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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 37✍🏾📚❤️ #SylLit #WIP #livestory 📖💓 #marriedwife #demandedconsensual #darkromance

I don’t know how to explain King Heart. You’d have to read a couple of other books, including Wicked Chances and Beautiful, to understand him.

Yes, I’m delivering this chapter on the weekend because I needed to make sure you guys got three chapters this week.

Your Author, Sylvia Hubbard

I can’t fuck her! I haven’t fucked her in months! Every time I look at her… please don’t ask that of me, Pops.

That was pretty much all El really heard as he sat, barely holding his nausea in the bar. He figured Salacious had dragged him there to irritate the fuck out of him, but to his surprise, it was to handle business.

When El informed Tyler why Salacious had beckoned him, the lawyer said, “You better go handle that so you can close the book on Dwayne Fulsom’s contract.”

Before entering the bar, El adorned a gray raincoat in the trunk and rubbed a thick layer of vapor under his nose after flicking the collar upward to protect him from the stench he knew he’d have to fight through. 

It was a seedy bar on the west side that looked like it had been built before prohibition, with 1960s disco furnishing. The gaudy red decor looked like it had not been changed but barely covered up—certainly not cleaned in any way. El could barely walk in the door and wanted to grab the jar of vapor rub to hold it right over his nose. 

Of course, Salacious had gotten a booth in the dimly lit back right before the last booth close to an exit and waved him over. The room started spinning by the time El made his way to the booth and looked disgusted at the cheap plastic seats, imaging all the bacteria around. 

“Did you find the worst-smelling bar in Detroit just to piss me off?” El questioned, needing his handkerchief over his nose to tolerate the ambiance.

Salacious grinned wickedly, puffing on a cigar. “I like the extra handlebars in the bathroom. Have a seat, El.” 

El looked at the booth in disgust at how unsanitary this entire place was and cringed at the thought of pressing any part of his body against furniture that most likely had not been cleaned since installation. “I thought there was no smoking in businesses anymore.”

“Who’s going to tell?”

“Aren’t you a cop first?”

“I’m a Heart to the bone. Sit your ass down, El, or I’ll make you.”

El snorted but moved into the booth so he could get this meeting over with.  Being dragged away from work for sex was one thing, but enduring Salacious presence was torturous. Just as he had left the office, his lawyer had sent over Iris’s sealed medical records. Knowing their trip to Chicago was coming up, he doubted he’d be able to keep his hands off her and other parts of himself. 

Once he received the call from the detective to join him at the bar, El was forced to put on the shirt he’d worn that morning with Iris. Her scent and the smell of lemongrass were still faintly on there, and her smell calmed his soul and affliction. “Let’s get this over with quickly,” El said to Salacious, showing significant irritation, pulling out an envelope and shoving it over to him. “It’s more than enough to pay the debt King Heart wants from Dwayne Folsom.”

“My cousin didn’t send me here to collect shit.” Salacious pushed the envelope back across the table. “He doesn’t want the money. He wants the debt.”

El knew various ways King Heart loved to collect on a debt that had nothing to do with money. “His wife?”

Chuckling, the detective said, “That sweet thing you call an assistant?” Smirking wickedly. “Not like you to eat where you shit, Olorun.”

“Always like you to be in my fucking business.”

“As long as you protect that bitch I will. You know what she did in Chicago.”

“I had no part of that, and I’m fucking tired of saying that.”

“But if you know where she is-“

El cut him off. “You came here to drum up the same convo, then fuck that, I can leave. But can you tell me why the debt is important to King?”

“The boy’s pops got something King wants.”

“You mean father-in-law?”

Salacious snorted. “Nah, I mean father.” He leaned into the table and grimaced. “That boy is related in more ways than one to his wife. When King Heart told me about what I debt I was informing you about, I did my own digging.”

“What does King want with this guy?”

“How the fuck should I know?! I’m paying off the last debt I owe King Heart by doing this for him.”

Just then, an older, worn, and grumpy dark black man entered from the back exit doors and plopped in the last booth looking, followed by Dwayne, and neither looked like they had applied a bar of soap to their body in days or changed their clothes in a week. The smell from both of them turned El’s stomach, but El now was too damn curious as to what was going on? Did Salacious know them? Was this a setup? 

Putting his hands down by his side to get to his weapon faster, El hissed, “What the fuck are you up to, Heart?”

Salacious rolled his eye heavenwards as if he had been found out; he leaned in and lowered his voice so no one else could hear him. “Seeing as to how you don’t know shit, why does Council Washington suddenly have a hard-on for you.”

El looked behind the detective briefly so he wouldn’t draw attention to the two men in the last booth. Deciding to placate the detective, El said, “I could care less about the councilman.”

“I asked some colleagues in the department to run your background on you and get it to his office. I got your record on alert, so I wanted to know who you’ve pissed off.”

Not wanting this detective any more involved in his business than necessary, El responded, “He’s marrying my sister. He probably wants to know who he’s connecting himself with.”

“I don’t see why he should be worried since he’s connected with some shady shitters around the city. That’s the only way he got that damn seat. He’s just a fucking frontman to hide a lot of deceitful deals and happenings on the street, and why would you want that man as your brother-in-law?”

“I don’t have a say so in the fucking matter, Heart. Now, what are you up to with him?”

“I didn’t like the guy when we were kids, and I still don’t like the guy.”

“He’d do anything to stick around your clean rep so he doesn’t smell so bad. You’d be perfect. You both grew up-“

El cut him off again. “Just because we grew from the same farm doesn’t mean we are the same type of fruit, Heart. Washington leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and I don’t wish to speak about him any further. I have no association with my sister anymore.”

“Funny because when I spoke to her just yesterday, she told me you two were like peas in a pod, and since the tragedy of your parents, you’ve been that protective brother. I remember you sending home your pay to her.”

“I had an obligation to help her, you ass. I was stealing that food for her. I’d promise my mother on her death bed I would protect her.”

The detective took a long toke of his cigar with that wry smirk curling on his lips. “Clearly, you didn’t do a very good job with the protecting if she marries Washington.”

His sister must be desperate to cling to El’s reputation without the fear of repercussions knowing this would piss him off. He only associated with her because of their mother’s dying wish to take care of his sister, but now that she would marry Washington, that would no longer be his responsibility. “Only because she begged, but I’ve been looking for a reason to cut ties with that manipulative parasite for a while, and with her marrying Washington, this gives me a good excuse. Since King won’t accept my money, what will he accept.”

Salacious licked his teeth like he was about to bite into a juicy steak. “All King said was that he needed something to hold the debt. He said you’re a businessman. You’d know all about negotiations.”

A chill went down El’s spine because he felt something, but he didn’t want to accept the implications. 

Salacious checked the time on his watch and grumbled in annoyance. “Whatever this debt is to my cousin, you must handle it as quickly as possible. You’ve been keeping your reputation clean since the army, and you don’t need King Heart to be involved in your life any longer than necessary. He only brings death and destruction in anybody’s lives he touches.” A flash of pain crossed his features as he tossed a couple of bills on the table and then left, bidding the owner at the bar adieu. 

Now that his attention wasn’t on Salacious, he focused on the back of Dwayne’s dandruff-encrusted head. As much as he wanted to leave this awful-smelling place, El forced himself to stay. Moving around the booth discreetly, he sat where the detective had been. He opened his ears to listen to the old man and Dwayne converse.

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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