Another thing that was different between our two apartments was the fact that he had all wood flooring. I was immensely excited over that little change, it would make cleaning ten times easier than trying to sweep the kitchen, then be forced to vacuum the rest of the floor.
The front door clicked and shut. “Jasper, I love your place!”
“I knew you would!” he yelled back. He rolled the first set of my suitcases into the bedroom and sat them near the dresser that was closest to the closet. “This one is empty, and the left side of the closet is too, you can have both of those if you want.”
Walking over to Jasper, I wrapped my arms around him and held him tight. I pushed up on my tippy toes and kissed him for all that I was worth.
This was home. I felt safe; I felt loved. Gripping the center of his shirt, I ran my tongue over his and sucked down each of his moans.
“I adore you, Jasper,” I confessed when he laid his forehead on top of mine. “My life has been better with you in it and I find myself thankful that you’ve added so much happiness to it. I’m falling for you… I know it’s fast, but… my heart is yours.”
His breath hissed from between his lips and his gaze became heavy-lidded. “You’re my girl forever, Jasmine. You have no idea how much it means to me to hear you say all that. I feel like a king.” He kissed my brow. “You’re the highlight of my life.”
I will not cry; I will not fucking cry!
I sucked in a sharp breath. “If you get any more romantic and sappy, I’ll end up balling like a baby that just had her toy taken away.”
“Maybe that’s what I want,” he chuckled. I pursed my lips and gave him a narrowed eyed look, and he flung back his head and laughed.
“I’m kidding, baby.” Jasper kissed my brow again and gave my ass a firm smack. “Let’s get you unpacked so we can go get all your other things.”
“I put all my stuff in storage before I left,” I admitted.
“Then we will go gather everything!”
“Are you sure, it will take away some of your manliness inside your place.”
“This is our place now,” he stressed. “We will go get your stuff after you unpack and show me what you have hidden away in your underwear drawer.”
“Hah! Just wait and see, you’ll love my lingerie sets,” I teased him, waving a set of my thong panties in the air like a flag. “Tell me something, Jasper. How bad do you want to see me in these babies?”
Jasper stalked over to me, took my thong from me, and held it up to his nose, inhaling a deep breath. I’d never seen anything like it, he was sniffing my damned thong! As much as it was weird, it was hot as hell.
A deep growl that began somewhere in his chest slipped from his thin lips. “I want to see you in these much later, after I have my way with you, maybe when you’re getting dressed again.” He tossed my thong on top of the dresser and backed me up toward the bed.
His arms encased me and my eyes closed. As his lips covered mine, I moaned into his mouth, tasting the mint on his breath from the candy he’d been eating during the drive back home.
We fell back onto the bed together and our noses bumped into each other, making me snort and Jasper chuckle. He kissed me again, this time just a slow, sensual peck that lingered. Our legs were twined, half hanging off the edge gazing at each other like any other couple in love did when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I sighed as Jasper rolled off me to give me enough room that would allow me to pull the damn thing out.
“It’s just a text from my mom…” Great. “She is asking when we’ll come to see them.”
Jasper’s face twisted, then he plucked the phone from my hands and tossed it on the floor away from us. “We will see her when we’re ready. I think right now you need space to breathe and we just need to be with each other.”
“It’s like you’ve read my mind.” I smiled. “What do you have in mind? Another relaxing bubble bath?” I winked at him, sliding my hand over his tented pants, swirling the tip of my finger over his covered crown. His hips bucked up off the bed and he laid back on the bed with his head turned to the side studying me with a smoldering look that made me shiver.
“What I plan to do, as of right now, is to make sure that you smile every day, and to make sure that smile never leaves your face.” He cupped my cheek. I leaned into his touch, soaking in the warmth of his love. “I plan to wake up each morning to your beautiful face, and then once we’re ready, possibly a year or so from now when your parents start to see that your happiness matters, then we can see them. That’s my plan.”
“I love that, I couldn’t have thought of a better idea for our future,” I rasped, kissing his palm. “I love you.” I held my breath when I blurted out the words. I was glad that I’d said it but at the same time, I was scared and a fear I’d never known rose in my stomach, making the muscles clench with anticipation.
Jasper’s hand tightened around my hand. He lay beside me, mere inches, saying nothing, just staring at me in wonder. My unease left little by little when the corners of his mouth tilted upward.
“I love you too, baby,” he whispered intensely, and my heart did a fluttering flip in my chest.
My life might not be perfect in a sense, but when I was with him, it became better, and my world shined in color instead of black and white. He made me see the bigger picture, that I could live my life, and I could be loved.
I was grateful for him. When I looked at him, I saw my forever, someone that saw me as perfect through all my flaws. He helped me overcome my personal darkness and he’d never know how much that meant to me. Because of Jasper, my life changed instantly, and it was all because he loved me.
“I love you, Jasper, forever and always.”
Epilogue One
One year later
Jasper
Nudging the front door open with my foot, I let Jasmine pass me by as she carried a suitcase into the front room that was loaded with cardboard boxes.
As the door swung shut I set the last big box on the floor and stretched my sore back. Raising my arms over my head, I tried to twist my back left and right but after a day of hauling boxes into our newly bought four-bedroom, two bath home, I was tender in all the wrong places, for all the wrong reasons.
“Are you okay?” Jasmine asked, walking behind me to massage my lower back. Getting older was not fun. “If you go lie on the couch, I can get to your lower back easier.”
“That’s what you said yesterday when I was loading the boxes into the moving van and then you took advantage of me like I’m a slab of meat,” I teased, trying to bait a smart remark from her. She knew I was joking. I think when it came to sex, I was incorrigible. Maybe I was just making up for all those years that I’d been alone, dreaming about Jasmine next door and what she was doing at night, if she’d call on me for help.
I laid out on the largest of the couches with the back of my shirt up and my shorts pulled down low. She climbed on top of me, and I felt the pressure in my back build to the point I groaned. Her knee slid down my side, only to pinch a small part of my skin causing me to hiss.
“Crap. Sorry, babe.” She patted my shoulder with a hand. She began to rub my shoulders, then worked her way farther down to the middle of my back.
It was heavenly.
“It’s okay, you can make up for it later.”
Her small hand lightly slapped my ass. “Only if you hush up now and let me care for you.”
Over the year that we’d been dating I got the pleasure of watching Jasmine blossom into the person she’d always wanted to be. She had a new job at a bank as a file keeper in the back away from people, since she claimed not to be a big people person, and she had found a love for gardening. Something she hadn’t been able to do before.
It made me proud to know that she could finally live out her life peacefully for once. We had yet to visit her family in Mexico City but after three months of her and I living together in our old apartment, and a few heated phone calls, things had settled down. Thing
s were actually better between everyone now.
Her father—who I came to find out, and still found it hard to believe was an illegal arms dealer—was very understanding. It had been her mother who couldn’t part with the idea that her little girl didn’t want to be in the family business. It was a hard pill to swallow knowing that the man I’d one day ask for his daughter’s hand could easily do away with me. It was a bit intimidating, but I wasn’t going to let it dictate how our relationship played out.
I was planning on what to ask him and had rehearsed it over and over in my head until it came apparent that I didn’t care if he approved. Yes, I wanted his blessing, but even if he said no, I’d still marry her one day when the time was right.
Jasmine wanted to wait, she’d mentioned it once when I lightly nudged at the subject, and I agreed with her completely. We didn’t want to rush things; we both wanted to have fun together before taking the final step.
She’s mine, either way.
“My back is feeling much better now that your sexy ass is on it,” I grunted when she hit a spot just above my ass, right over my spine that had me gritting my teeth. “Shit, okay, right there. That’s where it hurts.”
“I think you slipped a disk carrying all those heavy boxes on your own.”
That’s what I was thinking too, but I couldn’t allow my girl to carry anything that she couldn’t lift.
“It’s a small price to pay,” I gritted out. “Most of them you couldn’t have lifted.”
“Well you could have at least asked for help. I mean, you have all those guys at your shop.”
“Yeah,” I shook my head, “I don’t think so. The last time you saw those guys, I didn’t like how they looked at you.”
“Babe… You don’t like how anyone looks at me,” she chuckled.
She did have a point. For the first six months I had been a bit protective of her. If anyone looked at her wrong, I’d carted her away. She’d already lived part of her life in such a negative outlook that I didn’t want it to continue. It was similar to what I’d told her mother, allow her to be happy and you two can start to reconnect.
When she’d taken that advice to heart after all the shit we’d gone through, my breathing had become easier from then on out. The only thing we had left to do was get them to stop keeping tabs on us, that we would let them know our plans, but that was something we were still working on. Her mother was a wonderful lady from what I could tell, but she struggled with letting go. She thought that Jasmine and I should move near them, but we were happy here in our house that we’d bought together in Texas.
“Have you talked to your mother yet today?” I asked. Now that things were all right in the world, Jasmine took it upon herself to text or call when anything big was going on as a way to stop having her mother snoop for details through someone else.
“Yes, I did on the drive over.” Her weight lifted off my back and she plopped herself down on a cushion next to my legs.
Turning to flop over onto my back, I yawned, covering my mouth with the back of my hand, and looked out the window. It was still early morning, but to hell if I cared at this point. Jasmine yawned beside me.
“It’s not even lunch time but I think we should take a break before we start unpacking. I don’t even remember what time last night we both went to bed.”
“It was one am.” I yawned again, doing my best to fight off sleep, but the couch felt too inviting and I was becoming drowsy. “It took longer to pack up the moving van and move both our vehicles over to the house than it did unpacking the back of the van.”
“That is usually how it works.” She crawled forward on her hands and knees to curl up beside me. “I think we both deserve a nap.”
“And then,” I declared, pulling her closer before allowing my eyes to close fully, “we will fuck in every room of our new house, because we need to practice for our future.”
“Yes, yes we do.” She kissed my cheek and I smiled knowing everything else could be handled at a later date, that right now was our time. Our future would be bright and this new house of ours would be filled with unconditional, pure love.
Epilogue Two
Two years later
Jasmine
Jasper’s hand was at the small of my back. It felt like a weight that was helping me stay sane as we walked in through the front door of my parents’ home for the first time in years…
Since I was a teen… It’s been too long.
After putting things off to settle into our new abode, I figured it was time to offer the olive branch of peace to make way for what would be a new beginning for our unborn child. And it would give me the opportunity to ask my father to walk me down the aisle. Plus… I had to ask my mom for help; Jasper and I had decided to plan a small wedding when we found out five weeks ago that I was eight weeks pregnant.
It was an exciting bit of news that I hadn’t been expecting to happen, at least for a few more years, but it seemed that his little swimmers got past my birth control. Some people would have been mad, but when I found out, the first thing I’d done was burst into tears and call Jasper to come home from work early, that way we could celebrate with a nice dinner of Chinese food and all the cheese cake I could fit into my mouth.
“I’m still nervous,” I voiced. “I’m not even sure where to start or what to say. You have no idea how many years it’s been since I’ve last seen them in person.”
The longer I stayed away, the more I started to ignore the years that floated by. I’d sort of let go and I figured that… this was just the way, that I’d likely never see them again, but Jasper had helped me fix all that and because of him, I was able to come home for my first family visit.
His fingers twitched against my back. “I will be here with you, just remember to try not to stress too much. It’s bad on the baby.”
“I know, I know, I’m doing my best,” I sighed. “It just feels strange to be here, everything still looks the same. My mother still has all our family pictures hanging in the same spot.” I pointed at the left wall as we walked by. “And she still has that stupid golden, fake Greek style vase with the naked women that seems to collect all the dust in the house.”
Jasper chuckled at my remark when we walked by the large hip high vase that I was speaking about. It was clean, but I could almost guarantee that the inside had a five-inch layer of dust.
One of my parents’ house workers was leading us to where they were awaiting our arrival. I knew Jasper thought it was odd, but this was the sort of life I’d grown up around. I’d had the best of the best. He thought I’d been joking when I said my parents owned a home big enough to accommodate over twenty people and not feel crowded, if they chose to stay for long periods. Their house sat on enough acres to have a five car garage, a pool house, a mother-in-law suite, and to top it all off, a large rock wall with an iron gate was guarded by the finest swat team in all of Mexico. His eyes had just about popped out of his head when the gate team barreled toward us loaded down with guns and searched us, plus every inch of our car, before allowing us inside, where we’d met up with one of the housekeepers at the front door.
“Your childhood home is something else.”
“It is something, that is for sure,” I agreed, chuckling at the awe in his voice.
I heard the clicking of the pen before I saw my father, and my already shot nerves skyrocketed that much higher.
I can do this, they’re my parents.
We rounded the corner into the office that look liked it had come from the sixties, with light green walls and big bushy plants near all three windows. My father’s old wooden desk that had once been my grandfather’s still took up the center of the room, along with a row of filing cabinets, a gun locker, a large metal closet door, which was the safe space for if things went bad, and of course my father with a set of guards.
He was older than I remembered, and he appeared worn down. He still looked like he was taking good care of himself though. My father was a fitness freak;
he’d always told me that being fit made others feel uncomfortable. And from the way he was dressed in a nice tailored suit that fit him perfectly, as well as his added muscle, I could tell from the way Jasper brought me behind him—as if he expected to hide me from my own father—that Jasper wasn’t pleased.
“Welcome home, my darling.” My father stood and walked over to us. He gave Jasper a once over, not caring that my man had a good three inches on him or a few extra pounds. “This must be your boyfriend, Jasper.”
“It’s nice to meet you, sir,” Jasper said tightly, keeping a watchful eye on my dad’s men in the background.
“Don’t mind them, my guys here follow me wherever I go now. As you can see, I’m getting older and I’m not in my prime anymore. Your father is now old,” he laughed, and I felt Jasper ease behind me as I moved around him, but his hands never left my shoulders until my mother’s squeal made us all turn around.
“My baby girl. Oh…” she cried out; tears streamed down her face. “You’re glowing, look at you!” She rushed over pulling me into a hug so tight, filled with so much love, I could feel it pouring into me and I cried with her.
“I’ve missed you, I’m sorry,” I croaked out.
“It’s not your fault it was mine, I pushed you away and was too hard on you. I never should have let you live out your life alone.”
“I know you watched over me and you always made sure I didn’t end up on the streets or went hungry.”
“But it was wrong, I should have gone after you.” My mother pulled away, wearing a sharp look of disgust. “I was a horrible mother; I thought that you’d come running back with time. I can only do the right thing now and make things up to you from here on out.”
“Well, I do have something, actually a few things to tell you.” I smiled at her, laying her hands on my belly. “You can help me by teaching me how to be a great mother.”
Travelers Love Page 6