Page 55 of A Smooth Operator

She frowned. "Chance? To do what?"

"Date you."

She laughed then. It wasn't a happy sound. "I don't think so."

"Echo, I know you're in love with me. Don't you want to give this…us a try?"

She took a deep breath. "I did give it a try, Remi, and in return, you called me a fat bitch who's a hanger-on. In return, you treated me like a booty call. I was a fool."

"Echo, I do lo—"

"Don't you say that, Remi, 'cause that ain't fair, and I'm not gonna believe you. I don't want to be manipulated by you or your sister. I'm done with y'all."

I didn't know what to say to change her mind, to compel her to give me another opportunity so I could make her happy, show her what she meant to me, how much I loved her.

"I know I took from you last time and didn't give back. Let me give this time."

"There is no this time."

She rose and walked into her small garden. "You and your sister and y'all's friends have been treating me like dirt for years. You know what I found out recently? That people at work like me. That there were several men who asked me out once they heard I'd resigned. That senior leadership at work wants me to stay and not because I'm Dallas Drake's charity case."

"You were never that." I walked to her. "Ever. I'm so sorry that I said that. You're no one's charity case."

"Here's the unvarnished truth, Remi. I do love you; but I'm also done with you. If I stop seeing you, I'll get over it; I know that. I've lived through plenty of losses; losing you doesn't even hit my top ten."

She turned away from me. I pulled her back to my chest and rested my forehead on her neck, nuzzling her, smelling her, feeling her breath hitch.

"I want you, Echo. So fuckin' much."

"I'd love for us to have sex, too, Remi, but it would just be fuckin'. And I'm too good for that."

She didn't move but let me hold her, so I soaked her in, unsure if she'd ever let me get this close to her again. I had her. I could've been a happy man if I'd just stopped to think. Now I'd lost her.

"Baby Doll, I'm so in love with you." I kissed her shoulder. "I can't sleep. I'm fuckin' going out of my mind without you."

Now she moved away, and I let her. She faced me. "Find a new fuck buddy, Remi. You just need to get your dick wet, that's all, and—"

"Stop, Echo. This is not you. You don't talk like this."

"You don't know me, Remi." She looked at me with a mixture of sadness and irritation. "I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, remember? I've seen ugly like you can't imagine. I saw people fuckin' long before you even knew what it was cause I grew up in a trailer park with a mother who fed her drug habit by hooking. I'm not innocent."

She was breaking my heart, and there was nothing I could do about it. I had no defense, no recourse, no argument to put forth. Remi Drake, the smooth operator's charm, was worthless with Echo. She didn't care about all that. She cared about me, the real me. She'd seen who I was with all my scales and scars and still loved me.

"I know, Echo. What you are is refined; too refined to talk about me getting my dick wet. And, darlin', my dick isn't interested in any pussy but yours."

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a long moment as if gathering herself.

"If I'd never come to the club, and you came over and said these things to me, I'd have been overjoyed." She opened her eyes. "But now, it just seems like too little too late. I can't trust you. We were friends, Remi. How could you say those things about me? Even if we weren't fuckin', how could you allow others to say such things about me?"

"Because I was a coward and a douchebag."

"I don't want to be with a coward and a douchebag."

I grabbed her close then—pulled her to me. "I'm working on being a better man, Echo. I'm working on becoming a man who deserves you, who's worthy of you."

She held back as I gripped her shoulders, pleading. "Let me show you I can be that man."

"No."

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