Page 23 of The Deed to a Gangsta's Heart

“Whoa.” I wasn’t expecting him to casually ask me that question. It caused me to sway as I gripped the stove. He chuckled quietly. His raspy voice sounded huskier in themorning, and I couldn’t help but think about how good it would have felt to wake up with him inside of me… moaning in my ear. I watched as he grabbed a second mug for me out of the cabinet. “Where’d that come from?”

“Are you?” His eyes met mine, and I couldn’t look away from his gaze. Those hazel under turned eyes were too beautiful to deny. When he realized I was struggling, Remedy added, “I’m attracted to you.”

“You are?” I almost whispered, taking a small step in his direction.

“I am. I think you’re fuckingbeautiful, Cal.”

That made me blush as I hung my head briefly. “I’m attracted to you too.”

His voice softened when he said, “Good. I’m glad we got that out the way.” He grabbed the creamer out of the refrigerator. “Do you want me, Callie?”

That one was a little harder to answer. “Do you mean romantically or sexually?”

“Both.” He handed me my coffee. “We can start with whatever you’re most comfortable answering.”

His phone vibrated in his pocket, and I was grateful for the distraction—until he didn’t pull it out. “Do you want to answer that?”

Remedy’s head shook as he chuckled. “There’s nothing anyone can say on that phone that would be more important to me than you.”

Well… I wasn’t expecting him to say that. “Rem, please. Answer. I need a little time to work up the courage to tell you the truth,” I admitted, causing him to smile.

He did as I asked thankfully. The relaxed expression that was on his face instantly turned into a frown the longer he listened to the person on the other end talk.

“Okay. The maintenance team already has a full day.I’ll put in a priority ticket for this. If they can’t get to it this morning, I will personally handle it.” His head bobbed as he smiled. “A caramel cake as thanks would be much appreciated. I’ll see you soon, Mrs. Jennings.”

Remedy released a hard breath as he disconnected the call. “One of our older tenants has a caved in roof from the storm last night.”

“Oh no.”

“I think I’m going to go ahead and take care of it. I don’t want her to have to wait on maintenance.” He stepped toward me. “As much as I don’t want to end this conversation now and give you a million reasons to ignore what you’re feeling, I have to go.”

“Yeah, no, it’s fine. Um… Take care of your business. We can talk later.”

“Promise?”

I nodded and grabbed his coffee mug, then handed it to him. “Promise. Have a good day, pooh.”

He placed a kiss on the corner of my mouth and my nipples hardened. “You too.”

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him as he left the kitchen. As grateful as I was for the brief intermission, I knew he’d want to finish this conversation later. All I could do was pray something came up that would make him forget. Because if he asked, I’d have to tell him I wanted him—romanticallyandsexually—and I wasn’t sure I wanted to risk what would come next.

It would be cliché of me to say I feared our relationship being ruined if we took things to the next level, but that was the truth. I didn’t value romantic love enough to risk what Remedy and I had. I wanted love and marriage and babies, but I wanted him as my best friend too. He’d been aconstant in my life since I was five. Dick came and went, but what we had, I wanted it to last forever.

I didn’t have the confidence that a relationship between us would be perfect because, quite frankly, I’d never seen Remedy in a serious relationship.

How was I to believe that would change with me?

Women didn’t change men.

They changed only when they wanted to.

He’d never been with a woman for more than a year.

No.

I couldn’t risk what we had for that… no matter how much my feelings for him were changing.

Later that Afternoon

---