by Heather Long
I pulled my knees up, then spread them, not hiding from his view as I unsnapped my bra and then tugged it off. When I tossed it to him, he caught it and lifted it to his nose. He sniffed it slowly, and a shiver trembled inside of me like he was running his nose against my breasts.
When he started forward, I slowed him with a foot pressed to his chest. Not that it had much affect as he ran his hand over my calf and then cupped my ankle in his warm palm. With absolute care, he pushed my foot up onto his shoulder and then began nuzzling kisses along my leg as he climbed the bed.
A moan escaped me as my toes curled. “I wanted to see you.” Pushing those words out took some effort, but Jasper didn’t halt, even as he made it to the inside of my thigh. The tickling softness teased my senses, while all the air backed up in my lungs when his breath teased over my cunt.
“So fucking sexy,” he murmured, then he buried his whole face against my pussy and I arched right off the bed. The overwhelming stimulation of his beard against my inner thighs and along my slit coupled with his mouth kissing me with so much tongue, he damn near seemed to be fucking me, had my ass clenching.
All of the earlier need roared to life, and I was going up in flames. He didn’t hold me down, just rode upward with me, locking my legs around him and keeping his face buried against me. The pressure of his nose against my clit wasn’t quite enough, and with far too gentle fingers, he cupped my ass and then vibrated his tongue against my channel.
The fucking sound he released pushed me right up to the edge, and I dug my fingers into the sheets as he began to lick, suck, bite, and stroke in earnest. Too much, the pressure was too much. The tongue was too much. The heated brushes of his beard as he delved deeper threatened to rip away my sanity.
“Come,” he ordered, and fuck, I wanted to, but it was too much. A scream built in my throat as I flexed my thighs, and Jasper growled. The deep, chest thrumming sound slammed into my pussy, and I lost it. I came, screaming. Not once did he stop licking and sucking like I was his favorite fucking treat, and he could curl his tongue in such a way that I damn near came again from the pressure of it
Sweat decorated my skin as he eased his mouth up, and I fought the shaking in my thighs to get them to let him go. The intensity of his gaze seared up my body.
“Swan…” Sex drenched his voice. “Tell me who hurt you.”
I groaned at the intrusion of that reality. I didn’t want to talk about that.
“You need more,” he soothed as he spread my legs wide and pushed me up higher on the bed. “Brace yourself, sweet girl, and when you’ve had enough, you let me know…”
Enough of…?
He went back to eating me out like I was the only thing he wanted on his tongue, and the tremors in my system built again. This time, he added his fingers to the teasing thrusts, curling them just so with each deep push, and he sucked my clit until I swore I came so hard, I squirted a little. It was something I’d only ever heard of happening, not experienced. He laughed.
His soaked beard glistened in the half-light. Fuck me. I was floating. First Vaughn, and now Jasper… I’d had no clue it could be so fucking good. I was a boneless mass on his bed, and Jasper still had on all his clothes.
Where was the justice in that? No sooner would I complain then he’d dive back into my pussy like he planned to live there, and my brain would white out all the noise until we were all that existed in his room of stars. It wasn’t until I ached almost as badly as I wanted his touch that he let up. He pressed a damp kiss to my lips, searing in its intensity, then eased back with another sweet peck before he pushed off the bed and went to the bathroom.
The light came on in there, and the brightness against my closed eyelids teased me. I swore I was both hot and chilly. Sweat dotted my skin, my heart raced, and I had to be flushed from head to toe.
Jasper’s tongue was a dangerous weapon, and the anger fueling him had been like a drug, highly addictive and devastating to my system. Not once, no matter how many times he asked and I refused to answer, did he direct that rage at me.
The sound of the water running pierced the haze of pleasure. I told my limbs I wanted to roll over, and they didn’t even have the energy to flip me off. Lying there, I suffered not knowing if he was changing his clothes or, even better, getting naked.
Eventually, he returned to the bed with a tease of his fingers along my thigh. “You still with me Swan?”
I managed to open my eyes, just barely, and I smiled up at him. He really was a good-looking man, and his eyes… “I love your eyes,” I admitted, maybe a little too drunk on the orgasms he’d pulled from me one right after the other.
“Really?” I swore there was a smile in his voice. “Good to know.”
He kissed me again, then helped me sit up enough to drink some water. While I sipped that, he ran a chilly cloth against my swollen cunt, and I closed my eyes and blotted out any discomfort. I’d had far too much pleasure to let that bother me.
Instead, I focused on the simple way he’d taken care of me. It wasn’t until he rose and vanished back into the bathroom that I forced my eyes open. I’d forgotten to look. The lights went out in the bathroom, plunging the room back to semidarkness, and he crossed the room to the bed.
Shirtless.
Pantsless.
Sliding in on the other side, he gathered me to him, and I sighed at the contact of his skin on mine, but instead of kissing me, he rolled me onto my side and spooned against my back. The brush of fabric against my ass betrayed that he hadn’t gotten completely naked.
Pressing a kiss to my shoulder, he said, “Go to sleep, Swan.”
“But I didn’t get to see you.” The distinct warbling note of whining in my voice made me cringe.
“When you trust me,” he said, smiling. “Now sleep.” How the hell was I supposed to do that? Even boneless and spent, I wanted…I wanted to do something for him, but he had me tucked tight against him and I wasn’t even sure I could move anyway.
The flash of his phone came on, and I squinted up as he typed something, then chuckled as it made the whoosh sound when it sent. After, he turned off the screen and set the phone down.
“What was that?”
He nuzzled a kiss along my nape and gave my waist a gentle squeeze. “I told Vaughn to enjoy your bed, you were sleeping in here tonight.”
The genuine pleasure in his voice had me shaking my head. I should get up and go to my own bed. Sleeping in Jasper’s, just like when I’d slept in Vaughn’s, it set a bad precedent. But the truth was, I didn’t want to leave his bed. I didn’t…
The next time my eyes fluttered open, I shuddered through the first blush of confusion in not knowing where I was. The shift of movement in the bed had me half ready to bolt lest he wake up, and then my bed partner rumbled a sound and pressed a kiss to my shoulder. The tickle of his beard would have betrayed him if the half growl in his voice hadn’t already given him away.
“Go back to sleep,” he ordered. Even mostly asleep, he was a bossy ass. A smile pulled at my lips as he rubbed his face against my shoulder. The brush of his beard and the combination of soft and bristly reminded me of the way cats like to rub against people.
Marking them.
My nose wrinkled.
With Jasper, he might be doing it as much for that reason as for just being cute in his sleep. I tried to listen to him and go back to sleep, but the rush of adrenalin when I woke up somewhere unknown made that impossible. I listened to him breathing. The brush of his breath against my shoulder soothed, as did the weight of his arms around me.
He’d cuddled right up to me. I didn’t think he’d moved away when he was asleep, that had probably been me. I looked up at the lights, letting my eyes lose focus as I tried to make my mind relax.
But random images kept dancing behind my eyelids each time I closed them. Time seemed to slow, or maybe I was just imagining it. Jasper slept so still and warm. I rolled over carefully, and he eased onto his back. The arm he’d had around me went
up over his head, and I raised up on one arm so I could study him in the dark.
Asleep, his face seemed…not peaceful. No, but it did seem less tense, but no less guarded. Did his demons not leave him alone, even when he slept? The light was too dim to make out the tattoos on his chest, but one looked like a vine wrapped around a letter, or maybe it was a ladder? I leaned in a little closer to peer at it. Not that it helped.
And ogling him in the dark while he slept wasn’t exactly the best behavior. The ache in my pussy from him making me orgasm so many times reminded me that I’d gotten off multiple times to his talented tongue, his gorgeous lips, and that tongue… Fuck me, his tongue.
It had seriously fucked me. I closed my eyes and pressed a kiss to where the vine was. His breathing didn’t change and he barely moved, so I nuzzled a path toward his belly, enjoying the way his muscles moved beneath my lips.
He wasn’t huge or jacked, but he was definitely cut. Strength marked the lines of his body, and the scent of him was all warm and clean. Had he showered before he slept? The minutes between that last orgasm and when he’d cuddled up to me were hazy at best.
Kissing along his abdomen, I paused at the top of what looked like a pair of black boxer briefs. I pulled the blanket back some as I sat up. I wanted to… Even as I reached out a hand to explore, I pulled it back.
“Something wrong?” His voice startled me, and I jerked my gaze up to find him watching me.
“You didn’t want me to see you.”
“Didn’t say that,” he admonished and yawned. “Said you should sleep ’cause you were tired, and I wasn’t going to push for more when you need time to learn to trust me.”
“So I have to trust you to see your cock?” I tilted my head.
“Well, I have to keep my temper under control so you’ll date me.” The tone said deny it if I dared.
I pursed my lips. “Those things don’t seem equal, and you—”
He sat up abruptly and touched a single finger to my lips. “Don’t you dare.”
Surprise filtered through me. “Don’t I dare what?”
“Don’t you dare say it’s not fair that you got off and I didn’t. This isn’t about tit for tat or quid pro quo.” The remonstration in his voice silenced any argument I might have made. “I wanted to chase away whatever scared you. You wouldn’t tell me who…” He brushed the hair away from my face. “So I did the only thing I could think of, Swan—I made sure the only thing crowding into that beautiful mind was me and the only thing you could feel was me…”
Tears pricked my eyes.
“Now,” he said, holding out a hand, “come back and sleep with me? I like feeling you against me. Even if you move that ass so temptingly.”
That made me laugh. “How does one move temptingly while asleep?”
“You breathe in and out, that’s all the temptation I need.” Okay, I was really glad for the darkness when my face heated, because the absolute sincerity in his growling tone floored me. It took him very little coaxing to pull me up against him again.
While it took me longer to go to sleep than I cared to admit, his breathing never evened. He was as awake as I was, but he let me choose quiet or words. He waited for me to sleep, and the idea that he kept watch finally let me relax enough to drift off.
The next morning, I showered in his bathroom, and he grabbed me clean clothes from my room. His smirk when he carried them into the bathroom and watched me shower while he sat on the vanity spoke volumes.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing,” he said. “Didn’t have to. Vaughn was already up and heading downstairs.”
I groaned and ducked my face under the water. At some point, I needed to work through the tangled knots of all these relationships, but right now, I just wanted coffee.
Maybe pancakes.
A whole stack of pancakes.
Jasper seemed to take great pleasure in watching me get ready. Thankfully, I wasn’t body shy, or the way his gaze seemed to devour me might have put me on edge. As it was, there was something proprietorial in his eyes that niggled at me, but the rest was just…open admiration.
Downstairs, we found everyone present in the kitchen. Well, everyone except Doc. They all turned to look at us as I came in with Jasper right behind me. Kellan was already at the stove, and he nodded to the coffeemaker. Vaughn leaned against the counter next to the coffee.
Wordlessly, he pulled down a mug for me. I met his gaze, and when I offered a small smile, he answered with one of his own swiftly enough. Rising on my tiptoes, I kissed the corner of his mouth and murmured, “Sorry you waited for me.” I tried to keep it low, because frankly, not a discussion for everyone.
Vaughn just grinned and caught my chin in his fingers and gave me a real kiss. It was sweet, searing, and with enough heat to make me feel like I’d just stepped out of the steamy shower all over again. “It’s fine,” he murmured against my lips before letting me go.
Aware of all the speculative looks, I poured myself a mug and made my way over to the table. Freddie sat on one side of it alone, so I sat next to him.
Rome and Liam were opposite me, and Rome bumped my foot with his before hooking his ankle around mine. I grinned before a cough-snort from Liam made me glance over to where Vaughn and Jasper glared at each other. If one could have a silent war, it raged right there.
Kellan walked right between them with a platter of pancakes. He set the whole mess down in the center, and I swore my eyes had to grow. My stomach growled, and Freddie grunted when Kellan told him to eat.
It was the first time I’d seen Freddie out of his room since we’d gone to the clinic. He really did look like hell. “Look,” Kellan said. “I know you don’t like it, but everyone has work today. So it’s go with Liam or I’ll take you to the clinic with Sparrow.”
I blinked. “I’m going to the clinic?” Everyone hushed and glanced at me.
“You don’t have to,” Rome supplied. “But I won’t be back for a few hours and everyone has work.”
“No one wants you here alone with the fuckup,” Freddie said with a grunt.
I frowned, then speared two of the pancakes with a fork and set them on my plate. With care, I cut them up and added a bit of butter and a little syrup, then traded my plate for Freddie’s empty one. “Eat,” I told him. “We can hang out here today. Maybe finish the book we started, or you can pick out some horror movies to watch.”
More silence rippled through the room, and Kestrel grimaced. “Sparrow, that might not be the best idea. Freddie’s still…”
“He’ll be fine,” I told him and then glanced around the room. “We’ll be fine together. It’s hardly the first time I’ve been around someone coming down. He’s clean, he’s just in the fight to stay clean. That means he needs distractions and not stress.”
As much as I liked the clinic, Freddie had not. Ignoring them, I grabbed a few more pancakes. Freddie stared at me in disbelief, and then I pointed at his plate. “Eat, wasting pancakes is a crime.”
The desire to carb up was intense. The silence weighed in as I bathed my own stack in syrup. Not willing to engage on this topic, I just glanced at Liam. “When did you want to start those boxing lessons?”
The temperature in the whole room shifted, as did the tension.
“What boxing lessons?” Jasper asked as he and Vaughn ceased glaring at each other and focused on Liam. Kestrel frowned, and Rome slanted a look at his brother. All at once, the four of them hit Liam with a dozen questions. The man at the center of it just shot me an amused look.
And if I read that right, one that promised to get even.
I could live with it. Freddie was off the hook and eating his pancakes, which meant I got to eat mine.
Through Pain
Emersyn
The show had four days between performances. Technically, ten days, but I’d lied to everyone when I booked my flight. The show was traveling to the next city, but there would be a lot of technical setup required at the new venue th
at would keep the show shuttered until it was complete. A lot of the performers were taking advantage of the extra time to take breaks, visit family, or whatever. I’d told them, and Eric specifically, I was going home for the week. Home thought I was still performing.
I had ten days to travel, take care of things, and come back. Hopefully with no one the wiser. The whole flight, I gnawed on a hangnail. My manicure was a mess, but it was the least of my problems. I looked like every other teenager on the flight, and I’d pretty much kept to myself.
Since I left most of my gear with the show to transport, I’d only brought a backpack. Lainey was waiting for me beyond arrivals, and I almost tripped, the relief hit me so hard. Without a word, she opened her arms, and I hugged her tightly.
“Thank you for coming,” I managed around the tears in my throat.
“Of course I came,” she countered, pulling back to stare at me. “You look like shit.”
I laughed and shoved my sunglasses on before she could see the tears in the corners of my eyes. “I love you too.”
“I know,” Lainey murmured and brushed hair away from my face. The almost faint tut-tut underscoring her words made her seem like someone older than me and not the same age. “I booked us a great place. It’s private, and I paid well to make sure no one bothers us.”
Relief scoured through me at the news. More at the fact Lainey didn’t ask me any questions, she just led the way out of the airport to the short-term lot, where she’d parked in a no parking zone. I eyed the convertible, then her, and she gave me a careless shrug.
“You wanted to get out of here fast.”
Another watery laugh escaped me as I dropped my bag into the backseat and climbed in. With the hat on, it would help protect my hair. “You know where the clinic is?”
“Yep. What time is your appointment?” She barely waited for me to buckle in before she accelerated out of the spot and we were zipping through the lot to the access road.
