breath, let it out, then
slipped into bed and pulled the covers up.
I was suddenly very aware of the fact
that he was in bed with me, half naked and that I was wearing
almost nothing at all.
I turned onto my side with my back
toward him. “Goodnight, Jasper.”
“Goodnight.”
I lay there and listened to his steady
breathing, trying to fall asleep. I had spent the last week
sleeping with his arms wrapped around me and found that I was
missing the security. Those arms were my blanket of protection, my
guarantee that he wouldn’t let anything happen to me.
“Hayden.”
I jumped.
“I need to hold you.” Jasper stayed on
his back.
“That’s good.” I scooted so that my
back was against his side. “I don’t think I can sleep if you aren’t
holding me.”
I sighed and relaxed as he turned, his
legs fitting snugly against the back of mine. He put his arm around
me and my hand found his automatically, our fingers lacing
together. I felt the tension leave his body.
“That’s better,” he whispered.
“Goodnight, Shlova .”
I felt him smile in my hair as we fell
asleep holding each other.
The following morning I woke up feeling
like I had been sleeping for days. The first thing I noticed was
that Jasper was gone. I pushed down the panicky feeling.
“It’s ok. Everything is just fine,” I
told myself. I’d had two dreams during the night. I needed to tell
Jasper about them.
I sat up and saw a platter with fruit,
bread, and cheese. My stomach growled. I noticed a note tucked
under the big plate.
My love,
I thought I had better let
you sleep. There is a bath and soaps in the next room. I will be
back shortly.
Jasper
I finished eating what I could of the
food and then headed into the next room after I had pulled on my
jeans and tank top. I didn’t want to run into Zane or Ben wearing
nothing but the see through nightie.
The bath was deep and already full of
hot water. I stripped and slid into the tub. The water smelled like
flowers. When I was clean I lay with water up to my chin, enjoying
the normalness of it.
A knock on the door broke up my
daydreaming.
“Who is it?”
“It’s me. How does your bath feel?” My
heart jumped at the sound of Jasper’s voice.
“Terrific. Actually, I think I’m done,
but I can’t see a towel in here.”
He laughed. “Sorry. That’s my fault. I
have it here. Do you want me to leave it just outside the
door?”
Always the gentleman. I sighed. Here we
should have been holed up in a cave somewhere and he still refused
to peek. “Sure.”
“Ok. I’ll be in our room.”
My heart skipped again. Our
room.
I stepped out of the tub and cracked
the door open just enough to grab the towel. I dried my hair off
then wrapped it around me, snuggling it up under my
arms.
I looked at my clothes on the floor and
threw them into the tub. I washed and rinsed them the best I could,
wrung them out and headed to our room.
Jasper was laying on his stomach, head
in his arms, his eyes completely covered.
I had to laugh.
“What’s funny?” he mumbled into the
pillow.
“You, you’re gonna end up giving me a
complex.” I hung my clothes up on the back of a chair.
“What do you mean?” Still in his
arms.
“Well, here I’m supposed to be
irresistible to you and all you should want is to be…you know...” I
blushed. “And yet you won’t even attempt to sneak a peek when I’m
anywhere near indecent. I might start thinking there’s something
wrong with me.”
“Of course there’s nothing wrong with
you! That’s the problem.” All of this was being said into his arms.
“I’m afraid that should I see you in your indecent state, as you
put it, I might not be able to control myself.”
“Oh.” I sucked in a breath. “Well,
that’s good to know.”
There was a brush and some folded
clothes on the end of the bed. I took the brush and went to sit on
the chair in front of the mirror. Behind me, I could see him laying
on the bed.
“So what did you
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