Mine to Crave (Mine 4)

A light appeared in the distance. Jasmine’s eyes narrowed.

“You had to go and sleep with him.” Victor was annoyed then. “Him. You couldn’t just find some safe, boring accountant-type—”

“I told her not to sleep with anyone,” Saxon had to add his two cents. “I knew trouble like this would come.”

“It’s her eyes.” Victor was quick to jump on this bandwagon.

Jasmine narrowed said eyes even more.

“They make her look all vulnerable. Like she needs protecting. She pulled Archer in, and the guy is all twisted up because he thinks—”

“Someone’s coming,” Jasmine told them.

“What?” Saxon hurried to her side. “Shit.” He pulled her away from the window. “You were followed,” Saxon accused Victor.

“No way!” Victor denied immediately, sounding affronted. “I covered my ass. Took every possible precaution.” Now he was at the window, too. “That’s just some lost tourist.”

But he didn’t sound convinced, and he was already reaching for his weapon, the gun he kept holstered under his left arm.

“Go upstairs, Jazz,” Victor said. “Lock the door and stay in the bedroom until Saxon or I come up there.”

Saxon pulled out a gun from the nearby desk. “Keep this with you.”

Her mouth had gone bone dry. “Because of a lost tourist?”

Saxon held her stare. “If someone comes up there and it’s not me or Vic…shoot.”

She could hear the growl of a car’s engine. Getting closer and closer. Since when did tourists race up a mountain, in the dark? Jasmine turned and hurried up the stairs.

Chapter Fourteen

Jasmine carefully shut the bedroom door behind her. She clicked the lock into place. Killed the lights. Then backed up, moving until—

She backed into something. Not the soft edge of the bed that she’d expected to hit.

A person. Big. Warm. Hard.

Jasmine opened her mouth to scream, but a hand covered her lips, choking back the sound. She twisted and squirmed, determined to bring up her weapon.

“Now why would you want to use that…” A deep voice rumbled in her ear as the gun was taken from her. “On me?”

Her heart stopped. Drake.

“I’m going to move my hand away from your mouth, and you aren’t going to scream.”

She nodded.

“Because if you scream, those two jerks downstairs will run up here, and right now, I just want to deal with you.” The words were angry. Hard.

She didn’t care.

Drake was there.

His hand lifted. She turned in his arms. “Drake, I—”

His mouth crashed down on hers. It was a hard, desperate, almost brutal kiss, and Jasmine loved it. She strained to get closer to him. She’d missed him so much. It had felt as if someone had sliced right into her heart. No, as if someone had taken her heart.

His tongue thrust into her mouth. She rose onto her toes as she arched against him. One kiss, and the desire had ignited within her like a maelstrom. She couldn’t get close enough. Couldn’t touch him enough. Couldn’t—

His mouth tore away from hers. They were surrounded by darkness and the harsh sound of his breathing filled her ears.

“If I planned to…punish you for every lie you told me…” That voice was a rasp against her ear. “What do you think I’ll do…since you let me think you were dead?”

“I’m sorry. The plans were in motion long before we met.” Jasmine Bennett had been ordered to go into Maxwell’s organization—she’d been assigned the task of gathering intel on him. Of bringing him down. He’d been her last job. She’d already gotten too close to being caught before. Her “death” had been bound to happen, no matter what. “And I…I didn’t think it would matter so much to you.”

His hold tightened on her. “It mattered.”

“D-Drake?”

Footsteps pounded up the stairs. The doorknob rattled. “Archer!” Victor snarled. “I know you’re in there.”

Drake didn’t move. “It’s Jasmine’s bedroom.” His voice drawled out. “Where else would I be?”

Victor shouted and kicked in the door. With a broken leg, the man seriously kicked in the door. Jasmine whirled around in shock as light flooded the room. “Victor, no! You have to be careful!” She tried to go to him.

But Drake hauled her back to his side. “What have you done to your hair?”

He’d noticed that?

“You can’t be here!” Victor strode toward them. She didn’t know where his crutch was, and his cast thunked a bit with each angry step that he took. “Do you know how much danger you’re putting her in? You and those two idiots downstairs!”

“One of those idiots is her brother.” Drake’s voice snapped with anger.

“I’m her brother! Me and Sax! We’re the ones who’ve always been there for her—”

Drake pushed Jasmine behind him. “You’re the two that used her. That put her life at risk again and again, and that shit is stopping. She’s not going to be in danger any longer. That won’t happen. She’s not—”

“Stop it!” Jasmine yelled.

And, wonder of wonders, they did.

Both men whirled to face her. Jasmine straightened her shoulders. “I’m the one who did it.”

A frown hardened Drake’s face. His face…how many times had she closed her eyes and seen him in the last week? But he looked different now. The faint lines on his face were deeper, sharper. His eyes blazed with a bright fire and there seemed to be a wildness clinging to him, pulsing just beneath the skin.

“I made the choices. I wanted to right the wrongs. I did it all. Me, not them.” If Drake wanted someone to direct his fury at, he could stop looking at Victor.

He needed to look at her.

“You have to get out of here, Archer,” she heard Victor snap. “It’s not safe for you to be here. We worked hard to make Jazz vanish. You’re about to destroy everything!”

But Drake didn’t move. “I’m not leaving without her.”