That? Her head-pounding routine? “I shouldn’t be trusting you.”
“Why?”
That point should be obvious. “Because you’ll hurt me again.”
They stopped at a red light. Jasmine looked toward Drake, and she saw his fingers tighten around the steering wheel.
“You get to me,” she confessed. That was the whole reason she was in the car with him right then and not running like mad down the streets of New Orleans. “You make me feel…feel in ways I haven’t before.”
His head turned. He held her gaze.
“You were looking for me.” It hadn’t just been a walk on the wild side of Bourbon Street.
Drake nodded.
“Why?” So much depended on what he had to say. Her fingers curved around the handle of the door. She could jump out. Flee fast right then and get on the trolley.
“Because I need you.”
Jasmine’s breath left her in a rush.
A car horn sounded behind them.
“Don’t take me back to your house in the Quarter. He’ll just have eyes there.” Maxwell would have eyes everywhere.
“Don’t worry, princess,” Drake said as he drove them forward. “From here on out, I’ve got you.”
***
“She’s here,” Wayne said into his phone as he hurried down the New Orleans’ street. “But Archer is still sticking to her like glue—”
“And you didn’t think to pull her away from him?”
Wayne glanced to the left. To the right. The street looked deserted. “The bastard is tough. I’m just biding my time until I can attack.”
“No, you’re being a coward. And your services—they’re rather disappointing.”
Lights flashed on then. Bright and blinding. Lights from a car that shouldn’t have been so close.
If I’m watching Jasmine…who does he have on me? That thought rushed through his mind once more. Too late, this time.
“No…” Wayne whispered.
“Disappointing and no longer needed. And…by the way…”
The car was accelerating toward him. Wayne tried to run.
He had to make it across the street. Maybe he could break down the door of that old voodoo shop and—
The car didn’t hit him.
Bullets did.
And then Wayne hit the pavement.
Chapter Seven
When she walked through the casino, she could hear the slot machines, playing like music. No, playing over the music that filled the Masquerade. She spun around, her gaze caught by the glitter and glamour all around her. The casino was decorated in Mardi Gras style, with purple, gold, and green colors featured prominently. Large masks hung on the walls, masks that seemed to watch the casino-goers with glee.
The place was gorgeous. Phenomenal.
Then Jasmine looked up—up at the chandeliers that shone like diamonds above her. Amazing.
Drake’s arm wrapped around her waist. “Do you like it?”
She thought about the home she’d had as a kid. The old trailer on the rough patch of land that no one else wanted. “It’s…a little excessive.”
He laughed lightly. “It was the trees in the lobby, right?”
She didn’t even know how those trees—real trees—were alive out in the lobby.
“When you come from nothing,” Drake said as he guided her toward a private elevator. “Sometimes you want everything.” He swiped a keycard over the security control panel, and the elevator’s doors slid open.
The mirrored walls of the elevator tossed Jasmine’s reflection right back at her.
“What do you want?” Drake asked her.
The elevator was rising. He was close to her. So very close. Drake seemed to fill that small space.
She had decided to be as honest with him as she could be. Because Drake mattered and, most shocking of all, he seemed to be saying that she mattered to him, too.
I need you.
“I want to belong.” To some place. To somebody. She wanted a home. A real one. When the holidays came around, she wanted to bake cookies and stare up at a Christmas tree and be held in the arms of a man who loved her.
She didn’t want to be alone forever.
“You can belong to me.”
Her knees did a little jiggle. Had the elevator stopped rising? The doors hadn’t opened but it felt as if they weren’t moving any longer.
He came toward her and put his hands on either side of her, pressing his palms flat against the mirror behind her and caging Jasmine against his body. “Do you want to belong to me?”
Her head was spinning. She’d thought that he’d just walked away from her. But he’d searched for her. Protected her, again, and now he was offering her…
Hope.
“I want to be with you.” The attraction she felt for him was unlike anything she’d experienced before. When he touched her, Jasmine’s heart raced. When he kissed her, she went molten. And when he was in her, she exploded.
“Then be with me.” His head lowered. His lips brushed against hers.
The kiss was tender. Open-mouthed. Hot. And she was molten—again. Jasmine knew her panties were getting wet. She wanted to shove off his clothes. To have sex with him right there. Then.
No restrictions. No fears. She wanted the pleasure he could give here once more.
Without the shame.
Her hand pushed against his chest.
Drake’s head lifted.
“Don’t walk away again.” She couldn’t handle that. Not from him.
Drake nodded. His gaze held hers. “And don’t run from me.”
Her eyes searched his. There was something there, in his stare. An emotion that she couldn’t quite define.
“Because if you ran, then I’d be like Maxwell. Chasing you through the streets.” His laugh held a rough edge. “Or I guess I already am like him.”
“No.” Her denial was swift. “You could never be like him.”
A muscle flexed near his jaw.
“You’re safe here,” Drake told her. “Security has been doubled. Maxwell and his men won’t get to you here.” He backed away. Used that keycard again and the doors opened. “I have a room here that we can use for the night. Private quarters that I keep.”