Mine to Crave (Mine #4)(57)

He threw up a hand, halting her. “Do not touch me right now.”

She was so lost.

“When you touch me, I want to strip you. I want to take you. I want to make you scream my name.”

Oh, well, in that case…Jasmine took another step.

“You’re his sister!” He backed away from her. “All Noah has ever wanted was to find out about his real family. He used to talk about them for hours out in the field…”

“He was better off not knowing.” No… “He is better off not knowing.” Noah had a wife, a home. He didn’t need the mess of the past.

He stared at her with both rage and pain in his eyes. “You’re what he’s wanted. You were right in front of him, and he didn’t even know it.”

This wasn’t good. “You can’t tell him.”

“Bullshit. I have to tell him.”

“No!” Then she leapt across the room and grabbed tightly to his arms. “You really want to tell him that his mom was a drugged out prostitute? That she couldn’t remember his father’s name? That his sister…” The breath she expelled burned her lungs. “Trace will tell you that I have a criminal history. I’ve been hacking for years. I’ve got enemies…so many. You don’t want to put this at his doorstep. You don’t want to put me there.”

“Noah can handle enemies.”

“I don’t want him to know. Please, Drake. There’s no point in it.”

“He’ll want you in his life.”

“But I can’t be a part of his life.” That ripped her up. She’d realize that truth, though, long ago. “So let it go.” Her hands slid up his chest. Curled around his shoulders.

He was so stiff in her embrace. “I f*cked you.”

Did the man have some moral opposition to “making love”? Because she didn’t.

“Noah’s sister.” His eyes closed. “Knew you were trouble. From the first glance.”

“I knew you were, too.” And she hadn’t cared. She rose onto her toes. Pressed her lips to his.

He immediately jerked away.

“Drake?”

His eyes were open. Blazing. “I won’t betray a friend again.”

“You aren’t betraying anyone.” But he was hurting her when he pulled away.

He yanked out his phone. Turned his back on her.

“Drake?”

He took a few more steps away. That phone was to his ear and he said, “Trace, what’s the status? Do you have things contained?”

A faint growling sound reached Jasmine’s ears. She crept toward the window on the right.

Still talking into his phone, Drake said, “Yeah, well, we have another problem.”

Her shoulders tightened as she peered out the window. She couldn’t see anyone outside, and that growling had stopped.

“How fast do you think we could get a DNA test?”

No. Jasmine whirled around.

“Right. A DNA test. Comparing Jasmine and—”

She flew across the room and yanked that phone out of his hand. She hung up on Trace. “What are you doing? You can’t tell them!”

“If you’re really his sister, then Noah deserves to know.”

He couldn’t do this. “No, Drake. No.”

His phone was ringing again. He tried to reach for it. She put it behind her back.

One blond brow rose. “Seriously, Jasmine?”

“Yeah, seriously, Drake.” She hurried away from him. “This is my life we’re talking about.”

“Noah is filthy rich.” Drake said those words bluntly. “If you’re his sister, he’s going to want to take care of you.”

“And when I was fifteen and stealing food to survive—”

He flinched.

She didn’t. “I would have appreciated his money. I don’t now. I don’t want him knowing.” Jasmine wanted to toss that phone. To shatter it. “Trace isn’t going to forget this.” Now he’d start probing. “Dammit, why did you have to say anything? Why—”

That growling was back. Only this time, she wasn’t the only one who heard the sound. Drake’s head jerked toward the window. In two fast steps, he was there, peering outside, then swearing when he saw the lights that hit the cabin.

“Motorcycles,” Jasmine whispered. She counted at least three. And was that an SUV rushing in behind them?

It was.

She answered the ringing phone. “Trace, I think you need to get your ass over to Drake’s old cabin…cause we’ve got company.”

Drake had already whirled away from the window. He marched to a closet and started pulling out—weapons?

A gun. A knife.

“What kind of company?” Trace barked in her ear.

“The kind that isn’t friendly.” She was backing away from the window. How had they been found?

Drake was back. He grabbed the phone from her. “My grandfather’s place. Get here as fast as you can…because this party isn’t going to wait.” He shoved the phone into his pocket as his eyes glittered down at Jasmine. “Do you know how to shoot a gun?”

She did. That didn’t mean she’d want to. Or had he missed that whole no-bullets-in-the-gun scene before with her?