Their Broken Pieces by Jessica Gomez
Chapter Thirty-Three
Alex
There’s a soft knock at the door.
“Finally,” I say aloud, air rushing from my lungs in relief, and yanking the door open for Jasmine.
Only it’s not just Jasmine who greets me, it’s Carlos, along with a few of my gang surrounding her, including Mario.
“Hey,” Jasmine whispers.
“Hey.” I watch her, confused. “Que pasa? What’s going on?”
She averts her eyes and slips past me into the room, not answering my question.
“Jefe, let me talk to you out in the hall,” Carlos says.
I look back at Jasmine. She’s on the bed, digging around in a plastic sack that she brought in with her. She must feel the heat of my gaze, because she stops what she’s doing and stares back at me. With my eyes, I ask if she’s ok, and once she gives me a small nod, I slip through the door, flicking the lock between the doorjamb so I can reenter the room.
Carlos clears his throat. I can see in his eyes that what he has to tell me will not settle well in my gut. I’m in a hurry to get back to Jasmine, so I say, “What is it, Carlos?”
“It’s about Jasmine,” he starts. My heart races at full speed.
“What about Jasmine?”
He takes a deep breath, preparing to spill. “We were passing by a shop and saw her come out. Right after she came out, Andrew called out to her.”
As soon as his name is mentioned, I’m ready to blow, but I keep my cool, wanting to hear the rest of what went down.
“I followed him to make sure nothing happened. At first, he apologized to her, and I thought he would leave it at that, but then he started walking into her, trying to corner her onto a part of the path that no one could see.”
Fire’s boiling my veins into lava. No one disobeys me. “What did he do?”
“Nothing.” Carlos holds his hands up. “We followed them. When things got tense, I went in.” He smiles. “I didn’t touch him. I thought you’d like the privilege.”
“Sí”
“You want to go now? I’m sure he’s close to where we left him.” Carlos is pointing over his shoulder, looking ecstatic about getting into a fight.
“No. We’ll go when he’s least expecting it. I want his ass to sweat and worry when it’s coming, because it will.”
Without another word, I’m shutting and latching the door, locking Jasmine safely away. She’s watching me from across the room, inspecting the anger rolling off my tense muscles as my hands form into fists, readying to go to war for her.
“Why didn’t you come straight back?” Fury laces my words.
“I went into a gift shop.” Her sweet voice drifts easily in the quiet room.
My anger fizzles as I cross the room to stand before her, cupping her cheeks while she leans into my touch.
“Jaz, I’m supposed to protect you.” But it’s not as if I can tie her down. I’m clueless about how to keep her safe when she’s alone, short of threatening everyone in the world.
“I’m all right.” The cerulean of her eyes is so intense that they trap me, threatening to keep me captive for all of eternity. A fate I’ll welcome with open arms. “I got you something.” Her smile is gigantic, shining as bright as her eyes.
“Que?”
She digs into her plastic sack and pulls out something wrapped in brown paper. I eye her suspiciously. Why would she buy me something?
When I open the brown paper and pull out a shot glass, I chuckle. It’s not just any shot glass… it’s a flaming burger shot glass that reads FLAME ON in capital letters, accentuating the flame’s hotness. The rest of my rage dissipates and soon Jasmine joins me, wiping a tear out of her eye as we laugh.
“I thought of you immediately and couldn’t leave the store without it. This way you’ll have something to remember us and our time together.” The after we go home goes unsaid.
The weight of the unsaid sentence leers over both of us.
“Thank you,” I whisper. The thought of us ending is already causing an ache to bloom in my chest. Just knowing we have an expiration date pulls at my heartstrings.
Jasmine reciprocates because she changes the subject. “Did you look to see what movies they have to order from the TV?”
“No. But I did get you these.” I lean over and hand her the bouquet of lilies.
She holds the flowers to her nose and inhales their sweet perfume. “Thank you, they’re beautiful. I love them.”
She moves to the counter next to the coffeemaker and grabs the ice bucket, tossing the plastic bag aside, and fills the container full of water. She unties the flowers and arranges them in the bucket, fluffing them a few times to make sure you can see their full effect, their aroma already filling the entire room. If I had known they smelled this good, I might have bought some sooner; they work better than any air freshener.
She stares me down as she walks toward me. On her way, she clicks the TV on as she passes. Somehow, she makes even that look sexy.
“Let’s find something to watch.” She pecks my lips and then flops on the bed, bouncing around before settling in. Frozen solid, I can’t help but watch her full breasts bounce, requiring another adjustment on my part before joining her on the bed.
Get your head in the game, Alex. And no, not that head.
There’s so much more to Jasmine than a beautiful face and body. Superficial looks are everywhere for the taking, but what we have is real, raw.
When I plop next to her, my hard-on is still pushing the limits on my zipper. Comfortable clothes are a must, letting my junk breathe and stretch. “Lounge wear first?”
She nods before answering. “Yes, great plan. Tonight’s going to be so relaxing.” She’s excited to have a quiet, drama-free night.
We grab our nightwear for the evening and strip, neither of us moving to another room. She keeps her eyes on her task; however, I can’t stop staring at her the entire time she dresses. If you asked me what she’d taken off, I couldn’t tell you. The only things my eyes lock on are the very black, lacy bra and panty set she’s wearing. My God, she owns them. Her panties are low cut, silky and lacy, the bottom of her cheeks are peeking out, teasing me and causing my dick to drip. The bra’s thinly laced, perking her large breasts up and out. Her nipples are hard, trying to cut through the fabric, calling for my mouth to take a bite like Snow White’s forbidden apple. She covers up my fantasy with a pair of pink and blue barely there cloth shorts and a light blue spaghetti strap tank top that almost matches the color of her eyes. When she finishes, she discards her clothes into a laundry bag and tosses them aside.
Sitting back on the bed, she notices I’ve only taken my shirt off, pants partially down my thighs, my dick stretching out the black cotton briefs as I stand in a trance. “Are you all right?” She sits up straight, concerned, and completely unaware of her allure.
“Sí I’m more than all right.” A sex drunken smile claims my lips because she’s clueless. Her beauty is like staring into the sun, blinding.
When my brain reboots and comes back online, I remove my shirt and nonchalantly wipe my mouth, just in case I drooled while gawking. Unlike Jasmine, I toss my clothes onto the floor, not giving a shit where they land. On my way back to the bed, I open the window of our ocean view room, letting in the soft, warm, salty breeze.
I adjust my cock and slide into bed next to my girl, not missing the glint of her eyes when she sees me palm myself, doing nothing to get rid of my hard-on.
Jasmine’s cheeks pinken, averting her eyes, and snatches the remote, skimming through the movie selections on the TV guide. “What will it be? Comedy, drama, horror?” She says the last genre in an ominous tone.
I chuckle, stretching out, and placing my hands behind my head to lean back on the headboard, very aware of Jasmine snuggled against my side. “Anything you like is fine with me.”
I close my eyes, taking a moment to feel her warmth, absorb her heat, her scent. Everything I’ll have to give up in a couple of days when we leave. I consider saying fuck it, and continuing what we’ve started, but then remember how selfish it would be of me to put her in harm’s way. It’s not only because of her mom, but because of the ties to my gang. There’s already cleanup work with a few of the guys in my gang, so what would happen to her if my rivals found out how important she is to me?