Page 86 of In the Dark

I finished in about two seconds flat in her mouth, and Jasmina didn’t hesitate to lick her lips after she swallowed all of me.

“Goddamn, Viper,” I groaned. “You might be the baddest and best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

She smiled and climbed back up my body before she murmured, “Good luck with your brother.” Then she hopped to her side before she tapped her chin, “Are you going to get my door, Knight?”

“Atta girl,” I told her because I liked my girl vicious and ruthless and bad.

And she fucking knew it.

My girl.

Mine.

24

Jasmina

HE HAD TRUSTED ME, taken me with, and given me the reins.

He’d treated me as his equal.

And it was something I always thought I wanted but not something I thought I needed. I guess I’d been starving. Ravenous for it. Until suddenly I wasn’t.

Because he satiated the hunger immediately. So easily. And in front of those men, he hadn’t hesitated to stand behind me rather than in front of me.

Callahan moved something broken and put it back together in me when he took me to those gates, when he stood with me as his equal.

And sometimes it was a little broken piece that you didn’t know people kept chipping away at every time they didn’t believe in you. The loved ones who claimed they trusted you, that they knew you were capable, who claimed they’d let you any other time but never did.

They broke you, slowly but surely.

Callahan gave me space after he opened the car door for me. He had to, I guess, considering his brother was looking at us oddly as I escaped to my bedroom. And even still, he came to my room after, asked if I needed to go back to the library, if I needed anything at all.

I needed him, but I needed peace first. I wasn’t sure how to say it, but he must have read it in my eyes. “Want me to detangle your yarn?” He pointed to the crochet I was aimlessly working on.

“Yeah, Archer’s sweater is never going to get done at this rate.”

“Archer’s?” He immediately frowned. “Why the hell are you making him a sweater?”

“Because he told me his favorite colors, and I like him?”

“Don’t you like me too?” he grumbled, sitting at my feet and starting to detangle.

“I might be starting to.” I smirked at him, but my smile fell away as I met his eyes. “I really might be starting to.”

He took a deep breath and moved his fingers with ease over the yarn, nodding. “If it’s any consolation, Jas, I’m starting to like you too. A bit too much.”

The next morning, I struggled with knowing the SD card was hidden in my room, that I hadn’t gotten further on what it might have on it, and that I was keeping it from Callahan.

Now the guilt festered for him along with my aunt and uncle.

My loyalties felt torn, my mind mixed up.

Even still, I told myself it was for the best to do what I had to. Figuring out whatever the data hid first was smart. Anyone would have done the same, I told myself.

Plus, Callahan seemed to be less and less concerned about going to the library every day, especially after we’d made clear how we would handle anyone who disagreed with our engagement.

After three days of going in a row, his eyes were less and less watchful. He’d sit down in a quiet area and pull out his laptop, like he was fine with me doing wedding research while he worked.