Page 78 of Sweet Little Thing

“You worked for a monster like Portia. I thought you wanted the job because you knew about Jasper Van Allan. His weakness for beautiful things and his wealth. Just for a moment, I watched you closely, quietly, and finally saw your eyes. There was stress, pain, anxiety, but most of all, fear. That moment. When our eyes met, I saw you. Not the outward appearance, but your soul that you shared so clearly in your eyes if someone took the time to look,” he paused and he inhaled deeply as his neck flexed. There was a war battling in his eyes. Something he was fighting.

“I knew I would love you. There was sadness inside you that I wanted to heal and fear I wanted to erase. Pain I wanted to ease.” He held my chin. Not harshly, but with pressure to tilt my head back further as his dark eyes melded with mine. “I began to investigate, to search, to protect you. Understand that, Beulah. I did it all to protect…you.”

Chapter

Forty-Six

Stone

Things happen in the blink of an eye. Death, life, and sickness are all things that changed our lives. From the time we are born, we learn to expect the inevitable end. We fear, anticipate, and learn to live with the outcome. However, until I walked into the Van Allan kitchen and my eyes locked on Beulah for the first time, I’d never realized one more thing could happen in a split second. Was it love? I can’t say that it was. Calling it attraction was too weak of a description. I was drawn to her like an invisible thread was pulling at me.

Then I’d seen the look in Jasper’s eyes. He’d been instantly attracted. He fought it because his hate for Portia made him want to hate anything connected to her, and she’d been the one to hire Beulah. As much as he wished that he couldn’t stand her, that he could be cruel to her, he couldn’t take his eyes off her. She couldn’t stop looking at him either. I read people well. I often knew what they felt before they did. It was easy whenyou didn’t need to speak. Staying silent and observing left one to study things others missed.

I held myself back. Waited. Hoped that she saw just how different Jasper was from her. Not his money or wealth; that wasn’t the issue. She was strong where he was weak. She had been raised by a woman who had given her courage, self-worth, and an appreciation for the things often overlooked. Jasper hadn’t. He was selfish and immature. He leaned on me for more than I should have allowed. Yet he’d been my family for most of my life. It had always been Geraldine and Jasper. The only two who I knew were there for me.

I wanted to believe my words. I wanted my diligence in finding the truth about Beulah and Heidi to have been for Jasper’s sake. Telling myself I was doing it for him eased the guilt when I searched harder, pushed past barriers in my way, and broken a few laws. The truth was, deep down, I knew the entire time I was doing it because of her. Partly to protect her from unseen pain and danger and to make sure she wasn’t being taken advantage of. And lastly to prove my gut was right. The Van Allans had a secret. One that would make her and Jasper an impossibility. That was my darkness. I’d wanted her so damn bad; Jasper hadn’t been my concern.

He didn’t deserve Beulah. She didn’t know him. She thought he was someone he wasn’t, and he led her to believe that. My jealousy began to build disgust from his lies.

The guilt I should feel for having Beulah here with me never came. Even when Jasper accused me of the truth—wanting her. I didn’t feel guilty because I wanted her to heal and for her heart to realize it wasn’t love she had felt for Jasper. I had waited for her. Tried to give her the time she needed.

When her smile had started to soften when she looked at me and her eyes began to flare with things I had been waiting for, I knew I couldn’t ignore that pull inside me. The hunger to touchher, to be free to hold her.

Jasper leaving was the last step. He was letting go. Running. If I had a doubt about his feelings for her, this made it clear- it wasn’t enough. A man who walked away from Beulah didn’t deserve her.

My time of quietly living in torture was over.

Lowering my head until my mouth covered hers for the first time was as close to a spiritual moment as I’d ever experienced. The air around us stilled. Her breathing stopped. My heartbeat pounded steadily in my ears. The heat from her lips seared mine, and I knew it was me trembling from the connection.

Beulah’s left hand reached up and covered mine as I caressed her neck. My right hand slid around her waist, pulling her into me until we were pressed together. Every inch of her body touched mine. She leaned in with complete trust. My kiss hadn’t startled her. She’d responded with the same urgency I had rushing through me.

I wanted to look into her eyes and tell her everything. To explain it all to her. But not now. Like me, she seemed to have been waiting for this moment.

Pressing my thumb against the pulse in her neck, I felt the rapid beat that matched my own. My right hand slid down to cover her perfectly round ass. I squeezed gently, and a moan escaped her as she shifted closer, spreading her legs slightly. The subtle invitation made my already hard dick throb. This moment was one I had imagined, planned, and fantasized over. I wanted to take my time memorizing every kiss, sound, and expression in her eyes.

What I wanted and reality were beginning to become two different things. The build-up from the moment I saw her. The moment she spoke. The moment that damn smile squeezed my chest, it had all brought me to this.

She lifted a knee and slid it up my leg until it was at my hip.Another invitation. Grabbing her thigh, I growled in frustration. My hunger for her was growing out of control quickly. With more force than I intended, I squeezed her thigh and jerked her legs open wider and pressed my erection as close to her center as I could. She wasn’t tall enough to give us the heated connection we both wanted. I grabbed her waist and pulled her higher.

She instinctively wrapped her legs around me. My cock now pressed directly against her pussy. The warmth between her legs cradled me and made my knees slightly weak.

“AH!” Beulah cried out as her head fell backward, and she lifted her hips and then lowered them to rub my hardness against her aching clit. She grabbed my shoulders with both hands, her eyes closed tightly, and she began grinding against me.

“Uh, oh, oh,” she panted. Her body moved with eagerness for more.

I wasn’t a religious man, but watching her, I began to understand devotion. Her voracious response was stirring my lust. I’d dreamed I’d worship her. Now I wanted to own her. Lose myself inside her.

Unable to stand still any longer, I moved us toward the bed. Laying her down, I pressed her into the bed, pulling back to shove her legs apart. Her eyes were hooded, and her chest rose and fell. “I was going to take my time.” My voice sounded like a growl. Crazed animalistic need had taken over. “But you rubbed that sweet pussy on me.” I lowered my voice and bent down to kiss the exposed skin beneath her ear. “Your sweet needy cunt made me snap,” I added.

I looked into her eyes to see if I’d frightened her. A craving that matched my own swirled in those green depths that fucking out shown every emerald I’d studied wondering if it was worthy of her. My hands were still on her inner thighs. Holding them open as wide as they would go. I reached up and hooked my fingersin the waist of the pajama shorts she was wearing. “When I take these off and see just how wet you are, smell how fucking sweet your pussy is, I’m afraid I’ll lose control.”

I was warning her. Even now when my body was literally shaking with my desperation for her. I was giving her a chance to stop me.

“Good,” the soft challenge came out in a breathless pant.

If there was any thread of sanity left in me, it vanished with that single response.

Chapter

---