Page 65 of Queens and Monsters

She didn’t know I was here. There was power in watching someone, learning their habits and their tells. I wondered what Jasmine was thinking. Did she know how she affected me? Ever since our encounter on Christmas Eve, she’d been an ongoing presence in my mind, a burning ember waiting to combust.

“Oh,” she startled, spinning toward me. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

“I’m your husband.”

Jasmine nodded, looked down at the wedding rings and back up. “It all happened so fast.”

“No,preciosa, not fast. I’ve wanted you for a long time. I should have made my intentions clear long before Christmas Eve.”

She tilted her head. “Before that night in the living room?”

“Sí.” I took a step closer. “Mí papáshowed me a picture of you.” I stepped closer, reaching for the combs holding up her hair and tugged one out. Tendrils of fiery red curls cascaded over her shoulder. “The picture did not do you justice.” I reached for another comb, releasing more of her flowing mane. “That night…downstairs…” Her cobalt-blue stare was glued to me. “I knew you would be mine.”

“That night you…” She inhaled. “You made me feel things I’d never felt.”

Slowly walking around her, I removed the last comb, freeing the last of her luscious long hair. I stopped mere inches in front of her. “Things?”

Her pink tongue darted to her lips. “You looked at me like no one had ever looked at me.”

“Am I looking at you the same way now?”

Jasmine nodded. “It’s scary and at the same time exciting.” She took a step back.

From my angle, I could see the long row of buttons, her flowing hair in the mirror, and her flushed, beautiful face at the same time. “I’m looking at you and thinking about all the things I want now that you’re mine.”

“Rei…”

Her breathing had grown shallower and the vein in her neck thumped in double time.

“I want to rip that dress off you and unwrap the greatest present I’ve ever received.”

“The dress is Catalina’s…you can’t…”

Bending at the waist, I unsheathed the knife from my ankle holster.

Jasmine gasped and her eyes grew as wide as saucers.

“I want to see you as no man has seen you, Jasmine. I want to touch you where you’ve never been touched by anyone. The thoughts of things I want to do to you have me painfully hard.”

She swallowed and closed her eyes as I brought the tip of my knife to the neckline of the dress. Dropping the blade to the floor, I wrapped her in my arms and began my assault of her slender neck. Kisses, nips, and licks, my facial hair left a reddened trail on her sensitive skin.

“Oh, Rei,” she panted, reaching out to me and holding my shoulders.

“I want to taste every millimeter of you, inside and out.”

Letting go of my shoulders, she stepped back, colliding with the mirror. “Rei, stop.”

There was a fine line between scared and excited, a tightrope to walk. I took a step back, giving her space and lightened my tone. “Do you remember what I said to you in this bedroom before I was banished to California?”

She nodded. “You said the next time we saw one another would be our wedding.”

I slapped a fist against my chest. “Señora Roríguez, I am a man of my word.” I grinned. “I also said something else.”

Pink filled Jasmine’s cheeks. “I remember. I’ve relived that conversation in my mind many times.”

“Say it, what I said.”

She blinked before lifting her hands to my shoulders. “You said you wanted to fuck me.”

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