Page 76 of A Smooth Operator

I leaned against Remi's leather jacket, laying my cheek on it. I hugged him tight, and he stroked my hand and touched my thigh as he rode. We couldn't talk as much as we could when we were in a car, but the intimacy of holding him was worth the silence.

Sometimes, I forgot that things were so complicated when it came to his family. When we were together like this, we were in a cocoon, and it was safe. Even before, when we were hiding our relationship, when we were alone, it was perfect. It was only when the outside world encroached that we had problems.

I had asked myself if my reasons for being with Remi were pure or if I was also living a fantasy of being with the boy from the master's house. I found the whole idea distasteful. The truth was that I didn't care who Remi's parents were—but I had to ask myself if I understood my own needs and desires.

Love was tricky because you could love people who were mean to you, treated you horribly, were bad for you. Love was unreliable. The person you loved could one day wake up and decide they were done with you—say they didn't love you anymore. Love wasn't an emotion you could let drive your decisions. Well, that's what scientist Echo thought. Echo, the woman, was lost in love and didn't give a shit about being sensible.

I worried that I was like one of those silly girls in movies who falls for the rich guy, only for him to leave her because his family disapproves. Would that be our relationship? Always fighting to stay together because his mother or someone else in his family had a problem with me?

By the time we were at the Drake's, I was wound up tighter than a pecan in a nutcracker.

My legs were wobbly when I got off the bike. Remi had told me that would stop happening when I got used to it, and he fully intended to make sure I got on his bike plenty.

"I want you to have unsteady legs 'cause I made you come hard, not because of the bike."

He took one look at me and shook his head in disapproval. "You went down a rabbit hole, didn't you?"

"I'm being realistic," I countered.

"No, you're working yourself into the worst-case scenario. What was it this time?" He removed my helmet and hung it from the bike's handlebars and did the same with his.

"That after we got married, your family would tell you horrible things about me, and you'd believe those things and throw me out of the house and divorce me. For some reason, I'd be poor and maybe even pregnant," I divulged.

"Didn't we see a movie like that on Hallmark or Lifetime recently?"

"And then I'd be on the streets," I continued and then brightened as I remembered the movie. "But then another very wealthy and handsome guy would rescue me."

"Cause you need to be rescued?" He kissed my nose.

I groaned. "You know relationships are hard; ours will be harder cause your Mama hates my black ass."

"Half-black ass, and may I add, a very beautiful and fine tush it is." He stroked my butt over my jeans. "I promise you, Baby Doll, I won't believe any nasty things anyone says about you."

I put my hand on his chest and stared at my unpolished nails. I was never going to make a good society wife. I forgot manicures and pedicures. I shaved my legs, bikini line, and pits, and that was all the grooming I managed to do. The effort it took me to look and behave like Lani or Sierra wasn't something I could do on the regular. It would be a once-in-a-blue-moon sort of situation.

"Maybe I should—"

"Shut the fuck up and come inside with me," he suggested. "Echo, sure, our relationship could be harder to maintain cause of all the societal bullshit. But don't you think what we have is worth it?"

That hit home. He was right. Just because something was hard didn't mean it wasn't worthwhile.

"We're worth it," I replied and went on tiptoe in my sneakers and kissed him on the mouth. "You're right."

"Thank the fuck, God." Remi put his arm around me and took me inside his mansion.

Damn, but this was going to be unpleasant. I could feel it in my bones.

Chapter 29

Remi

Adeal was a deal. She came for Thanksgiving dinner at the Drakes, and now I had to fuck her silly.

I took my belt off, followed by the zipper. I pulled my pants down along with my boxers, kicking them aside.

Echo was naked in bed, watching me. Kneeling on her bed, I crawled to her. I spread open her thighs and eased down toward her pussy.

I could smell her, and it drove me wild; my mouth watered.

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