CHAPTER 27

JASMINES POV

“Kiss him! Kiss him! Kiss him!”

Up went the roar of the crowd.

But I’d rather kiss a pig than Bryan. That lying ass cheat of a boy.

“Jasmine…how are you?” Bryan asked, his gaze still fixed on mine.

“I should be asking you the same question,” I returned, stealing a glance at the crowd who were now booing us. I didn’t like to be booed. Hell, I was too pretty for that now.

“I came here to…” Bryan paused, shaking his head with a soft chuckle. “How funny. Is this fate's way of joining our paths again? Cos if it is then I sure ain’t ready for that,”

“It’s a curse, rather. And neither am I ready to walk around with a curse again,” I fired.

By now, the booing from the crowd had grown insane. Some of them were even throwing stuff at us.

“Just kiss me and get this over this,” I said, attempting to blindfold myself again. But he stopped me with laughter which sounded like he was mocking me. “What ?”

“You think I would do that?”

“And you think they would let us get down? These are humans. We once lived with them and know how violent they could get. So put your freaking scarf back on and kiss me!” I said under my breath, proceeding to blindfold myself.

“I can’t kiss her!” Bryan yelled, more like announced to the crowd. The silence that followed after was enough to send me off my feet. The wind flushed against my face with shame, watching Bryan walk into the spotlight to condemn me…again.

“I would rather go for someone taller, who can speak…and doesn’t smell like a fucking pig!” He said, causing my heart to sink. I know Bryan and I weren’t together again, but his words sent shivers down my spine, reminding me of the force that had driven me into writing that list of people who wronged me and how I was going to take my revenge on them.

Bryan’s name was the third. Well, he just got a promotion to number one.

“So…who’s gonna take number 3, and give me…number…pretty?” Bryan asked, raising his hand in the air.

“I will,” Caine’s voice cut through the tension like a blade, commanding and sharp. All eyes drifted to him as he strode to the center of the stage with the confidence of someone who wasn’t afraid of the crowd or Bryan’s petty antics.

“I’ll take it,” his deep voice carried over the murmurs of the crowd as he took the card from Bryan. “You can go find yourself a number called pretty,”

The silence that followed was deafening. Bryan’s smug grin faltered as the crowd burst into cheers. I stood there, caught between the shock of satisfaction as Caine approached me.

“Jasmine…” he said softly, taking my fingers in his. He tilted his head with a smirk that dared me to say no, then continued. “May I have the honor of kissing you?”

The crowd's chant began immediately, rallying behind Caine.

“Kiss him! Kiss him! Kiss him!”

My heart was in a place of chokehold, my lungs finding it difficult to release air as I stared into his eyes. “Are you doing this for me or the show?” I asked under my breath, corking a brow to look tough when deep down, I was melting.

“Both,” he replied without missing a beat. He leaned in, his hands brushing lightly against my cheeks. The noise around us faded when his lips met mine. And for a moment, my world froze.

When we pulled apart, the crowds’ cheers grew more violent, but my focus was on Caine who was staring at me in a way I hadn’t seen him do before. As if I was more than the ‘little red hair’ he used to address me by.

“About that list…” he said softly, his breath fanning against my skin. “Put me up, I’m ready to take on them with you,” he breathed,

A cold shiver ran down my body, my eyes searching his to identify a lie or some kind of joke. But he was being serious.

“They’re your friends,”

“Doesn’t validate their attitude,” he replied.

“And your name is on the list,”

“Then…we can start with me,” he said almost immediately, taking his hands off my face and locking our elbows. The crowd kept cheering until we were down the stage. Bryan’s eyes followed us down, his shame hanging in the air as the my booed him.

The man who attended to us earlier led us to his tent. “You can stay here, I’ll be fine tonight,” he ushered us in.

“Ohh.., no…we’re not a cou…”

“Thank you. We appreciate it,” Caine cut me short. What was he playing at? We went in, and the man closed it from outside. There were candles at four corners of the tent, giving it light.

Caine was the first to take off his clothes.

“It’s hot in here,” he muttered.

I tried hard to look away from his biceps and well-curved muscle lines, but the harder I tried, the closer it pulled me. He reached for his belts, and I knew I had to do something.

“Caine,” I broke the silence between us. He paused, turning to me. “I can’t sleep with you in here,”

“Then would you prefer somewhere calmer, secluded?” He asked with a grin, his fingers playing around his belt.

“No…no..eww. I meant we can’t sleep together in here,” I clarified to her his thinking back on the line.

“What else did you think I was talking about?” He asked, washing my embarrassment away effortlessly. He lay on the bed and covered himself. “You either join me or let the cold kill you,” he added.

My thoughts filled the room, pushing every instinct in me not to give myself into his tricks. First, he kissed me, and now he’s offering to share a bed with me. Caine belongs to Lucy, and I’d only be a cruel person to take advantage of her absence.

I gently lay beside him, giving a little space between our bodies. A few minutes in, Caine fell deep asleep. His snores distorted my thoughts which were still lingering on the kiss. I turned around, my eyes scanning his eyes and lips.

Everything about him was just…appealing. I reached to touch his face when I heard the zip of our tenth sliding down noisily. Before I could turn to check what or who it was, a strong arm wrapped around my neck and hurled me out of the bed.

******