If she’ll allow it.
She leads the way to her room. I close the door softly behind us and wait. As much as I want to go to her, to run my hands over her body to ensure she’s not hiding more injuries, to demand answers I don’t have the right to.
Really, there’s only one thing to say. “I’m sorry.”
Jasmine sets her knife on the desk and turns to face me. “I killed Ali.”
“I’m sorry,” I say again. “You shouldn’t have had to do that.” I should have handled it before he ever got close enough to become a danger to her.
“He didn’t get a chance to hurt me.” She absently touches her face. “Except for this.”
I want to bring that fool back from the dead and kill him again for laying a hand on her. Saying so won’t do a damn thing but cloud the room with my anger. “You took your father’s place.”
“Yes. I did.”
I hate this. We’ve been many things with each other, but never stilted and unsure. I run my hands through my hair. “I’ll honor my pledge, Jasmine. You have no reason to trust that, but I will.”
“I know.” She fists the fabric of her dress and seems to force herself to relax. Finally, she lifts her chin and pins me with a fierce look. “I’ll be your equal, or I’ll be nothing. Do you understand me? Just because I love you doesn’t mean that I will sit at your feet ever again.” The slightest of hesitations. “At least not outside of the privacy of our bedroom.”
Something like hope flares in my chest, the sweep of it through my body leaving me dizzy. “You love me.”
“Of course I love you, you fool.” She takes a step and then another, moving slowly to place her hands on my chest. “I understand what you were trying to do with me, but I can’t live on someone else’s terms any longer. I have to fly or dash myself on the rocks below, but it has to be my choice. Can you live with that?”
I reach up and run my finger along her jaw, careful to avoid the bruise. “Out there, I’ll be your right hand.”
“Yes.” No hesitation. Just a calm agreement.
“In here?”
She smiles slowly. “In here, I’m your baby girl.” The smile fades. “Can you live with that?” she asks again.
“Marry me.”
Jasmine leans into my touch. “Ask me again in a year, when I’ve solidified my place at the head of this beast. Then we’ll see.” It’s not a yes, but I’m strangely okay with that. Even if she never wears my ring on her finger, she’s mine in every way that counts.
And I’m hers.
In the end, there’s only one answer. “Yes, I can live with that. As long as I have you, I can live with a whole hell of a lot.”
She exhales slowly, as if part of her doubted my answer. Jasmine takes a step back and then another. “Then we should celebrate.” She lifts an eyebrow, the mischief in her dark eyes a balm to my soul. This woman sees me in a way no one ever has before. She challenges me in a way no one has before. I lean forward as if I can catch the words as soon as they fall from her lips. Jasmine smiles. “You asked me how many times I fantasized about you over the years.”
“I did.”
“I’ve always wanted you to fuck me in this bed.” She takes another step back until she hits the mattress, her smile widening. “Fuck me, Daddy. Make it better than I could have imagined.”
I take a step toward her and she meets me halfway, crashing into me as if she needs the reaffirmation as much as I do. I rip her dress off her and curse when I find her naked beneath it. “Always asking for it.”
“I knew you’d come for me.” She kisses my neck, my jaw, my mouth. “I wanted to be ready for you when you walked through the door.”
As if she never doubted me, never doubted that I’d do whatever it took to stand at her side, to be with her. Her faith humbles me even as it drives my frenzy for her higher. I lift her and she instantly wraps her legs around my waist. The bed is too far away. I need to be inside her now, to cement this new future between us. To bolster it.
Jasmine must feel the same way. She reaches between us, trusting me to hold her up, and frees my cock. A breath later and she has me at her entrance. I thrust into her in a single smooth motion, the perfection of the moment nearly sending me to my knees. “I love you, baby girl.”
“I love you, too, Daddy.” She kisses me. Fuck, but I could lose myself in Jasmine’s taste, in the way she strokes her tongue against mine, claiming me even as I claim her.