That did it.
The officers moved to control the crowd, shooting cans of tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash bangs that went throughout the group.
While some protestors began to disperse, most of the crowd pushed back, throwing more cocktail bombs toward the officers. Jasmine took off in a sprint, forcibly pushing through the throng of people and jutting onto a sidewalk. Another flash bang went off seconds behind her, and she yelped and ran further, desperate to get away from the melee. She cut around a corner and found herself in an alley where she glued herself against the wall to stay out of the way of the ongoing frenzy. Quickly, she removed her cell from her back pocket and noticed the missed calls from Luke. Frantically, she hit his number, redialing him with the press of a button. He answered on the first half a ring.
“Where are you!?”
Jasmine stuck her head around the corner and eyed the sign.
“Prichard and Langley, but—”
“Don’t move!”
Jasmine nodded but didn’t respond, gluing herself back against the wall. As she waited for him, drifters from the protest hit the corner in an attempt to also take shelter from the flash bombs that were erupting.
Three men, tall, heavy, and armed, eyed her one by one.
“You’re Jasmine Rose,” one said with a fascinated revelation.
Jasmine didn’t respond. She only clutched the phone to her ear and stared back at them. They were dressed with ski masks covering their faces. In their gloved hands, they all carried baseball bats. One guy had the making of a cocktail bomb with the rag he would use to ignite the fire hanging out of it.
“Do you need some help?” the first guy asked. He approached her.
“No!” she said. “I’m fine.”
The other two laughed.
“Yeah, you are fine,” the second one said as he also crowded her space. “What do you say we go somewhere that’s a little quieter than this?”
On instinct, Jasmine’s knee lifted, sinking into the first man’s crotch with a stinging puncture.
“Oooooou!” He howled.
Quickly, she pushed through the second guy but was caught on the sleeve by the third. He turned her around and fisted the collar of her jacket then reached back to strike her with his other hand.
His efforts were derailed when a flying fist with the solidity of an iron-clad rock knocked into the bridge of his nose. It crushed behind the force of the punch, and the man screamed bloody murder.
“Aaaaaah! Fuuuuuu-ck!”
Luke sent another fist flying, and it connected with the jaw of the second guy, but he didn’t go down. With a punch to his abdomen, Luke danced in a shift on his feet as if he were inside the ring. He sent an uppercut to the second guy’s chin with another swift punch to his throat that cut his oxygen off and caused the man to choke and fall back on his ass gasping for air. The first guy had never recovered from Jasmine’s groin kick, and without hesitation, Luke scooped her in his arms and ran into the street, jumping into the driver’s seat with Jasmine still clinging to his neck. Swiftly, he readjusted the chair, so they could both fit in the driver’s seat, and as he hit the gas, at the same time, he threw the car in drive.
“Hold on to me, baby, I’m getting us out of here,” he promised.
And so he did, navigating with the skill of a professional driver around protestors and crushing beer bottles, leaving the scene with loud pops of flash bombs being heard in the distance.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Luke didn’t have to waste time unlocking the door since it hung wide open from the hurried way he’d departed earlier. With Jasmine in his arms, Luke strode across the threshold and kicked the door shut. He took her in his bedroom and sat her down on his chaise lounge, dropping to his knees in front of her. His hands roamed over her hips, stomach, arms, neck, and face, as if searching for something he couldn’t see.
“Are you okay?”
His search was frantic, and eyed Jasmine carefully, turning her chin left then right to evaluate her. Fear, stark and vivid, glittered in his gaze, and she felt a sudden urge to steady him. Jasmine’s hands clutched his tightly.
“I’m okay.”
Her voice was soothing, reassuring, calm. His fingers slowed their examination, and when the vibration from his unsteady hands shook, Jasmine’s heart squeezed.
Luke dropped his head in her lap, and his arms circled her waist, holding her steady. Relief pumped through his veins as his chest rose and fell to a steady rhythm.
“Why?” he asked quietly. His voice held strained agony.
Jasmine opened her mouth to speak, but it was hung on the unfulfilling excuse that followed. Her reasons weren’t pure this go around. She’d only gone back to prove a point to Blake, someone who held no influence over her life. She closed her lips and exhaled.
“What would’ve happened if you… if I…” Luke lifted his head, his gaze clouded with tears. Jasmine’s heart nearly broke. “Don’t you know that I can’t live this life without you?” One behind the other, the tears streamed down his face, and his sadness brought Jasmine to her own tears. “You mean the world to me, Jas. I can’t operate without you, I won’t, so please, please, baby, please,” he begged.
“I’m so sorry,” she cried, her hands rounding his face as she brought her lips to his mouth. “I’m so sorry, baby, I wasn’t thinking. It was the heat of the moment.”
“I can’t lose you,” Luke responded. “Never, ever, ever…”
She kissed his lips, lost in his declaration and the look of anguish in his gaze. Her pulse skittered, and her body ached for his lovemaking.
“It won’t happen again. I promise.”
Luke leaned into her mouth, his kiss punishing and angry. He growled against her lips and drove his tongue down her throat. Hungry hands lifted from her back, and with force, he tugged her out of the chevron jacket and snatched off her shirt. Jasmine’s arms wrapped around his neck, and she lifted against him as Luke peeled her pants from her body. They were tossed across the room, and her lace panties ripped to shreds in the palms of his hands.
She panted as his mouth found familiar ground, covering her neck, shoulders, and padding down to her breasts. His hands popped the undergarment with haste, and with eager hunger, Luke filled his mouth with her areolas.
“Oooooh…” Jasmine hummed, her head thrown back. The heat of his mouth layered over her skin, and she shivered and ground against his waist.
“Make love to me, baby,” she said.
Luke had never moved so fast. He stood to his feet, causing her nipple to pop out of his mouth as he removed his pants and shirt in sync. His dick sprung forward, and Jasmine’s heart double tapped in her chest. Scooping her from the chair, Luke carried her to the bed, laid her on her back while tossing her legs over his shoulders, and entered her with an abysmal burying thrust.
“Oooooh!”
Her back arched, and her butt lifted, and Luke filled her plum with badgering milling strokes. He covered her body, bending her thighs backward as he dug into her center. His mouth collided with hers, and his lips burned into her mouth with a fiery possession that joined metals. He punched her pussy with titanic cock-strong plunges, making her body come with sweet release almost instantly.
A scream ripped from Jasmine’s throat as their bodies slapped together, creating chills that assailed their flesh and quakes that attacked their bones, threatening to crush them together. The headboard rocked against the wall with each temerarious thrust Luke sent flying into her core. They changed positions, slipping into doggy-style where Luke knocked in her womb so fiercely, a scattered nerve ricocheted from her belly and spread throughout her legs. Jasmine yelped and grabbed for the sheets as her knees ran a marathon up the mattress.
“Where are you going?” his dark voice drummed.
She turned around to face him, her eyes wide as if caught like a deer in the midst of headlights. Luke crawled to her, his muscle-toned arms flexing beneath his weight as he reached her feet an
d pulled her back to him. Her thighs smacked as they collided with his hard, corded muscle, and with ease, his dick impaled her with a grinded ridge of his shaft. She came instantly again, but Luke wasn’t done with her yet. This wasn’t lovemaking. It was straight up angry hardboiled fucking. It remained that way for a while before their session turned into a slow-burning lovemaking that rattled them both as they came together. Luke kissed up her shoulders to her neck, then traced her ear with his tongue as her body convulsed with sweet release.
“Be my wife,” he whispered.
Jasmine’s eyes widened, and he kissed her forehead, then chin, then lips. When his eyes settled on hers, he spoke again, “I need you forever. Marry me, Princess.”
Tears clouded her vision, and he kissed each eye closed, then her nose, then again, her lips.
“Be my wife, be my wife, be my wife,” he chanted as he followed the expressway of her skin down her chest to her breasts.
Jasmine shivered and tried to formulate words. Her hand sailed down to meet his face, and gently, she pulled his gaze back to hers.
“Say you will,” he breathed.
He struck a vibrant chord in her, and Jasmine’s heart threatened to escape with the fast drum of it.
“I will.”
Luke stretched back up Jasmine’s body and reentered her while swallowing her cry down his throat. They remained joined that way—connected in body, mind, and soul, just as they would be forever as husband and wife—for hours on end, sparing no expense to the rising sun.
Epilogue
Three Weeks Later
Along with friends and family, Luke and Jasmine found themselves crowded around the same room they’d been in weeks prior, doing the same thing they’d been doing then—awaiting election results.
In one of the city’s first runoffs in decades, Luke and Jasmine, along with their team of volunteers, stayed the course, shaking hands in the streets and connecting with individuals one on one. They had everything riding against them since Luke’s opponent Samuel Jenkins not only put pressure on the Superintendent officer to bring charges against Officer Baker but also paid to air ads showing Luke in a fist fight with looters the night of the protests. The ads ran on repeat. His goal was to paint Luke in a negative light, as someone who couldn’t be trusted and fought in the streets instead of handling business professionally. Some of the ads were more scathing than that; Mayor Jenkins even threw Jasmine into the ad, making her out to be only for people of color and insisting all lives mattered.
But anyone who knew the Rose family, who held a prominent name in Chicago’s community, knew fair well that none of those claims were the case, and Jasmine, much like her family, fought for injustices period. Their prestigious law firm, their mother’s charity, and the many philanthropic efforts they’d done throughout the years spoke for itself. Charges were brought against Officer Baker, and Darren King’s sister hired Rose and Garnett LLC after seeing Jasmine’s protest. Being some of the best lawyers in the country, Rose and Garnett LLC was equipped and strategically ready to take Officer Baker and his attorney’s down. As a matter of fact, they were banking on it.
And instead of making Luke appear unequipped, Jenkins had actually shown Chicago why Luke could be trusted. Besides, everyone loves a man who stands up for a woman. And they definitely preferred to have someone in office they could relate to than not.
“You won!” Luke’s mom Bernadette shouted.
The women in the room gasped, and Jasmine twirled around to face him. Her eyes were wide and her mouth agape.
“Babe!” she screeched, so excited she could burst.
Luke grabbed the sides of her face and pulled her close, sinking his forehead into hers.
“We won,” he said, his voice soft with profound depth.
“I knew you could do it, I knew it!”
“Only with you,” he said. “I love you so much.”
“I love you, too,” she cried.
Jasmine’s ring, a Diamond Nexus Madrid Accented Princess cut, twinkled in her periphery, practically blinding her with its stunning glow.
Their lips sank together, melting into the heated cove of their mouths.
“Son.”
Snapping out of their loving fog, Luke glanced at his father, Senator Warren Steele.
“Your city awaits.”
The broad smile on his father’s face made Luke smile in turn. “My city, huh?” He rubbed his chin. “I think I like the sound of that.”
They all laughed.
“Go get ‘em, tiger,” Jasmine said.
Luke winked, and with his hand entwined in hers, he led a path to the stage where he gave his acceptance speech—his loving fiancée standing proudly by his side.
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Note from the Author
Thank you so much for reading Tempted by You, Falling for a Rose Book Nine. I hope you enjoyed Luke and Jasmine’s story! Reviews are the lifeblood of independent writers. The more reviews we get, the more Amazon and others promote the book. If you want to see more books by me, Stephanie Nicole Norris, a review would let me know that you’re enjoying the series. If you liked the book, I ask you to write a review on Amazon.com, Goodreads, or wherever you go for your book information. Thank you so much. Doing so means a lot to me.
XOXO - Stephanie
More Books by Stephanie Nicole Norris
Contemporary Romance
Everything I Always Wanted (A Friends to Lovers Romance)
Safe With Me (Falling for a Rose Book One)
Enough (Falling for a Rose Book Two)
Only If You Dare (Falling for a Rose Book Three)
Fever (Falling for a Rose Book Four)
A Lifetime With You (Falling for a Rose Book Five)
She said Yes (Falling for a Rose Holiday Edition Book Six)
Mine (Falling for a Rose Book Seven)
The Sweetest Surrender (Falling for a Rose Book Eight)
No Holds Barred (In the Heart of a Valentine Book One)
A Risqué Engagement (In the Heart of a Valentine Book Two)
Romantic Suspense Thrillers
Beautiful Assassin
Beautiful Assassin 2 Revelations
Mistaken Identity
Trouble In Paradise
Vengeful Intentions (Trouble In Paradise 2)
For Better and Worse (Trouble In Paradise 3)
Until My Last Breath (Trouble In Paradise 4)
Crime Fiction
Prowl
Prowl 2
Hidden
Fantasy
Golden (Rapunzel’s F’d Up Fairytale)
Non-Fiction
Against All Odds (Surviving the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) *Non-Fiction
About the Author
Stephanie Nicole Norris is an author from Chattanooga, Tennessee, with a humble beginning. She was raised with six siblings by her mother Jessica Ward. Always being a lover of reading, during Stephanie’s teenage years, her joy was running to the bookmobile to read stories by R. L. Stine.
After becoming a young adult, her love for romance sparked, leaving her captivated by heroes and heroines alike. With a big imagination and a creative heart, Stephanie penned her first novel Trouble In Paradise and self-published it in 2012. Her debut novel turned into a four-book series packed with romance, drama, and suspense. As a prolific writer, Stephanie’s catalog continues to grow. Her books can be found on her website and Amazon. Stephanie is inspired by the likes of Donna Hill, Eric Jerome Dickey, Jackie Collins, and more. She currently resides in Tennessee with her husband and three-year-old son.
Love Is A Drug, Ink
ive.
Tempted By You Page 20