Jethro avoided me. Cut laughed at me. And Daniel lurked in the background like fungus waiting to consume me. Every night hurtled me quicker toward another debt. The final one would soon be on the horizon, then all my options would be gone.
I couldn’t afford to be blasé or slow.
I had to be smart and act fast.
I knocked again. “Please. Let me in.”
Nothing.
I couldn’t walk back to my room, not again. The past few nights, I’d turned into an insomniac and suffered every morning with a vicious vertigo attack.
I hadn’t thrown up since leaving London, but every time my thoughts strayed to the contraceptive shot Jethro administered, my gut churned with sadness and rage.
Not that it mattered, seeing as he’d made no move to kiss me after the magazine picture—let alone sleep with me.
If I didn’t win, I would never know the joy of having a child or being held in a man’s arms while I grew big with his unborn baby. Vaughn would never have a niece or nephew and my father...I couldn’t think about him withoutsuffering awful anguish.
He would never have a grandchild. But I think...I think he’d always known that. He’d kept me away from men all my life, so I would never have the opportunity to fall in love and conceive—like my mother did before the Hawks took her.
She’d found her soul-mate before horror found her.
I’d found mine the day I’d been taken.
“Jasmine, I’m not leaving. Not this time.” With a heavy heart, I turned around and slid down her door to the carpet.
I wasn’t leaving until she came out.
I’d be there all night if I had to.
* * * * *
“Nila...” Jethro’s eyes burned as bright and golden as the sun.
I melted in his arms, raising my lips for a tender, love-filled kiss. His lips were like sherbet—sweet and tingling and delicious. “I love you, Kite.”
He squeezed me harder, his tongue entering my mouth to lick and taste.
I trembled. Pushing him backward, the field of daisies and clovers swayed magically in the summer breeze. We were all alone in this idyllic meadow; there was no one to ruin it.
No Hawks. No debts. No Weavers.
Just kisses and love.
Our clothes suddenly disappeared, and I ran the tip of my finger down his breastbone, along his defined stomach, following the small trail of hair to his groin.
Sliding down his body, I hovered my mouth over his erection. “I love bringing you pleasure.”
His back shot upright as I guided him into my mouth, swirling my tongue and inhaling his taste.
His strong fingers slinked through my hair, holding me firm. His hips raised to meet my lips, pushing gently, pleading for more.
I didn’t deny him.
I let him set the rhythm, growing wetter with every stroke of his cock in my mouth. Then I was moving, gathered in strong arms, and placed on top of his naked body.
He didn’t speak as I straddled him, positioning myself over his erection.
We both cried out as I sank down his length.
