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“I know this shit don’t seem fair to you, but I don’t know how to turn these feelings off, so you gonna just have to rock wit’ me.”
She shook her head and looked down at the floor. “I feel it, too, the pull between us. I have since the day we met, but this still feels wrong. I’m not a side bitch, and I’m also not a homewrecker. I don’t go for married men.”
My jaw clenched, and I took my time responding. “Who do you normally go for?”
“What?”
“Not married men. Then who? Let me know so anyone wit’ that description can go have a meeting wit’ Big G.”
“Big G? Gino, what—”
Frustration bubbled inside me, but I pushed it away. I’d get a list of names of her exes later. Those niggas didn’t deserve to walk around happy and free after getting a taste of what was mine. Fuck that.
“Never mind. Look, I have a few things to do the rest of today, but how about we have dinner tomorrow and I explain everything?” I didn’t see the harm in telling Yara everything before it went down. I’d learned my lesson with Aniya. I wouldn’t tell Yara everything about what I did, especially since, after Wednesday, I wouldn’t be in the streets anymore. Turbo would continue doing his thing for a while longer, until he found someone worthy enough to take our shit over so he could bow out gracefully. But for me, I was officially done.
It wasn’t that I thought I couldn’t trust Yara. Something in me told me I could. It was that I also thought I could trust Aniya. More than that, though, Yara was so delicate. The last thing I wanted was to put that kind of worry on her. I remembered her telling me that stress induced her flare-ups. I wasn’t entering her life to cause more harm to her sexy body. I was here to eliminate it, if anything.
She eyed me wearily before she expelled a long breath. “Fine.”
I looked into her eyes intently. “You know what’s crazy?”
“What?”
“I been tryin’ to keep things friendly wit’ you.”
She snorted. “I think you failed, buddy.”
“Why you say that?”
“Paris swears a blind man can see how attracted we are to each other.”
My brows rose. “Yeah?” I pulled her closer to me, my hands finding her waist. “What you think?”
“I think I have no business liking you as much as I do.”
Her honesty turned me on.
“You have all the business likin’ me, Yaya. In fact, I think you should start likin’ me more.”
She shook her head, but she couldn’t hide that pretty smile. “I can’t. Not until I understand what’s going on. I can’t get hurt. You have the potential to hurt me, Gino. I can feel it.”
I frowned. “I’ll fuck a frog before I hurt you.”
Her laugh caused my frown to deepen. She laughed in my face like I wasn’t deadass serious.
“You’ll do what to a frog?”
“Man, look. All I’m sayin’ is that ain’t gonna happen. I know it might seem like I’m on some shady shit right now, but I’m not. I’ma make it all make sense. Give me until tomorrow.”
“I’ll make you a deal. If it all makes sense tomorrow, I promise to like you more than I do right now.”
I grinned playfully. “Say bet.”
She giggled. “Bet.”
“Aight, but we gotta kiss on it to make it official. It’s the rules.”
“Whose rules?” she asked as her eyes traveled to my lips.
