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Please continue reading if you’ve read the story starter – a very long Chapter 1 – and you’re ready to dive into the story with me.

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About the story: (short description. Click here for longer)

“Let Me Love You” is a tale of love and sacrifice and a poignant story of self-discovery, celebrating the human capacity to find love in the most unlikely of circumstances.

Please enjoy the current WIP of Iris and El. This will be published freely up to a point, like in the old days, and then the entire book will be posted for full download. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. And don’t forget to check out the companion stories. (Wicked Chances, Dreams of Reality, The Convenient Wife, The Other Side of Love, She Works Hard for the Money & Ravenous)

Enjoy, Your Author, Sylvia Hubbard

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Read more: Let Me Love You – Chapter 30✍🏾📚❤️ #SylLit #WIP #livestory 📖💓 #marriedwife #demandedconsensual #darkromance

Yes, I struggled in this chapter toward the end because now I have to speak on her father—the man I’ve been avoiding like the plague, whom I know should be the worst of the worst… and he, but that doesn’t mean I want to discuss that. I want to be like Iris and avoid it all. I’m going to force myself to get it done. I must! I am going to move this story forward.

So, a little bit more about Ernest Washington: he will appear in the continuing saga of Sweet Justice. You can pick that book up in my shop. And I can’t even start with Blaque, but if you know, you know. And yes, she might make an appearance. As for Emperor’s Heart, you can find his story in his books.

Let me know if you’ve read any of these.

Your author, Sylvia Hubbard

From the glare in the politician’s eyes, El could see he would need to watch his back. The wolf was trying to get into the house.
After calling the service to clean up the place, he reached his car and called his security advisor and associate. Initially, he was going to go into want he wanted, but then he had the desire to bitch first. “Your cousin paid me a visit last night, Emperor Heart.”
After a low chuckle, Emperor responded, “I think he likes you, El. He was fond of Blaque growing up, and perhaps his adoration of her has been transferred to you since his feelings for her have presently changed since the Chicago incident.” Emperor always sounded like he was finishing up with sex with a sleepy husky drawl to his voice. Deemed a recovering sex addict, Emperor was working through demons the majority of the time due to his father. 
“Or he’s trying to stay on my ass to find her, to which I have no idea, and I wish he would leave me the fuck alone. She only trained me. I was her sparring partner occasionally. Other than that, she was mean as shit. What the fuck do I have to do to prove I had nothing to do with the Chicago incident?” 
“You’re mean as hell too, El, which was probably why Blaque constantly tried to jump your bones. And I believe you about Chicago, although I know you taught her about the ice bullets.” He suddenly viciously cursed. “Do you know it’s fucking seven am on a Saturday? What the fuck? A visit from Sal shouldn’t be an early morning wake-up call, El. What the fuck!” Emperor said with significant irritation. “I fucking just got to bed. And as for being trained by Blaque Heart and her sparring partner, you have one up on all of us as her family members because that’s not something any of us would do. Although, you’re a brave man since I wouldn’t doubt that Minx wouldn’t shank you just because.”
“It wasn’t as if I had a choice to refuse her, Em,” El growled sourly.
“After she had beef with Onyx, no one would go ten feet near her. Hell, she’s my little sister, and I want to wring her neck if I find her.” 
El could hear movement in the background. “This call is not for that son of an ass. It’s for Councilman Ernest Washington. He drove all the way out to my new investment property – outside of Detroit to let me know he’s marrying my sister, and he’s pissed I haven’t invited him into the Bellini circle.”
Emperor chortled. “Your old Brewster Douglass buddy barely won his district. Most likely, he wants to get in with that family to up his network away from street thugs and drug dealers. He wants to be like you. Hence, marrying your sister will get him closer to your circle.”
“You and I both know he’s not my buddy. He rode my ass until he found a new one. I don’t trust him. It’s more Ola than him in terms of getting official papers. I wouldn’t put it past my sister to throw a little out to reel a big fish in. I need to know details about this and the wedding. I don’t like being surprised like this.”
“Courts open on Monday. Even if they filed the papers last week, they must wait seventy-two hours in Michigan. Give me a few days to poke around, and I can swing by the new office on Tuesday for lunch. I need to look over some things. Will you be in town?” 
“I’m not leaving until Thursday for Chicago, so that’s fine.” 
“I assume the assistant is working out since you haven’t called to delete her from the system. No other has made it past a week. Could this be the one? “
“I’m surprised she’s working out,” he revealed and forced himself not to go on as he heavily thought about last night, shifting his body around to try not to get aroused.
“Was that pleasure in your voice, El? Oh hell, I better look out to see if pigs are flying.”
“Go back to bed, Emperor.” El disconnected the call as he got in his car and headed to the office. He was too wired to go to his temporary condo at the St. Royal Hotels. 
Just as he pulled into the parking lot, Xavier texted him.
“How about a five-bedroom home on first come, first serve, but it has to be bought outright? No rental. What you see is what you get. And you get all the amenities.”
Five was a lot, but he could sell it later.
“What’s the terms?” he questioned.
“Twenty-year minimum. He already ran a background check on your ass. Good looking out having Emperor’s Security Company as your referral. You checked out fast, so he’s interested.”
Damn! Yet the terms were like a lifetime. That place offered was for a whole family, and El had no desire to have something so… permanent. 
But he felt this was his only chance to get into The Charlotte. It would be safe. They had a private school right there inside the community. Once in The Charlotte community, he would obtain another place when a new, smaller unit became available.
Damn, he needed a place to stay, but once things went south with her, he’d need to get out and leave the place to her. “Sounds like a plan,” he responded. “Send over everything, and I’ll get it to Tyler.”
“He’s going to send it straight to Tyler.”
Just like that! El had bought a house for him to live in with a woman. Damn! Why the hell did he feel so nervous? Because the last time he’d been at home with a woman, he was with his sister and mother. And that had gone well. And it was an apartment and not a house.
Also, Iris would fight this, and El didn’t know how to convince her to move into the house. 
He texted Xavier immediately. “I need another name on the title as well. I’ll pay whatever is necessary. The background is already run. Tyler and Emperor would have her in their systems.”
“Shoot me her full name, and we’ll go from there.” 
What the hell was he doing?

---

As she arrived at Aunt Rose’s home, Iris didn’t like that her bad feelings were replaced by apprehension as she exited the black Honda. Looking around the desolate Detroit neighborhood in the early morning, the fog was lifting, but she could see several yards in front of her, and no one was around. 
Getting inside the well-protected house, Iris knew she would hear nothing, but she didn’t expect to see Aunt Rose sitting in a chair right off the foyer facing the doorway. Her crochet project was spread about on her lap, and it looked as if she had been there all night with a large cup of tea. 
“I’m not worried about you,” Aunt Rose assured her, putting her crochet needles in her lap and then snapping her fingers. 
Herb, her semi-hairless cat, appeared out of nowhere and jumped onto her lap to receive loving pets. 
“How was he?” she asked her aunt. 
“Fine as always. Clem understands his aunt works long hours and loves him immensely. That boy loves you down to the bone marrow. What I worry about is if you understand that?” 
It was an odd question, and Iris waited for her relative to continue explaining.
“That means you need to help yourself so that boy can continue to see you as his guardian and the love of his life. You need to be happy.”
“I’ve left Dwayne.”
“He wasn’t the problem.”
Knowing the direction of that conversation, Iris questioned, “What’s this about, Aunt Rose?”
Rose lifted herself from the chair, holding Herb securely but making eye contact with Iris the whole time. Walking up to her niece, Rose cupped Iris’s cheek. “You were with that man last night.”
“You knew that. I let you know that.”
“He cares for you, not like your father and definitely not like Dwayne, even if he doesn’t know it yet.”
“How would you assume all that, Aunt Rose? I’m only there to pay off a debt, Aunt Rose, and to be used. It doesn’t make a difference to him. And we didn’t go all the way.”
“I know. I can smell him on you. Not in you.”
Why did that give her the chills? “How would you know something like that, Aunt Rose?”
Her aunt went to the kitchen, still holding her cat, and Iris followed. “I would smell other men from your mother all the time. She’d swear she was never cheating on her father, but there were so many scents on her after all her blackouts I couldn’t be around her. And what she was telling me and what I was smelling was not equating. I don’t like drama.” Rose started filling her electric tea kettle before turning it on and then preparing two cups. “This boss is clean like a nice fall day. And he’ll protect you from Amus.” Facing Iris, she said, “Your father has been lurking.”
Frowning with worry, Iris said, “He didn’t come here. He wouldn’t.”
“No, he wouldn’t.”
The last time Amus stepped foot on Aunt Rose’s property was the only time her aunt had almost stepped out of the door. To remember that day, Amus got a wound on his arm and never came around again. 
“Pete has seen him driving around the neighborhood as if he’s trying to get a glimpse of something… most likely you. You’re not safe here, Iris.” 
“He wouldn’t come here no matter what, Aunt Rose,” Iris said assuredly.
“I think this boss can help you.”
After her mom passed, Aunt Rose’s place had been Iris’s only safe place, and she never thought her mother’s sister would ever get tired of her. If she didn’t have this place, she would be out of her mind, but now, hearing her aunt tell her in so many words to get gone made Iris’s whole life feel like it was falling apart internally. Panicking, she said, “Wait, Aunt Rose. Are you kicking me out?”

End of This Chapter | Post your thoughts in the comment | Let the author know what’s going on in your head

Let Me Love You (c) 2024 Sylvia Hubbard All Rights Reserved

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual person, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
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