Page 23 of To Crave Truly

“Yes, but it’s different this time. It’s just the demon, no Iveri.”

Jasper frowned and I realised he’d missed out on a lot of what happened. I took a few moments to bring him up to speed by recounting all the events.

“Alec got his heart back?” he asked with some amusement in his tone. “Bet he’s loving that.”

I frowned. I wasn’t sure how he was doing because I was here, and I hadn’t seen Alec in days. Or Cassian and Torsten, or Fenris and Lucifer. My heart clenched in pain as I thought about them. About how much I missed them. As if sensing the downward turn in my thoughts, Jasper pulled me into his warmth and surrounded me with his arms. I could feel the slow, steady beat of his heart as I rested my head against his chest.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” I said.

“I’m sorry about what I did. I’d been so close to death that I—”

I squeezed him. “It’s okay, I know you didn’t mean it. You were just trying to save yourself.”

“Yes, but I should have had more control.”

I looked him dead in the eyes. “Jasper Farrow. I will always be here to save you. You are mine, just as I am yours. You didn’t kill me and we are still here, together, so don’t you dare blame yourself.”

A small smile curled his lips and my heart fluttered. God, the man was beautiful. The dark hair, bright blue eyes, the five o’clock shadow that graced his sharp jaw line. I just wanted to eat him up.

“Are you okay? You’re growling at me?” Jasper asked, mirth dancing in his eyes.

“Yes, just feeling a… um… tad possessive.”

Jasper threw his head back and laughed. “Oh, Lori. Never change.”

I smiled up at him. “Wasn’t planning on it.”

Silence descended between us, and I felt the tension in the air shift. We needed to talk about what was going to happen next, but I wasn’t ready to face it.

“Mordecai is sending me back.”

“I figured,” Jasper said with a sigh. “Why?”

The memory of the pain from trying to tell someone about the original vampire’s plan flooded my mind. “I can’t tell you.”

“Lori,” he warned.

“No. I really can’t tell you. Selene made it so that if I try and tell someone, it feels like I’m being sliced open.”

The blue in his eyes darkened, a tell-tale sign that his vampire side was surfacing. “I’ll kill them all.”

“I made him promise that you wouldn’t come to any harm while I’m not here.” I straddled his lap and cupped his jaw. “Please, don’t make him break that promise. Stay alive for me. Please.”

The muscles in his jaw clenched beneath my hands. I could see the internal debate he was having written all over his face.

“Please,” I begged.

He let out a long sigh. “Fine. But when you come back to me, I can’t promise that I won’t try to kill every last person down here.”

I grinned. “Perfect. I think I’d like to help with that.”

Something dark settled across his features and I didn’t want the last moment we spent together for some time to be dark. I wanted it to be so bright that it burned. I trailed my thumb across his bottom lip and watched the black bleed fully into his eyes.

“Kiss me, Jasper,” I said breathlessly. “Kiss me until the feel of you is burned onto my lips.”

He barely let me finish speaking before his mouth descended on mine, igniting the blood in my veins, and branding the taste of him on my tongue. He put all of himself in that kiss and I reciprocated. I wanted him to still feel me days after this moment.

His tongue speared my mouth, his fangs biting at my lips and licking my blood off them. He rolled me backwards, pinning me to the bed with his weight. I was going to feel this kiss everywhere, feel this man over every inch of my skin so that I could keep him with me while we were parted.

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