by Alexa Riley
Me: Okay.
I grab the keys to my VW and open my bedroom window.
“Libby, open the door or I’m coming in. Don’t think this will stop me from getting to you. Nothing will.” I can hear the promise in his voice, but I know he’d never let me go talk to Owen on my own. Maybe I can get him to keep his mouth shut and our secret will be safe.
“I’m going to fix this,” I tell Jasper, slipping my phone into my pocket.
“No, I’m going to fix it, baby girl. I promise you. I will make everything right for you. For us.”
My heart flutters at his words, and I know he will. But Jasper has a rougher approach to things than I do. He likes to barge in, and this needs to be handled with more care. Climbing out the window, I hear Jasper banging on the door. I slide down the window awning, landing on my feet, and take off towards my car. I’m sprinting when I hear Jasper yell my name, and my heart threatens to beat out of my chest.
I hear him yell my name again, but this time it’s much louder. When I get in the car, I look up to my window and see him leaning out of it, watching me. I put the car in drive and pull out of my driveway, trying to get out of there as fast as possible. When I look up to my rear-view mirror, I see Jasper come flying out the front door.
And it’s then I know he wasn’t lying. He would chase me no matter where I ran to. My only hope is that I can fix this before he finds me.
11
Jasper
I make a second loop through downtown, and I want to break my steering wheel in half with frustration. I can’t find Libby. I thought maybe she would come downtown or go to Nicole’s house, but she wasn’t in either place. When I rode by Owen’s house and saw his truck wasn’t there, my suspicions were confirmed, and I started to look for him. I would bet the balance of my bank account, which is pretty fucking hefty, that he’s got something to do with her running out like she did. Libby might have been upset with the situation, but she’s never run from me before.
I think for a second about where he would go, and then it hits me. I turn my truck around, making a U-turn in the middle of Main Street, and gun it back towards the lake. I remember guys in high school talking about taking girls out there to fuck, and I have a sinking feeling in my stomach he’s got my Libby.
It’s not a long drive, and I’m there faster than any speed limit would allow. It’s a long gravel road, and I gun it, kicking up rocks and dust as I go. When I get close to the clearing, I spot Libby’s car, and I make a sound somewhere between a snarl and a growl when I see Owen’s truck in the distance.
“That motherfucking snake,” I say through clenched teeth, sliding my truck in next to her car and jumping out.
My blood runs ice-cold when I hear Libby’s scream. I run as fast as I can, my longs legs eating up the distance between me and my girl in a matter of seconds. But it’s not fast enough, and I feel like I’m running through sand.
When I reach Owen’s truck, I round the front of it and see he’s got Libby pinned against it as his hands pull at her clothes. My vision turns red, and I react. I use one hand to grab him by the hair on the back of his head, and I use the other to grab his shirt. I pick him up off the ground and body slam him back down to it before I start kicking him.
My heavy-booted foot lands on his side, and he cries out in pain. Good. I want him to scream just as loud as he was making my precious Libby scream. I want him to know fear like he showed her, and I want this motherfucker to never lay a hand on anyone ever again.
Reaching out, I grab his arm and hold it out. Then I bring my boot down on it, hearing the bone break. His scream turns to a piercing cry, but it’s soon drowned out by the sound of sirens.
I’m sure my driving in town caught the attention of the sheriff, and I’m thankful they’re on their way. I lean down, giving Owen a punch to the side of his face that’s unmarked.
“You so much as breathe the same air as my sister again and I’ll bury you where no one will ever find your sorry ass. You got me?”
“Yes,” Owen groans as he rolls to his side and starts to cry.
I turn around and see Libby on the ground in front the truck, tears in her eyes as she watches the whole thing. I walk to her carefully and kneel in front of her. The adrenaline is fading, and all I want to do is hold her, but I don’t want to scare her.
“Baby girl. Talk to me. Are you okay?”
She turns her red-rimmed eyes on mine, and for a moment, I’m terrified she won’t ever look at me again. That somehow I’ve ruined everything between us, and not because of what we’ve done, but because I’ve reacted so violently. I hold my breath, waiting for her to say something, but she surprises me by throwing herself into my arms.
I scoop her up and hold her close, carrying her away from where Owen is crying like a bitch. I carry her all the way to my truck, hearing her quiet sniffles as I walk. When the sheriff pulls up and gets out, he comes over to us and tries to assess the situation.
“Mind telling me what’s going on, Jasper?”
That’s the thing about living in a town the size of ours. The cops know everyone, including our parents, so they don’t have to ask a ton of questions. And normally, things can be sorted out without any real interference.
“Owen assaulted my girl, and I beat the shit out of him.” Libby stiffens a fraction in my arms, and I wonder which part of that statement makes her uneasy. “I’m gonna take her home now and make sure she’s all right. I’ll send my dad out to get her car later.”
“That him making all that noise?” The sheriff nods down to where Owen is rolling on the ground.
“Yeah. He’s got a broken arm and probably some broken ribs. He’ll need to go to the hospital,” I tell him calmly.
“All right. I’ll call it in. We’ll need to take Libby’s statement later, but we can do it over the phone. Make sure she’s safe first.”
“Thanks, Sheriff Colton.”
I walk away from the sheriff and then realize that he knows who Libby is, that she isn’t my girl but my sister. He didn’t bat an eye to it, but maybe it’s because of the situation. Or maybe he doesn’t give a fuck and he’s glad I got her safe. Either way, I’m glad she’s all right.
I put Libby in the cab of my truck, but hold her close to my side as I drive away from the lake and take a turn away from town. I don’t break the silence. I simply kiss the top of her head and rub her back as I drive.
“Where are we going?” she asks as she sits up a little and notices we aren’t headed towards home.
“We’re going home, baby girl. To our house. I want you safe, and the best place for that is in my bed.”
“Jasper,” she says, leaning into me and wrapping her arm around my waist.
“I told you I’d always come for you Libby. I’ll always chase you down and bring you home. This time it’s to the place where you should have been long ago. You’re mine and I’m yours. There’s no getting past it. Now I just want to hold you and remind myself that you’re safe.”
She nods against my chest, and we ride silently the rest of the way.
When I pull up to my house, I get out of the truck and pull her into my arms, carrying her up the steps.
“I can walk just fine,” she says, a little smile in her voice.
“I’ve been wanting to do this since the day I bought the place.” I kiss her forehead as I carry her over the threshold and into our home.
I got this house with her in mind and always hoped that one day she’d see it and fall in love. I kick the door closed behind us and carry her to the master. I lay her down on the king-size bed and crawl in with her, pulling her close to me, wanting to give her as much comfort as possible.
“Can you tell me what happened?” I ask as she cuddles into my chest and I wrap my arms around her.
“He sent me a text saying he’d keep our secret if I met him at the lake. When I got there, I knew right away something was wrong, but I still wanted to try. I didn’t want what we shared to be tainted by him or anyone e
lse. I thought I could fix things.”
“Baby girl. There’s nothing to fix. There’s nothing about us that’s broken or wrong. It’s just different. We’re not related by blood, just by marriage. And Mom and Dad love us both so much that I know all they want is for us to be happy.”
I rub circles on her back and hear her sniff and nod against my chest. “You’re right. I was just scared.”
“Did he hurt you?” I don’t think things got far enough for him to physically hurt her, but she was shaken up emotionally, and that’s as bad in my eyes. “Tell me what to do to help.”
“You got there in time, Jasper. God, if you hadn’t, I don’t know…” She trails off, and I feel her shiver.
I pull her closer to me, wrapping my leg around hers and trying to warm her with my body. “I’ll always come to your rescue, Libby. Don’t ever doubt that.”
“Thank you,” she says, leaning her face up and kissing my neck.
I feel her soft lips on my skin, and I close my eyes, loving the feeling. I hold on to the thought that she’s safe and everything is going to be okay. As long as she’s in my arms, I can handle anything that comes our way.
12
Libby
I wake up to soft kisses on my neck and a warm body wrapped around mine. A feeling of complete safety envelops me. I open my eyes to see Jasper staring at me. He leans in, placing a feather-light kiss to my mouth. It makes my insides turn to mush. This is how I always wanted to wake up. I dreamed about it for so long and wanted it so bad.
“I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” I tell him.
Once I hit his bed and he wrapped around me, I’d never felt so relaxed in my life. Felt like I was exactly where I belonged. The feeling of home came back to me. The feeling I’d had lately that had been slipping away, and now I know why. Because Jasper had been slipping away from me, and he was always my home. Since the first time met, I knew where I was supposed to be.
“I didn’t mind.” He pushes a strand of hair out of my face.
I see a scratch on his knuckle, which I’m guessing is from the fight with Owen. I grab it and look it over before bringing it to my mouth and kissing it. I feel like a naïve jerk for meeting up with him. I should have known better. But my need to make everything okay had won out. I didn’t want to upset anything. I merely wanted to try to keep us a secret.
Jasper smiles, and I place more kisses on the scratch. It was something he always did for me.
“Does it hurt?” I run my finger along it, still feeling guilty that he got hurt.
“No, nothing hurts right now. For the first time in a long time, there’s no pain.” I reach out, wanting to touch him. I run my fingers along his cheek, feeling the roughness of his bristles after not shaving for a few days.
“I didn’t know how much it was hurting until now. Until I got a taste of what I was missing. All I was feeling was empty,” I tell him, knowing what he means about the pain. It’s crazy to think all this time we both wanted to be together. That the ache I’d been having was so much deeper than I even knew. “It’s still hard to wrap my mind around the fact that you’ve wanted me all this time, too.”
“No, it’s not. Let me show you.” He sits up on the bed, taking me with him, and I get my first good look at his bedroom. A giant bed sits in the center, with a nightstand on each side. I look around and see the walls are covered in framed pictures of us. Each wall is decorated with a collage.
From fishing, to riding horses, to cooking in the kitchen together, to family trips. It’s us. Our years together. He grabs my hand, pulling me from the room and down the hall, where he opens another door. I stop short in the doorway.
It’s an office. Well, half of it is. One side has Jasper's desk and all kinds of mechanical books and a few machine-looking parts sitting on it, along with his laptop. The other side is what has my attention. It looks like the setup I have at Mom and Dad’s house, only with more room. A sewing machine and racks to hang up different aprons. Various fabrics and linens, laid out ready to be used.
“What is all this?” I look at him, and he gives me a look like I’m not getting it. Once again, he pulls me away, past a living room, a dining room, and into a giant kitchen.
“Oh my God!” The kitchen is huge. One wall of cabinets holds two double ovens, and a massive kitchen island with a work area and sink stands in the center of the room. It’s almost twice as big as Mom and Dad’s. I could easily bake ten pies at a time. I don’t think I could keep up with that, even if I tried.
Jasper steps in front of me, picks me up, and places me on the kitchen island. He puts a hand on either side of me, closing the space between us.
“You’re all I ever wanted, Libby. The moment you walked into my life, you filled in places in my heart with a softness I didn’t know I needed. It was always just my dad and me, but you came in with all your sweetness, and I wanted to soak it all up. Never let it go.”
“I don’t think I can let you go, Jasper. It makes me feel selfish.” I grab a hold of his shirt and pull him closer. “I don’t want to hurt our family.”
“But we are hurting it. I didn’t see it at first, but look at us. Fighting this could rip this family in two just as easily. I’ll never get over you. Hell, I thought you didn’t want me and I still built you this house. I came home to it every day thinking what it would be like if you were here each night. Coming home to you making me dinner and one of those cherry pies I love in the oven. You moving around a kitchen I’d built for you, wearing only one of those fucking aprons that drive me nuts.”
His eyes are pleading, and I know he’s thinking I might push him away again, but I can’t. We’ll find a way. We have to. “My aprons drive you nuts?”
He lets out a small laugh.
“You wouldn’t believe all the things I’ve thought about doing to you while you wore one,” he says, making my face warm.
“I’m sorry I ran. I got scared, and I was just trying to fix it. I was—”
“Trying to make everyone happy. I know, baby girl. It’s how you’ve always been. You love putting a smile on people’s faces. Always have. Kinda why I started to pull away from you, the last year more so than ever.”
I know I’m a people pleaser; I can’t help myself. Then it clicks. I’ve been feeling lost because I didn’t have him. The one person who means the most to me. I love my mom and Ned, but this is different. He’s my real home. Jasper is the one I always want to make smile more than anyone else. He is where I’m supposed to be, and I’d just been drifting with him gone.
Why would that make him pull away from me? My face scrunches in confusion.
“Every time you got close to me, I wanted to grab you. I wanted to take you home with me, and I knew I couldn’t. For one, you were too young.”
That was probably true. I haven’t been eighteen long.
“You bought this house for me thinking I might never come live here with you.” I look around, thinking how lonely that must have been, because staying away from me had made him stay away from our parents, too. At least I had them to go home to every night. He came home to an empty house.
“No, I got this house and lied to myself. I told myself that I wouldn't cross the line to make me feel better, but I was really just biding my time. This was coming one way or another. All Dad had to do was whisper in my ear that you were thinking about starting to date and I was done. Kept telling myself I was going to check on you, nothing more. But deep down I knew what I was doing. I was coming for you.”
“You’ll always come for me.” I say his words from before back to him.
“Always.” He says it with such determination.
“And I’ll always wait for you, Jasper.” I slide my hands up his broad chest and around his neck. “I didn’t know what I was waiting for, but I knew it was something. But that's always been you, hasn’t it? Even when I was younger, it was always you helping me find my way. Never far from me. Watching over and stepping in when I needed you. Like now. I needed your p
ush. To show me.”
I tilt my head back, needing his mouth on mine. He leans in and gives me what I want. But I pull back before our lips connect, and our eyes lock.
“Show me everything, Jasper. Show me all that we can have together.”
13
Jasper
I grab Libby’s ass and pull her off the counter, carrying her back to the bedroom. She lets out a little giggle, and I assume it’s because of how fast I’m walking, but we’ve both waited long enough for this moment.
Laying her back on the bed, my lips go to hers and my hands are running all over her body. I feel her tongue run along my bottom lip before she bites down a little, and I moan at the sensation. She’s being more aggressive than she has before, and maybe it’s because things are finally becoming settled between us. We still have to talk to our parents and get that straightened out, but the two of us are solid.
My mouth moves down her neck, and I help her take her shirt off. I lick between her breasts before kissing my way over to one nipple and taking it in my mouth. The hard peak feels so good on my tongue, and she moans as I suck on it. I want to go slow and take my time, but Libby’s hands are hurried.
We both wiggle to rid each other of our clothes. Once we are both skin against skin and rubbing our naked bodies together, I look up to see Libby smiling from ear to ear.
“What is it, baby girl?”
“I’m just so happy. I can’t believe this is happening.” Her eyelids drop a little, and I can see the lust there. “Make love to me, Jasper.”
Moving down a little, I place a kiss on her stomach and then move a little lower. “I’ll make love to you, Libby. I’ll give you anything you want for the rest of your life. But you have to give me something, too.”