Free Leap of Faith (La Flor #1) by Ml Rodriguez

I’ve never made an effort to be a better man until now. Until you.”
    I don’t know what to say, so I just sit there taking it all in. I do want him and I want to get to know him. He fascinates me, but he also scares me—not a bad scare where I’m afraid he’ll physically hurt me, but scared that he can hurt me emotionally, and where would that leave me. I’m scared of the feelings he evokes, the feelings he’s awakened in me. I’ve loved with all my heart and I’ve lost that love, leaving me in a pit of despair that I never want to experience again. What if he just leaves? I’m normally not insecure, but my situation is different. I come with responsibility; I won’t say baggage, because my girls will never be a burden, but most men aren’t ready for a ready-made family. Shit, most of them run away at the first sign of responsibility; the ones who’ve never had relationships, the ones that usually just fuck around. The fuck-em-and-leave-em type. Men like Zane.
    “I can almost hear that brain workin’ overtime, baby.” He gives me a gentle kiss on my forehead. “Let’s go dance. Enjoy your night, but I’m gonna be here the entire time takin’ care of you; dancing with you, anything and everything. Tomorrow, we’ll talk. Tonight, I want you to have fun and I’m gonna have my hands on you, holdin’ you. Look at me, Faith.” He takes my face and looks me in the eyes. “Tomorrow we’ll be us; tonight is for you to have fun.”
    Just as he brought me to the booth, he takes my hand and leads me out. I’m still digesting everything he’s told me so I let him lead me without a fight and I miss that sneaky “we’ll be us” part of the conversation. He takes me to the bar and gets me a drink. The whole time we’re at the bar waiting, he doesn’t let go of me. He doesn’t leave my side.
    The bartender brings my drink and Zane hands it to me. I take a sip and start to relax. I can do this, I tell myself. I can let this go for tonight and have fun. Tonight is supposed to be my night to put all my worries aside and just drink, dance, and have an amazing girls’ night with my best friend. And that’s what I’m going to do. If Zane wants to stay here and watch over me, then so be it; I’m not going to stop him. I’m going to go back out there on the dance floor and dance my heart out.
    With that decision made I turn to him. “You’re right, Zane, I do want you, but you know what? Right now I’m not going to think about that or how much it scares me. I’m gonna go back out there and dance my heart out with Julia. If you want to stay, stay. I’m not gonna stop you or make a big deal out of it. I’m here to have fun.” He smiles his sexy smile and my heart skips.
    I quickly finish my drink and head back to the dance floor and Julia, leaving a smiling Zane at the bar. What I didn’t realize was I shouldn’t have told him I was scared; now he was going to do everything in his power to make that fear disappear and with it, my resistance. This time around, I’m the one that needs convincing to take a chance. I’m the one that needs to take a leap of faith—that needs to believe. It isn’t just me that could get hurt because now, I have my girls.

Zane
    She said it—she wants me. That’s half the battle: getting her to admit it. She went on and on about her fears and reasons why we shouldn’t be together, why I shouldn’t want her, but I’m a guy. We only hear what we want to hear and for me it was, “Stay. I’m not gonna stop you.”
    And that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to stay beside her, keeping her in my arms and never letting go.
    Because this is my time now.
     

 
     
    After making my way across the dance floor, I finally reach Julia, who’s now dancing with some random guy. I manage to get her attention and she sends him on his way. She grabs my hand and then she leads me to a booth—the same booth Zane and I used. She sits me down and slides in next to me. Once