my body.
“There’s a difference between running away and not wanting to talk about something, Luke.”
“I get that, but you’re going to have to tell me sometime, Jasmine.”
She breathes out, the sound achingly sad.
“Red…”
“You may not know this about me, Luke, but sometimes I make very bad decisions.”
I move her thick mass of auburn curls to one side, placing it over her right shoulder, and then press a kiss against the base of her spine. I move so that I’m cradling her body, keeping my arms around her waist, wanting her to feel surrounded by me—surrounded and secure.
“I knew that, baby,” I tell her tenderly, my fingers brushing comfortingly against her stomach.
She tilts her head to look over her shoulder at me. “How did you know that?”
“You chose to hook up with me. But, I’m smart, so I’m not about to let you talk yourself out of it now,” I respond, and she may not realize how honest I’m being, but I do. Jasmine deserves much better than me and I’m still worried she’ll find out the real reason we met. I need to talk to Ford about everything, but he’s not listening to reason. I understand it. If someone hurt Daisy, I’d be completely pissed, but risking going to war by bringing an innocent girl into the mix…
I push those thoughts away, much like I’ve been doing for a while, choosing to concentrate on Jasmine.
“I happen to think falling in love with you is about the only wise decision I’ve ever made.”
I snort out, unable to form a word. I slide my hand along the side of her neck and then I kiss her, trying to give her a sample of the emotion she strikes inside of me, without voicing it.
She drops her head down and rests against my chest. I let her have her silence. I don’t want to rush her and if she doesn’t want to tell me, ultimately, I won’t make her. I will find out eventually, however.
“When I met Dewayne, I was stupid,” she laughs, the sound holding no humor.
“Red—” I growl.
“I was. I was going through shit. Believe it or not, it’s not easy growing up when your father and uncles are the most notorious MC heard of in the last two decades,” she admits. “Dewayne seemed different. He wasn’t afraid of my family and on the flipside, he didn’t seem to care about it at all. I thought he wanted to be with me because of me, not because of whose daughter I was. It was a good feeling.”
“But that wasn’t the case?” I question, wanting to understand.
“No…” she says quietly, but there’s a wealth of emotion in that one word. So much so, that you can hear the pain ooze from it.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, Jasmine. Whoever this asshole is, whatever he did to you, it doesn’t factor in on who we are,” I tell her, vowing that I’ll find out without Jasmine telling me somehow.
“Dewayne knew my father. I didn’t know that. To me he played it off like he’d never really heard of him. I stupidly believed him—and yes, I know that was stupid.”
It was, of course. If Dewayne was a cop anywhere near the Savage territory, then he knew who Dancer was, he knew who the whole club was. Chances are he’d had dealings with them, or read reports where others had.
“You weren’t stupid, Red,” I try to reassure her. Kissing the top of her head. “Naïve, maybe.”
“Turns out he had a deeper idea of who my father was. Dad went to jail before I was born—before he and my mom ever got together really.
I rub the side of my neck. This is a touchy subject and I don’t know how to approach it. I can’t promise her that it won’t ever happen with me. My club’s rules and society’s laws don’t exactly mesh from time to time. A man has to do what he has to do to make sure no one ever fucks with him or his family and sometimes that involves fucked up shit…deadly shit.
“Red—”
“Don’t worry, Luke. This wasn’t about club stuff, although I’m not a stranger to that life, at all. Luckily Uncle Dragon and the others are very careful on what they allow, afraid of blowback on their families.”
“Is that what happened to you, Red? Were you a victim of blowback?”
“Yeah, not that Dad ever knew. He didn’t even know Dewayne, hadn’t met him except for the couple