Any Way You Want Me by Yuwanda Black

PROLOGUE
     
    Riggs: You wanna get married, don'tcha?
     
    Lorna: Yes I do.
     
    Riggs: Why didn't you tell me?
     
    Lorna: Because I didn't want to put any
pressure on you, Riggs. I mean, if you want to someday, that'd be great; if you
don't, I love you. I'll take you any way I can get you, Riggs.
     
               
Kiley slipped the last few kernels of popcorn into her mouth and sighed. She'd
watched that scene from Lethal Weapon 4 at least a hundred times. It was
one of her all-time favorites between a man and a woman in a movie. It was so
pure, so sincere. Kylie's heart melted.
     
                Why aren't women free to love a man like that? she thought. Enough to
say I'll take you any way you want me.
     
               
"Because it's dumb," she could hear her best friend Katrina say.
     
               
"Because you'll live to regret it," she could hear her mother say.
     
               
"Because you give your power away," she could hear all the love gurus
in books, magazines, on TV and the internet howl.
     
               
" You are hopeless Kylie Andrews. Your friends are right … you're an
absolutely, positively hopeless romantic ," she laughed to herself.
"And proud of it!" she said out loud.
    .
. .
     
               
"You know what your problem is?" Gatlin bit out. "You're too
damn naïve. Not everything is a bed of roses, Kylie. Life is not all
butterflies and sunshine."
     
               
"And do you know what your problem is?" Kylie shot back. "You're
too damn jaded. You wouldn't know what happiness was if it jumped up and bit
you in the ass," she continued.
     
               
"You're content being miserable — and I'm just going to leave you to that
because it has no place in my world of butterflies and sunshine," she ended,
snatching up her jacket and purse and storming past Gatlin.
     
               
His arm snaked out and grabbed her. Crushing her to him, he found her lips and
wouldn't let go.
     
               
"Let go … of  … me," Kylie bit out as she fought against her rising
tide of passion.
     
               
Gatlin's heat-seeking tongue melted her last bit of resistance. Kylie dropped
her jacket and purse and dug into his thick, dark hair.
     
                Oh God I love him so , she thought as she returned his kiss.
     
               
Her resistance melted, Gatlin slowed his assault on her mouth, moving to the
golden column of her neck. He continued his trail of desire, unbuttoning her
blouse and taking one enflamed peak of nipple into his warm mouth.
     
               
"No, no, no … stop. Stop Gatlin," her words slowly penetrated his
aroused state.
     
               
"This doesn't solve anything," she said, tears rolling down her
cheeks. It's never been our problem … and it won't be our salvation."
     
               
Shaking off his desire to focus as best as he could, Gatlin responded,
"It's a damn good place to start," and reached for her again.
     
               
"Gatlin stop!" Kylie yelled. "Don’t you see? This is just
another way for you to not deal with your real feelings. … I'm looking
for real, lasting, soul-connecting love; not some casual fuck!"
     
               
"You know you're not some casual … you mean more to me than just a roll in
the hay," Gatlin said, not able to bring himself to use the "f"
word in relation to her. "I really care about you Kylie."
     
               
"I love you Gatlin. Hopelessly, desperately, completely. And I know it's
not something a modern woman is supposed to say so early in a relationship. But
there it is. And I don't expect you to do anything or say anything. I just wanted
you to know where I'm coming from."
     
               
"You see, in my world, love is not complicated. Difficult at times? Yes.
But hard? No. It's not some pot-holed filled road to be