Chapter Two
Every moment of your life is a second chance.
It had been a risk. He knew that and understood it but he didn’t care.
Lance knew she could help him and he was willing to do what it took to secure that help.
And he meant whatever. Thinking back over everything that Declan had said about her, he knew trusting her wasn’t something he should just do blindly. After all, she’d set her own sister up.
Despite the fact that every nugget of information he’d read about her—and that had been a thick and a damn interesting read—and had had to deal with when their paths crossed, informed him this was a woman who spelled nothing but trouble for any male stupid enough to think with his cock around her. Or underestimate her.
She’d make them pay.
Even though she’d not been his informant or even his issue, he had been helping out Declan McBride and they had been on the steps of the courthouse on a nice sunny day when Declan’s then-lover—and a woman whom everyone had thought was Jasmine—had reminded him she wasn’t her. At all.
He’d been about to get back in his vehicle and back to his world of being a detective, not a babysitter, when the witness who’d everyone thought was Jasmine announced once more she wasn’t and that Jasmine was over there.
The similarities were there but Caro had a softness about her that Jasmine didn’t.
Jasmine’s gaze was shrewd and never slowed as she constantly watched the world around them, even as her lips turned up in a mocking smirk.
Enter Jasmine. The real one. And the prosecuting ADA had been livid.
She’d lit into both sisters after getting them into a small room, and while most people had watched Carolyn’s responses, he’d been focused on Jasmine—the real Jasmine—and there hadn’t been any way to disguise the rage that had flared in her gaze as she’d looked at the woman threatening her twin.
It had taken him everything in him to ignore the heat that flared in his gut the longer he watched her.
Caro did nothing for him but Jasmine, hell, he’d not wanted to focus on it.
Given Declan had married Caro after he got his head out of his ass, he assumed it was the opposite for that man.
Caro did it for him, not the real Jasmine.
So while on paper the woman had set up her own sister, he would be stupid to assume she didn’t care about her.
“What do you want?”
Her tone had as much warmth as it ever had when they were back in Atlanta and she’d been dressed like a five-dollar hooker.
Made him nearly reach for a winter coat as if they weren’t in sunny California.
Didn’t matter then and it didn’t now, there had always been something more to her.
He would have bet his shield on it then, now he had something a bit more on the line. His life.
“I told you.” Lance rolled his lower lip between his teeth.
She narrowed her eyes ever so slightly. “Lose your cushy gig in Hotlanta?”
He noticed that she continued to monitor where Michel and his asshole men had gathered. More arrived as they stood there, far enough away that their words weren’t going to be overheard, but that Michel felt he still held some control.
Shifting his stance, he swallowed hard as his cock responded. “Something like that.”
She popped the gum in her mouth and shook her head. “Fail to see how this is any concern of mine.”
He moved his hand along her ass, fingers brushing just below the hem of the shorts she wore, exposing her sexy, toned legs. She trembled beneath his touch.
“What will it cost me?” The moment the words left his mouth, he realized there had been a million other, better, ways to ask her to keep his secret from the men gathered.
But no, his mind, which didn’t seem to work right when he thought about her, had gone on the fritz once again.
So of course I make sound like she is a whore and I want to hire her.
The sneer on her face wasn’t faked, and when she held up her hands, the men watching them laughed. His stomach twisted. This could very well be the end. The four men walked closer. He wanted to kick their asses and keep them away. He didn’t have a solid on her cooperation and it made him nervous.
As fuck.
She shifted away from his touch and he disapproved of her move for more than one reason. Told himself the only reason that was important was he couldn’t shield her if or when shit went sideways.
“You think that offering up some lame-ass apology is going to make up for this latest stunt you fucking pulled on me?” Her voice pitched higher, definitely carrying to those near, as she pulled her gum out of her mouth and smashed then stretched it between her thumb and index finger.
She watched it as if it held all the secrets to the universe.
Lance latched onto that and prayed his instincts about her hadn’t been wrong.
“Come on, baby. You know I have to go when my boss calls. I can’t tell him no. I didn’t want to be away from you for the past few nights. I had to be.”
She scowled and flicked her gum in Michel’s direction. The man scrambled back and glared at her. She shrugged her slender shoulders and turned toward Lance once more.
“I’m not sure you’ll be able to pay what this will be costing you.”
He saw a lifeboat and grabbed on the line it dragged without a second of hesitation.
Shifting so they were again touching, he skimmed a hand down her face.
The result was far from an act. Lightning crackled through him, his pulse skittered up, and not because of the men there.
It all had to do with this woman. Blood zipped south and settled all too comfortably in his dick.
“Whatever it takes, baby. Just, please. No more ASP and forgive me. I’ll spend all night on my knees for you if that’s what it takes.” A wicked grin. “You know how much I love being between your legs.”
The men gathered laughed but he didn’t take his gaze from her.
There in her brown eyes was a spark of something he’d seen in her gaze the first day he’d met her.
Coincidentally that had been the day she had propositioned him.
In all his days of wearing a badge he’d never been so tempted to take someone up on an offer as he had been then.
She shifted to him, hips swaying with a seductive motion he knew people paid good money to learn. He would bet his life, and in a sense he was, that she came by hers naturally. Just like everything else about her. Natural.
He wanted to find out the truth.
His cock twitched when she walked her fingers up his chest to smooth them along his jaw. She stopped when her full chest brushed him and he would have had no problem shifting his hands a tiny bit and grabbing her hips or ass in his hands, hauling her flush to him.
Her touch along the facial hair he still hadn’t had time to knock back was incredible. And he was even more fucking stupid than he had been. He didn’t need to be losing his shit around her but getting her to help him and out of the situation.
All it took was her touch and he was rendered helpless.
“One night isn’t going to be enough.”
Isn’t that the fucking truth.
“Whatever you want, baby.” He brushed the back of his hand along her face. “Forgive me?”
“Maybe.”
“My old man’s here. Says he’s ready to meet your bitch.”
Jasmine growled, and in no more than five seconds had spun and kicked a can that launched through the air to hit Michel in the middle of his forehead.
“Don’t fucking call me bitch.” Her words were low and angry.
Lance tugged her back against him, this time not stopping as she’d done but making damn sure she was against all of him and experiencing all he offered. He also shifted to the left, keeping her out of Michel’s direct line of sight.
“Fuck you, bitch. That hurt.”
The red mark on his head had his men snorting even as they tried without success to keep it contained.
“I’m going to kill you.” Michel’s accent had thickened.
“No, you’re not,” Lance warned. “I told you she wasn’t a whore but my girl. You’re the one who insulted her. And in doing so, insulted me.”
“You didn’t say anything.”
He tightened his grip on Jasmine’s hip. “Trust me, I will protect my woman when she needs it. She is more than capable of handling herself.”
“I said I was ready to meet. Why are you all still out here?”
Dusan brushed by the men and glared at them all. Then he paused and looked once more at his son.
“What the fuck happened to you?” he demanded. It was obvious he was unsure how to process what he was seeing.
“He called my woman a bitch one too many times.” Lance flexed his grip along Jasmine’s hip, needing her to remain still. Oh, and quiet. Definitely quiet.
While unsure on how the father would react to an assault on his son and knowing his ass was in deep shit if he lost progress on this case because he was protecting someone, he didn’t care.
Dusan looked at the woman against him, one hand pressed tight to his chest and the other by his back pants pocket.
Lance had his arm around her, protective. Possessive.
“I like you, Lance. It is good for my boy to learn to mind his mouth and learn that not every woman he sees is one of his crack whores.” The man strolled toward them, eyes roving over Jasmine.
“What is she into?”
“She is here and can speak for herself.”
So much for her remaining silent.
He flexed his fingers in warning. Smarting off to the son was one thing. To Dusan? Not smart.
“Be quiet, woman.” Dusan narrowed his gaze at her.
A derisive snort left her and she shook her head.
“If this is the one that you kept leaving me for all those nights, then the two of you can fucking suck each other for all I care. I’m not going to be talked to by a man who has cops sniffing around his operation and is too fucking stupid to know.
” She shoved Lance’s arm from her and got two steps before Dusan grabbed her.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”