Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 58521 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 293(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58521 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 293(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
But all I could stare at was Jasmine. Jasmine VanDoren!
We were extremely close in Darlington County. Everyone knew everyone, which was why I instantly recognized Jasmine even though she had a lace mask on. Sully was a close friend of mine, despite the fact that his sour disposition made it tough to really connect with the man. And I respected him and our past friendship enough to feel I should somehow protect his kid sister.
The very least I could do was go find her and tell her to get her ass back home to Mommy. But the power of seduction she possessed as she entered the room nearly made my knees weak. Dressed in the attire for the evening, the woman wore pearls that draped across her perky breasts, kissing the top of her pussy in their rich smoothness.
Long brown hair cascaded down her back but gave little coverage of her creamy flesh. The lace veil blanketed her face, but I knew it was Jasmine. It appeared that no one else would recognize her without the context I had, but I knew. This was, without a doubt, the kid sister of one of my best friends.
I should have been focusing on my belle. Cindy had taken off to a corner with another member, smiling, laughing, and frankly… flirting. The crazy thing is I didn’t care one bit. Let her be with another man tonight. Nowhere in the rules did it say Cindy and I had to interact together for this Trial. Tonight was about pearls, lace, and pleasure. And the reality was, the more I was willing to share my belle, and the more she was willing to be shared, the happier the Elders seemed to be with me and our performance in my Initiation.
But right now, all I cared about was Jasmine. She needed to get the fuck out of this ballroom and fast. The Trial was just about to begin, and the Elders would be banging their canes any minute. Once they did… it’d be too late for me to do anything for this naive girl who had no idea what she had just gotten herself into.
I tried to avert my eyes the best I could as I marched toward her. It felt wrong to take in how incredibly sexy she was, completely naked other than the necklace, but my eyes kept sneaking a peek no matter how hard I tried to avert them.
Luckily, I reached her before any other member did, which was essentially claiming her as mine until I moved on to another choice. I could barely believe this woman was Jasmine VanDoren, and I had to really look past the lace to be sure. Little Jasmine was all grown up.
Fuck… she was most certainly all grown up.
Taking hold of her arm, I lowered my lips to her ear. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
She turned her head to face me, and I could see the deep blue of her eyes beneath the lace. “Excuse me?”
“I know who you are, Jasmine. Does your brother know you’re here? Your mama?” I pulled away to look around the room at the other members. “If the Elders or the members find out you’re here, you’ll be in deep shit.”
Her body tensed, and I could hear the inhale of air she took.
“So, answer me,” I continued. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
She took a step away, which I countered by pulling her even closer, so her body was only inches from mine.
“Walker?” Her voice shook as she said my name, and I knew she was afraid, and I could completely understand why. If the members got wind of her being here, all hell would break loose. “Walker St. Claire… oh my God.”
It had been a while since we’d last seen each other, and I was pretty sure her seeing and recognizing someone she knew was not exactly what she expected when she stripped off all her clothing. Our mothers were close friends, we mingled in the same social circle, and never in my life would I have ever expected to see Jasmine fucking VanDoren completely naked and standing nearly body-to-body with me.
The pink on her cheekbones magnified to a red, and she moved her hands to try to conceal her nudity. “Oh my God…”
“Don’t try to cover yourself,” I whispered in her ear, stopping her hands from drawing attention from the Elders.
“Don’t say anything,” she pleaded. “Please. I just… I went for a drive to clear my mind, and… I somehow ended up here.”
“And all your clothes somehow fell off? Why are you dressed like this? Why are you part of this?”
“I… I don’t know. It just happened so fast, and I was curious, and… I don’t know.”
I wanted to take my jacket off and cover her body with it, but I also felt the need to protect her secret and her reputation. She would be the talk of Darlington County if anyone were to discover that she stood naked as a jaybird, surrounded by the Order of the Silver Ghost, in the infamous ballroom of the Oleander Manor. Her mother was a Botoxed, kooky bat, just like my mother, but had a good heart deep down. Those women would talk for hours over sweet tea about how the good ol’ days were slowly slipping away.