Page 115 of Fighting the Pull

“We heard about your building,” Gemma put in.

Hale looked to her to see she was addressing Elsa.

“Renovation without rent increases?” Gemma continued. “How’d that happen?”

Elsa, a quick learner, didn’t even glance in his direction.

So Hale put it out there. “I own the building, saw the state it was in, and ordered the upgrades.”

Everyone at the table stared at him.

“White savior,” one of Jadyn and Gemma’s friends, a man named Braelin said under his breath.

“Brother, whose table you sittin’ at?” Jadyn asked Braelin irritably, which was unsurprising.

Gemma and Jadyn had been outgoing and friendly, from shop to delivery to Elsa and Hale being in their home. And it was clear Jadyn wasn’t a fan of someone making their guest uncomfortable. Not to mention, although most of the table was occupied by Black and brown faces, Elsa and Hale weren’t the only white people there.

“Maybe,” Hale said to Braelin to show him and Jadyn he took no offense. “And I see where that comes from.”

“Would you do that to real estate you own where your girlfriend doesn’t live?” Braelin asked.

“She wasn’t my girlfriend when I did it,” Hale told him.

He felt Elsa’s gaze and turned her way, immediately understanding the way she was staring at him.

He’d intimated she was his girlfriend.

It wasn’t time to get into that now.

That said, they might just be starting out, but he was ready. If he took a moment to think on it, he’d been ready since their first date at Chez Cohen.

She was smart and stylish and ambitious and a fantastic lay. They got on beautifully, until they didn’t, but he even liked fighting with her. He respected that she stood her ground and didn’t let him get away with any of his shit.

It was more, he knew, but he wasn’t going to go there.

It was about that moment when she came home and tipped her head back to get his kiss.

Yeah, he couldn’t go there.

But now, he needed to have that conversation with her. Especially since he was leaving town soon.

She wasn’t a woman to go on the prowl for a man because she needed company all the time.

But he had her, he liked what they had, and he wanted more. Also, they were having sex, she was phenomenal in bed, not to mention, a natural sub. He wanted them both tested so he could have her ungloved.

In other words, he needed it official they were exclusive, so they could enjoy all the benefits of exclusivity.

He smiled at her, saw her face go soft reading what was behind that smile, and he turned back to Braelin.

“You can fight the power, and you can enlighten it,” Hale said carefully. “There’s no way I can be fully enlightened, but I’m not entirely in the dark, and I have the capacity to do something. So I do. Is that bad?”

“Of course not. All allies are welcome,” Gabrielle, another friend of Jadyn and Gemma’s chimed in.

“Right, let’s move on before we pitch to Hale he has to invest more in Brooklyn, renovate but not relocate,” Jadyn said.

“If you have a proposal on how that can happen, I’d be open to looking at it,” Hale offered.

He felt Elsa’s hand land on his thigh and squeeze.

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