Chapter 18
Callahan
JASMINA WAS ALREADY WAY more trouble than she should have been. But I wasn’t going to refrain from taking that vicious little mouth when she looked like this.
Goddamn, she was flawless.
She didn’t hold back with her kiss either.
How was I going to find any sort of relief when I knew she was around? Her lips were so full I wanted to drag my tongue across them for days, and her neck was so small I could snap it. Her fight to push back, though, was big and dangerous, which was what I liked most.
She bit into my lip like she remembered this kiss wasn’t meant to feed her desire, and when I moaned, she shoved me back.
“Open the car door for me so we can go home,” she commanded, lifting her chin like she had all the power here.
Every part of me wanted to actually listen to her or do the complete opposite and make a whole scene for everyone in the neighborhood. And wasn’t that something? I should have been throwing her into the car and locking her away. “You deserve to have your ass thrown in the vehicle.”
She shoved at me again, but I didn’t move except to suck in a ragged breath and try to center myself. I’ve always been pretty stable and conscious of my actions. I actually prided myself on it. Always thought about how my actions would affect the Diamonds, my brother, my community.
Yet here I was now with her in the middle of Paradise Grove, and I had my hand around her neck, not thinking at all about the repercussions.
Not that she cared at all. She didn’t even look the least bit scared.
“You going to throw me in a car and hide me away all because I’m talking back to your little whore in there?
Please.” She crossed her arms. “She didn’t even have the decency for girl code. ”
“Girl code? Her only allegiance is to my dick.” Jasmina scoffed, but it was the truth.
I’d enjoyed Demi. She was everything I wanted in a casual affair because she gave as good as she got.
She had no expectations other than what we did behind closed doors and the occasional public appearance.
“And it’s all she wants out of me, so you shouldn’t be that concerned. ”
“Ha,” my little viper responded loudly, and then she leaned into my grip. “I’m not concerned when all you have to offer, quite frankly, is a kiss like that.”
Her eyes were wild and full of fire. But her words were what sent me over the edge.
Bullshit she wasn’t concerned. Bullshit that kiss we’d just shared wasn’t much to offer.
I tightened my hold on her neck, and she licked her lips.
Jasmina Ruiz wanted as good as she gave, and I was about to give it right back to her.
I yanked her to the side so that the hood of the SUV was behind her and then I shoved her up onto it so that I could step between her legs before I took her mouth again.
This time, I didn’t leave room for her to even breathe. I claimed her on that street, making sure my tongue tasted every part of her sweet mouth, and I couldn’t stop the groan from deep in my chest as she spread her legs wider, like she needed me closer, like she wanted me just as I wanted her.
The problem with having no control around this woman was that, in Paradise Grove, everyone was watching.
“Yoo-hoo, Callahan!” I heard the busybody, Lucille, calling to us as she walked over in heels that met the ground with clipped precision, and not a moment later, I heard my freaking mother gasp.
“Callahan, in the street?”
“Oh, let the lovebirds live. We’ve lived long enough to see it all.
” Lucille chuckled at her old age. She wore it as a medal of honor rather than something she was trying to hide.
I took a breath and then looked at Jasmina, who was actually blushing like she could take all the rest she’d endured with me but not this.
“Lovebirds?” my mother scolded her friend. “That’s not what this—”
“Mother,” I cut her off and faced her to give her a cool look, “meet my fiancée, Jasmina.”
I had to give it to Jasmina, she at least tried. She stepped forward and murmured a “hello” and “nice to meet you both.”
Lucille pulled her in for a hug immediately and started chatting her ear off about the wedding, because of course all of Paradise Grove had started to buzz about it. “I’m excited about the wedding. I can help if you need,” the spry older woman dressed in a beautiful pink wool dress asked.
“Lucille, don’t worry. My bride has it under control.”
She assessed Jasmina like a shrewd businesswoman before sticking out her manicured hand. “I’m part of the Diamond Syndicate, as you probably know, and at your disposal if you need help with floral arrangements or anything further.”
“Floral arrangements?” Jasmina inquired slowly, knowing that’s not all she was offering.
“Among other things.” She smiled. “Let me put my number in your phone.”
“Lucille,” I sighed, not wanting the woman to meddle because I knew she was very good at that. “You know as well as I do the wedding is happening rather soon, and—”
“Yes. Quite soon, which means she needs all the help she can get, Callahan. Don’t forget to ask Mia and Olive for help too. They’ll be happy to lend a hand.” She chattered on with Jasmina, but my mother held my gaze as she whispered to me.
“Callahan, this is an arrangement, not an actual engagement. Must you make out in public?” My mother hated the optics, but she’d have to deal with them.
“In private is fine too if that suits you better.” I rocked on my heels as I watched Jasmina smirk at something Lucille was saying.
She never cowered, never was openly rude with others except me, and she always seemed to win over the person she was talking to.
Lucille shared something about how she crocheted too now.
My God.
My mother smoothed her dark hair and narrowed the eyes that were the same color as mine before she tutted.
“She’s a Ruiz, and you should remember that even while you’re married, Callahan.
Even if she wins over all of Paradise Grove.
” She patted my cheek, and a silent conversation passed between us: one where she knew I didn’t trust her the way I once did, but one where she was trying to build that trust again.
“I’m just trying to help. She’s not one of us, Cal. Nor will she ever be.”
She kissed my cheek and left us with Lucille walking alongside her.
Jasmina stared at them walking off and mumbled, “Well, one woman in this whole godforsaken Paradise might like me.”
“You didn’t threaten to poison her.”
“If a man flirted with me right in front of you—”
“There would be no threats, Jasmina. I’d kill him.”
She rolled her eyes, but I saw the small smirk before she pointed to the door. I opened it and she got in.
“Your mother doesn’t like me.” She said it as a fact, not a question, as I wove through the streets of Paradise Grove.
She scoffed at a few women waving to me. “But then again, I’m guessing most women in Paradise Grove won’t like me.” She lifted an eyebrow at me. It was true. I had a reputation with the ladies, that was for sure. And now I wasn’t sure if I wanted Jasmina exposed to it.
“People are going to be wary, Jas. And my mother hates anyone outside her circle, but she was never a great judge of character. Didn’t give Mia the benefit of the doubt either. So, just ignore her … and them.”
I saw her gray eyes peering at me with curiosity. “Sure you don’t want me to kiss their feet, invite them over for tea while I talk wedding plans?” Her voice was saccharine as she continued. “Maybe your mother wants a say in the wedding festivities?”
“A pretty wedding won’t make her happy, and I don’t care about what the Diamonds think of our marriage.”
She shrugged. “Okay.”
What could I say? Family dynamics were murky, tangled webs that had been woven by generations before us. She knew that just as well as I did.
Still, she kept prying further, “For someone willing to sacrifice his whole love life for his family and business, you’re very quick to abandon the nuances of making your mother and other Diamonds happy.”
Her comment hit close to home in a way I didn’t want it to. “I don’t have a love life to sacrifice, Jasmina.” I shrugged. “I sleep with women. I don’t love them. And I can still do that once we’re married.”
“Trying to make a point with Demi?” she grumbled, and then asked, “Are you going to see her again?”
I eyed her warily. Demi was a friend and a sort of colleague. She’d been my lover too. The relationship was complicated. “She gave us the evidence to look over—”
“That wasn’t the question,” she responded, cracking her neck. “But it’s a good enough answer. If our marriage is open, it’s probably for the best anyway.”
I wanted to correct her, but my mother’s words were echoing in the back of my mind. It was true. Jasmina wasn’t a Diamond, wasn’t one of us.
And that was a damn problem. I couldn’t trust her. And beyond that, I couldn’t fall for a woman that I was forcing to marry me. That didn’t want me in the same way I wanted her. And I couldn’t force her to want me either.
I wasn’t that type of man.
Which meant I needed another outlet. I needed someone like Demi back in my life. Even if it drove my viper wild.