My stomach muscles tightened in the shiver that ran down my spine. He might as well have added and by any means necessary.
“You sound like you’re threatening violence,” I said.
Jasper leaned toward me as though he wanted to whisper something. “I know in your world there’s peace and justice and following the rules. But men like Valentine don’t respect your way of doing things.”
I inclined myself forward. “If you think I live with pink clouds, unicorns, and fairies, you’re wrong. If you think I believe that Father Knows Best was ever a reality of any human being, then again, you’re wrong. Arthur Valentine fights with an armed arsenal of murderers at his beck and call. And it sounds as if you’re willing and able to match him pound for pound.”
Jasper’s mouth struck like lightning, and his soft, warm tongue was swirling indulgently around mine. My head spun, making me feel as if I were buzzed. His hand gripped me by the waist, and together we stood. That was when I wrapped my arms around his neck. His kiss told me that he was ready to leave our conversation for another time and move on to something more erotic, but his robust erection pressing against me shouted it.
Our mouths separated, but our gazes remained stuck on each other. Over the course of three days, I’d become used to looking into Jasper’s blue-green eyes. I wrongly felt as though I would be looking at them forever.
He gripped my hand and slowly walked me to my bed. My feet felt as if they were shuffling across air. It was Jasper and I, alone in the world. This was the same, how he spread me across the bed and took off my shoes and jeans. Then he gently pulled me up into a sitting position, lifted my sweater over my head, and unhooked my bra before removing it. I understood that he was in control. His warm and delicate mouth consumed one of my nipples, and his fingers crawled behind the crotch of my panties to penetrate my wetness. I tilted my head back and sighed from experiencing the pleasure of his stimulation.
A spontaneous moan escaped him. “Shit,” he said breathlessly, stepping away from me to take off his clothes as if he were in a race. “Get your panties off.”
I snatched my panties off.
Jasper took me by the knees and parted them then guided his erection into my pussy.
“Uh,” I said as his thick hardness pushed inside me.
We were kissing again, and each of his thrusts felt so damn good. But something was different. We couldn’t keep our eyes off each other. With each thrust, I felt as if my heart would burst with an emotion I had worked so hard to stave off during sex sessions with Jasper. In and out, slowly and deeply, his cock experienced my pussy. Every now and then, he would close his eyes to bear the sensations as blood poured to his dick. Then he would stop prodding me and kiss me delicately. I felt like a china store, and he was the bull who was trying to be careful.
“I’m falling for you,” he whispered after our lips parted.
Jasper didn’t wait until I said something in response. He started shifting in and out of me, faster than before. He grabbed hold of the headboard as he tried to bust through me. I held him tightly, angling my burgeoning orgasm toward the action.
“You first,” he mumbled.
I concentrated on the lines of pleasure sparking through my pussy. It was coming. My eyes were closed tightly. It got closer.
Jasper didn’t decelerate. “Please, baby. Hurry, baby,” he kept repeating. I could hear him straining to not let loose.
There… He was agitating the right spot, rimming it, rubbing it, keeping a steady pace.
And then… “I’m coming,” I shouted and cried out to anyone who could hear me as my orgasm ignited my pussy.
“Oh,” Jasper shouted, convulsing. “Holy shit!”
* * *
Jasper held me so close, it felt as if our bodies were glued together. Every now and then, he would kiss his favorite part of my back, my hot spot, which would send flickers of delight through me. There was no way we could sleep. I knew we weren’t done making love, and I believed he knew it as well.
“I’ve been wondering, why did you decide to become a reporter?” he asked.
I was sort of shocked he asked me that question simply because it was the sort of inquiry a man asked on the first date or something.
“I don’t know, because I like to discover things, I guess.”
“You’re really good at what you do,” he said.
I pursed my lips, fighting the urge to say more, to divulge more of the pain I had always kept to myself. Then my mouth opened, and I said, “I also became a journalist because I felt as though my parents hid so much from me. It wasn’t the shit they paraded right in front of my face, the double-dealing and petty crimes. It was the deep and dark secrets that made them who they were and, as a result, compounded my entire childhood experience. They dragged me through what felt like shit and deep mud every day, unable to see my pain. And if they did see it, then they sure didn’t have the ability to give a damn.” Tears rushed through my eyes. “I often dreamed of being one of the lucky ones.”
Jasper sniffed bitterly. “If you think I’m one of the lucky ones—”
“No.” I shook my head against his muscular biceps. “The lucky ones have parents who get it.”
“Get what?” There was a sort of eagerness in his tone.
“That they’ve just given birth to a human being that belongs to God, and they have from that moment forward to prepare the child to discover their own gift so that she or he can become a productive and happy adult and citizen of earth.”
Jasper remained quiet, but he squeezed me tighter after kissing me on his favorite spot. “I don’t know my father’s original sin,” he finally said.
I’d been in intimate moments with Jasper enough to understand his communication style. I would remain silent and let him ponder what he wanted to say next.
“One sin covers the previous sin. Then one layers over that one. Then there’s another and a million others. There are so many of them that I can’t reach the original sin. But the people who know what it is are around, holding us hostage, threatening us.”
“I heard what Arthur Valentine said about Bryn,” I whispered.
He was silent for a few beats. “You know I don’t like that you went roaming through the secret hallways.”
I sighed. “I know.” However, I wasn’t going to apologize for it. “But why did you show them to me?”
Jasper paused again. “I wasn’t thinking clearly.” He nudged his half-ready cock into the crease of my ass.
I sucked air. It felt good to be held so closely by someone I was completely attracted to and to be reminded of the power my sexuality had over him.
“I don’t want to hurt your family, Jasper,” I said with a sigh.
“I believe you.”
“But I think I know why Bryn asked me here. She wanted me to uncover that original sin you mentioned earlier.”
I waited to feel his body tense against me, but it didn’t. Then I was struck softly by illumination. “I’m surprised you haven’t tried to figure out the answer. You don’t strike me as someone who allows mystery to control his destiny.”
He pressed his erection against my ass again then flipped me over onto my back. “I’m not,” he said as he spread my knees and slammed his cock into my wetness.
I tightened my walls around his him. He released a heavy sigh, which let me know he liked the way that felt. Jasper moaned and grunted as he prodded me. His eyes were closed, and he was feeling every grain of stimulation from my pussy. Our lips found each other, and we kissed deeply. I felt so full of him.
“Shit, I love you,” I whispered, and my eyes widened. What did I just say?
Jasper seemed to not have heard me as his strokes began to change. He circled his hips then journeyed deeper inside me, hitting the back of my pussy. I cried out. He did it again and again, giving me more. He was rock hard now. My pussy was so sensitive. It had come to know the curve, thickness, and shape of his dick. Those familiar sparks were igniting. I whimp
ered, and he seemed to know what that meant.
“Come, baby,” he whispered, dipping deep into my wetness.
I gripped him tightly, holding on until it happened. “Ah!” I screamed as my body tensed up.
Jasper pulled his dick out of me and went down to cover my clit with his mouth. His stimulation was instant.
“Shit!” I clawed the sheets, trying to hold on tightly to something.
He was extending my orgasm. The powerful and natural sensation hit me so hard that I was forgetting to breathe as I cried at the top of my lungs. That was when Jasper put his mouth back over mine, his dick back in my pussy, and rode me hard and fast.
Our lips pulled apart as we breathed hard.
“Let me have you in my mouth,” I said.
“Your pussy is tighter,” he said, straining to get those words out. “I l-love…” He nailed me deeply, then his body quaked as he let loose inside me. “Your pussy,” he said tiredly as he rolled me around to lie on top of him.
* * *
“I didn’t care much for Randolph either,” Jasper admitted.
A lot of time had passed since Jasper and I had climaxed. I couldn’t mark the minutes or hours because we weren’t counting them. I felt complete with my face against the left side of Jasper’s chest, listening to the soft drum of his heartbeats.
“But you were taught to be dutiful,” I said.
He blew a brisk breath out of his nose. “Yeah, I know this.” His body shifted. “Listen, I don’t want this to end between us. Why don’t you stick around?”
Suddenly, that distrusting feeling that often plagued me returned. “You don’t have to manipulate me, Jasper. I said I wouldn’t hurt your family, and I won’t. If you don’t want the world to know Randolph Christmas has died, then they won’t hear it from me.”
“That’s not what I asked,” he said, barely audible. He cleared his throat. “I just want you to hang around for a while.”
I had come to loathe the Christmas mansion. It felt dark and unsettling, even if the cook was fantastic. That was when my stomach growled.
“I’m hungry,” I announced, purposely changing the subject.
“Me too.” Jasper’s finger slid up and down my clit under the covers.
A spontaneous sigh escaped me. “For food,” I whispered.
At that point, I guessed there was no need to hide our relationship. Jasper called the kitchen and told them to bring dinner for two to my room.
“So what do you say?” he asked as we waited for dinner to arrive.
My gaze scanned the room. “I don’t like this place.”
“We’ll stay here for a few days, then we’ll fly out to my place in LA.”
I raised my eyebrows. “LA?” Jeez, he really wanted to spend some time around me.
“Yeah, yeah, take a little trip to Catalina. We’ll drive up towards Big Sur, go to San Francisco. We’ll do some desert trips.”
I chuckled. “I didn’t know you were so adventurous.”
He looked so serious as he pondered. “I just want you all to myself.”
That was when I realized he didn’t really believe we could do it. Jasper was dreaming.
“Let’s see,” I said as someone knocked on the door.
We remained under the covers as the servers set up our dinner near the two high-backed chairs. They gave us a chilled bottle of champagne and left the room without giving us any dubious looks.
Jasper and I remained naked as we sat in the chairs, eating. I was famished and eating like it. I only slowed my pace when I realized he was grinning at me with amusement.
“Oh my God, your cook is so top-notch,” I said, chewing on the crispy peppered prime rib.
“Then he’ll come with us to California.”
I narrowed an eye suspiciously.
“I didn’t think you took me seriously,” he said. “My invitation is real, Holly.”
“What about your business?”
“I have employees. I only hired the best. Plus, it’s time to take a vacation, a real one.”
If he was trying to ease my doubts, he’d done it.
“Okay.” I grinned from ear to ear. “Let’s do it, then.”
His eyes were alight. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Now his eyes smoldered. “Good. Now, you eat that, and I’ll eat you.”
* * *
“Holy shit!” I cried after the third orgasm.
Next, it was time to swallow his pole. I enjoyed every second of his broad girth in my mouth. My tongue and cheeks ached, but I kept going, driving him crazy. I wanted to milk him dry.
“Oh,” he called, gripping my hair as he tossed his head back. His warm, salty milk poured into my mouth.
We were in the tub together. He washed my hair, and I’d just finished cleaning his back. Now I was in front of him, my back resting on his chest as he rubbed my nipples between his fingers. I breathed in deeply through my nose, letting the steam from the water and flurries from the bubbles moisten my brain. I was all into Jasper Christmas. I had no idea what this was or how far we were going to take our relationship. Since I’d never been in love before, I didn’t know if what I felt for him was that very thing taking root inside.
After our bath, we dried our skin and my hair then flowed into bed again. Throughout the night, we learned more about each other. In the past, Jasper had wanted to become a firefighter and wasn’t quite sure if the desire had left him. However, at an early age, he’d been groomed to take over Christmas Enterprises, and he was privy to all the daunting aspects of that.
Jasper had his forearm thrown over his eyes. “What I’ve seen, no man and certainly no kid should ever lay eyes on.”
I wouldn’t have been a journalist worth her salt if I didn’t ask him to divulge what he’d seen, but I didn’t ask. I was being a better lover than reporter.
“Once, actually more than once, I’ve stood across the street as I watched my dad pickpocket the elderly lady he was helping across the street,” I said. “Up until I was nine or ten, I used to hope he would score. Sometimes, getting money that way was a matter of me eating dinner for the night or not. Then one day, one old lady caught him dead in the act. She tried to fight him, and he pushed her to the ground.” That memory played back for me as if it were recorded in high definition. “The woman fell and hit her head on the asphalt. I remember she started bleeding, and my father took the wallet and left her there. That’s when I knew for sure he was a snake.”
Jasper grunted thoughtfully. “Well, Randolph and Harper should’ve gotten together and shared a prostitute and some cocaine or something.”
I snickered. “Oh, how cynical and dark is thy humor.”
He snorted. “I wasn’t attempting humor, only the cynicism.”
On that note, we made out heavily, but before we could transition into making love, Jasper and I gave in to exhaustion and fell asleep.
Chapter Twenty-One
December 25
I felt something hard grinding my ass.
“Good morning, beautiful,” Jasper crooned, his morning tone sending tingles through my heart.
He was still in bed with me. I hadn’t expected him to still be there when I woke up. For some reason, I felt as though the moments we’d spent together the previous night before falling asleep combined in one perfect dream that I would never have again.
We made love then showered together. Jasper and I were supposed to meet downstairs for breakfast in a small den rather than at the large table since it would only be the two of us. His siblings had made good on their claims and had all left the mansion. I could feel the same restlessness in Jasper that morning. He was there with me, but he was also ready to get the hell out of there. Duty was making him go through the motions.
He said he had to meet with the servants about revising their duties. None of them knew Randolph was actually dead. They believed he was in the hospital, being made comfortable as he endured his final stages of life. There was no family to wai
t on. The kitchen staff would be flown out to Jasper’s house in Bel Air to wait on us. A skeleton crew of maids would keep the house dusted. The gardeners would shovel the snow, trim the trees, and rake the leaves. Jasper talked about selling the place one day; there was no need for him or his siblings to own it. They all hated the Christmas mansion.
However, before we caught our flight later that afternoon, we had planned to make love one more time. I hadn’t brought any overtly sexy clothes, but now I wished I had. So I went into Bryn’s room and found a white silk slip dress and put it on. My curves and tits looked so tantalizing in the garment that I wondered if Jasper would be able to eat the food that had been prepared for us rather than me.
I was surprised William had not met me at the end of the hallway to escort me to the den. Jasper must’ve already released most of his house staff for the holidays and beyond. When I made it to the first floor, I headed in the direction of where we were supposed to meet for breakfast. However, I heard Jasper shouting, although I couldn’t make out what he was saying. I heard another man’s voice as well. So I changed directions and went to see what in the world was going on. These sounds led me to the main foyer. I gasped and slapped a hand over my constricted heart as I saw Arthur Valentine in the flesh. A young woman who appeared to be in her late twenties or early thirties stood beside him. She had dark hair, almond eyes, and skin that looked as if it had never seen the sun.
Arthur pointed at me. “Is that your whore?”
“Leave,” Jasper shouted.
“Randolph is dead, and you’re marrying my daughter today,” Arthur replied.
I could hardly believe what I was hearing.
The woman kept her eyes cast down. It was evident that she had no say in the matter either.
“Not here, not now, Art,” Jasper said, although there wasn’t much muscle in his tone.
Arthur gestured to me. “She has fifteen minutes to get the hell out of here, and you have twenty to meet me in the car.”
Intrigued: The Dark Christmases Page 15
