13. Jafar
Jafar
A li was here.
He could have killed her. Would have if he didn’t still believe he could salvage this coup. The thought of him hurting her makes my entire body go cold. I wasn’t here, and I should have been.
I wasn’t fucking here.
He might not have injured her, but Ali did something to upset Yasmina enough that she’s sick.
Or she was. Right now, she’s looking at me like she wants to rip my throat out for mentioning marriage.
A foolish move on my part, a misstep I wouldn’t have made if I was thinking clearly.
But I saw her clinging to the toilet, and all I could think of was that I’d broken what little trust we have between us.
There’s no coming back from that shit. I know that better than anyone.
Yasmina and I already have a mountain of challenges in front of us without letting my cock get in the way of reason.
My cock always seems to get in the way of reason when it comes to this woman.
I want to race out of the room and track down Hades, to punch in his smug face for having shitty enough security to allow Ali into this building.
It shouldn’t be possible. I can’t even sneak into the Underworld.
I tried when I first arrived in Carver City, but the procedures in place are too thorough.
Which means Ali didn’t sneak in—Hades allowed him entrance.
Yes, the old bastard and I would have a conversation, and soon.
But not right now. Not with Yasmina sitting there, still shaking, her eyes too wide.
I hold out my hand. “Come here.” As much as I want to pick her up and take care of her, it will do more harm than good right now.
“I’m not marrying you.”
I bite back a sigh. “A slip of the tongue, baby girl. It’s not on the table.”
“Not yet, but it will be.”
She’s not wrong. A marriage might not be enough to fully cement things, but it won’t hurt.
It also has the benefit of creating a narrative people can root for.
? 1 No one wants to be ruled by a monster who went back on his word and killed the man he owed allegiance to.
But a man in love, desperate to save his woman from an arranged marriage?
That’s a whole hell of a lot more romantic.
“Come here.” I put a little sting into my words, and sure enough, that gets her moving.
She places her hand in mine and allows me to pull her to her feet.
I lift her onto the bathroom counter and run my hands over her body.
“Did he hurt you?” There are bruises there, but they’re caused by my hands; she came apart around my cock while I gave them to her. “Did he touch you?”
“Not the way you mean.” She shivers, and I open the narrow cabinet Hades keeps stocked in all these rooms. It’s filled with anything a person needs if they’re unexpectedly staying overnight, and I pull out a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a fluffy robe.
After wrapping the latter around her and tucking it in tight to her skin, I tear through the toothbrush packaging and dole out the toothpaste.
She plucks it from my hand. “I can brush my own teeth.”
“I’m aware.” It doesn’t change the fact that I want to take care of her. A foreign feeling. Yeah, I’ve had plenty of sex in the past, and unlike some of the assholes out there, I actually care if my partner is having a good time. That means fucking, but it also means aftercare.
This feels different. Everything with Yasmina feels different.
I’m not prepared for the protectiveness that surges through me as she finishes brushing her teeth and slides off the counter. I want to wrap her up and snarl at anyone who gets close. I want to rip Ali’s fucking head off. “Did he hurt you, baby girl?”
She hesitates like she’s thinking about lying to me. Finally, Yasmina runs an absent hand over her waves of dark hair. “He scared me.” She lifts her gaze to mine. “He said you put my father down like a mad dog in our backyard.”
The bastard had seen that?
I had to make an example of Balthazar. More, I wanted to.
If the piece of shit had listened to me, had taken my guidance, none of this would have been necessary.
At least not for a few more years, once I had my relationship with Yasmina solidified.
Instead, Balthazar got greedy, and now here we are, dealing with the fallout.
“It wasn’t quite so dramatic.”
Yasmina sighs. “This whole thing was broken from the start.” She steps into me, allowing me to wrap my arms around her, and rests her forehead against my chest. “You’re not a good man, Jafar.”
“I know.” With everyone else, I can put on the charming face and pretend to be other that what I am. Not with her. Never with her. She’s always seen right to the heart of me. It’s what damned both of us.
Because I see her, too.
I make myself release her, make myself take a step back. “If you need to leave…”
She blinks those big, brown eyes at me, a line appearing between her strong brows. “You gave me that option already. I know the caveats.”
“I’ll release your trust.”? 2 I curse myself for being a thousand times a fool for offering.
Her trust is the one thing that ensures her defiance will only go so far.
Having her need me is a tether binding us together.
I’m bastard enough to keep her. I know that.
I knew that when I forced her hand with that deal the night I took her the first time. “You can leave the city if you want.”
Yasmina gives me an unhappy smile. “We both know I’m not equipped to deal with the world.
Not now. Not yet. This club was enough to have me locking up in sensory overload.
Do you really think I’m capable of going out on my own?
” She shakes her head. “I believed I could when all I had was theory. Now I know better.”
“You’re underestimating yourself.” Why the fuck am I trying to convince her to leave? What the hell is wrong with me?
She moves past me and into the bedroom. “Even if I am, even if I actually landed on my feet, Ali will track me down and bring me back. He’s all but promised it. As you said, people want a figurehead, and I make a damn good one.”
“That’s not all of it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ali wants you because you were promised to him.” I should shut the fuck up right now, but she needs to understand. “But now that you’re mine, he wants you even more. If he thinks he can’t get to you, he’ll do something unforgivable.”
She gives me a long look. “You mean he’ll kill me.”
“He’ll try. I won’t let him touch you.”
Yasmina considers me for one last moment and then opens the closet and considers the offerings.
Just like the bathroom, Hades keeps a stock of a wide range of sizes.
She pulls out a silky pair of cream pants and a matching top.
They’re obviously pajamas, but they’ll more than suit on the ride home.
Once dressed, she turns to me. “I have no option but you, and we both know it. Not as things stand now.”
It should make me happy that she’s capitulating. It means less fighting so I can focus my energy on other things. It means I can keep Yasmina safe. It means I can keep her.
But as I stand there and watch her put herself to rights, the wrongness of this situation nags at me. I want Yasmina. No shit, I want Yasmina. Until I had her, that was the only thing that mattered. Now?
I want her to choose me.
I almost laugh out loud at the idiocy of the thought.
Yasmina might like the way she comes on my cock, but if all things were in balance, she’d walk away and never look back.
She has her sights set on a world outside the one we move in, and I’d be a monster to hold her to the shadows when she was obviously meant to walk in the sunshine.
I am a monster.
I shrug out of my jacket and wrap it around her. It’s not that cold outside, but I like the sight of her in my clothes. A statement, yes, but for once, I don’t give a fuck who might see. It settles something in my chest. “I have one thing to take care of, and then we’re leaving.”
Her gaze sharpens. “You want to talk to Hades.”? 3
No point in lying to her. It doesn’t even occur to me to try. “Ali shouldn’t have been able to get past the security.” I need to know if he’s that good or if Hades has his own reasons for letting the man in, and I need to know it soon. Yasmina’s safety hangs in the balance.
She meets my gaze. “I’d like to come with you.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to deny her.
Ali got into the room, so I’m hardly going to leave her here, but I know for a fact that Meg and the other two women in Hades’s inner circle wind down in the early mornings in the lounge.
I don’t trust anyone, but Hades and his people care about reputation above all else.
Even if he’s playing two sides against the middle, he won’t hand over someone under his protection.
He’ll just pretend not to know anything about it after Ali snatches her.
Yasmina touches my arm. “I’ll remember the rules.”
Eyes down. Silent.
It should please me. She’s taken to submission so godsdamned naturally.
But I can barely breathe past the jagged feeling in my throat.
“No.” The word seems to surprise her as much as it surprises me.
I take her hand and place it in the crook of my arm.
“No, this concerns you as much as it concerns me. More.”? 4
“Jafar.” She finally looks up at me. Even with her expression intentionally smoothed out, there are marks of weariness around her eyes and the faintest tremble where her fingers touch my arm.
Ali was in the room with her, close enough to do or say something that left her physically sick.
I can’t think about that too hard or I’m going to lose my shit.
I want to bundle her up, to do something to make her feel safe, to put her feet back on solid ground. It’s not in my skill set. I destroy things. I don’t protect them.
I clear my throat. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here.”