Mine to Crave (Mine #4)(56)

He kissed her hand again. “The first time we talked, I realized how strong you were. I thought you might just be the strongest woman I’d ever met.”

She shook her head. She wasn’t strong. She was weak. A—

“You should see what I see,” he told her, tilting back his head. “When I look at you.”

“A liar and a thief.” She already knew what he saw.

“No.” He pulled her down, and Jasmine sprawled over his lap. “I see a beautiful, smart, strong woman who needs to believe in herself. Life’s been hard, damn brutal to you, but you’ve survived.”

He was making her heart hurt. “Like life hasn’t been brutal to you?”

“We all have our scars.” His thumb moved lightly along the inner column of her wrist. Jasmine knew he had to feel her racing pulse.

Yes, they did have their scars. “When I was a little girl, I wanted another life. Any other life but the one I had. I would dream of starting some place new. A new name. A new past.” She swallowed. “A new future.”

“Is that why you’re still running? Because you want that new life?”

Her lashes lowered. “Sometimes it doesn’t matter how long or hard you run, there’s no escaping the past.”

“Don’t I know it? You can’t even bury that shit sometimes.”

Her gaze jerked back up to his. “Is that what you want to do? Bury your past? Forget about Anna Jean?”

“Her blood will always be on my hands.” His voice roughened. “I hate what I did. I hate that I got drunk and screwed my friend’s girl. Tucker and I…we were close and that destroyed him. Tucker mattered to me. Tucker, Noah, and Trace—they were my family after my mother and grandfather died. And I wound up hurting them all because I couldn’t keep my pants zipped.”

“Drake…”

“She was the only woman who ever got close to me. She looked at me and lied, and I didn’t even realize it.” He paused. Studied her with a hard gaze. “I know when you lie, but the problem is…I don’t seem to care.”

She needed to pull away. Instead, she leaned in closer.

Their lips were almost touching.

“Why do you stare at Noah York and look as if you’re losing your whole world?”

His question sank into her, nearly piercing her heart. Too late, she did try to pull away, but there was no place to go.

“I won’t betray my friends. Not ever again,” he vowed. “There’s something there, between you and Noah. He doesn’t remember you—”

“Why should he? We never met.” He was the lucky one.

“What is he to you?”

She didn’t want to answer him.

“Jasmine…”

“Promise not to tell.” Her whisper. Like a child’s voice.

Surprise rippled across his face.

“He doesn’t need to know, so promise me. Promise that you won’t tell. When all of this is over…” And it would be, one day. One day soon. “Don’t tell him.”

He gave a curt nod.

“I think he’s my brother.” Such a quiet confession. One that made Drake’s muscles tense beneath her. “I know he is.”

“What?”

“My mother…she had a little boy before me. She gave him up at birth. She was just sixteen then.” The words tumbled out in a rush now. “She gave him up, gave him to a family who couldn’t have kids of their own.”

“You don’t—”

“She regretted giving him away. She told me that, she’d scream that at me when she drank. So when she got pregnant again, she…she kept me.” And I’d wished, so many times, that she hadn’t.

Just as Jasmine had wished, so many times, that her brother would come back for her.

A girl, dreaming of a rescue that never came.

“Why do you think Noah is your brother?” No emotion was in his voice.

“Because she had one photo of the family who took him. I found it when I was six and…when I was fifteen, it was the only thing I took with me when I left her.” Because she’d thought—stupidly then—that she’d find her brother. That he’d take her in.

And she had found him. But Noah York had been fighting in battles overseas then, and she…she’d found her own wars.

“You’re certain?”

She stared into the warmth of his eyes. “Tracking him wasn’t hard. I had a photograph of his parents. Of him. And when I got access to the right computer equipment…photo imaging software, hospital databases…it all fell into place for me.” Her lips tightened. “He even has her eyes.”

“Shit.”

Just like that, Jasmine found herself off his lap and back on her feet. And Drake had paced across the room, putting a good ten feet between them.

“Drake?”

He glanced at her. Jasmine’s hands were curled around her stomach and his—his were fisted at his sides. “His sister?”

She nodded.

“Noah’s f*cking sister?” Then he squeezed his eyes shut. “What have I done?” Then softer, “Again.”

“You haven’t done anything.” Nervously, she edged toward him. The floor creaked beneath her feet.