Page 44 of Take

I smacked him with my palm in the shoulder and he laughed, one eye opening as he looked at me. “Can you not be an ass for one second?”

“You see, you’re even thinking about asses.”

I raised my knee as hard as I could. He saw it coming and dodged out of the way still laughing. “Damage the goods and I’m not getting you off again.” He came down on top of me and his hard cock pressed into my thigh. An invasion of heat hit me and I couldn’t stop my heart from racing or the clench between my legs.

The best I could do was glower at him as he hovered above. “I can look after myself.”

“Oh, I know you can, but you won’t. Not when you have me to look after you.”

“Oh, my God,” I muttered. “That won’t happen again.”

“Yes, it will. I’ve decided I want all of you.”

“You don’t get to decide that.”

He lowered until his lips were inches away from mine and my gaze shot to his mouth and then back to his eyes. “You want to kiss me right now, don’t you?”

Fuck, yes. “No.” Last night, Jasper did way more than fuck me; he broke through me.

A slight quirk upward at the corner of his lips and then he lowered a little more, his warm breath drifting across my skin. “Don’t lie to me.” I clenched my jaw and pursed my lips together. “Fuck, baby, you’re beautiful.”

My breath hitched. He said it not in a playful flirty way, but as if he really meant it. Except I wasn’t beautiful; I was the beast with the scars all over. He was the beautiful one, but still it made me feel for that one second truly beautiful and that the scars didn’t matter.

His cell rang and he groaned, lifted off me and grabbed it from the nightstand. “Your timing sucks.” He listened for a second and then hung up. “So much for the idea of slow, lazy morning sex. We need to move. A horde of vampires were seen at the airport asking questions. They must have caught on to the ruse with Damien and tracked the plane.” He snagged his jeans off the end of the bed and strode into the bathroom. He said over his shoulder, “There is going to be a lot more than a second time, Max.” I heard the water turn on in the sink. “Babe, grab the toothpaste in my bag and come brush your teeth.”

I rolled my eyes and got out of bed, quickly throwing on clothes before reaching for his satchel. I found in it a little black leather case which had his shaver and . . . I sifted through it . . . cologne, a wad of bills, deodorant and condoms.

“Max.” His face was wet, water dripping off his chin to trail down his naked chest. I walked over and passed him the leather case. “Find anything interesting?”

“No.”

He took it from me. “I have nothing to hide. You’ll never find anything important.”

“Except for condoms,” I said offhandedly and it was more to me than to him.

He chuckled. “Ah, baby. You’re fuckin’ cute jealous.” He reached out and hooked his arm around my neck. It was unexpected and I stumbled into him. “No reason to be. I haven’t fucked anyone since the day I met you.”

Before I could even contemplate his words, he bent forward, shifted his hand to the back of my neck then kissed me. It was hard and possessive, just like him, taking what he wanted, when he wanted it. It made my heart pump madly and my stomach flip-flop as if I was jumping on a trampoline.

Just as quickly as he brought me into him, he let me go. I stood flustered and heated, the ache between my legs demanding attention. And his words were still whirling around in my head like confetti.

Jasper casually picked up his toothbrush and put toothpaste on it then stuck it in his mouth. He put a glob on my toothbrush and passed it to me.

Our eyes met in the mirror as I shoved the toothbrush in my mouth and we brushed our teeth, watching one another’s reflections. A moustache of white clung to his lips and I wanted to lick off the minty freshness and then have him kiss me again.

I didn’t know if my shield around my thoughts was wavering, but Jasper grinned and winked at me. It wasn’t with cocky arrogance, but with tenderness.

I looked away and quickly swished, finished brushing and walked out.

He came out of the bathroom a few seconds later and took a t-shirt out of his bag, pulling it over his head. I caught myself staring as his muscles flexed just before the shirt fell into place. He crouched, packed the bag and then zipped it up.

“You slept through the night.”

I jerked and looked into his charcoal eyes not realizing I was still staring at his tatted arms that had been wrapped around me last night. “Huh?”

“No nightmare.”

I threw the pillow that was on the floor back on the bed and shrugged.