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

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I know this took a long time, but I was knee-deep in edits with Essence’s Divinity before the launch date before I realized I hadn’t posted but once last week. (Good thing I went all out the week before.) I appreciate your patience and don’t forget to stick around the site for the #7daysafterChristmas

El didn’t wait for the morning to come. He’d slept very little since their last tussle. Perhaps guilt was keeping him awake? 
Watching her from the VIP section while listening to Alejandro extol their deal to the other Bellini’s, El knew he wouldn’t be sitting in this exclusive chair if it had not been for Iris. A warm glow burst in his chest as he proudly watched her handle herself with Kelsey Bellini, and he couldn’t wait to have her to himself again.
Once they returned to the room, El found himself insatiable, needing to taste every nook and cranny of her body. He gave her time to get some energy with a light snack before he found himself indulging in her body again in the shower and then back in bed again. And she didn’t mind. Iris gave him everything he desired, and the more he had, the more he wanted. 
At three am, he awoke her from her deep sleep. “We’re leaving,” El said.
Iris rubbed the sleep from her eyes, blinked several times, and then nodded.
Damn! Her obedience turned him on. No questions. No talkback. 
Her father had trained her well. He could understand why Dwayne treated her like shit because Iris’s will was unconditional, and a man could forget the value so quickly when she made life so easy.
And El had never had life easy for him until Iris had come into his life.
The trust she placed in El tore at his chest, and he vowed he wouldn’t let another soul hurt this woman. 
He’d packed up most of the new items he’d gotten for her and then called his car from valet to park in the back while she gathered her stuff from the bathroom. When he heard the water running in the room, El smiled, knowing she was washing up. Her cleanliness routine turned him on. How could she be so perfect for him?
When she came out of the bathroom, she was still sleepy but wore her other new business suit—this one in soft blue with black pumps. El had ordered two different ones because he wasn’t sure of her color tastes. Looking at her now, he wished he knew so much more about her. Iris had only done what he desired, forgetting herself.
Damn! Every other man had taken this for weakness, but El could only see beauty and perfection just for him.
El took her hand, lifted their bags, and walked her out. The confidence brimming through him as he held her hand almost scared him. Her fingers curled around his hand tightly, making sure they were palm to palm, bringing a deep sense of protectiveness running through every vein of his body.
His car was cleaned and filled for their drive to Ohio, where they would meet Tyler for the wedding. 
During their light snack, Iris mentioned her cousin’s need for them to come to the hospital as soon as they returned to Detroit. 
It didn’t bother him that Damien wanted to see her as soon as the man became cognizant. It bothered him that the man didn’t want to see his father. El knew there was no one else close to kin for Damien. The man’s mother had committed suicide when he was in college, and he had never married. 
El sent his concerns to Tyler. If he couldn’t get her to Detroit before something happened to Damien, El felt he needed to get ahead of his problems with Ernest and Russell and settle things for good with his sister. 
Iris slept deeply on their way to Ohio, and rightly so. For the last couple of days, he’d occupied her mind, body, and soul, and he didn’t feel an ounce of guilt. 
El found himself hungering for the woman morning, noon, and night, and for the first time, he was worried about when this addiction would end because he didn’t want it to. 
Was that why he was making her his wife?
Not just for business reasons but for personal reasons. 
Bribery. Iris only accepted for a promised freedom. 
Freedom that he knew she could never get, but she didn’t know that.
The feeling in his chest burned hard as he looked from her to the road, knowing at this moment, she could be pregnant with their child. 
A smile curled on his lips. He shouldn’t feel guilty for his deceit. It was a means to an end that he desired. 
But she wouldn’t.
El would ensure he had provisions in place, understood her anger, and was prepared to do anything to coax her into accepting the situation. 

---

Iris didn’t wake up until she felt the car pulling to a stop. El had driven them a little over three hours to a bed and breakfast in Ohio. Her heart raced as she opened her eyes to El sitting in the driver’s seat, still not believing she was about to marry this gorgeous man.
“We’re here,” he announced. “I’ll register us while you finish waking up.”
“Wait,” she said, reaching into her large bag to retrieve a small rubbing tube. Let’s just say it’s a pre-engagement gift.”
El opened the tube, smelled the vial, and rolled it around in his palms to show he was fascinated by the smallness. Looking at her questioningly, he asked, “When did you make this?”
“Watching you in your meetings. I saw how you would have to remove your supply and put it under your nose. It wouldn’t look so strange if you could roll it on. It’s a homemade vapor rub with a little lavender to calm you. And I found that small roll, so you don’t have to worry about how thick to apply it under your nose.”
His deep frown worried her. “Why did you do this, Iris?”
She suddenly felt she’d gotten in trouble. As if her dad were reprimanding her for doing something bad when she had been trying to do good. Faltering in her speech, Iris admitted, “I like to mess around a little and make products proprietary to people, and I saw you carried that vapor rub in your pocket and how bulky it made your suits look sometimes-“
He shot his hand behind her neck and kissed her hard. “You’re beautiful.” 
Iris relaxed. “Thank you.”
El bounced out of the car, applying the rub under his nose, just as an old black man exited the building. 
Something El said to the man made them both look at her in the vehicle before the older man ushered El into the bed and breakfast. 
Would she ever stop feeling nervous around him?
Essence rang her phone. “How do you know Tyler Black?” 
“He’s my boss’s lawyer.”
“He contacted me about setting up a video conference with you and my patient tonight. Who’d you tell?” her cousin asked uncomfortably. “My patient asked not to let any of his family know he’s awake.”
Not wanting to lose her cousin’s distrust, Iris quickly explained, “Only my boss, Essence. I know what you’ve been through-“
“And I owe you big time for all your support in helping me, but you know how important my job is, and giving you access is fine, but that irritable lawyer-“
“Essence, please don’t get upset. I know that lawyer is annoying as hell, but my boss probably worried we wouldn’t make it back to Detroit because our plans changed abruptly after I spoke to you and I’ve been so overwhelmed I wasn’t thinking about calling you, but he most likely felt it was important to both of us.” She told her cousin, “He asked me to marry him.”
Her cousin gasped, “Wait, I thought you were already married?”
Rolling her eyes because she hadn’t caught her cousin up in her life. “I was, and then I wasn’t, and now I’m getting married again. It’s a long story-“
“Wait,” Essence cut her off. “Your boss. That’s the man you just helped, right?”
“I’m still helping him out.”
“Iris, are you sure about this?”
“I know it sounds crazy, but I want this more than you know. I didn’t involve you in what I was going through when I helped you out because you were going through so much then, but when I return to Detroit, we can sit and catch up with everything.” Iris had kept so much to herself while helping her cousin out just weeks before her troubles started. They’d only recently come back into each other’s lives, and Iris wasn’t even sure if she’d let Essence know of Clem because so much had been happening. “I have so much to tell you.”
Essence huffed, calming down. “That’s fine, but as I told the lawyer, I’ll only speak with you about the patient. Just get here as soon as possible, and I’ll do what I can to extract information from him in case anything happens to him.”
“Is he still refusing to see his family?”
“He’s adamant about it, but I don’t have a problem. Above all, I honor the patient’s wishes.” 
Iris wasn’t going to complain. “We will,” she promised. 
“Take care of yourself, girl,” Essence said, disconnecting the line.
At the same time, El was coming out of bed and eating breakfast, looking highly irritated as if someone had given him some bad news. He looked to the sky as if searching for answers and took a deep breath.
Was he changing his mind about getting married, she wondered.
Iris waited for him to come to the car and open her door.
“Iris, you understand what you’re about to do for me and why?” he asked.

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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