She walks right past me, allowing me to appreciate her ass sway with each step. “How do you know she even said anything to me?” Lety asks, annoyance coloring her words. She rifles through her clutch before pulling out a set of keys to unlock her door. The lock is rusted, sitting slightly askew. I make a mental note to update her security system. I won’t rest unless I know she’s safe.
Until I can convince her to move in with me, that is.
“Because something changed in you when I came back. It looked like you wanted to bolt,” I answer.
Lety snorts but also doesn’t deny it. After a moment of struggling with the lock, she pushes open her front door and steps inside. I fall in step behind her, locking it once I’m inside. It occurs to me I’ve never actually been in Lety’s house before. It smells just like her, sugary sweet with a hint of spice. The house is small but well maintained. The living room is decorated with an emerald-green couch, complimented by fuchsia walls with various art and photos adorning it.
All the small trinkets and a half-finished puzzle on the coffee table scream Lety. This is her own personal haven, and she’s allowed me—albeit reluctantly—inside of it. I don’t take that lightly.
As I’m admiring her space, Lety moves further into the house, down a darkened hallway. I follow, noting the family photos lining the wall. Lety is in the back room, the primary bedroom, kicking off her shoes. Unlike the rest of the house, this room is cluttered with clothes. The bed isn’t made, looking freshly slept in, and there’s a coffee mug on her bedside table with lipstick stains on the rim.
Lety is mumbling to herself as she kicks her heels off and turns to look at me. There’s a wild look in her eyes and I know I’m in for a fight. “This isn’t going to work!”
“You yelling at me? I don’t know, mi reina. It’s getting me all hot and bothered.”
Lety hurls a twisted-up shirt at my head. I dodge it and it hits the wall with a dullthudbefore falling back to the floor. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it. I can’t do this, César. It’s not worth fucking up everything we’ve both built. It’s better if we part ways amicably, so we can at least work together civilly. Or hell, I can quit and?—”
“You’re not fucking quitting,” I snarl. “And we’re not cutting this off.”
“But Carmen said?—”
“I don’t give a fuck what Carmen said! Augustín just needs to divorce her ass already. I shouldn’t have left you alone with her knowing what she’s like.” I take a deep breath, feeling myself get heated. I need to keep a level-head right now, since Lety certainly won’t.
“Wait, what?” Lety scrunches her brow.
I close the space between us, needing to be closer. Lety sucks in a deep breath when I approach, but she doesn’t push me away. She’s guarded, confused, but doesn’t flinch when I reach for her. It’s a small crack in her armor I plan to exploit.
“I should’ve warned you before we left. Carmen’s awful.” There are harsher things I want to call her, but out of respect for my friend and their kid, I hold back. “She’s cold. Self-centered. The kind of person who’ll do whatever it takes to get what she wants, even if it means tearing someone else down. She saw a vulnerable moment, and she used it against you. That’s the kind of shit she pulls. What did she tell you?”
Lety’s hesitant to let me know. She shifts from foot to foot, glancing at the ground. My strong, beautiful woman forgets herself. But she won’t. Not after tonight.
My fingers find her chin, coaxing her to meet my eyes. “What did she say?” I ask again.
“That I don’t belong in your world. That I’m just another woman in a sea of women before me,” she admits, and each word lights a fire within me.
My jaw clenches so hard it hurts.
“Another woman?” I repeat in a low and dangerous tone. “You think I’d bring justany womaninto my life, into my business, to meet my friends? You think I’d risk everything I’ve built for something casual?” I scoff, stepping closer, until our bodies are pressed together. She’s got nowhere to run. “You don’t know me at all if you believe that.”
Lety folds her arms like she’s trying to hold herself together. “It’s not just about that. You’ll get tired of me eventually. You’ll want someone easier, someone less complicated.” She shudders, saying the last word like it’s a foul curse.
My chest tightens at her words, and I can’t hold back anymore. I’m done with these games. They end here. Now. With her knowing she’s mine and I’m hers. “I don’t want easy. I wantyou, Lety.”
She shakes her head, but her lips tremble, seconds away from losing herself. “You say that now?—”
“No,” I cut her off, firm but gentle. “Not justnow.I’ve been falling for you since the first time you rolled your eyes at me in that conference room. Since you challenged me instead of catered to my ego. Since I found out what you do in the evenings, and how fucking powerful that makes you.”
She huffs out a soft laugh, but I don’t let go of her hands.
“You think I’m going to get bored of you?” I scoff, brushing my fingers along her cheek. “Lety, I could spend the rest of my life trying to figure you out and still wake up every morning amazed that you’re mine. You’refireandsweetnessandchaosall in one, and I’ve never been more certain of anything than I am of this. I love you.”
She flinches like I’ve struck her, her breath catching. “You can’t possibly love me. We just started dating. No one can be certain. I mean, what if these feelings are just lust? What if we are confusing lust and desire with love? What then?”
“I’m in love with you,” I repeat, slower this time, letting every word sink in. She needs to hear it. There’s no confusion on my part, and soon, there will be none on hers, either. I just need to break through her stubbornness. “Not just theyouthat’s sexy as hell when you’re mad. Or theyouwho gets on camera and is the fucking most powerful, sexy woman I’ve ever seen. Not just theyouI get to kiss or tease or touch. I loveyou. The woman who talks back, who stays late to work and is friends with the janitors. The woman who loves tacos but can’t cook to save her life. The woman who walks into a room and makes me feel like I’m home.”
Lety’s eyes brim with emotion and her lower lip trembles, but she doesn’t pull away. She just stands there, breathing hard, trying to keep her walls up. It’s a losing battle, though, and I think she knows it. She may be stubborn, but it pales in comparison to my own.
So I push a little more.
