my definition of success has changed?”
His answer was so unexpected, she almost couldn’t get her question out. “To what?” she whispered.
“Jasmine, you’ve taught me so much over the last couple of months,” he said, shaking his head as if he still couldn’t believe it. “Not just you, but Don and Marilyn, Dominic, your family. The problem with immersing yourself in business is that, after a while, that’s all you see.”
And that described the Royce she’d met that first day.
He went on, “My mother tried to warn me, but I refused to listen. I just knew that I had to prove myself, and my father’s measuring stick was money.”
“But you had your mother.”
“I did,” Royce conceded. “And I took care of her as best as I knew how. But emotionally...emotionally, Jasmine, I’m not nearly as savvy as I am at business.” He stepped carefully into her personal space. “Actually, I’m in desperate need of someone to teach me what I need to know.”
“Teach you?”
He nodded, but it was the look in his eyes that took her breath away. “I think it’s time I conquered a new arena.”
“What’s that?”
“Love. Family.”
Was this really happening? Jasmine was almost afraid to believe.
“Would you and Auntie and Rosie and your sisters be willing to take on a workaholic CEO and teach me how to be...human?”
Yes, this might actually be happening. “I think your mother would have liked that.”
“I know she would.”
With the gentlest of touches, Royce cupped his hands around Jasmine’s face. As his lips touched hers, she again felt the magic of connecting with him.
After long minutes, he murmured against her lips. “I need you, Jasmine. Please help me become the man I should be. A husband. A father.”
Was it possible for your heart to explode, simply from emotion? But Jasmine couldn’t give in to the mushiness too fast. “On one condition.”
“What’s that?”
Jasmine dragged in a deep breath before she said, “That whatever we do...we do it together.”
“That’s a deal I’ll never turn down.”
* * * * *
Read on for an extract from CAN’T HARDLY BREATHE by Gena Showalter.
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