Page 64 of Ruthless Scoundrel
“What is it?” Jasper asks, moving a little farther up onto the bed.
“Just thinking about my sister,” I whisper into my cocoon.
Distant thunder rumbles, causing blood, and tears, and screams from that night to come pouring into me. The way she begged for help and how her manic smile morphed into fear.
Jasper crawls up next to me. “Can I hold you?”
I glare at him, though being held sounds exactly like what I need. I’m starved for his touch since the moment he gave it to me freely, and I don’t want to crave it, but I do.
His face is soft, and vulnerable. “Please?”
Yes. Shield me from the storm, from the world. Let me hide away under your warmth and care until it all disappears, at least for a little while.
“Why?”
He reaches out, but the motion stutters and he drops his hand. “I don’t want you to feel so alone.”
Irrational anger boils up in me at the offer, or maybe the admission I’m avoiding. “I am alone.”
“You’re not,” he whispers.
“You’re going to…leave me,” I say, correcting myself from “You’re going to sell me to a vile bastard” and tipping off Alejandra.
He shakes his head. “But I’m not.”
Something soft and warm flutters inside me, making my voice small. “What do you mean?”
He reaches out again and slides his arm under my knees, then grabs my side. My skin prickles with goosebumps at his warmth and his strength. He keeps me cocooned as he pulls me onto his lap.
My head falls against his chest and heat crawls up my face to my cheeks. The beat of his heart is so fast it sounds like a war drum. Mine feels the same.
He rests his chin against the crown of my head and takes a deep breath. “I’m not going to leave you, and I’ll explain more soon.”
“What if I want you to?”
His hands tense on me, and then he chuckles. “I’ll just have to change your mind somehow, Ohksana’amai.”
The sun’s essence flares to life in my chest and my magic comes alive, making my eyes glow blue. That heat spreads down to my core, making it tense and achy. Why do those words do this to me? What do they mean?
“I don’t think you can,” I retort, trying to ignore the way he’s affecting my body.
“I think I already am,” he says.
His thumb strokes the back of my thigh and sends a shiver up my spine. I don’t want to love this feeling of safety and affection from Jasper. He’s hurt me. He’s not allowed to comfort me. He’s not allowed to feel safe.
I pull back from the shelter of my knees. “I disagree.”
“Your mouth can disagree,” he says in a silky hush that makes my insides turn molten. He leans forward and inhales long and slow, closing his eyes as if he’s scenting the most decadent dessert. When he opens them again, they glow a stark opal. “Your body does not.”
I swallow hard, trying to ignore the fact that our lips are so close I can feel his breath. “My body is a fucking mutinous bastard.”
A rumble of laughter rolls through him, as if my mind will come around to the knowledge my body has at some point, and it’s just a matter of time. Warmth spreads farther up my back to my neck, making my muscles tense in anticipation, in the need tograbandhold.
His gaze drifts down to my lips and he licks his. “Rei—”
A heavy knock at the door makes me yelp and flail out of Jasper’s grasp.
“Water for the bath,” someone says from the other side as several heavyclunkshit the floor.
