Mine to Crave (13 page)

“You get to me,” she confessed.  That was the whole reason she was in the car with him right then and not running like mad down the streets of New Orleans. “You make me feel…feel in ways I haven’t before.”

His head turned. He held her gaze. 

“You were looking for me.”  It hadn’t just been a walk on the wild side of Bourbon Street.

Drake nodded.

“Why?”  So much depended on what he had to say. Her fingers curved around the handle of the door. She could jump out. Flee fast right then and get on the trolley.

“Because I need you.”

Jasmine’s breath left her in a rush. 

A car horn sounded behind them. 

“Don’t take me back to your house in the Quarter. He’ll just have eyes there.”  Maxwell would have eyes everywhere.

“Don’t worry, princess,” Drake said as he drove them forward. “From here on out, I’ve got you.”

***

“She’s here,” Wayne said into his phone as he hurried down the New Orleans’ street. “But Archer is still sticking to her like glue—”

“And you didn’t think to pull her away from him?”

Wayne glanced to the left. To the right. The street looked deserted.  “The bastard is tough.  I’m just biding my time until I can attack.”

“No, you’re being a coward. And your services—they’re rather disappointing.”

Lights flashed on then. Bright and blinding.  Lights from a car that shouldn’t have been so close.

If I’m watching Jasmine…who does he have on me?
That thought rushed through his mind once more. Too late, this time.

“No…” Wayne whispered.

“Disappointing and no longer needed. And…by the way…”

The car was accelerating toward him. Wayne tried to run.

He had to make it across the street. Maybe he could break down the door of that old voodoo shop and—

The car didn’t hit him.

Bullets did.

And then Wayne hit the pavement. 

When she walked through the casino, she could hear the slot machines, playing like music. No, playing over the music that filled the Masquerade. She spun around, her gaze caught by the glitter and glamour all around her. The casino was decorated in Mardi Gras style, with purple, gold, and green colors featured prominently. Large masks hung on the walls, masks that seemed to watch the casino-goers with glee. 

The place was gorgeous. Phenomenal. 

Then Jasmine looked up—up at the chandeliers that shone like diamonds above her. 
Amazing.

Drake’s arm wrapped around her waist. “Do you like it?”

She thought about the home she’d had as a kid. The old trailer on the rough patch of land that no one else wanted. “It’s…a little excessive.”

He laughed lightly. “It was the trees in the lobby, right?”

She didn’t even know how those trees—real trees—were alive out in the lobby.

“When you come from nothing,” Drake said as he guided her toward a private elevator. “Sometimes you want everything.” He swiped a keycard over the security control panel, and the elevator’s doors slid open.

The mirrored walls of the elevator tossed Jasmine’s reflection right back at her. 

“What do
you
want?” Drake asked her.

The elevator was rising. He was close to her. So very close. Drake seemed to fill that small space. 

She had decided to be as honest with him as she could be. Because Drake mattered and, most shocking of all, he seemed to be saying that she mattered to him, too.

I need you.

“I want to belong.”  To some place. To somebody. She wanted a home. A real one. When the holidays came around, she wanted to bake cookies and stare up at a Christmas tree and be held in the arms of a man who loved her.

She didn’t want to be alone forever.

“You can belong to me.” 

Her knees did a little jiggle. Had the elevator stopped rising?  The doors hadn’t opened but it felt as if they weren’t moving any longer.

He came toward her and put his hands on either side of her, pressing his palms flat against the mirror behind her and caging Jasmine against his body.  “Do you want to belong to me?”

Her head was spinning. She’d thought that he’d just walked away from her. But he’d searched for her. Protected her,
again,
and now he was offering her…

Hope.

“I want to be with you.” The attraction she felt for him was unlike anything she’d experienced before. When he touched her, Jasmine’s heart raced. When he kissed her, she went molten. And when he was in her, she exploded.

“Then be with me.” His head lowered. His lips brushed against hers.

The kiss was tender. Open-mouthed. Hot.  And she was molten—again. Jasmine knew her panties were getting wet. She wanted to shove off his clothes. To have sex with him right there. Then.

No restrictions. No fears. She wanted the pleasure he could give here once more.

Without the shame.

Her hand pushed against his chest.

Drake’s head lifted.

“Don’t walk away again.”  She couldn’t handle that. Not from him.

Drake nodded. His gaze held hers. “And don’t run from me.”

Her eyes searched his.  There was something there, in his stare. An emotion that she couldn’t quite define.

“Because if you ran, then I’d be like Maxwell. Chasing you through the streets.” His laugh held a rough edge. “Or I guess I already am like him.”

“No.” Her denial was swift. “You could never be like him.”

A muscle flexed near his jaw. 

“You’re safe here,” Drake told her. “Security has been doubled. Maxwell and his men won’t get to you here.”  He backed away. Used that keycard again and the doors opened. “I have a room here that we can use for the night. Private quarters that I keep.”

Sleeping wasn’t exactly high on her priority list.

She followed him from the elevator.

But he stilled in that small hallway. “I’m going to destroy him.”

“Drake—”

“You won’t like what I do. But it’s going to happen. Then you’ll never have to worry about running from anyone again.”

His words caused fear to rush through her, but in the next moment, he had her in his arms. He was carrying her—
carrying her!
—into his private quarters. Into the bedroom attached there.  He stripped her slowly. Using so much care, when, before, he’d been frantic in his need.

His hands slid over her body. His caresses seemed to cherish her.  She had to blink away tears because she
knew
what he was doing.

I felt like a whore.

“I want to see your pleasure, princess.”

And now he was treating her like someone precious.

He stroked her and caressed her until Jasmine was about to go out of her head. He’d been demanding before, and he still was—but only demanding her pleasure.

He caught her nipples in his hands. Thumbed the peaks, had her gasping.  Fire rushed to her sex as he kissed and stroked his way down her body. He seemed to be even more careful on the flesh around her bandage, but Jasmine didn’t even feel an ache from a wound. She was too focused on him.

His mouth pushed over her core. His tongue licked her clit, and when she arched off the bed, he locked his hands around her hips and took even more of her.

She climaxed with a fury so hard that the room went dark. Her heart was a drumbeat in her ears. Her breaths panted out. The pleasure twisted her up, shook her.  It was amazing.
He
was amazing.

Then he…he pulled away.

“Drake?” He left her there on the bed, still shuddering and quaking.  His hand smoothed over her, once, so carefully, then he retreated.

She watched, heartbeat still not back to its normal rhythm, as he stopped near the window.

Drake gazed out at the city below. She could practically feel the intensity of his desire filling that room.
But he’d walked away.
“Drake, you—”

“I want the pleasure to just be yours.”

“That’s not what I want.”  She rose from the bed. Naked. 

He turned toward her. “You don’t have to give me anything,” he seemed to push out the words. “This time was just for you. I can be more than a selfish bastard.”

She lowered onto her knees before him.  Did he know that she’d never done this for another man? No, he couldn’t know. But she’d never really wanted to, until now.

“And this is just for you.”  Her hands fumbled a bit as she reached for the snap of his jeans, then she pulled down the zipper with a hiss of sound that was far too loud in that quiet room.

His cock sprang toward her. No underwear for her tough guy.  Just a full, long cock. One that she had to stroke as she explored with her hands.

Her knees pressed into the lush carpet as she leaned toward him. Her breath blew lightly over that heavy length and his cock swelled even more.

“Jasmine…be careful…”

Oh, crap, maybe it was obvious this was her first time. “I’m new at this,” she confessed as she glanced up at him, “so tell me when I do something wrong.”

The darkness of his pupils swallowed the green of his eyes. “New?”

“You’re my first.”  She felt like she could tell him anything in that moment. “So if I do it wrong—”

“You can’t. No damn way.”

His hands bit into her shoulders.

She pressed a kiss to the head of his shaft. Then she opened her mouth and took him inside. 

“Wanted you to…be careful…” His words were so low and rough. “Because you’re making me want you…too much…”

She liked his taste. Loved the tang. Wanted more. So she tried to take more of him as she licked and sucked.

His hands moved to curve around her nape.  He tilted her head and she took more of him.

He was—

“
Jasmine!”

He had her on her feet. Two steps and he had her on the bed. Her legs fell apart as she hit the mattress, and he was right there. He’d put on a condom in an instant and now he had her in his sights. Still standing, at the side of the bed. He pulled her toward him. Her hips were at the edge of the mattress and he thrust into her, deep and hard, filling every inch of her.  

“Warned you,” Drake bit out. “Want you…too much.”

And there it was. The wild, frantic mating that she’d secretly wanted. The rush that wasn’t controlled. The need that wasn’t safe.

In and out.
He drove into her again and again, and Jasmine loved it. Her nails scraped over his shoulders as she fought to get closer to him. To hold him as tightly as she could and take everything that he had to give.

She arched against him, her head tipping back against the bed. His mouth pressed to her throat. The sting of his teeth electrified her.

When she came, Jasmine felt Drake erupt inside of her. Biting her lip, Jasmine tried to hold back a scream.  She didn’t want—

“Give it to me,” Drake demanded. “Give me everything.”

So she cried out her pleasure.

And he growled her name. 

***

He was watching her sleep.

Drake stared down at Jasmine as she lay curled in his bed. His arm was under her head. Hell, he was her pillow. And he…didn’t mind.

She looked innocent. Sexy.

Right.

And that was wrong.

No woman was supposed to look right in his bed. He had a rule—his lovers didn’t stay the night.

So why was he pulling her closer and inhaling that vanilla scent that clung to her? 

She’d been so hesitant when she knelt before him and told him that it had been her first time. He hadn’t wondered if the words were a lie. Her eyes had flickered with nervousness and desire, and she’d touched him almost reverently.

She’d also nearly made him fall to
his
knees when that sexy mouth had closed around his aroused flesh.

But the desire was sated. The passion had cooled.

Or, at least, that was what Drake was trying to tell himself. The twisted truth was that he’d fuck her again. And again. He wanted to take her endlessly. Sex with her had been even better the second time.

He loved to see her eyes go blind with pleasure.  Loved her taste.

She snuggled closer to him.

His hand smoothed over her shoulder.

His phone vibrated then. He’d moved it to the small nightstand, and he reached out, being careful not to disturb her as he read the text.

Got info you need.

The text was from Trace.

Drake glanced at Jasmine’s sleeping face. 

The phone vibrated again. His gaze slid over the screen.

Be careful. There’s more going on than you know.

Right. Because, of course, Trace would’ve found out that Jasmine was trying to screw him over.

He almost texted back…
I don’t want to know.
Because he just wanted to stay in that bed with her, and act as if the rest of the world didn’t matter. He wanted Jasmine to simply be the woman that she appeared to be in his arms.

No secrets. No lies.

That wasn’t the way his reality worked.

Carefully, he rose from the bed.  Jasmine had said that she’d called Maxwell from the phone at his home in the Quarter, so getting that number hadn’t exactly been hard.

Instead of responding to Trace’s text, Drake called Maxwell Case. The call was already overdue.

The phone rang once. Twice. Then…

“Who the hell is this?”

Drake smiled. “I’m the man planning to destroy you.”

Jasmine stirred a bit on the bed, moving restlessly.

“
Archer.”

“You shouldn’t have started a war with me.” Because if there was one thing that Drake knew how to do, it was fight a war.

“You’re the one who started this. You think I don’t know what you did? To
her?
”

Drake’s gaze narrowed on Jasmine. She was still sleeping.

“If she didn’t come back, she told me to look for you. She thought she could count on
you.
”

A cold fist squeezed his guts. “This is personal,” he said. Not about business. Not about casinos.

“She trusted you, and you killed her.”

A chill encased Drake’s skin as those words sank in. Drake realized that his past was coming back to bite him in the ass.

And Drake couldn’t take his eyes off Jasmine.
Did she know?
Did she realize what this nightmare was truly all about?