20. Chapter 20
Dario
The car is silent as I drive Jasmine to her condo across town. I want to reach out and hold her, pull her into my lap, and allow her to curl into me, but I know that is neither safe nor something she would do.
I turn into the parking lot, finding a spot close to the building, and cut the engine. After hearing a few sniffles on the way here, I expect her face to be tear-stained but find none.
“Thank you,” Jasmine says, her voice softer than I’ve ever heard, and it breaks my heart. This woman is fierce and strong. Whatever that man did to her back at Inferno has turned her into a woman I’ve never seen.
I reach across the console and take her trembling hand in mine. “You don’t have to thank me. I’m glad I was there.”
Her hazel eyes look at me, and I curse that it’s too dark to see the golden flecks in them. She snorts. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m glad you were, too.”
I laugh lightly at her honesty. “Wait here.”
Rounding the car, I open the door for her, but Jasmine stays in her seat as I asked. I can’t help but grin at this submissive side of her. When I hold my hand out, she hesitates.
“You’re safe,” I promise. “Let me walk you inside.”
She looks ahead, nodding, but makes no attempt to move. I reach over and unbuckle her seat belt, catching her gasp as my fingers graze her skin.
Slowly, Jasmine lifts her leg to step out of the vehicle, and that’s when I notice her feet are bare. “Where are your shoes?”
She sniffs. “I think they’re still back at the club. I was trying to get out of that room and didn’t think to grab them.” A ragged breath has me pulling out my phone and texting Valentina to retrieve Jasmine’s shoes. I’ll deliver them to her another day. It only gives me another reason to see her.
I lean down, placing an arm under her legs and another behind her back, pulling her up and out of the vehicle.
“Dario Caruso, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“You can’t walk across this filthy parking lot with bare feet.”
She rolls her eyes at me, and I notice my dick twitches at the movement. That’s new. “I’m from the country. We walk barefoot all the time.”
I lift her a little higher and stride toward her condo. “You’re not in Kentucky anymore.”
“I’m too heavy for you to carry. You’re gonna throw your back out.”
I laugh. “The only back I plan on ever throwing out is yours.”
She smacks the back of my head, and I laugh again.
“There you are, mio toro. And while it’s nice to know you worry about me, carrying you is no chore.
I much enjoy having you pressed against me, and while I may not have the bulk of my brothers, I am strong enough to take you wherever you need to go. ”
She stops arguing with me, and I smile in the silence as I focus on carrying her carefully through the lot, into her building, onto the elevator, and to her door.
“You can put me down now,” she whispers as she retrieves her key from her pocket. Whoever put those on women’s dresses is pure genius.
I shift her so she’s able to open the door. “I’ll put you down when you’re safely inside.”
When we cross the threshold, I do as I promised and place Jasmine gently on her feet. She pads over to the wall and flicks on the lights. “Can I get you some water? You must be exhausted.”
My eyes furrow. It’s not even midnight, and in my line of work, I rarely make it to bed before three in the morning. “The night’s still young. I’m fine.”
“I meant from carrying me. I know that wasn’t easy.” Her voice is soft again, and I miss the usual bite I hear in it.
“I told you it was no problem. Carrying you was easily the best part of my night.”
Jasmine snorts and heads to the refrigerator, pulling two bottles of water out despite my protests. She passes one to me, then takes a drink of her own before speaking. “You don’t have to lie to me. In fact, I appreciate honesty.”
“I was being honest,” I insist. Jasmine rolls her eyes again and crosses back into her living room, where she sits on a very floral sofa. It looks nothing like her, and to be honest, now that I’m looking around the space, the decor she’s chosen isn’t what I would have expected at all.
“I know what I am, Dario.”
“What’s that?”
Jasmine throws her arms out and motions toward her body. “Fat! I’m fat.”
I cross the room, sitting next to her. My hand reaches up and turns her face so she can see that I mean what I’m about to say. “You’re beautiful.”
Her eyes narrow. I’ve been in many scenarios where I was easily at risk of taking my last breath, but with the way her cheeks redden and her breath picks up, I don’t think I’ve ever been as close to death as I currently am. “Both things can be true.”
I hold my hands up in surrender. “You’re right. I mean, about both things being true. And yes, your body is bigger, but I had no problem carrying it. In fact, if you would allow me to hold you longer, I would.”
Jasmine’s speechless, and I sit there with her in the silence.
I’ll sit here as long as it takes for her to process that what I’m saying is the truth.
After several moments, her voice comes out in a whisper so faint that if the words weren’t so vile, I wouldn’t have heard them. “He called me a cow.”
“The man at Inferno?”
She nods. “Ben. He said I was a cow and he was the cowboy who caught me. He wanted to tie me up with rope, which, I don’t know that I would hate that in any other circumstance, but the way he made me feel…
” Her voice sounds so pained as it trails off, and I expect tears to finally fall, but they never do.
She doesn’t complete her thought, though I’m already seething at what she’s already confessed. It’s very clear how he made her feel, and knowing that he broke something in her has me rising to my feet. “I’ll kill him,” I promise.
Jasmine follows my movements and stands with me. She reaches out for my hand, and her skin against mine is the only thing that keeps me from busting through the door. “Don’t.”
I growl. “Don’t ask me to spare the life of a man who treated you like a barnyard animal.”
She winces. “It’s not that. I don’t care what happens to Ben. You can make him lose his membership, right?”
I scoff at her question. I can make him lose much more than that.
Jasmine grips my hand she’s holding. “Don’t leave.”
My tense body goes rigid. “What?”
She looks around the room as though she’s uncertain of what she just asked. “It’s stupid. Never mind. You have to get back to the casino, and I have work to do. There’s always so much work to do. I shouldn’t have gone out tonight. I shouldn’t have wasted your time.”
I jerk her body toward me, and she falls into it with her hand against my chest. “First of all, you are one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met, so nothing you say is stupid.
Second, I fucking hate the cowboy you met and the things he did and said to you.
I hate that you went into that room with him.
I hate that he made you feel inferior. But I don’t hate that you came out, because it gave me another opportunity to see you.
Tonight, I was able to touch and hold you, and those things will never be a waste of my time. ”
Her breath is labored as she looks up at me, processing my words. I want her to repeat her request, but when the words don’t come, I lean down and press a kiss to her forehead. “Good night, Jasmine.”
When I reach the door, one word stops me in my tracks.
“Stay.”
I turn to see her standing in the same place, staring after me.
“Please, Dario. Please stay.”
Dario
Do you remember that cream couch covered in red roses that Nonna got rid of a few years ago?
Gio
The fucking hideous one with the broken spring?
Luca
Yes.
Dario
I think I'm sleeping on it.
I fluff the pillow behind me again and reposition the blankets underneath me.
The broken spring isn’t giving me as much grief anymore in my new position, but my body is too long for the piece of furniture, and I can’t get comfortable.
It would explain why I'm awake in the middle of the night after only a couple hours of rest.
Gio
Where the fuck are you?
Dario
Jasmine's.
Luca
You slept over?
I contemplate my brother’s question. I did sleep over. I never sleep over. What is it about this woman that has me going against everything I’ve ever known about myself? Before I can dive into that conundrum, my phone lights up again.
Gio
What part of “don’t fuck our attorney” did you not understand?
Dario
If I were fucking her, I wouldn’t be on the couch, now would I?
Gio
I don't pretend to know your kinks.
I pinch the bridge of my nose. This must be what Gio feels like most of the time.
Dario
There was a man at the club tonight. I need you to find him.
Gio
The man she was with when I left you?
Dario
Yes. His name is Ben.
Gio
We’re not hunting people down because they fucked a girl who isn’t yours.
Dario
They didn't fuck.
Gio
The answer is no.
Dario
He called her a cow.
Gio
Are we killing people now for name-calling?
When it's her? Yes.
Dario
He grabbed her and tried to force her to stay against her will. That's against the rules of the club.
Gio
So we suspend him or strip his membership. We don't hunt him down.
Luca
Found him.
Gio
What the fuck, Luca?
Luca
Cow is mean.
I pull up his dumbass picture and read through the stats Luca sends over in the group chat. Benjamin Edwards. Thirty-eight years old. From Delaware. Works in finance.
Some fucking cowboy.
Dario
I want him in the Doom Room.
Gio
She doesn't even like you.
Dario
She will.
I toss my phone and lean back, running a hand over my face. Whether Jasmine ever grows to like me is beyond the point. Nobody is going to treat her the way they did tonight and get away with it.
After an hour of pacing between the living room and her bedroom door to make sure she’s okay, it takes about another hour before I finally reach a point where I’m about to doze off again. A buzzing between my legs jerks me awake. I lift my phone and smile at the message.
Luca
It's done.