Page 126 of Entangled

“But you and I both know I don’t have the willpower for that,” Jasper confides, and his voice roughens with emotion. “I’m unspeakably sorry, Lucien, for all the harm I’ve caused you. In everything I’ve done to keep you safe, I’ve only crushed you further. And still, somehow, you’re all the more beautiful for your bruises.”

His thumb smears over my lip, anointing itself in my mouth, and I see him swallow. I think... I’m starting to catch on to what this is. My heart seizes, torn. I’ve waited for it for so long, imagined it so many ways, it feels like an impossibility. Like some genie has plucked my deepest wish from the depths of my dreams and made it flesh.

Only... I don’t know if this is my deepest wish anymore.

Eden isn’t here too.

“I love you, Lucien,” Jasper says, looking me straight in the eye. “I think I loved you the moment you first walked into my office and gave me the most thorough eye fuck of my life. I’ve loved you during every session, for every smile, and with every tear you spilled at my feet. I’m done hurting you, dear boy, in every way bar the ones that bring you joy.”

I stare at him, my lips parting. Both of him? There are two of him.

Am I going to faint?

I sit down hard on the arm of the couch, and amusement sparks in Jasper’s eyes. With his leg, he kicks my knees open and steps into the new space.

“Speak, Lucien,” he says in his Sir voice.

Speak? My head isspinning.

“I—”

A midnight brow lifts. “If I’d known it was so easy to silence you, I might have confessed my feelings sooner.”

“You love me?” I whisper.

Love. He can’t mean this. He’ll take it away again. He’s tired, he’ll rethink it, like he rethinks our scenes every time they end.

“Obsessively.” He tilts my chin up further, and his grip tightens as if he can press the words into my skin. “Incomprehensibly.”

My eyes narrow on him. “Kiss me, then. Kiss me like you?—”

His mouth is on mine. Silken heat. Wet perfection. His tongue licks into my mouth, and I feel it along my cock. Again and again, he teases me in the most perfect, erotic assault. Suddenly, there’s a searing pain in my lip, and I realize he’s bit down. I taste bitter copper, and the sharp sting turns me to liquid need. I groan into his mouth, and his kiss turns gentle. Tender. He presses his lips against my new cut with heartbreaking care, cradling my chin in his face, and tears spring to my eyes.

“I love you,” I tell him between kisses. “I love you so much. I always have.”

He sighs on a groan and takes my mouth deeply again.

The beginnings of joy start sparking in my chest. This is real. It’s really real. It’s finally happened.

When he finally pulls back, we’re both hard and panting and I’m wondering if I’m going to be stripped down and fucked raw over this couch.

He must see the question in my eyes, because he releases the front of my shirt and pulls back further, a small smile on his lips. “Not today.”

“Why not?” That sounds pouty. It should probably embarrass me, but it doesn’t. I feel pouty.

His smile deepens, and I stare. It’s rare—unbelievably rare—to see such bare happiness on Jasper’s face. It transforms him, like he somehow transcends from a black-winged devil and into some achingly beautiful angel, bursting with light.

My throat closes over at the sight.

“Because I’m not here for a quick fuck, Lucien. I have seven years of courting to make up for.” He kisses my cheek. “Seven years of romance.” He nips my earlobe. “Seven years of apologies.”

He wants toromanceme? My heart melts—just liquefies in my chest into a pink, candy-scented puddle.

He rests his forehead against mine. “I plan on seducing you, Lucien. Thoroughly.”

Breathlessly, I laugh at the absurdity of needing to be seduced. As if he couldn’t have me groveling for him to take me any way he wanted. My cock throbs in need, and I reach down to rub my dick through my pants, needing relief, not caring how undignified it is. Jasper has seen me a lot less dignified.

Hopefully, he’ll be seeing it again soon.

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