Page 17 of His Custody

But she’d wished it had. That he’d wanted her so badly, even in sleep, that his body made him ready to take her the second she was willing. She’d been willing. Gavin had wanted to wait. And now he’d never have her.

Jasper made a sleepy grunt behind her and nuzzled at her hair. He’d be conscious soon and then he’d spirit himself off to the bathroom before he thought she was awake so she wouldn’t know about his penis. His morning wood. It didn’t mean anything.

She closed her eyes, made her breathing deep and even. Maybe she could fall asleep before Jasper woke up and left her and she had to spend another day walking around, alone.

***

Jasper was stepping out of the shower when he heard the door. His brows came together. Keyne called for him when she woke up, she didn’t leave. He tucked the towel around himself and cracked the bathroom door. Keyne was still asleep; he could hear her quiet snarfling. When she was deeply asleep, she sounded like a piglet. He imagined Gavin propped on an elbow beside her, waiting for her to wake up so he could pounce on her and love her like a puppy.

But if Keyne was slumbering in his bed...Fuck. He stalked across the room and eased the door open to step into the hall where he was met head on by a mad-as-a-hornet Deja.

“What the fuck is Keyne O’Connell doing in your bed?”

“Sleeping.” He hoped his deadpan delivery would speak louder than the fact that he was standing in the hallway barely clothed with an underage girl in his bed. Not likely.

“Jesus H. Christmas Tree, you—”

Jasper cut her off because he knew what was coming next. The same thing any sane person would say:you can’t do that. “I know. But she wakes up in the middle of the night screaming and she’s afraid to go back to sleep. What am I supposed to do, send her away?”

“Yes, you are. Because if Judge Judy gets wind of this—”

His stomach bottomed out at the idea of Keyne getting sent away because of his lack of discipline. He closed his eyes and raked a hand through his damp hair but all he could see behind his eyelids was Judge Angela Pollard on his doorstep with a warrant and a SWAT Team. “I can’t leave her alone, Deja. She lost everything. I can’t take anything else away from her.”

“You better figure out whether a few nights of creature comfort are worth her getting sent to Miami and your reputation getting dragged through the mud. You’re not exactly a golden boy and if this gets out, you’re never going to get her back.”

He would and Deja knew it, but she also knew what it would cost him: everything. Well, everything that hadn’t been squirreled away in offshore accounts for just this eventuality. Damn woman knew his vulnerabilities and wasn’t shy of exploiting them. One reason he trusted her so much. But as much as he did, she didn’t understand the position he was finding himself in.

“What am I supposed to do when she shows up at my door in the middle of the night in tears because she has nightmares of being abandoned because her whole fucking family died?”

“I don’t know, but you need to figure it out sooner rather than later.”

They faced off in the hallway. His brows creased as something occurred to him.

“You don’t think I—”

“No, I don’t.” Deja shook her head, her long braids rubbing against each other. “I know you better than that. You look like a wolf, walk like a wolf, talk like a wolf but you would sooner step in front of a bus than take advantage of that girl.”

He dropped his chin in grateful acknowledgement. He didn’t give two shits about what most people thought of him, but Deja’s respect was important. The moment he lost that would be the moment he was well and truly fucked. “What did you come here to talk to me about?”

Because it sure as fuck wasn’t to yell at him for letting Keyne sleep in his bed. She would’ve come over the second she got wind of that and dragged him out by the ear if she had.

“It can wait.”

“If you were knocking on my door at six o’clock in the morning, it—”

“Jasper?” Keyne’s muffled voice drifted through the crack under the door.

“Duty calls. It can wait.” Deja’s wry smile didn’t inspire confidence but there wasn’t anything to be done. If she said it could wait, it could. She’d manage the situation until he could.

“Jasper?”

“I’ll be right there, Keyne.” He hated the building anxiety in her voice, like she wondered if he’d left her. It was like nails on a chalkboard. Not her, but the nagging, uncomfortable, would-rather-slit-his-own-wrists-than-hear-it-again feeling. “I gotta go.”

“Yeah. Give me a call when you’re free.”

He found the time while he paced the waiting room of Keyne’s counselor. The guy had made some noise about Jasper coming to his own sessions, but Jasper didn’t have time. He barely had time to bring Keyne into the city, but he’d been told this guy was the best, and she’d have the best.

He pressed one on his speed dial, and didn’t bother waiting for Deja’s greeting. He rarely did. “What’s going on?”

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