Page 101 of In the Dark

She didn’t deny it. “And they mostly are.”

“And we still have a few more weeks until our wedding night. We can wait until then.”

Her eyes narrowed, like she knew she might not be getting out of telling me what happened. “Why wait when you didn’t wait with those women?” She lifted a brow and then glanced at the names on my abs. Damn, she wasn’t going to get over those stupid tattoos for a while.

I hooked my arms under her knees and pulled her closer to me. “I’ve had a lot of women in my life. I’ll admit that. But none of them come close to the brilliant mindfuck on my life that you are, Viper.”

“How romantic.”

“It’s not meant to be romantic,” I growled. “I’m supposed to not care at all about you, and yet I’m considering begging you to tell me who hurt you and forego sleeping with you even though it’s all I’ve thought about since we signed on the dotted line.”

“You don’t have to. Take me now,” she said with hooded eyes.

I groaned and glanced at her stomach. “Jasmina, you were badly injured—”

“Oh stop. I just injured you.” She waved off my concern and shoved me back so she could stand before me, dropping her skirt and panties and then moving to take off her sports bra.

She stood in front of me completely naked, hands on her hips and an eyebrow raised. Then she sauntered over to me and traced her small fingertips over the inflamed scratches she’d made. The blood coated her fingertips before she brought them to her mouth and sucked on one, humming. Somehow seeing her enjoying how even that part of me tasted had me rock hard.

“Viper …” I warned.

“Sorry that I cut you,” she said, grabbing my belt buckle again. “Let me make it up to you.”

I hummed and pushed a strand of her hair behind her ears. “That knife play, I’ll take with you any day. You understand?” My hand went to her stomach, and she didn’t flinch away this time. I rubbed my large hand over her in the gentlest way I could. I leaned in and closed my eyes, feeling the raised wound marks, feeling how her body quivered, feeling how she must have hurt that day. “Baby, I can’t accept someone hurting you like this. I can’t. I don’t care who accepted it before or if you accept it now. I need to know. Please tell me.”

“Callahan, it’s—”

I didn’t want her to console me, so I cut her off. “Please. I’m begging. I can’t accept this, Jas.”

She chewed her cheek, and I let the seconds tick by. It might have been only that, or maybe it was minutes. Maybe a whole hour. I opened my eyes to stare into her gray ones and read the emotions she would let me see. She was scared. I could see it. But she finally murmured, “I don’t accept it either.”

She admitted it for me. To me. And I hope because of me. Because she knew she could actually trust me.

“Fuck, baby.” I dragged out the word because I knew how much it still hurt to hear her say it out loud. “You didn’t agree to someone touching you this way, then?”

“No, Callahan. Obviously, I didn’t. You may call me a viper, and I know that I’ve hurt you—”

“You can strike and hurt anyone you want, Jas. If they do it to you, they die.”

She scoffed. “That sounds ridiculous.”

“I mean it. Tell me what happened?” I took a breath and told her, “I saw the cut on your lip the day I came to get you. I went digging, Jas. I know there was a break-in already. So, what’s the story?”

She chewed on her cheek before she crossed her arms over her chest now and murmured, “Does it really matter, Callahan? Monte was going to look into it. I’m sure he did, but there’s more important matters.”

“More important?” My hands went to her hips so that I could pull her close. “I’m going to be your husband. You’re the most important matter, and you should have been that to your family too.” Even if I wasn’t going to be, didn’t she know that it still mattered?

“But you’re not really supposed to be my ally.”

“That’s what a marriage is.”

“For two years.”

I growled, “Yeah? Or maybe I’d keep your little stubborn ass forever.”

She searched my eyes to see if I was serious, to see if it was a joke.

It wasn’t, I realized, and maybe she did too at the same time, because she murmured, “Show me you will, then.” She moved again to undo my slacks, and this time, I let her. “Let me have you now. Let me feel in control for a moment, even when I haven’t been.”