A Commitment to Love, Book 3 (44 page)

“No.” I traveled over the bed, hopped down, and got in front of her.

“Stop, Chase. I’m serious. We can’t just jump and do something like an engagement. I’m young and I can’t even take care of myself.”

“Sometimes when you talk like this, it just sounds like womp womp womp. Did you know that?”

“Maybe you should fix your ears.”

“Maybe you should fix your attitude.” I lowered down to my knees.

“What are you trying to say?”

“Just because my name is Chase, doesn’t mean I plan to race around the world after you. You know what? Who am I kidding? I
will
chase you all over this goddamn planet.” I opened the box and pulled out the ring. “Say yes.”

“So much has happened. Let me just deal with everything before answering you and then—”

“No. Now say yes.”

She looked down at me. “This is not how you propose marriage to a woman.”

“Fuck it, you’re mine.” I grabbed her hand. She sighed, but didn’t move away.

On bended knee, I gazed up at her. “Will you be my wife?”

“Chase …”

I just looked into her eyes and tried to let her truly see me. The man behind the money and popular name, the alpha boss stare and the playboy reputation. I tried to reveal the sensitive man inside of me that couldn’t live without her.

I tried to show her my heart.

We stayed like that for the longest minute of my life. I refused to get up, and she couldn’t speak. When I couldn’t wait anymore, inch by inch I slipped the ring up her finger.

Don’t hurt me, Jasmine. If you take it off, you’ll kill a part of me. Don’t run away. Let me love you.

“Chase.” Her voice left those parted lips as they shivered.

“Yes?” I stared at the ring on her finger, feeling the weight of this decision much heavier than when I’d proposed to Dawn. This time it was all different. Dawn had done it all like a business arrangement, and in some ways it was just corporate benefits and reasonable companionship. No passion lay within our deal.

But with Jasmine, I could barely breathe as I studied the ring on her finger. It was as beautiful as her—an elegant vintage, marquise-shaped, 10 carat diamond mounted in platinum. If Jasmine knew how much it cost, she’d probably take the ring off and sell it to feed all the poor in South End.

“Chase,” she whispered, “are we ready for this?”

“Yes.”

“It’s huge.”

“You’re lucky you can lift your finger. The jeweler almost convinced me to go twice as large.”

“I don’t think you can go larger than this.”

“Trust me. You’ll know how large diamonds can get with each anniversary. I’m going to add a carat for each new year.”

She pulled her hand away. “That’s okay.” Gazing at it, she blew out a long breath. “Let’s just concentrate on the minutes.”

“That’s a good idea.”

She breathed in and out. “Chase …”

“Yes, tesoro.”

She nodded. “My answer is yes.”

“Yes?” I stood up and raised my eyebrows. “Yes?”

“Yes.” She glanced at the ring again and sighed. “Hells yes. I’ll … holy fuck … I’ll marry you.”

I almost knocked her over, when I grabbed her. “Yes is my favorite word.”

“Of course it is.”

My phone rang. I didn’t want to let her go and answer it, but I knew that it would have to be from the security team and probably important. I released her. “Don’t move.”

“I won’t.”

I headed to the phone. “Remember, we’re planning our engagement party. That should draw Benny out. I don’t like this event being a part of this situation, but it would be a good memory, if we succeed.

“And if we don’t?” she asked.

“We’ll think of something.”

“Do we have the party in London?”

“No. Benny is international, and he’s not stupid. We do it here and fast, he’ll know it is a trap. If we wait and do it back in the States, we have a better chance.”

“And we don’t tell my mother.”

I stopped and glanced over her shoulder. “No, we do tell your mother about the party, even invite her. We just don’t tell her that it’s a trap.”

“Yes.”

My phone continued to ring. I didn’t answer, grabbed my wallet out of my pants, and decided I would just call the number back. I threw the wallet to Jasmine.

She caught it. “Why are you giving me this?”

“I want you to plan the party.”

She shook her head. “I could do the food, but …”

“Get a party planner and a staff. Just do your magic, and once you have a venue, I’ll have my team work out a perfect plan to deal with Benny.”

“This is insane.”

“Insanity births the greatest things.”

“Like what?” she asked.

“Like many of the masterpieces you see in the museums all over this city. All of the artists were mad in some way.”

“Okay.” She looked at her ring again. “What’s the budget for the engagement party?”

“Budget? I don’t understand.”

“What do you mean you don’t understand, Chase?”

“What the hell is a budget?”

She giggled. “Very funny.”

“My future wife doesn’t say that word.” I took my phone out, spotted the security team’s number, and dialed it.

“Let’s just calm down with the
w
word for now.”

“What? Wife?”

“Yes.”

“Is fiancée better?”

“That still scares me,” she admitted.

“Good.”

She rolled her eyes.

The head person from security answered. “Mr. Stone?”

“Yes. You called?”

“Yes, sir. I just wanted to let you know that more dead girls were found in White Chapel, also in the same way that Jack the Ripper killed his victims and almost the same exact places where they were discovered centuries ago.”

“He’s reenacting his hero’s murders.”

“Yes, we think so, sir.”

“Have the police checked the other areas where Ripper’s victims were discovered?”

“We’re going to check them now, but we assume we’ll find more.”

“He was a busy man last night.”

“Yes. No fingerprints have been found.”

“Doesn’t matter. We know who did it.” I turned away from Jasmine. “Keep me up to date.”

I hung up the phone and tried to prepare myself for the future days to come. Benny hadn’t planned on bowing out of this battle like a gentleman. He would keep killing women and doing as much as he could to ruin Jasmine and me.

Jasmine grabbed me from behind and rested her head at the center of my shoulder blades. “Benny has done something else?”

“He’s killed more prostitutes.”

Her body stiffened against me. “Then we really have to make this party count.”

“Yes. We can’t wait that long.”

“Then let’s do it next week.”

I readied myself for the craziness that would come. “Next week sounds fine.”

C
HAPTER
26

Jasmine

H
ow
could I ever repay him?

He’d done so much. My spirit remained lifted around him. Just the feel of his body could soothe me all through the night. In this mania of my life, he symbolized love and peace.

Can we be happy? Will we survive all of this? What does he want out of a marriage? We never discussed it all.

I’d never entered any of the arrangements that Dawn allowed. I’d have to make sure he understood that.

Could he just be with me forever? Could I be with him forever?

And then the confidence in my decision kept me strong during this hard time. My brother had died, but there was one thing his murder taught—live my life to the fullest. Troy had just been there, right next to me, making jokes and then boom … he was gone.

Am I rushing into the decision because I’m mourning? Should I change my mind? Oh God. I can’t do that to Chase, and besides, I can’t see myself without him. We’ve been through too much. He’s mine as much as I’m his.

Although I was scared, saying yes was no longer a problem.

Without eating, Chase dragged himself away from me to meet with the London police. He planned for all of us to be out of the UK by sundown. That made me happy. I couldn’t sit in the place anymore. I was done with London, and all the horrific memories that happened on my visit.

Chase appeared stressed right before he left me. I could’ve sworn a few gray hairs sprouted around his temples. And all I wanted to do was ease his sorrow, even though I drowned in my own.

I put him through too much crap by leaving. God, I wish I had never left.

I’d decided to start planning the engagement part that day, but my mind went to Vivian and how lonely she must be feeling right now. I got dressed, called in the suite’s butler, Mr. Sharpe, and asked him to bring a breakfast for two people to Vivian’s bedroom.

Once ready to brave the outside of Chase and my bedroom, I rushed off to Vivian’s bedroom. Darkness hit me when I opened the door. A lavender fragrance came next. Vivian had lit up several candles and placed them all over the room.

On the bed, she lay in the center, smoking one of the fattest blunts I’d ever seen. It looked like something out of our college years.

“Where did you get the marijuana?” I asked.

“Chase.”

“Oh he’s Chase now, not pimp or dog man?”

“Yes, I’m calling him Chase now. He saved me.” She blew out a cloud of smoke. “I thought we would die in that rotting mansion, and your lover sent in all of those men and I swear it looked just like a crazy scene out of one of those
Die Hard
movies. Men crashed through the windows attached to rope. Shots blared. I woke up, rolled off the bed, and got under it. I came close to pissing in my pants.”

I sat down next to her small frame. “I’m sorry you went through that.”

“No need to say sorry. We know whose fault this is.” She handed me the blunt.

“Yes we do.” I took it from her.

“Have you talked to Sherman yet?”

“No. You’re the first person I’ve seen.”

“Our butler is bringing breakfast.”

“Our butler?”

“I see you haven’t met him yet.”

“Can Chase do anything in an unfabulous way? Must it always be Big Willy style?”

“I doubt he knows what Big Willy means.” I blew out and tried to make a floating smoke circle, but it didn’t happen. “How are you doing?”

“I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to live vicariously through you.”

“But, Vivian—”

“Please, just tell me about Chase or somebody. I can’t think about me … I just can’t right now.”

“Okay.”

She grabbed the blunt from me. “So what’s new in our sensitive playboy’s world?”

“Sensitive playboy?”

“Since he saved my freaking life, I must say, he’s growing on me.” She inhaled and then coughed. “What has he done now?”

I raised my hand and displayed the finger.

Vivian coughed some more, so much I had to hit her back twice.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“He proposed? He fucking proposed? Is he absolutely insane?”

“Yes.”

“But …”

I shrugged. “This is Chase we’re talking about. He does what he wants. He doesn’t consider traditional anything. He’s now decided we should be married.”

“And what have you decided?”

I blinked. “That I can’t live without him. I mean, I could … maybe, but it would be the worst days of my life, and I’m not going to waste any more days. I want to live to my fullest.”

Vivian took a hit. “That’s death talking. When Mom passed away from cancer, I refused to pursue anything but art. Before, I’d considered doing something safe like computer science. Then Mom died, and all I could think about was doing my best to explore my passions.”