, she thought. Maybe it was the overblown, high-handed, arrogant kind of help the Kings so excelled at, but he wasn’t trying to be offensive.
    “Look,” she said when she thought she could speak without either screaming or gritting her teeth, “I know you think you’re doing the right thing by offering to step in and make everything okay again, but I can do this myself.”
    He studied her for a long moment and Nicole had to force herself to stand still under his steady stare. Finally, though, he said only, “Fine.”
    “Fine.”
    “Now that we’ve got that settled, why don’t you get Connor and I’ll bring the burgers to the table?”
    He was giving in too easily, she told herself, even though his voice was tight and his eyes were grim. He wasn’t happy about this, but Nicole told herself his happiness wasn’t her issue. Griffin was just going to have to learn that not every woman in the world rolled over when a King spoke.
    She’d been standing on her own two feet for a long time now and she wasn’t about to let anyone—not even a well-meaning, would-be Knight in Shining Board Shorts—take control of what she did and didn’t do.
    She turned around sharply and left him standing there, staring after her. By the time she had Connor’s hands washed and the boy secured in his booster seat, Griffin had already poured lemonade for all of them, including filling Connor’s sippy cup. He handed it to the boy and smiled when Connor snatched it and sucked at the straw.
    “Apparently moving dinosaurs through the desert is thirsty work,” he said.
    Relieved, Nicole smiled. Good, she was glad they’d left their previous conversation behind. Maybe he really was going to accept that she was in charge of what happened in her and her son’s lives.
    “Everything he does is thirsty work.” She reached out and smoothed Connor’s hair back