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Amara Kevins

OVER A DECADE LATER…

“I was the fifth, but the one who made him look good.”

The night felt different from every other night I had spent with Ares because this one was a celebration for him. I was proud to be part of it, especially knowing I had taken the vision he gave me and brought it to life exactly the way he wanted.

The LA skyline glowed beneath the midnight-blue sky while rose-scented candles burned across the rooftop restaurant I had transformed for him. R&B played throughout the space, champagne kept flowing, and damn near every camera in the room was pointed toward one man.

A nearby screen displayed his headline in bold gold letters trimmed in deep red.

Ares Delacroix-Jackson: Forbes’ First Black Billionaire from Compton.

Social media had been going crazy all night. Paparazzi crowded outside, industry executives whispered among themselves, and rivals watched from wherever they were. The people who hated him were probably calculating his downfall, even though Ares had already climbed too high for most of them to reach him. Everybody wanted to know how a label owner who only signed women had managed to outpace so many men in the industry.

I spotted him across the rooftop.

My client had somehow become something much more over the last year.

Ares sat on a red velvet couch in a custom black-on-black Prada suit with gold jewelry layered around his neck and wrist. Half the room looked nervous trying to impress everybody, while he looked completely comfortable being the person everybody wanted to impress.

Forbes headlines and boardrooms bored him, but Ares cared about his image. He understood the value of being seen even when he didn’t care about the people watching.

Ares was French and Black, but his African American side showed the most in his appearance. He was tall with smooth light-brown skin, a naturally wavy fade, thick eyebrows, and full lips I had spent enough time sucking on to know exactly how they felt against mine.

I didn’t mind anybody watching my man tonight.

My gaze kept finding him before I realized I was doing it, and eventually, his found me too.

I stopped near one of the rose arrangements and pretended there was something that needed fixing. Ares looked directly at me with a smirk that told me he knew exactly why I was suddenly so interested in flowers.

“Come here,” he mouthed.

I smoothed my white pencil skirt before walking toward him. My Chanel heels clicked against the stone while I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

“You should be working instead of staring at me,” he teased.

“I am working,” I said with a smile.

“No, you’re looking too good for these people. That’s too much for a nigga like me.”

I laughed as heat rushed into my cheeks. “Stop it, Ares.”

He switched to French because he knew I couldn’t understand him.

“Tu n’as aucune idée de ce que je pourrais te faire si on était seuls, hein?”

You have no idea what I could do to you if we were alone, huh?

My brows pulled together. “You always do that. Talk like I’m supposed to know what you’re saying.”

“Maybe I like knowing things you don’t. Keeps you curious.”

I shook my head while he sat there enjoying himself.

“You did good tonight,” he eventually told me. “Everything about this screams luxury. Exactly how I like it.”

“You mean it looks like you.”