Chapter 22
Jasmina
AFTER THAT MORNING, IT seemed Callahan and I found a friendly rhythm. And a whole week passed with my wounds healing nicely while Callahan and I planned most of the wedding. Of course we found more things to bicker about, but we didn’t threaten to kill anyone else.
Nor did we spend it in his bedroom with my legs spread.
He didn’t attempt to and his lack of trying was, I’ll admit, irritating.
I thought of him more than I should, went to take showers more than I should, and wondered what he was doing at night alone in his room more than I should.
In the daytime, he was ever present while being the perfect gentleman. Except that he wasn’t a quiet Diamond businessman in the background while I made choices about the wedding.
Instead, he gave his opinion on absolutely everything.
When I sat down with the event planner—who supposedly helped with every event in Paradise Grove—we had to pick out linens, and I shrugged and said an inexpensive white would be fine. He corrected me with hues of blue in the most expensive material.
Another day, when I mentioned I didn’t have to have a bouquet made, he looked affronted. “Of course you’ll have a custom arrangement.”
“Why?”
“I don’t think that should be the question. It should be why not, Jasmina?” And then he scheduled a floral shop appointment for later that week where he insisted on every blue flower he could find being in the arrangement.
He even made calls about the photography, which I told him wasn’t needed, but he informed me that he was a Knight, that magazines and media outlets were going to cover this event regardless, and so we might as well have the best.
I found that the gated community had everything one could ever ask for.
Hundreds of homes were set strategically around a shopping village that included boutiques, a spa, hair salon, library, and restaurants.
There was a bar where it seemed only Groveians were allowed to frequent, and then there was a country club with tennis, golfing, dining, and a gym.
One of the guys informed me that I could have most anything delivered within a day, too, like we all had exclusive access to most businesses.
And maybe this community did.
Diamonds pulled more strings than I was sure my family ever had.
And yet, my family still managed to pull the wrong freaking ones. I was much busier than I thought I would be, which didn’t give me time to dwell on what Paolo had done all these years behind my back.
Yet, still, it ate at my soul. “Have you gotten a list of companies Paolo trafficked women through?”
“I did,” Callahan said over the breakfast we were eating in the dining room because he insisted we get out of my room more. “I’ll send you it. As of right now, we’ve halted the operation. We’re tracking down the women who were affected, compensating them, providing therapy, jobs, and medical aid.”
“You’re doing all that already?” I asked, almost baffled that he could move that quickly.
He nodded and shrugged. “We have a team on it, and we’re doing our best. Some are receptive. Others aren’t. Paolo ran that business for years, Jasmina. Some of that footage is from before you were born. It’s going to cost millions and disrupt a lot of businesses if you—”
I chewed my cheek. “I’ll pay you back.”
“What’s mine is yours, Viper.”
“Be serious, Callahan.” I scoffed because this was actually important to me, to them, to so many who’d been wronged.
“I am serious.” Callahan waited a minute as he wiped his mouth with a napkin and said softly, “That’s not the point I’m trying to make. It will take time for wounds to heal. And it will cause ripples.”
“Would you rather I tell you to leave it?”
I saw a small smile play on his lips. “No. I don’t think you’re capable of leaving anything alone once your mind is set on it, Viper. I’m just warning you that it’s going to take a lot from your family … already is.”
“Tía Perla and Monte are on board. We accepted the drugs and firearms as part of the business, but never trafficking. If that’s what Paolo was doing … if that’s what my father was doing before Paolo took over, they can rot in hell.”
He nodded and went back to eating, letting me get lost in my thoughts, get lost in what I’d seen on those security tapes. And while I mulled it over, I remembered that stupid logo in the background again.
“I need to go back to the library today,” I announced.
Callahan was frowning at my plate. “For what? You went there three times this week already.”
He was right. I’d met the librarian, Zen, who seemed bubbly and quirky. She’d pointed me in the direction of event planning but kept her eyes on me.
The whole community seemed to, which was expected, I guess. I wouldn’t have let an enemy of my family walk around unattended.
Not that they did. Archer or Callahan was with me each and every day. It meant that if I wanted to get any good reading that wasn’t about weddings in and start researching what I’d found of Paolo’s sex trafficking along with whatever was on the SD card, I needed the library to myself.
Because as much as Callahan and I had gotten along the last couple of days, and as much as he seemed to want to help with the trafficking, I wanted to be careful. I had to uncover what I could on my own first and then decide what information to share with everyone else.
It would take time to establish the library routine enough that people wouldn’t be watching what I was reading there. So, I said, “What about, hmmm … wanting to go to the library for entertainment? Now there’s a wildly innovative idea.” I glared at Callahan. “Do you not read?”
His eyes snapped up to mine and found that I was teasing him. He chuckled and pointed his fork at me. “I work … for my family, Viper.”
I sighed because I understood his drive, understood that Callahan had a devotion to his family that was similar to the one I had for mine, which I actually respected.
Even still, I could see he never actually did do much for fun.
It wasn’t my problem. It would actually be a benefit when we were married, honestly.
I’d get more time to myself. Yet, I found myself saying, “Everyone deserves an escape from life sometimes, Callahan.”
“At the library?” He raised an eyebrow like we could find something better to do. I was sure he could. He had about twenty women around the world waiting for a call if the media was right.
I lifted my chin, happy to inform him that books were just as good as any of the fun he might want to have. “Books can provide the biggest escape from reality ever.”
“What books? The history of World War II isn’t going to make me feel—”
I scoffed, cutting him off and waving away the idea of nonfiction and war. “Definitely not those.”
He hummed as if still not interested. “Will a book tell why you’re not eating your breakfast this morning?”
The man was obsessed with my caloric intake ever since I’d come out of my room.
“We’re getting married in a month, Callahan.” And I’d seen the pictures of who he normally had standing by his side.
“And?”
“And everyone will be there.”
“So?”
“So, we’re going to be the center of attention. I’d like to look my best.”
He stared at me, bewildered. “You do look your best.”
“I don’t even have a dress and haven’t worked on actually toning my body in well over a year.”
“Probably should add dress fittings to your list of to-dos, then. Where would you like a dress from?”
“Oh, you’re going to take me somewhere outside of Paradise Grove all of a sudden?”
“I have meetings on the coast, and I’m guessing you’d like your cousins there for a fitting?”
I stared at him and considered what he was offering. “You’ll let them help me pick the dress?”
“Like I said”—he seemed very focused on his own plate all of a sudden—“I have meetings there.”
“What types of meetings?”
“Meetings that aren’t your business, Jasmina,” he said with smile, pointing a fork at my plate. “Now, eat.”
“Or I’ll do like most every bride and starve to fit into a dress I should.”
“What?” He curled his lip as if affronted.
“You secured the best media coverage and photography in the nation. You’re giving freaking Bridal Digest or something our exclusive, Callahan.”
“So what?”
“So, the camera adds ten pounds, and people have filters that they put on now and makeup artists that contour—”
“The camera could add fifty pounds and you’d still look better than any other woman on the planet. And what would you need a filter for?”
“To make my face look better?”
“You try to make your face look any different than it does, Jas, and I’m going to have a problem.”
“The photos are going to be plastered everywhere forever.”
“All the more reason to look like yourself.” He got up and walked around the dining table to lean his backside right next to my plate, then he took my fork, stabbed a few pieces of buttery eggs onto it, and murmured, “Come on, Viper, take a bite.”
“So, you want me to look—”
He slid the fork into my mouth so I couldn’t finish, and then he leaned close to the shell of my ear. “I want you to be and look healthy. Like my wife is taken care of. Like I’d indulge in every single curve of hers and enjoy them too right now if she’d let me.”
Oh, Lord. I glanced up at him and got lost in those blue-green eyes.
Lost in his charm. Lost in the sweet nothings he murmured probably because he was more used to flattering women then giving them the truth.
Then he dragged a finger along my collarbone and down to the swell of my breast before bringing it back up to tip my chin so my face tilted toward his. I couldn’t help but shiver.
My body turned to liquid heat every time he touched me, like somehow during that one night we had together, he’d programmed me, and I couldn’t come back from it.
Having him this close felt criminal, felt like I wanted to give into what he was before, to how I knew his hands could touch me, to how I knew his lips could devour me.
I swallowed the food and licked my lips, glancing down at his, and a low growl sounded somewhere from deep in his chest. I jerked back out of his reach to break the connection. “Once between us was enough I think, Callahan.”
“According to who?”
“Me. And you should feel the same.”
He was still staring at my lips. “I’m trying to keep my hands to myself, Viper, but no way in hell once with you would ever be enough. I think every damn man on the planet would agree with me.”
“Keep your hands to yourself?” So that’s what him not making passes at me since Demi was. It wasn’t the fact that he’d somehow found me less enticing after threatening his lover. “Why?”
“Didn’t you tell me to earn you?”
“Yes?” I said slowly.
“I think that comes with me earning trust before I ravage the hell out of you.”
“Or maybe we never get to that point.”
“Why?”
“Because our families will never get along, for one.”
“Don’t care.”
“You don’t … You’re doing this specifically for your family,” I reminded him.
“And business. And …” He stopped himself, sucking on his teeth. “What did your uncle tell you about the trust?”
I stared at him, not sure how much I should divulge, but then again, he’d find out anyway. “You really believe there’s money my grandfather and dad stashed away for the heirs of their bloodline?” I gave him a look.
He shrugged. “Our grandparents and ancestors have done stupider things.”
“Right,” I sighed. “Well, I was with my dad and mom until I was six, Callahan. Never once did he say a word to me about it. I tried to remember, even on the day he died.”
He looked at me suddenly, his face morphing into a sort of disgust. At first, I thought he’d figured me out.
I didn’t look toward where the SD card was hidden, but I felt it radiating between the mattresses.
But then he said, “At six, you shouldn’t have to try to remember anything about your parents being taken from you, Jas. Did Paolo—”
I took a deep breath and shook my head. “Paolo asked a lot of me as a child, and up until his death.” I shrugged, trying not to be frustrated with it. “It was his way.”
“It was the wrong way.”
His words settled in my bones. Monte and Perla had always allowed Paolo to question me.
At times, they’d been adamant about it, berating me, withholding my place to sleep, food, common comforts.
I didn’t talk about it because I was grateful, but Callahan’s visceral response to even this slotted him into my heart as someone I was thankful to have met.
I didn’t tell him that, though. Instead, I said, “Maybe. Or maybe it was just their way.”
“Their way always, huh?” he said like he hated it.
“I guess. Let’s not forget that their way is potentially getting you a share in the firearms company and a transactional offspring necessary to fulfill the contract.”
The air cooled, thinning to a sort of pressurized silence between us. I saw his jaw jump in irritation, and the cords of muscle at his neck tightened as his gaze turned icy. “You think that’s what’s between us?” His voice was dangerously low.
I met his fiery gaze, trying to keep my cool and put a barrier between us because I couldn’t have him embedding himself in my heart. “That’s what we signed up for, Knight.”
He nodded once, then twice, the silence stretching.
Then he leaned close, letting me feel his heat before his lips were against the shell of my ear again.
“Jas, when I fuck you on our wedding night, it won’t be just transactional.
It’s going to be real. When I fuck you, you’re going to forget about a contract, because I intend to obliterate all your thoughts except for me and you.
So, eat your food.” He pointed to my plate and pushed off the table, standing over me to play with a tendril of my hair.
“Because I want to make sure these curves still exist on our wedding night. Know why?”
“Why?” I said quietly, my eyes fluttering closed at feeling him so close.
“Because I don’t intend to be gentle. I intend to fuck you like you belong to me, like you’re starving for me just as I am you. And I don’t need a girl who feels like she’s going to break. I need a viper who’s going to fuck me back just as rough.”
The man didn’t even have the decency to look flustered after what he said to me. He straightened and told me we could go to the library whenever I was ready.
I wasn’t ready at all after that, though.
My joggers were probably soaked through, and my whole core was tight with wanting him.
Callahan Knight knew how to edge better than any man I’d ever met.