Page 28 of Heartless

He grimaced a little. “Not sure Warren would love that idea. Besides, I haven’t been sleeping much.” He’d obviously spent a lot of time going through my dad’s research, but there were dark shadows under his eyes, and my heart clenched as he said, “Without my wolf, I kind of feel half-blind. We’re snowed in, so there’s a certain amount of protection, but I wanted to be ready if anything really determined tried to come through that door.”

I felt awful. “Damn. You should have told me, Jasper. I could’ve taken a turn, so you got some rest.”

He brushed my hair back, frowning down at me. “To be honest, I don’t think I’m going to sleep properly until I know you forgive me.”

Before I could think about it, I stood on tiptoes and pressed a soft kiss to his mouth. Like always, the feel of his lips did crazy things to my insides, and I clutched him a little harder as I whispered, “I forgive you.”

He clutched me back, his hold a little more desperate than it had been. His eyes were a stormy blue as I pulled away, and he chased my mouth with a groan. “Again.”

I bit back a laugh, repeating both the words and the action. When he tried to deepen the kiss, I hummed against his lips. “Why do I feel like you’re going to take a lot of convincing?”

“Because I’m a dick. And I don’t deserve you.” This time he swooped, kissing me hard enough to leave me breathless. “And maybe because you taste like vanilla and peaches.”

“That’s just your stomach talking,” I replied, thinking of the nasty pasta congealing on the stove. “You need a sugar fix.”

“I need a Vail fix,” he muttered, grabbing my hips and easing us down to the couch. I went without protest, because there wasn’t really anywhere else I wanted to be. As soon as we were seated, he cupped the back of my head, pressing me back against the arm in a swoon position. And I got it. Those old pictures of women half into a faint, the guy hovering over them with the gleam of a predator in his eyes. Because as Jasper peeled back the edge of my sweatshirt to lay a heated kiss on my throat, I almost melted into the puddle of blankets on the floor.

But while I was still technically a virgin, the burn under my skin was familiar. And it wouldn’t just let me lie back and hope his kisses didn’t end. Because we’d had too many things thrown into our path, and now we were here, I wasn’t going to let anything stop this from happening. Something Jasper seemed to realize as I squirmed out of my hoodie, taking my t-shirt with it, and tossed them over the back of the couch.

As he stared down at my plain white bra, his eyes went the color of dark water. It wasn’t exactly high fashion, but the curse that fell from his lips was the best kind of endorsement. “Baby, you’re so perfect it hurts.”

I wasn’t, but as his fingers skimmed over the hard peaks beneath the cotton cups, I felt it. And it gave me the confidence to arch my back, to press my hands to the tight muscles along his spine and anchor him to me. For a long while we just kissed, falling into the bliss of rediscovery. I managed to get his shirt off, and was wriggling out of my tight leggings when he drew back and pressed a thumb to my swollen lips. “We can take it slow. It’s just enough that you’ve forgiven me.”

“I don’t want to stop,” I admitted in a throaty whisper. I was a couple of weeks off eighteen and had been ready to sleep with him plenty of times in the past. In fact, ready didn’t begin to describe the ache building under my skin, but as he hesitated above me, my fingers curled away from his face. “Unless the whole cat thing makes this too weird…”

He laughed, a mixture of sunshine and darkness that made me shiver. “There are so many things I could say to that. But the truth is, everything I find out about you just makes me love you more, sweet thing.”

I skipped a breath, replaying his words in my mind before I reached up and pressed a finger to his perfect lips. “Mutual, pretty thing.”

He cocked his head, trying for a look of outrage, but it couldn’t hide the male satisfaction in his eyes. “I’ll show you pretty,” he muttered, then lowered his mouth to my stomach. As his kisses traveled across my skin, I didn’t try to swallow the noises I was making. There was a torturous blend of soft lips and bristles, his tongue licking across my curves and dips until I was a quivering mess. But when I buried my hands in his silky hair and pushed him lower, he went down onto his knees with a dark chuckle. “A greedy pussy,” he murmured as he hooked my panties off my hips, drawing them down so slowly I hissed. “Just how I like you best, sweet thing.”

Memories of the mineral pool pulled me under as he drenched me in long, slow licks. Every swipe was a flame, every kiss feeding the ache. My thighs shook so hard, he groaned, his fingers kneading the trembling flesh. I couldn’t tell if it was his alpha voodoo making me clench tighter and tighter, or if this was all him. I knew he was experienced, that sex amongst shifters started early and happened often, but there was a small divot in his brow as he kicked his way out of his jeans and boxers. The sight of his hard, naked body made my head swim, and I was suddenly glad I was lying on the fainting couch. It also gave Jasper the chance to look me over, that same slow journey from my messy hair to my curling toes, and back again. “I’ll try to make it good for you, Vail,” he murmured. “And you can stop me any time you want.”

I nodded, reaching up to draw him back down. He fitted himself over me, the firelight turning his skin to liquid gold as his hands followed the path his gaze had just taken. When he palmed my aching breasts, I wanted him to linger forever, but he skimmed down to my waist before settling on my hips. Everything felt so full and heavy and when he finally lifted me to meet him, I tried not to tense up. But this was a slow and deliberate claiming, and I dug my nails into his shoulders as he eased inside. “Vail,” he growled, moving relentlessly forward. “Let me in, baby.”

I didn’t know how to open myself any more, but Jasper bent and pulled one of my nipples into his mouth. He sucked deeply, before moving to the other, and I felt myself turn molten, my hips jerking up to meet his. The groan he smothered against my chest was almost as perfect as the look on his face as he stared down at where we were joined. “Damn, this is too good. Are you okay?”

I nodded, because I was panting too hard to make any kind of sense. And although there was pain, something soft and warm was moving under my skin, soothing the burn. It added to the tingles sparking down my spine, and I buried my face in Jasper’s neck, my hips lifting in short, tentative thrusts as he rocked back into my body. The pain was quickly giving way to pure need, fueled by the sounds of our grinding bodies, and the heady musk rising over us in a wave. My legs tightened on his waist, my hands clawing at the slipping muscles of his shoulders as he moved faster and faster inside me.

“Vail.” His voice still sounded pained, but there was awe there, too. “Your nails, baby.”

I had to blink to focus on his shoulders, but my eyes widened as I saw the tips of my claws buried in his flesh. “Jasper! I’m sorry!”

“Don’t stop,” he growled, doing something with his hips that made me cry out. “She’s here, baby. She wants this. Goddamn, I can feel her moving under your skin.”

For a moment I felt her too, a sense of otherness sliding between us as the thick pelt of an animal soaked up our heat. It was too much. Too far out of my comfort zone, but as I went still in Jasper’s arms, she retreated with a flick of a long black tail. It didn’t take long for the tingles to surge back, and then I was shuddering in his arms. Wave after wave of pleasure rolled over me, and I didn’t realize I was plastered to Jasper’s chest until he gasped out his own release, holding me so close I could taste sunlight and copper on my lips.

Chapter Fifteen – Jasper

“I can’t believe I clawed you!” Vail was pushing feebly at my chest, but nothing short of a severed artery was going to make me move. “Jasper, you’re bleeding!”

“So are you,” I couldn’t help muttering into the damp curve of her neck. “Don’t worry, I got what I deserved.” And I loved every freaking second of it.

“You make it sound like we were fighting, not… well, you know,” she huffed, but she’d stopped trying to pat away my blood and was rubbing her nose back and forth across my chest. “Your heart’s racing so fast, but I still think mine’s got it beat. Is it always like this with shifters?”

I pressed a teasing kiss behind her ear, grinning at the way it made her shiver. “Like what, sweet thing?”

“Wild and hot and kind of crazy?”

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