CHAPTER SIX

Cas

“Casimiro Felix, I will not marry you.”

Jade’s eyes blaze, her tone adamant. Her pretty, plush lips curl up to reveal her gritted, white teeth, her nostrils flaring, and her whole body turning to face me, straining against the seatbelt.

She’s beautiful even in her wrath.

Her breasts heave under her knit cardigan. Her light-wash jeans mold to her thighs like a second skin, and her sneakers aren’t like her usual fancy footwear, but her laces are neon pink and green, showcasing a bit of her sassy personality. In that moment, all I want to do is harness the friction sparking between us and fuck our frustrations out.

“Did you hear me?” Jade snaps, leaning over the gearshift, closing the short gap parting us. “I’m not going to marry you.”

Despite the disappointment lancing my heart at how quick she shoots down my idea, I acknowledge her reaction is normal. Pulling into the wooded lot of the Eveningstar, I drive past the hotel and casino’s public parking into the parking garage’s more secure top level for hotel management. As soon as I have her sedan parked, I confront the glower she’s burning into my head.

She exits the car first.

I shadow her movement, meeting her on her side of the vehicle.

Jade stands stiff, her arms hanging at her sides, her hands closing with the fury scrunching her features. I glance warily at her fists, puzzling out the chances she’ll use them on me.

“I can’t believe we’re even talking about this,” she says, her eyes wide with disbelief. She laughs short and bitter. “This is crazy—you’re crazy.”

“It’s for your safety.”

She snarls. “My safety isn’t your concern, Cas. I’m perfectly capable of caring for myself.” She drags her eyes over me, wrinkling her nose like she’s whiffed something rank. “Even your drool-worthy muscles aren’t going to stop bullets.”

“So,” I drawl, “you admit these men are dangerous?”

She rolls her eyes, the duh implied in the gesture. All it tells me is that she’d rather brave this shit her crummy ex-boyfriend dumped on her front stoop than humor my over-the-top solution.

I have to ask then: “Does marrying me disgust you so much?”

Jade narrows her eyes. “That’s not the point.”

“You’re right,” I say, clenching my jaw, mincing my words mentally. Saying too much, revealing more than I intend, is not what I want. “The point is there are likely more of those men searching for Tyler Wagner, and who have the same erroneous information about you.”

“Is that your way of getting me to fly into your arms?”

I throw out my hands. “Let’s head upstairs and talk.”

“I won’t give on this, Cas.” She shakes her head before freezing. She digs through her purse then, her hands clutching her phone. “In fact, I’ll call the police now. Turn myself in. You won’t hold the past over me.”

Calling her on her bluff is too risky. She isn’t dialing, but she’s staring at me long and hard. A beat later she taps at her phone, presses it to her ear and—

“Fine. Do what you want. Just don’t say I didn’t try to help you.” I move around her, the monkey of tension hanging over my shoulders growing more restless with each step. I’m heading for the garage exit and the lift that will take me up to the hotel lobby.

Jade pursues me. “What are you up to?” Her sneakers slap on the pavement, slowing as we reach the lift. She steps into my periphery. “It can’t be this easy with you.”

You haven’t scratched the surface of me.

It’s what I want to tell her. She has no clue how singularly-focused I can become, how driven I am. We’ve known each other for months, that’s true. But it was that wild whirlwind of a week that brought us closer.

Even then, we fucked more than we talked. I spent more time filling every part of her, and taking all her firsts with me at once—greedy fucker that I am. Not in the literal sense, of course. I’m no virgin, and neither was she. Still, I’m not satiated of Jade Dunn. Nowhere near close to being satisfied with what she’s given me thus far.

That’s why the thought of marriage possesses a sweet, pleasant flavor. Being with Jade again injects happiness directly into my heart. I’m hopeful. And I’m not too sure if I hate it entirely.

“Cas,” she says.

I don’t turn my head to acknowledge her. Mostly because I’m thinking of fucking her right here and now.

She huffs, annoyed. “I know you’re up to something.” She trails me into the lift. We skip the foyer, riding up to my floor. Jade silently stalks after me. She’s particularly breathing down my back, only she’s half a foot shorter than me making that impossible.

Inside my sumptuous suite, I face her. “I’m not up to anything.”

“Then why propose to me?” Jade crosses her arms over her chest, and being the dog that I am, my eyes track down to ogle her tits. She doesn’t call me out on it. She’s got bigger fish to fry.

“Don’t tell me it’s for my safety. You haven’t contacted me in two months. Two months,” she breathes the last part, the time profound to her. “This is about catching Tyler. I’m just bait.”

I shrug out of my wool overcoat, tossing it over the back of an armchair in the suite’s living room. My tie loosened and drawn over my head, I head to the wet bar. “Drink?”

“No thanks,” she says, her tone still snippy. It itches my palm. I’d like to bend her over my knee, pull down her jeans and panties, and smack her bare ass until the flesh warms under my hand.

I pour myself three fingers of brandy. God knows I need it. Letting it breathe, I fold myself into the armchair, waving my free hand at the settee to my left. “Might as well rest your laurels.”

“Laurels?” Jade steps into my vision, sitting, one arched brow raised. There’s a note of easy teasing in her question.

I sip at the brandy. “I suggested marriage to convince the men pursing Tyler that you’re off the market. No longer Tyler’s girl…”

“I’d be yours?” Jade purses her lips, her dark eyes scouring over me.

As I empty my glass and stand to pour myself another, she says, “On second thought, I’ll take that drink now.” She accepts the smooth Armagnac, swilling it like she needs the liquid courage to ice the anxiety she has to be feeling. This suite of mine holds too much for us both. A week’s worth of passionate nights.

“But marriage?” she asks.

“Do you have any suggestions that would work better?” I counter, shrugging. I’m all ears if she has a better idea, even if it kills the flaring hope of being with this girl again.

“It’s still crazy, Cas. You have to admit that much,” she drawls. “The thought is sweet though.”

“I can’t change your mind?”

Jade tilts her head, her gaze lowering to the emptied glass in her hands. “I won’t lie. It does freak me out.”

“At least stay,” I say, more vehemently than I anticipated. She lifts her head. I settle my untouched, second glass on the glass coffee table. Leaning forward, my elbows balancing on my knees, I urge, “You’ll be safe here.”

“Even from you?” she taunts, her smile softening the question. The glint in her dark eyes and the fluttering of her long, black lashes tells me she’s aware of her rattling the beast’s cage.

“Even from me,” I promise gruffly. What I want to say that if I want her, that nothing and no one can keep me from her, not ever. “You’d have your own room.”

Jade smiles more widely. “I thought I was banned for life. Are you sure it’s wise to leave me all alone in one of your fancy suites?”

“I’ll take that risk. Your life is priceless, Jade. We won’t be buried with these luxuries, after all.”

“Good point.” She ducks her head then, the shy gesture gripping my heart as it always has. She stretches to rest her glass on the coffee table. Clasping her hands, wringing her fingers in her lap, she says, “Though your offer is generous… I can’t accept it, Cas.”

I grind my teeth. I’ll be visiting the dentist shortly at the rate Jade has my anxiety going. “Why not?” I spit out the question.

“I don’t want to let them win.” She rolls her slim shoulders, her nonchalance not throwing me. She can’t even look at me.

“It’s not a game of chance. It’s rigged for you to lose, Jade. These men will come again, so long as they think Tyler’s associated with you. Hell, they might make a statement out of your death.” Scaring her into my arms is a stupid, half-assed plan, but it’s the hand I have left. I’m desperately wary to let her leave this suite now that I’ve brought her this far.

Jade shakes her head. “Don’t…” Her bottom lip quivers and her eyes glisten. She doesn’t cry though. She certainly doesn’t spring into my arms like she had before. “Again, thank you for the offer, Cas, but I’ll be fine on my own.”

There it is. With little else to say, I stand. “At least, let me walk you downstairs.”

She pushes to her full five-feet-nil. “No thanks. I got it. I know my way around this place, remember?” She flashes a smile lacking its usual warmth. “Thanks for the drink. We shouldn’t do this again anytime soon though.”

“I don’t go where I’m not wanted.”

She nods briskly. “Good.” Jade slides past me then, the sofa pushing her closer. A couple more inches and her round breasts could be pressed to me.

It takes everything in me to keep from grabbing her, whisking her to my bedroom, and giving her a different kind of talking to…one that would have me on my knees between those shapely legs.

I refrain from watching her departure, the lure of her swaying backside sure to drive me into doing something idiotic and out-of-character. The door clicks and the silence becomes deafening. Only then do I hazard a glance at the front door.

After realizing she won’t be returning to change her mind, I sink back into my seat. I down my brandy, staring at the empty glass, gripping it hard while fighting off the desire to chuck it across the room.

Needing a stronger drink, I stand in search of it. I’m prowling through the bar when I hear the sharp knock.

The two security guards on the other side of the front door greet me quickly. “Mr. Felix, there’s been an incident, and, uh, the victim is asking for you. I believe she’s a former employee.”

“What?!” I roar as it registers that the “victim” has to be Jade. “What happened?” I’m out in the hall now, leading the men. They fill me in: something about vandalism, a car, loud screaming, and a fire alarm being pulled. I barely make it out over the noisy worry rattling around inside of my head.

Once the elevator dips past the foyer, my stomach sinks. I had been hoping it wasn’t Jade; that this had been a coincidence; that another woman, another ex-employee, had been visiting on this same day.

But I have to face the fact. Jade hasn’t been gone more than five minutes—ten tops. Enough time for her to be here still. For her to be traumatized by a vandalism.

“Cas!” she calls my name; it comes out strangled. She rushes to me, and I meet her halfway. The guards must have shut off the fire alarm. Another kind of alarm wails insufferably loud in my head. I recognize it has concern for Jade’s well-being. I still care for this beautiful, usually fearless woman.

Only Jade doesn’t clutch me so fearlessly. Her legs are shaky, and her body won’t stop trembling no matter how long I hold her close, rub her back, and whisper soothing nonsense to her. She clings to me, her tears soaking into my shirt. She sobs freely, her fearful pain muffled by the fabric.

Over her head, I read the ugly, hateful words painted on the side of her car: Deadman’s Bitch.

The glass of the smashed windows has sprayed the area around the vehicle, like a broken circle of salt to ward off demons. They blew them all out; that had to have taken real rage, the likes of which I forbid Jade witnessing in person.

Nodding to the security who acted fast, and memorizing their faces for their much-deserved bonus checks, I shift to Jade’s side, tuck her under my arm, and lead her from the terror attack.

In the elevator, I manage to disentangle Jade from me. Smoothing her springy curls from her face, I cup her cheeks and level our faces. “You’re safe here. Always.”

She nods jerkily, sniffling. She still looks pretty with tears in her eyes, but I wish they weren’t there.

“Cas,” she says softly. I almost miss it. Like she’s taking a sigh instead of calling for me again.

“What is it, Jade? Tell me what you need.” I’ll do anything for her. I accept that I’m a goner when it comes to Jade Dunn. I’m lost in her eyes. They’re warmer in this lighting, or maybe that’s because the tears glitter back at me, stark and real and heartbreakingly painful to bear. Fixing my hands to her upper arms, I give her an encouraging squeeze.

“Trust me to help,” I say. “I’ll make this right.”

She bobs her head. “I do trust you. It’s why I’ll do it.” And when I don’t catch on, she lowers her head, shying from me. “I’ll marry you, Cas.”