Page 8 of Intrigued
Her eyebrows furrowed. “What about him?”
“He warned me to stay out of your family affairs.”
She twisted her mouth, showcasing enough anxiety to make me feel worried.
“Am I going to end up at the bottom of the ocean or something?”
“I’m not going to downplay his bark; it does have a bite. But Jasper is very cautious about who he sinks his molars into.”
I stretched my mouth squeamishly. “Yikes. That sounds like it hurts.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Yeah, he crushes bears. But I will say that he will never hurt me. I’m your safety net, Holls. That’s why we have to wait until dinner before I let you know what I want from you exactly. Ace needs to know you’re not here because you have your own agenda.”
I frowned intensely. “Ace?”
“Oh.” She rolled her eyes. “That’s what we call Jasper sometimes.” Bryn smirked. “He’s always been a jack of all trades and the ace of spades. He’s behind the curtain, pulling all the strings.”
I grunted thoughtfully, unable to get the image of Ace crushing bears with his molars out of my head. I could feel the strain on my face as I frowned while pondering if the risk was worth it. Bryn had already given me an out. I would not have to repay the Christmases for all they had done for me. But I had never taken unearned free rides, and I wasn’t going to start now. No, I would not let Jasper’s sharp teeth scare me. Whatever Bryn wanted, I would do it and fulfill my obligation to the best of my ability.
“What’s Jasper’s story anyway? Is he married? Does he have a girlfriend?”
Bryn leaned toward me, which let me know she was about to whisper again. “I’ve never seen him with a woman.”
I sat up straight, feeling my hopes thwarted. “Is he gay?”
“I don’t know. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was.” She thumbed toward the ceiling. “Our dad is upstairs in his sickbed. Jasper probably won’t come out of the closet until the axis of evil is dead, buried, and tucked safely away in hell.”
I raised my eyebrows. “So there’s still no love lost between you and your father?”
Her eyes turned cold. “Not an ounce.”
I cleared my throat, trying not to let the hate emanating from her affect my questioning. “I take it your dad’s health isn’t getting any better?”
“Nope.” She pressed her lips together. Suddenly, Bryn became antsy, twisting and turning, then she rose to her feet. “Why don’t you take a bath or shower or whatever and decompress before dinner? I would like for you to do what you do best, Holls.”
I stood. “And what’s that?”
“Read the table. Read everyone who’s present, even my brother’s girlfriend.”
Reading peoplewaswhat I did best. I nodded firmly. “You got it.”
Chapter Three
There was no way I wasn’t going to take advantage of the large, deep bathtub. I lay in the warm water, surrounded by bubbles and the sweet scent of vanilla cream from the soap I was using. My eyes were closed, but all I could see was Jasper’s manly figure walking in front of me as I followed him up the path while driving in my car. Goodness, I was turned on by him. He had the most kissable mouth ever. I gnawed on my bottom lip then ran my tongue across it, thinking about how making out with him would feel. My finger found the sensitive spot on the edge of my clit and rubbed… and rubbed. I released a sigh as my pussy began to spark. It wasn’t real. It was Jasper doing that to me. Jasper would never do that to me. Something was totally off about him for sure. Perhaps he was merely an object of my issues in regard to desiring unavailable men. Bryn had never been the most observant individual, but she could be right about her brother being gay. My finger abruptly stopped, and all sensations subsided.
As soon as I let go of my fantasy starring Jasper “Ace” Christmas, I recalled a conversation I’d had with a colleague named Kylie Roberson nearly a week after Amelia Christmas’s death five years ago.
We had been in a bar at the airport—how cliché,a bar at the airport—just two reporters chatting it up during a layover. Kylie had been determined to make her career off the Christmases’ demise. She knew Bryn was my roommate for one year in college and wondered if I knew how old Bryn’s mother was. Apparently, no one could obtain the accurate age of Amelia Rainier Christmas.
“Isn’t that strange?” she asked me.
I couldn’t deny that it was. Randolph Wesley was older than the average father. He’d been seventy when Amelia gave birth to Bryn and was now ninety-seven. I used to sense Bryn’s impatience with him, as if all she wanted was for him to hurry up and die.
However, Kylie told me this crazy thing she had done following Amelia’s death. She’d gotten in touch with the coroner in charge of Mrs. Christmas’s body and had convinced him to give her a tissue sample. However, her plan hadn’t worked out. The coroner had gotten arrested for selling body parts and healthy organs on the black market on the morning he was supposed to extract the sample. Just a few hours after that, Amelia Rainier Christmas’s body had been cremated. Kylie and I agreed it was more than a coincidence that the two had happened on the same day.
After heeding Bryn’s warning about her brother’s bite, I was convinced Jasper may have had something to do with the cremation and had covered his tracks so well that Kylie couldn’t implicate him.
I opened my eyes. The warm water was making me sweat. Or perhaps it was the stress of being attracted to a dangerous and mysterious Christmas man. I had to get ahold of myself, keep my head in the game, and more importantly, maintain a safe distance from the ace of spades.
