Jasmine (14 page)

She spent an enjoyable two hours with the women. She also
got a great idea for another story. There was no way she was going to pass up
the opportunity to use “oh my, oh my, oh my” in a book.

She went home feeling the best she had in a while. When she
opened the garage door to pull in she frowned at the amount of boxes there and
the sheer size of some of them. Just as she was getting out of her car a van
pulled up.

“Miss Waite? We’re with Bishop Equipment. Mr. Howard sent
us by to set up his equipment.” She looked at the boxes and noticed that they
were covered in the name and logo of the local sports store. She pulled out her
phone to call Nathan after asking the men to wait.

“It’s a treadmill and a few other items I thought you could
use. There are some men supposed to come by and set it up for you.”

She was speechless as he continued. “So you thought I could
use some gym equipment? I see.” She waved the two men toward the boxes to take
inside. She wasn’t sure what she’d have them do with it once she got it in
there, but she didn’t think taking her hurt out on them would be very nice.

She realized that Nathan hadn’t said anything. And she’d be
damned if she would. At least not about him thinking she needed to exercise. So
brushing at the tears that started to fall, she told him she had to go and hung
up. He was saying her name when she closed the phone.

The men, Bob and Art, set the equipment up in her basement.
She didn’t even go down to see what all there was. But after telling them she
was going to do some things in her office, she simply slipped out her back door
and into the yard. She started walking toward her sister’s house without any
thought as to why. She was halfway there when she realized she’d left her cell
phone in her purse, which was sitting on her table.

~~~

Nathan
called her six more times before he decided to go to her house and find her. He
was frantic when he got there and found not only was she gone, but the men had
been sitting on her porch because the lady of the house had just disappeared.

“Said
she was going to do some work, that we were to go about our business, but when
we was finished, we couldn’t find her. And we didn’t want to leave her house all
done open like this so we waited.” Bob handed him the work order to sign. “You’re
a good customer, Mr. Howard, and we thought you’d want us to hang out.”

He
nodded and paid the men a generous tip. His mind was more on where the hell
Jasmine could be and why the hell she hadn’t let him explain about the
equipment. He knew now that he should have explained before he’d bought it
rather than think she’d understand after he had it set up.

They
played. And when they played…well, there were times when they, especially he,
was a little on the rough side. He didn’t want her hurt and figured if she were
to get used to the sometimes strenuous pulls on her muscles then they could
play more. He’d never thought she’d think he thought she was fat. Alyssa had
told him he’d be lucky if she spoke to him ever again.

“What
the hell were you thinking? You buy a woman a treadmill and she immediately
thinks you’re saying she’s fat. I know I would. Men,” she said as she started
pacing the room. “What did you buy her that for anyway?”

He
wasn’t going to tell her that he was into dark sex and that he didn’t want to
hurt Jasmine. He especially wasn’t going to tell her that when he set up the
kind of equipment he wanted to in Jasmine’s basement he wanted to be able to
tie her to the hump, bend her over, and fuck her tight ass.

“I
thought we could work out together. She said she wanted to be in better shape
and I wanted to surprise her.” Which was all true.

“Oh you
surprised her all right. You idiot.” She picked up her phone. “You’d better
have some major gifts for her when I find her. Otherwise you can kiss any
makeup sex goodbye.”

Two
hours later Alyssa told him where he could find her. He thought maybe she knew sooner,
but he didn’t want to press. He was in enough trouble with the Waite women and
had no desire to be castrated by any of them. Sin had been very descriptive
about what she’d planned to do to him. Nathan was reasonably sure that some of
the things she’d threatened him with might have been physically impossible. But
on the other hand, knowing Sin, maybe not.

“She
said she was visiting with Quinn and for you to go home. She said she’d be home
in a bit and for you not to wait.” Alyssa had told him she thought Jazzie was
upset. “She sounded like she’d been crying. But she kept saying she was fine
when I asked her.”

Nathan
didn’t understand women. He liked them. The way they moved, the way they
smelled, especially after sex. He even liked to argue with one on occasion. And
Jasmine could fight back with him really well. But he loved her and though
she’d never said it back to him, he thought she loved him too. At least he
hoped so.

He
reached down and touched the small box in his pocket then at the one inside of
his jacket. Both were still there. He hoped he wasn’t doing more to piss her
off, but he wanted her to know how much he loved her.

He
pulled into Quinn and Drew’s driveway and took a deep breath. He wanted a
drink. That thought startled him into a sort of panic attack. He’d not thought
of drugs or alcohol for nearly a year. He leaned his head on the steering wheel
and started reciting the addict’s Serenity prayer.

“God grant me the serenity to

accept the things I cannot
change;

courage to change the things I
can;

and wisdom to know the
difference.

Living one day at a time;

enjoying one moment at a time;

accepting hardships as the
pathway to peace;

taking, as He did, this sinful
world

as it is, not as I would have
it:

Trusting that He will make all
things

right if I surrender to His
Will;

that I may be reasonably happy
in this life

and supremely happy with Him
forever in the next. Amen”

He nearly said it again just for
the strength it had always given him, but knew as surely as he was sitting
there that the biggest strength he had was sitting inside the house in front of
him thinking he’d insulted her. Taking another deep breath, Nathan went to face
the music. He let out a long breath and knocked on the door.

Drew answered the door. His face
said it all. “She’s pissed at you no matter what she says. And for the record,
I’m not so happy with you either. This is my date night with my wife and now
she’s in the other room with her sister and I’m getting nothing.”

“I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt
her. I need…do you think I could talk to her? It’s important. And if she throws
me out, I promise to go without a whimper.”

Drew nodded and closed the door
behind him. “They’re in the living room. Quinn is ready to murder you too. And
I understand that Sin is as well.”

Drew looked happy and Nathan
wanted to tell him he’d fucked up, to cut him some slack. But he was standing
in the doorway and saw her.

He knew she was upset the moment
he saw her. Her eyes were puffy and her nose was red. Nathan wanted to go to
her and beg her to forgive him, but knew that she’d only tell him she was fine.
Quinn got up and stood in front of him.

“She hurts, you hurt; you know
that, don’t you?” Nathan nodded, knowing she wasn’t talking about his heart
hurting like hers, but more physical. “Fix this.”

He found himself in the room with
Jazzie and was suddenly nervous. He moved toward the couch where she was
sitting and sat in the chair across from her when she stiffened. He cleared his
throat twice before he started to speak. She spoke first.

“I’m fine, really I am. I don’t
know what the big fuss is about. Why don’t you just go home and I’ll…you can
call me tomorrow.” She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Nathan, I don’t—”

“I love you.” She looked away. “I’m
sorry I hurt you. I never meant for you to think—no, don’t speak,” he told her
when she looked back with her mouth open. “I never meant to hurt you. And I
know I did.”

She shifted on the couch. “Okay,
you did. I guess I thought you…well, you know, enjoyed me. I didn’t think you
found me lacking in—”

“Lacking? Good Christ, woman, you
nearly kill me every time we make love.” He leaned back and adjusted his hard
cock. “You have me so hard all the time that I’m barely getting any work done
for thinking of you.”

“But you bought that stuff, all
that equipment. I thought that you were trying to say you wanted me to be in
better shape. I thought that you thought I was…I don’t know, fat.”

He slid out of the chair and
walked on his knees toward her. She opened her legs when he was close enough to
touch her and he leaned in and kissed her gently on the mouth. She tasted warm
and soft. He wanted her with him forever.

“I was trying to get you in better
shape, but not like you think,” he whispered against her mouth. “I want to be
able to tie you to one of many toys and take you. I want you not to be hurt
when I put you over a hump and beat your ass while I fuck that pretty ass of
yours. You can’t believe how much I want that.”

She moaned as he slid his hand up
under her blouse and flicked his thumb over her pert nipple. She moaned his
name as he rolled it between his finger and thumb.

“I thought if we both used the
equipment and toned muscles that we’d only use during play then you would enjoy
it more.” He lifted her blouse and bit at her nipple thought the bra. “I can
see these with clamps on them. Tight with hot blood when I take them into my
mouth. I want you to hang from a hanger from the ceiling and let me flog that
pretty ass while you hold back.”

“Nathan, please. My sister is
probably standing there at the door ready to rescue me from you.” She arched
her back and filled his mouth with her breast.

“I want you to come home with me. I
want to feel your pussy wrapped around my cock while I slide deep.” He slid his
free hand up under her skirt and between her thighs to her apex. “You’re wet,
baby. And so hot. I could probably slide you over my cock and be deep in
seconds. The thought of you coming on me like that has me wanting to chance you
screaming out and bring them both inside of here.”

“Please. You have to stop.”

He pulled his hand from between
her thighs and he nearly moved back again when she moaned. “Jasmine, I need to
ask you something. Something important. You know that I’d never hurt you,
right?” He let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding when she nodded. “I
love you, do you love me?”

“Yes. I think I have since…well, I
think a small part of me loved you before I met you.”

“Good.” He grinned as he pulled
out the smaller of the two boxes. “Then will you marry me?”

She did scream after all and
brought not only Quinn and Drew, but Sin, Lilliane, Alyssa, Cain, and Payton
too.

Chapter 14

Tank moved around the closed
bookstore. There was very little in the way of security here, but he knew that
could be a bad thing as much as a blessing. He looked for any devices in the
windows that would indicate that they had something more than what he could
see. He jerked back when he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye.

“Fuck,” he said several times
under his breath. He looked back in the window, more cautiously this time, and
saw what he’d seen. Dogs, big fucking dogs too. He leaned back against the
building and closed his eyes. This thing with killing this person was proving
more troublesome than he’d been led to believe.

First, the woman he was targeted
to kill wasn’t stupid as the woman Ginny had said. She was extremely smart if
her books were anything to go by. Then there was the fact that her own mother
hadn’t known about either the books or the lover. Tank frowned at the thought
of the mother. There was something really weird going on with her too. She was
just…well, he didn’t know the technical term for whatever she was, but he was
willing to bet that her kids didn’t know either.

Then there was this thing with the
book and the signing. Who didn’t know that her own kid was this famous person
that some big-wig television station was going to take and make a movie out of
one of her books? Tank thought his own mother knew what he did for a living and
was sort of happy about it. Not the killing part, but at how good he was.

Tank walked back to his car and
got in. The clock on the dash said it was just after three in the morning. He
tried to decide if he should go back to his shitty house or just nap there. He
had a feeling that as soon as this hit was over, he needed to leave town in
double time. He had already packed up most of his shit and had it in the truck
with him. Tank leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.

Ginny had been the one he’d been
dealing with. He knew when he’d started talking with who he thought was her
today that he’d been mistaken. It took him several minutes of conversation to
realize that she, Guinevere he’d been told, didn’t have a clue what the fuck
was going on.

“You’ve been hired to kill Jasmine
Zinnia, I understand that. What I don’t understand is how you’re supposed to do
it.” He had started to tell her what the other…well, what had been discussed,
but she interrupted again. “I mean, you’re huge. How on earth do you expect to
get around quietly with all that fat on you?”