A Commitment to Love, Book 3 (53 page)

“I don’t think I hear the buzzing anymore,” Kyle admitted.

“There was no buzzing. Just tell the damn story.” I stalked off. “I’m going to show Jasmine where the bathroom is.”

My friends snickered.

Jasmine walked away, twisting those succulent hips. “I know the way.”

Jasmine and her surprises. They’re going to kill me one day.

The incident at the Doll House hit my head for a minute. It took a lot for me to push through my emotions and keep walking toward her. That day, she was supposed to be at the caterers. Next hour, she called and told me that Benny was dead. Days later, she sank deeper into depression. I took Vivian and her away from Miami, put us on a boat, and had us sailing around the Caribbean Islands for a month. We swam, fish, laughed, drank, and cried.

I think both of them healed a little, although it would probably take them years to be able to say Troy’s name without crying.

We cruised all over.

Then one day, Jasmine woke up and said it was time.

“Time for what?” I continued to spoon that lush behind.

“Time to go.”

“Where does my tesoro want to go?”

“South End.”

“Dear God, anywhere but there.”

“I’ve got some ideas.” She inched away from me and pulled away the covers.

“You’ve got ideas? That scares me.”

“What are you trying to say?” She hit my chest and climbed out of bed.

I got up with her, and gazed out the yacht’s lower deck window. The boat rocked us into a soothing calm. I’d enjoyed that rocking. I might not have been ready to return to Oshane City, but I damn sure wouldn’t be going to South End.

Why does she want to go there now?

Out the window, the sea spread out in lovely waves that crashed into themselves over and over. The surface rippled as the sun hit it with golden light.

And then a theory hit me.

“You want to go after your mother?” I asked.

“It’s not go after,” she corrected. “It’s survive.”

“I think we should leave your mom alone.”

“That’s the last thing we should do.”

I exhaled. “What are you thinking?”

“We play her game for a little bit. See what she’s doing and try to figure it out.”

“You understand that when we start talking this way, we’re going to have to consider all of the alternatives.”

She said nothing.

“There’s many ways to fix a solution.”

“I know,” she whispered.

“Sometimes options are a little less easy to swallow.”

She glanced over her shoulder. “Like several bullets to the head?”

“Yes.”

Her gaze shifted to one that reminded me of Troy. Every now and then I could see the resemblance more and more. I guessed a part of me missed the man, too.

But that look of his ...

It was the one he gave me after I shot Wendy. His eyes had grown cold, almost completely unmoving. As if he was dead. I shivered. Here I had just killed a woman, but Troy’s gaze was the thing that shook me the most of that day.

Jasmine’s eyes went dead just like her brother’s. “If a bullet in the head is what it takes, then maybe we should buy more bullets.”

Sherman has those eyes, too, and now my Jasmine.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“We don’t have to think of that option now,” I said, although deep down inside I hoped to just clean the earth of Sophia. The woman had put my fiancée in enough danger all of her life. The world could do without her.

“Perhaps, a bullet in her head should be the priority.” And then Jasmine walked off. “Are you hungry?”

She’s talking about killing her mom, and just asked me if I wanted breakfast?

A cold shiver sliced up my spine.

My tesoro has gotten a bit harder in these months.

“I’ll grab us some coffee and bagels, and then we can talk about these special bullets.” She laughed.

Another shiver waved through me. “O-okay.”

That was what happened every now and then. Sometimes Jasmine scared me a little. She’d seen too much. Her thoughts had to be altered from where they’d been. The world meant different things now to her. Life meant more after so much death. It was why no matter what I held her close to me.

She might’ve lost it. So what? I think I’ve lost it, too. Let’s be crazy together.

Back at our engagement dinner, Kyle continued more dumb stories and I trailed behind Jasmine, stalking her as she escaped to the bathroom.

“Goddess?” I asked. “Shouldn’t I be right next to you, guiding you?”

“The Goddess doesn’t need assistance.” She rounded the corner, and I followed after.

“I really want to assist the Goddess.” I rubbed my cock through my suit pants and picked up the pace. Thank God we were in the hallway and far from our guests.

“Are you stalking me?” She raised the remote control by her head and pressed the button.

I slumped into the wall like someone slammed into me. “Fuck!”

Laughter trailed behind her as she marched on. Leaning against the wall and thrusting my hips into the air a little, I licked my lips. “Come here, tesoro.”

“No.” She opened the bathroom door and walked through.

I growled at her. “Come here now!”

“You’re going to get us kicked out of here!” she called out.

“Let them do it!” I dug my hands into my pants and wriggled the ring off of my cock before I exploded in the hallway.

Thankfully, none of my friends walked in on the show or they would’ve really had a story—Chase Stone, by himself, humping his hand in the hallway like a perverted maniac.

“Oh damn you. I’m going to fuck the shit out of you.” I slipped it all the way off, slung it on the ground, raced to the bathroom, fumbled with opening it, and barged in on her.

I froze. “Tesoro?”

Jasmine and her surprises.

It wasn’t a bathroom.

Jasmine had rented out another room. Everything was done in black, from the walls to the carpet. A small stage was in front, and Jasmine leaned against a stripper pole that stuck out of the center.

Four amazing women stood behind her in diamonds. But none could take my gaze off of Jasmine.

Rubies.

Someone had strapped Jasmine in rubies, that quick.

Is the woman made of magic? How long did it get me to take that vibrating cock ring off of me?

Her body remained exposed except for the perfect spots where my tongue wanted to explore the most. I almost buckled over and spilled out right there. Her blue dress lay on the ground in front of me.

How long did it take her to get this thing off and up on the stage?

“Earlier tonight you had no panties,” I said. “How did you get the rubies on?”

“They just helped.” She gestured to the half-naked women behind her.

“That was fast.”

“You were in the hallway for a while, I almost thought you wouldn’t make it.”

“Not funny.” I turned to the other women. “Thank you, ladies.”

They giggled.

“However,” I returned to my tesoro’s breasts, “I think that whatever was going to happen should occur later because right now I’m going to do some improper things to this beautiful goddess right here.”

“No.” Jasmine held the remote control in the air. “You’re going to sit down in that chair over there so I can dance for you.”

Funny. Now I have a surprise. I took that damn thing off.

I licked my lips. “Dance for me later.”

“I have the power, Chase.” She jiggled the remote control above her head.

I turned back to the other women. “Ladies, you have less than a minute before your eyes are going to see some serious hard-hitting sex magic happening—”

“Go sit down, Chase.” Jasmine pushed the button.

I smirked.

She pushed it again, looked at the control, and then turned back to me. “Really? You took it off?”

“You now have fifty seconds, ladies.” I unbuckled my belt.

Jasmine bit her lip. “Stop that, Chase. I have a whole routine.”

“I can catch it later.” I unbuttoned my shirt. “It’s about to go down!”

The women fled with giggles.

The blonde whispered to one of the others, “This girl isn’t ever going to get to do that damn dance. First the strip club gets shot up. Now he’s about to shoot her up.”

“For real.” Another laughed and high-fived her.

My shirt was off and pants down, by the time the door closed behind the dancers.

Jasmine placed her hands on those rubied-hips. “You’re hard to surprise.”

“Only when it concerns my cock.” I rushed for her.

She shrieked as I grabbed her.

“You know these straps are going to be nothing but rubies and torn cording on the floor, right?”

Her eyes lowered to a sleepy cat gaze. “Yes, I was hoping so.”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too, Chase.”

I didn’t get why, but I believed I had to say it again. She’d seen it. We’d been through enough, but sometimes people had to be reminded of the love in front of them. “I would kill for you.”

“Me too, baby.” She got on the tips of her toes and pressed her lush mouth against mine. “In fact, I hope to kill for you soon.”

There it went again. The dark Jasmine shoving into worry. How much had she changed? She scared me a little more and more each day, and then like nothing happened, she would be Jasmine again.

But none of that mattered, once I thrust my cock into her wet opening and moaned like a beast in heat.

I moved through a perfect storm.

I swam within pleasure and pain.

Falling.

Drowning.

Suffocating, and not trying to breathe.

This was life with her.

A continuous high.

Salvation within a tornado.

Everyone, no matter where they came from or what they were born with, everyone wanted the same thing.

Love.

And not just the romantic side of love. The yearning for companionship. They hoped for that specific thought that no one ever wanted to say out loud.

They just didn’t want to die alone.

Wasn’t that what everything was all about? Benny killing for Sophia, thinking he’d had some sort of partner in crime. Vivian and Troy fighting for the truth of what they were. And Jasmine ran away from me, just to return, renewed and even more dedicated to us.

No one truly wanted to die alone, and in this short life, why not spend all of this borrowed time being loved?

When I gazed into my tesoro’s eyes, her love spilled out and I knew deep down in the corners of my skull, that I would never die alone. As long as she walked this earth, I would be next to her, following her down any journey that sparked her interests.

“What are you thinking about?” She landed kisses on my chest.

“I’m wondering how many kids I’m going to put inside of you.”

“You’re so romantic.”

“And you’re all mine.”

She wiggled her finger at me. “Just because you put a ring on it, doesn’t mean you’ve bought me, baby. We’re just engaged. I still have options to walk away.”

Growling, I buried my face into her breasts and showed her what she couldn’t run from.

I conquered her flesh.

Lapping.

Tonguing.

Sucking and nibbling.

Thrusting and stroking.

Straps and rubies lay tattered on the floor and I held tesoro up in the air, bouncing her on my cock until her arousal spilled down my thighs.

“Damn you, woman!” I groaned so loud the foundation vibrated.

“Oh Chase.”

“Where you going?” I moved her on my cock. “Huh, tesoro? Where are you going?”

“Nowhere, baby.”

“Nowhere?”

“No,” she moaned and let her head fall back as she orgasmed. “N-nowhere. Nowhere.”

And in that moment, I knew with a clear certainty that whatever obstacle we had to face would be conquered. We’d already taken out monsters—from Dawn to Benny. We would take out more.

Our wedding would happen.

And then the kids.

I wasn’t ready to be a father, but I hadn’t been ready to be a husband either, and somehow she had me following her in that direction.

I loved every second of it.

“Who am I to you?” I nipped at her chin and slipped her body up and down on me, ready to blow.

Every part of wet flesh was ecstasy.

“Oh!”

“Who am I, tesoro?” I sucked on her nipples.

“God. You are my god!

And then I exploded.