Chapter 13
Callahan
“YOU CAN’T EXPECT ME to eat everything on each of these plates. You ordered the whole stupid menu, Callahan.”
I shrugged and sat back so I could put my arm around her. When we’d walked into the restaurant, I asked for a booth in the back. I didn’t want eyes that would make her uncomfortable, because it was true that most of the Diamond Syndicate was watching now.
I just needed the woman to eat. It’s why I chose to slide in next to her rather than across from her. We weren’t leaving until she gave in and finished a platter of food. “You wouldn’t tell me what you wanted, so now I got you everything to choose from.”
“That’s not how this goes. I didn’t want anything at all.”
“Nonsense. Try everything, and you’ll find something you want.” She looked absolutely affronted when I’d ordered, but I swear she licked her lips ten times before the food came.
“Why do you even care?”
“Other than the fact that it looks like I’m starving you? It’s been five days.” How many times did I have to tell her?
“It wasn’t that bad.” She hummed and looked at her nails, completely unconcerned. I wanted to strangle her.
“You’ve barely eaten a meal this whole time. Even Archer is starting to give me looks about your lack of appetite.”
“Like I said, I’ll eat when I’m less stressed about the timing of this wedding.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Not this again. What was she so afraid of? “I said you could have two months.”
“Well, I don’t exactly trust you.”
“After I told you at the house that I’m not going to lie to you?
” I’d meant that. Jasmina wasn’t a fool, and I wasn’t going to treat her like one.
On the contrary, the more I dug into the businesses of the Ruizes, the more I saw her handiwork.
Jameson agreed too. Paolo may have done a lot of dumb shit, but having Jasmina helping him launder money and run businesses was genius.
“You also told me you would give me another week with my family.”
“That was …” I stopped myself. But she lifted an eyebrow, and I admitted to her in honesty, “That was me being impatient because I wanted you here and because I didn’t want you to run.”
“Ruizes are strong. We don’t run.”
“And Knights are Diamonds. Adamantem infractum manet. It’s the saying we go by.
It means the diamond remains unbroken, Jas.
That means a lot of things to our syndicate, like we take care of family, we trust one another, but also …
We don’t take unnecessary risks.” I sighed because, at this point, it didn’t matter what I said: She had me by the balls when it came to this deadline.
“I’m not going to go back on my word. You can have two months to plan, but I want those invites out now.
I told you to have them done four nights ago.
” I couldn’t believe the gall she had. “This is as much for me as it is for you and your family.”
“Exactly.” She finally picked up a fork. “That’s why I felt it was imperative we did it right.”
“What’s classified as right, Jas? The wedding is basically only a contract.”
“Most marriages are. Some are made in love, and others aren’t.” She shrugged like she never believed in a nuptial agreement in the first place.
Who was I to tell her any different, though? I’d seen how many lies could be told in one. My father had lied to us and my mother over and over again. “Right. Just start planning after we finish at the station tonight.”
She didn’t argue or balk. Jasmina would endure hell if she was getting her way. “I’ll get the invites out tonight.” She put her fork down and finally picked up a chicken tender, the most kid food on the whole table, and started munching on it.
I didn’t give a shit what she ate at that point, though. The tension that had me wound tight for days unraveled watching her chew.
And then, when she moaned at the taste and murmured it was really good, another part of my body tightened instead.
Fuck me.
“Also, I really do need to talk with my cousins. They’re great at this wedding planning stuff.”
“And you’re not?” The confidence seemed to drain from her with my question.
Jasmina Ruiz was interesting. She held herself in high regard when it came to combat, to her family, and to analyzing a business, but I saw how she shied away from planning what most women would consider an important day of their lives.
She chewed her cheek before saying, “They just have a better eye for these sorts of things.”
“What about what you want?” I was genuinely curious if she ever pictured her life outside of them. I didn’t know if I pictured my life outside of the Diamonds, but I contemplated it with the way Jameson had told me I needed my sanity.
I’d always accepted the Diamond lifestyle, accepted that I enjoyed who and what we stood for. It was easy probably because I didn’t care much about anything else.
Now, I considered what I’d do if I did care about something other than them.
She tilted her head. “Didn’t you say this wedding doesn’t have to be what I want at all?”
“I say stupid shit to you all the time, Jasmina. Doesn’t mean I actually expect you to think it’s true.”
“Callahan, it’ll be a performance. Whether it’s the one I want or not, doesn’t really matter.”
Why did that statement piss me the hell off now? I was giving her a whole two months, and she couldn’t put one thing she wanted in the wedding now?
“I want your cat to run down the aisle holding our rings,” I blurted out like a legit imbecile.
“Romeo?” She stared at me, confused, and then a small smile tilted her mouth. “You hate my ex.”
“Fran will like it.” I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to get a grip on myself. I did hate that fucking cat. What was I thinking? “And what are your favorite colors?”
“Does it matter?” She chuckled and took another chicken tender. I was entertaining her enough that she was eating. That’s what mattered at this point.
“It does to me. Tell me. What’s your favorite color?”
She pointed to her hair. “I love blues. Dark as midnight and as light as a blue sky.” She glanced at me and sighed. “Sometimes I’m even drawn to a blue-green that resembles the color of my future husband’s eyes when he’s not being a jackass.”
“That a compliment?”
“It might be, or I might just be fluffing your ego to get my way.”
I’d take her admission either way. The pull this woman had on me already wasn’t something I could ignore.
She looked away and broke our connection by studying the different plates. “What’s your favorite here?”
“The pasta. It’s an Italian restaurant, Jas.”
“So I should eat that instead of chicken tenders? You know, chicken tenders are universally the best food you can have, because they always are decent even at a new restaurant. So, no fuss.”
“Sometimes I think it’s fine to make a fuss.”
She wrinkled her nose and waved a hand across the table. “Obviously. I mean, who orders everything—”
I cut her off. “You realize you didn’t eat for days, Jas?”
She gave me a side-eye. “Don’t start that again.”
“And you were holding out on drinking water because you wanted two more weeks to plan?” Did she realize how concerned I had been?
She murmured, “And maybe for you to agree to let me talk with my cousins and aunt?”
“Communicating with them about this is that important to you?”
“Yes.” That one word held weight when she said it.
I combed a hand through my hair. “You can make calls to them in my presence.”
“Suit yourself.” She smiled then, and it spread across her face brilliantly, lighting up her pretty cobalt-gray eyes.
Then, she shrugged like she hadn’t just catastrophically delivered a blow to my psyche.
“I’m calling them tonight to discuss the invites.
They’ll have the right priest for the ceremony, and—”
“Fine.”
“No complaints? Your mom won’t care?” She searched my eyes for something.
My mom wouldn’t get a say in the matter. “As long as you promise there’s no more avoiding food and water.”
“So concerned.” She chuckled.
“I can’t have you lose another damn pound,” I said honestly.
“Oh, really?” She arched a brow.
I narrowed my eyes at her and reached for the spoon that had the dessert pudding.
Maybe it was that we felt hidden in the back corner of that restaurant, that she was talking to me, that she was smiling at me and giving me compliments, but I couldn’t resist pushing us further into a danger zone we shouldn’t have been exploring.
“I think you should try the pudding, Jasmina.”
“Callahan …” My name on her lips was a warning I wasn’t heeding. I brought the spoon closer, and my hand dropped under the table to grip her thin bare thigh.
“Show me you’ll keep eating and that you’ll enjoy it.”
I don’t think that Jasmina and my chemistry could be ignored even when we were at each other’s throats. Her body listened, and she spread her legs along with opening her lips so that I could put the pudding in her mouth while I brushed my fingers over her panty line and then pushed it to the side.
She moaned at the taste of the food. Or at the feeling of my hand across her wet pussy, I wasn’t sure which, but I didn’t care because I was focused on giving this woman exactly what she wanted right in that moment.
I wanted her lost to me, I wanted her eyes darkening the way they did when her desire took over, I wanted the blush on her cheeks like she couldn’t control herself.
And I got it.
I got her breath coming faster and her wiggling her hips, murmuring, “More.”
I scooped up more pudding and put it in her mouth as I slid another finger into her.
I watched how her tongue peeked out to drag along the bottom of the spoon before she wrapped her mouth around it.
I pressed my thumb to her clit hard for that, giving her a bit of reward for getting my cock rock solid in two seconds flat.
She whimpered and breathed out my name. So, I asked her, “Want more dessert, Viper?”
She nodded, her eyes fluttering. I knew she was close. I loved how fast she could get there, loved that she’d take it here in a restaurant too if it was offered.
“You need to keep eating dessert every single day, understand?” I wanted her eating every meal put in front of her for the rest of her damn life after I’d been concerned about her starving.
She bit her lip but still had the audacity to tell me, “A bride is supposed to lose weight before her wedding, Callahan.”
I couldn’t stand that she would think she was one of those brides. Her high cheekbones had become more pronounced, her curves a bit smaller. I dragged a finger across her collarbone as I slid another finger into her under the table. Her hand flew out to grab the table linen.
Good.
She was close.
I curled my fingers in her and pumped as I leaned in and whispered in her ear, “Not my bride, Jasmina. Not mine. Now, come for your husband so I can get you more dessert.”
She shut her eyes tight and bit her lip to keep from screaming as she did as she was told.
After, I pulled my fingers from her and dipped them into the pudding so I could taste her sweet arousal mixed with dessert.
“You taste divine, Viper. Abso-fucking-lutely divine.”