by Nashoda Rose
His cell rang and he groaned, lifted off me and grabbed it from the nightstand. “Your timing sucks.” He listened for a second and then hung up. “So much for the idea of slow, lazy morning sex. We need to move. A horde of vampires were seen at the airport asking questions. They must have caught on to the ruse with Damien and tracked the plane.” He snagged his jeans off the end of the bed and strode into the bathroom. He said over his shoulder, “There is going to be a lot more than a second time, Max.” I heard the water turn on in the sink. “Babe, grab the toothpaste in my bag and come brush your teeth.”
I rolled my eyes and got out of bed, quickly throwing on clothes before reaching for his satchel. I found in it a little black leather case which had his shaver and . . . I sifted through it . . . cologne, a wad of bills, deodorant and condoms.
“Max.” His face was wet, water dripping off his chin to trail down his naked chest. I walked over and passed him the leather case. “Find anything interesting?”
“No.”
He took it from me. “I have nothing to hide. You’ll never find anything important.”
“Except for condoms,” I said offhandedly and it was more to me than to him.
He chuckled. “Ah, baby. You’re fuckin’ cute jealous.” He reached out and hooked his arm around my neck. It was unexpected and I stumbled into him. “No reason to be. I haven’t fucked anyone since the day I met you.”
Before I could even contemplate his words, he bent forward, shifted his hand to the back of my neck then kissed me. It was hard and possessive, just like him, taking what he wanted, when he wanted it. It made my heart pump madly and my stomach flip-flop as if I was jumping on a trampoline.
Just as quickly as he brought me into him, he let me go. I stood flustered and heated, the ache between my legs demanding attention. And his words were still whirling around in my head like confetti.
Jasper casually picked up his toothbrush and put toothpaste on it then stuck it in his mouth. He put a glob on my toothbrush and passed it to me.
Our eyes met in the mirror as I shoved the toothbrush in my mouth and we brushed our teeth, watching one another’s reflections. A moustache of white clung to his lips and I wanted to lick off the minty freshness and then have him kiss me again.
I didn’t know if my shield around my thoughts was wavering, but Jasper grinned and winked at me. It wasn’t with cocky arrogance, but with tenderness.
I looked away and quickly swished, finished brushing and walked out.
He came out of the bathroom a few seconds later and took a t-shirt out of his bag, pulling it over his head. I caught myself staring as his muscles flexed just before the shirt fell into place. He crouched, packed the bag and then zipped it up.
“You slept through the night.”
I jerked and looked into his charcoal eyes not realizing I was still staring at his tatted arms that had been wrapped around me last night. “Huh?”
“No nightmare.”
I threw the pillow that was on the floor back on the bed and shrugged.
“Just saying, Max. Thought . . .” He stood, picked up his bag and threw it over his shoulder. “Never mind. Let’s go.”
He held out his hand and I walked over to him and took it. I had no energy to argue with Jasper and if he wanted to hold my hand, then I’d allow it. He tossed a wad of bills on the dresser and I looked at him questioning.
“Bathroom door.”
Shit, right.
We walked through the hotel, stopping to grab water and croissants and then went out the front door where he passed the valet his car keys.
His cell rang again. “Yeah? . . . Fuck. We’ll leave it here.” His hand tightened on mine and his entire body went on alert. “She can make it.” He started walking, pulling me along behind him. “I said, she can make it.”
We were leaving the car? I glanced back over my shoulder and saw the valet searching around for us.
Jasper moved at a slow jog and I kept pace as he said short, curt answers in the phone. “No.” He glanced over at me. “Things have changed.” He was quiet and I could hear someone yelling on the other end. “I don’t give a fuck,” Jasper replied calmly. “If it comes to that, then I’ll deal with it . . . No. Too fuckin’ bad . . . Then come kill me.” He pressed end, and then threw his phone on the ground and crushed it with his boot.
“I gather you don’t like him?”
Jasper didn’t say anything, but his lips were pursed together and his jaw was clenched. After a few seconds, he ground out, “Something like that.” He nodded to the all-encompassing mountainside. “We’re headed up there and we need to make it by nightfall. You up for it?”
He could have been referring to anywhere on the mountain. “Do I have a choice?”
Jasper sighed and ran his hand through his hair. Something was off, agitating him and I didn’t think Jasper was capable of being agitated. At least not by the looming threat of vampires and some guy who may have pissed him off on the phone. “No.”
“Then why are you asking?”
He shrugged as if uneasy with the question and then he said, “Civility, sunshine.”
“Really?” That surprised me.
“Yeah.” He averted his eyes from mine then took his satchel off his shoulder, unzipped it and reached in pulling out a brown paper bag with the freshly baked croissants. My mouth watered as he passed one to me and I quickly took it and bit into it.
“What’s up there?”
He hesitated and stared up at the mountain. “A place to stay for a while. Normally, we could drive part way up, but with the vampires finding out we flew into that airport, there’s a chance they’ll eventually track the car to the hotel.”
“You think they will?”
“I’ve lived this long because I bet on every possibility.”
I didn’t know who had been on the phone, or what was waiting for me up in the mountain, but despite Jasper’s attitude, I did trust him to keep me safe, which for now, was my best option.
My legs were quivering after several hours walking through the rough terrain uphill. We’d crossed two streams and my shoes were soaked, and just when they felt dry, we came across another one. Jasper merely trudged through as if it was dry land.
I refused to complain, but as the hours dropped away with the sun and temperature, coldness sank into my bones. I shook uncontrollably by nightfall, my thigh muscles burning and the arches in my feet aching.
I didn’t think I could take another step when Jasper turned to look at me for the first time in an hour. His gaze trailed down my shivering body to my soaking wet feet then back up again.
“Jesus,” he muttered then strode toward me. He grabbed my arm and backed me into a tree. “Lean against the tree, baby.” His body pressed into mine and the heat emanating from him was like he’d wrapped me in a wool blanket.
He scowled as he rubbed my arms up and down several times. “You should’ve told me you were fuckin’ cold.” He lowered his bag to the ground and took out one of my blades. He placed it in my hand, curling my trembling cold fingers around the handle. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.” He kicked his bag closer to me so the trunk of the tree hid it, and then he pulled out his knife from the leather holster across his chest.
“Jasper—”
“Don’t move. I need to make sure the place is safe first.” He didn’t wait for a reply as he crept off into the darkness.
I stood leaning against the tree, my muscles screaming from exertion and cold, and my blade held in both hands in front of me. I was uncertain what damage I could do if I was attacked. My hands were numb and I suspected I’d collapse if I took one more step.
It was only a couple minutes before I heard his voice and then he was there in front of me again. “Max.” There was a large bruise on his cheek and he had dried blood on his lip. He caught me looking at it and shrugged. “Run in with a bear. I punched him. Fucker punched back.” There was a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth. God, I liked when he was
playful like that; it made me forget the type of man he was. But maybe that wasn’t a good thing. He held out his hand. “Come on. Let’s get you warm.”
I gratefully took his hand and he bent, picking up his bag. We walked another couple minutes before I saw an orange glow through the trees. A few seconds later, a large wooden log cabin appeared with firelight blazing in the window. It was pretty massive and I had pictured something small and rustic, but this was beautiful with a wide deck in the front that had one of those double-seater wood swings.
Jasper tugged on me.
I hadn’t realized I had stopped walking and was staring at the house. I think partially it was my body finally shutting down with relief. And then it hit me . . . a woman. This place belonged to a woman of his and that was where the punch came from.
“A bear or woman?”
At first, he looked confused and then he grinned, which had me hating him more because despite my reservations on what I was walking into, when Jasper grinned so casually and without the hardness . . . it lit up my insides like a Christmas tree laden with colorful blinking lights.
“Holden—my brother.”
I jerked. “Oh.” Now, that shocked me. I hadn’t considered Jasper having a brother or family. It just seemed . . . foreign.
“I sent him on an errand. He didn’t like it. Now, can we go inside before you freeze to death?”
I nodded.
The moment we stepped inside and the heat from the fire blanketed me with warmth, I closed my eyes and sighed. Jasper led me over to the fireplace, set me down on the floor and I immediately put my hands out to warm them. He hesitated, before gently lowering his hand and stroking my hair. I glanced up at him, his fingers curled into the back of my neck and his hard features flickered in the firelight.
I swallowed, my eyes trailing down to his mouth, wanting to taste him again.
Jasper nodded. I wasn’t sure at what, then he turned away, tossed his bag on a black leather couch and walked into the kitchen and began opening cupboards.
“You like tomato soup?” He held up a can.
“Sure.”
I watched him move around the kitchen easily, as if he was familiar with what he was doing. I wondered if he had a house of his own and what it was like. Did he cook? For the type of person he was, I didn’t think he would, but I was beginning to see him differently.
I imagined him having a small house, nothing special—simple. It would be on the edge of a cliff, the ocean crashing against the jagged rocks below. He’d stand out on his porch when he couldn’t sleep and listen to the rhythmic sound of the waves.
I was staring and as if sensing me, he glanced up from stirring the soup and looked at me. The stirring stopped and my breath hitched as his grey, penetrating eyes let me in. They were naked and open and without shields. I saw him—Jasper. Casual and easygoing, but still with a wealth of self-confidence. I knew it was a glimpse of who he’d once been and who he hid from everyone.
It was beautiful.
The wood suddenly crackled and snapped, making me jump. Turning away and distracting myself, I grabbed the iron poker hanging on the hook beside the fire.
The second I did, I froze and the poker slipped from my grasp, making a loud clang as it hit the floor. The shivers were no longer from the cold but from the memories as they plowed into me. The red hot tip of the iron, the agony as it pressed into the top of my foot while Drake held me in his arms.
The smell. God, the smell of my burning flesh had been worse than the pain. I screamed and cried and begged Drake not to do it, but he rocked me back and forth while the vampire burned the bridge of my foot, killing my Ink.
“Max. Max.” Jasper crouched in front of me. “Max.” He reached forward and I jerked away. “Jesus, you’re crying.”
I hadn’t realized I’d been crying and quickly used of my arm to wipe away the tears.
He put his hand around the back of my neck, fingers weaving into my hair. It wasn’t harsh and insisting like I expected from Jasper; instead, it was gentle and comforting. With his other hand, he pushed back the few tendrils that clung to my damp cheek. “You’re safe here. You’re safe with me.”
Jasper may think so, and he was cocky enough to believe that, but I knew differently. If Drake was after me, then I wasn’t safe no matter where we were or who was trying to shield me from him. “I’m fine.”
“You can lie, but I’ll always know the truth.” I was about to argue when he leaned closer, his mouth so close to mine I could taste him on the tip of my tongue without even touching. “I won’t let him near you.”
I stiffened. “For two weeks, you mean.”
His fingers flinched on my neck. “I won’t let him have you.”
“Yeah,” I whispered.
“Max . . .” He brushed his lips against mine and instantly my stomach whirled and it was an invasion of butterflies. “Fuck, baby. I don’t know how to do this,” he said beneath his breath and then let me go. Standing, he strode toward the kitchen. “Sit at the table.”
Whatever haunted him, lived and breathed inside him, he smothered it with his attitude, his flirting, his indifference, but he was opening up and it scared me because it made me want him more.
I walked over to the long wooden table that looked like it belonged in an old medieval castle and sat. Jasper placed a steaming hot bowl down in front of me and then sat at the end of the table two seats away. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He took a spoonful of the tomato soup, and without looking at me, he ate.
I was stunned. Such simple words and yet coming from Jasper . . . it was different. We were different. And they weren’t just words; they had meaning.
Jasper was my mirror and we shared a similar darkness. He tried to hide it by being an asshole, by doing what he did so he didn’t have to give a shit.
I did the same thing. I rarely spoke, kept to myself, and didn’t get close to anyone except I was civil about it. I didn’t hurt anyone by how I’d chosen to live. Jasper did.
I didn’t want to care. I shouldn’t. I knew better. Jasper was clear about who he was and yet . . . he’d slid through the cracks. He was an assassin. He’d been a jerk and yet I’d seen a side to him that was genuine. I just didn’t know if I trusted him. Was he suddenly nice to me because he needed something from me? He used people. He’d told me that.
Was Jasper using me like he did everyone else?
His spoon clattered in his bowl as he dropped it, and then he pushed away from the table and looked at me. There was no cocky grin, no flashing brilliance of playfulness in his eyes; instead, what I was looking at was the man who had no compassion for anyone. And I hated it. I didn’t want to see this side of him.
“Yeah, I use people.” Oh, God, he’d read my thoughts. Horror crushed me like a hammer and I saw the hurt in his grey eyes. “You want the real? I get paid to kill people. Those I don’t kill, I use for my own benefit. And you know what, princess, I don’t give a shit if you trust me, actually it’s better you don’t. ” His lips curled into a cruel smile and a shiver tap danced across my skin, and it wasn’t from desire this time. “What? You don’t like knowing you fucked an asshole? Well, too late for that, sunshine. You did.”
“Why do you do this? It’s like a light switch you turn on and off. I never know which side of you I’m going to get.” I pushed the bowl away and it sloshed over the sides and splattered onto the table. “I don’t understand you.” I had to get away from him. From me. From everything I was feeling.
I knew what he was doing. He wanted me to hate him. It was how he protected himself, to drive people away. Well, it was working because tears welled and I needed to escape before he saw them.
Jumping to my feet, I headed for the door. I was suffocating under everything that was happening. I was a job to him; an object to Drake; a liability to everyone.
“Where the fuck are you going?” he asked.
I managed to get the door halfway open before he came up behind me
and his palm slammed it shut. He grabbed my arm and yanked me around to face him then pressed into me so his chest was up against mine. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”
“Away from you.” I tried to shrug his hand off my arm, but he tightened his hold.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“What are you going to do . . . force me to stay? You don’t have that power, Jasper. I’m not a prisoner.”
“You sure about that, sunshine?” he shot back.
I eyed his bag on the couch a few feet away where my blades were. He followed my gaze and then grabbed my chin. “Are we going to have an issue here?”
“We’ve had an issue since the day we met.”
“Yeah, I’ve wanted you. And I’m not letting you go.”
I had no idea if he meant as in not letting me walk out the door or more than that, but at that moment, I didn’t care. I just wanted to escape all of it. For years, I’d been dead to emotions and it was like everything inside me was exploding.
I raised my hand to push him away, but he moved to the right and then used the movement to push into my side and lift me up so I hung over his shoulder. “Jasper!”
He ignored me and strode through the house and down a hall. He stopped for a second, opened a cupboard and shuffled around. I pounded on his back with my fists and tried to kick him, but he was holding my legs with one arm.
“Jasper, let me go.”
He started walking again, then opened a door and kicked it shut with the heel of his foot. He threw me down on the bed and I scrambled to get up, but he latched onto my ankle and dragged me back. Pulling me up to the headboard, lying on top of me, I squirmed underneath him.
“What are you doing? Jasper.”
“Making sure you don’t leave.”
Then I saw it.
The sight of the rope had me screaming and yelling and punching at him. I wasn’t getting anywhere as his weight kept my movement to a minimum. Within seconds, he had my wrists tied together and strung to the post on the right side of the bed.
“I wasn’t leaving. I have nowhere to go, damn it. I just want to get away from you.”