Chapter 11: Veiled Vows: Chapter 11

“Jasmine!”

The blue car hits Jasmine with a solid thump and sends her stumbling back into the wall. The vehicle wasn’t moving that fast, having just come around the corner so the impact didn’t look that serious, but those facts barely register as a red fog descends.

Sprinting across the street, Jasmine is my target until the car door opens and a man in gym gear stumbles out brandishing a tire iron.

“You fucking bitch!” he screams, taking a few steps to where Jasmine is slowly picking herself up from the ground. He doesn’t get close to her.

As soon as I’m near him, my fist collides with his face and sends him crashing against his own vehicle. Before he can steady himself, I have him by the collar and I drag him away from Jasmine, then throw him so hard against his car that the side door window cracks and shatters.

“Are you fucking insane?!” I roar. “Running people over in the street? You fucking asshole!” Another punch sends his head snapping back and he slumps a few inches toward the ground, but I keep holding his collar and dragging him right back up for another punch. And then another. His face quickly becomes bloodied, and all his attempts to speak are ruined by my next punch that sends his lower jaw crashing into his top one.

“Stop!” someone screams from inside the convenience store. “I’m calling the cops! I’m calling!”

Disgust curls through me as the strange man drops down into a puddle at my feet the moment I release him. The sound of running footsteps catches up to me as several of my men finally drag their lazy asses from their nearby cars.

“Secure him,” I snarl, snapping my fingers at the stranger. “But the cops are coming so don’t take too long.”

Then Jasmine is my focus. She remains on the ground staring up at the starry sky while blinking slowly, and for a cold moment it looks like she’s not even breathing. For someone I barely know, the sight makes my heart stall painfully in my chest until I hear her take an audible breath.

“Jasmine?”

The ground is cold against my knee as I gently grasp her shoulder and take her hand. “Where are you hurt?”

She blinks owlishly, and then slowly her eyes drift to mine. “I’m fine. I think. I just bumped my head.”

“Are you sure?”

“You don’t believe me?” She smiles slowly, but it melts into a wince as I help her climb to her feet.

“Let me check you over.”

“What are you, a doctor?”

Jasmine lightly argues with me all the way back to the deli but falls silent by the time I get her inside behind closed doors and onto the deli counter.

“I’m really fine,” she insists. “I just hit my head, that’s all. I want to get back out there and see that fucker though.”

“You can’t. The convenience clerk already called the cops,” I reply, studying her face. “My guys will take care of it.”

“Stupid fucking—” Jasmine closes her eyes and frowns, then tenderly reaches for the back of her head.

“Let me see.”

“So you are a doctor?” She opens one eye and squints at me.

“I’ve seen my fair share.” I raise both hands. “Can I?”

Jasmine gives a dramatic sigh, then she turns herself around on the counter so I can reach the back of her head. Her golden brown hair hangs in messy waves down her back, with a few of them clumped together where her hairpins have come loose. After removing a few little stones from where she fell, I gently ease my fingers into her hair and massage her skull until she winces.

Sore spot found.

“Doesn’t feel like there’s a wound, and there’s no blood.”

“See?” Jasmine murmurs with a tinge of smugness. “Told you.”

“Better safe than sorry.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Did you know that guy?”

“I didn’t see his face.” Jasmine’s head falls back slightly into my hands.

A quick text to one of my men brings back a photo of the driver, and when Jasmine turns to look at it, her face quickly grows angry. “That fucker.”

“Who is he?”

“Bastard called Seth.”

“An ex?”

“Please,” she scoffs, rubbing at her knee. “My best friend’s ex. When I had to leave yesterday, it was because she texted me. Turns out the fucker beat her up. Like, really beat her up. I’ve never seen a friend look so …” Her words catch in her throat, and a strange look of pain briefly flashes across her face.

“It’s different when it’s someone we know,” I say softly.

“Mm. Anyway, she’s still attached so I can’t kill the fucker, but I hunted him down. I’m the one that did that to his throat.” She lightly taps the picture. “Not even an hour ago. Told him he was on borrowed time and I was going to haunt him for the rest of his life.”

“You did that?” Jasmine, by all accounts, looks more like she spends time shopping and getting her hair done than handling these kinds of situations by herself. Clearly, I’ve misjudged her. “Most people would get their goons to do it.”

“Would you?”

I tilt my head. “If it was my best friend? Probably not.”

“Exactly. Clearly the fucker didn’t think I was serious. His last fucking mistake—ow.” Jasmine lifts one hand to the back of her head and rubs over the sore area as I carefully untangle my hand from her hair.

“Is your friend okay?”

“No.” Jasmine’s attention drops to her lap. “But she will be. I’ll help her. And besides …” Her head lifts and she prods one long finger into my shoulder. “I handle my own problems, thank you very much. Did you think because I’m a woman I would have someone else do it?”

“Not because you’re a woman,” I clarify. “But you’re an heiress. And they don’t typically get their hands dirty. Besides, can’t you just call your lover boy to handle shit like this?”

Her brows pinch lightly together. “Lover boy?”

“Yeah.” Moving behind the counter, I open the fridge and search for something cold to place against her head. “Whoever it is that you’re in love with, the third person in our soon-to-be marriage?” The closest I can find is a bag of chilled, dried fruit. It’s not perfect, but at this point, anything could help. “Or is he simply too useless to come calling?”

“You wouldn’t understand,” Jasmine replies.

“Try me.” Turning back to her, all queries about her mysterious lover melt from my mind because suddenly, Jasmine’s lips are pressed against mine. The bag of chilled fruit falls to the floor as I wrap one arm around her waist and draw her in.

It’s a sweet kiss. She tastes like berries with the faintest hint of something artificially sweet, likely from her lip gloss, and when I breathe in, all I get is the warm florals of her perfume and something else underneath. Something sweeter and more natural.

She told me no kissing.

Yet, she’s kissing me.

Is this a way to distract me from asking questions? Because it’s working. If she needs a way to stop me from getting personal, then this will work every single time. I can’t deny my attraction to such a beautiful woman, and as her hands curl into my shirt, that attraction swells hot and firm between my legs.

“Thank you,” Jasmine says softly as she breaks the kiss.

“For what?” My lips lightly brush hers as I speak, but when I lean forward to kiss her again, she pulls back slightly.

“For coming to help me.”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Did you forget we hate each other?”

Staring deep into her eyes, I feel like I can see myself reflected back in the ocean of her soul, and my pulse quickens. “Oh yeah.” My throat runs dry. “I forgot.”

“I’d totally leave you to it, by the way.” Jasmine looks up at me from under her lashes. “But I always repay a debt so …”

Before I can stop her, Jasmine’s on her knees in front of me pulling my belt open and wrestling my half-hard cock out of my pants. I want to tell her that there is no debt, that helping her was the right thing to do and I would never consider her owing me anything, but the words don’t come.

Jasmine is such an enigma. One moment she’s sweet and caring, the next she’s a savvy businesswoman with an axe to grind against awful men. And when she’s not those two things, she’s this sexy deviant with only one thing on her mind.

Is this on purpose? Is she making sure I can’t get a real read on her so I can never know who she truly is? Is it a defense mechanism to keep me at arm’s length because I am, as she says, the enemy?

The first swipe of her tongue over the swollen crown of my cock brings me to the conclusion that I do not care what her game or goal is. In this moment, I am here for her and only her.

Her hands are soft, with slight telltale roughness along her fingers from her years of weapons training. The contrast is rather erotic as she strokes back and forth along my cock and wraps her lips around my crown. She suckles softly at first as if she’s trying to drain my balls like a straw, and pleasure punches through my gut, followed by a rushing hot flex of muscle across my lower abdomen.

Then she looks up at me through her lashes with her tongue out flat against my cock, and it might be one of the hottest fucking things I’ve ever seen. I want to touch her. I want to drag her up and spread her out on the counter, to find out how good her pussy tastes after all this excitement, but Jasmine is adamant about being in control.

And I’m selfish. I like this.

The way she swallows down my cock like it’s some divine treat makes my toes curl and my eyes roll back in my head. Each second spent in the tight heat of her mouth is a second willingly spent in heaven. She rocks back and forth, bobbing her head along my cock and teasing me with the soft press of the back of her throat then lavishes attention on my crown. I grip the counter behind me, and the only thing stopping me from grabbing a handful of her hair is knowing she has a lump.

If this was any other time, I wouldn’t be able to resist.

Jasmine sinks forward suddenly, swallowing a good few inches of my cock into her mouth and then into her throat. What she can’t fit remains tight in her massaging hand and while Jasmine gags slightly, she holds my cock in her throat for a few incredible seconds.

Then she swallows around me.

The compression of her throat muscles flexing and squeezing around my cock is unlike anything I’ve felt before, and the surge of pleasure is so powerful that I surge forward and almost double over as desperate moans fall past my lips. I can’t hold her hair, but I do cradle the back of her head as the powerful rolls of pleasure punching through me make my legs weak and my balls throb in time to my heartbeat.

Jasmine swallows again and hums, sending vibrations all the way up and down my length and with a final hard suck, she pulls me over the edge of orgasm.

I come with a cry and my balls tighten to the verge of painful while everything I have spills into Jasmine’s waiting and eager mouth. She continues to stare up at me, maintaining eye contact as she swallows, and only when every pulse from my cock has been drank down does she pull off my length with a soft pop.

“Now we’re even,” she says, her voice a little raspy.

“Jasmine—”

“You don’t need to say anything,” she says, climbing to her feet. “I know that was amazing.” She steps away, wiping the corner of her mouth and makes as if to leave, but I catch her wrist and jerk her back around to face me.

“I’m not finished with you.”