“Cash’s mad at me,” I blurted.
Jelani raised his eyebrows. “Mad? For what?”
I sighed, leaning against the counter. “I don’t know. He’s barely said anything to me since we got here, and brushed me off when I tried to help him.”
Jelani hummed thoughtfully. “I don’t think he’s mad. Money… he’s just got his own way of dealing with shit. Coming up here was no small play—it puts us at risk in a lot of ways.”
“I didn’t ask him to come,” I retorted.
“Oh, so he should’ve just left you with your weirdo ex?” Jelani asked, pulling a bottle of water from the fridge.
“No…” I trailed off.
“Exactly. The nigga is just in his head right now. Trust me, he loves you.”
“I—what?” I stammered.
He rolled his eyes. “You heard me. That man loves you, even if he hasn’t admitted it to himself or you.”
“Jasmine!” Cash’s deep baritone voice called from the top of the stairs.
Jelani gave me a knowing smile. “Told you.” He winked and headed down the hall to his room.
He loves you.
If he did, why was Cash acting all weird and distant? It didn’t make sense.
Cash was waiting for me at the top of the stairs. I couldn’t help but notice how, despite being bruised up, Cash was still so fucking sexy. My eyes trailed over his shirtless frame and down to the black basketball shorts that sat low on his hips. Even now, I couldn’t stop my body from reacting to him. He’d gone ahead and bandaged the cut above his eyebrow, and the swelling on his lip had gone down.
I followed him into the bedroom, feeling all over the place. My body ached, my head was still reeling from everything that had gone down tonight, and on top of that, I wanted Cash,real bad.
He motioned for me to sit on the bed.
“Jelani was just?—”
“I want you to stay in Atlanta.”
“What?”
“With me,” he said slowly. “I don’t want you to move back to New York.”
I reared back. “You—what? Cash, where’s this coming from?”
His brows knitted together while he rubbed his jaw like he was still working out what he wanted to say. “When Marcus took you…” He trailed off. “That shit fucked me, Jas. Real talk. It felt like all the air was sucked out of the room. I kept thinking—what if I never saw you again? What if that was the last time I heard your voice?”
My chest tightened.
He paused. His gaze fixed on the floor before he looked up at me.
“You know I’m not the type of man to be on some wax poetic shit. That ain’t never been me. I speak plainly, and my actions back up what I say. But you need to know… I’m always thinking ‘bout you—and now anytime I think of the future, it includes you. Shit don’t feel right unless you’re around.”
He exhaled sharply. “Then that nigga had the nerve to throw shit in my face—talkin’ ‘bout you regretted meeting me. And maybe after all this, you do. Maybe you wanna walk away from all this. From me.” His voice dropped. “But I don’t wanna lose you, Jasmine.”
The air between us felt heavy. It was like everything over the past few days had stripped away his armor and cockiness, leaving nothing but his truth.
There was one more thing I needed to tell him. My heart twisted, not knowing how he’d take it.
“There’s something you need to know,” I said softly. “Marcus… he made videos of us. I didn’t know he was recording?—”
