Marin

Jasper woke me with kisses the next morning. I kept my eyes closed long after I’d woken up, feeling his lips flutter against my eyelids, my lips, my cheeks, and the tip of my nose.

“I have to go,” he whispered against my neck.

God, even his morning breath smelled good. How? I lifted a leg and hooked it behind one of his knees, holding him to the bed.

“We can’t stay in bed forever.”

“Want to bet?” I said, still not opening my eyes.

“I need to take care of a few things, and you need to pack.”

Pack? Oh yeah, I was moving in with him. Moving in with Jasper Black. If someone had told me a few weeks earlier that I’d be lying next to Jasper Black after a night of extraordinary sex, talking about moving in with him, I would have told them they were insane. But, there I was.

“I’ll just buy new stuff,” I said, dismissing his concern with a wave of my hand and folding my naked body into his thick chest. He was warm, and despite his insistence that he needed to leave, I felt him growing hard against my back. “You sure you want to leave?” I teased.

“I’m capable of rising above my baser instincts,” he said, untangling himself from me and standing up.

He was solid through and through. The muscles in his back rippled as he tugged on his jeans and searched the floor for his shirt and jacket. I almost couldn’t believe how natural it felt. We were a real couple. We hadn’t formally discussed it yet, but the endless string of steamy sexual encounters had sort of spoken for themselves, right? Because if that was how Jasper made love to someone he didn’t care about, God help the woman he did care about. She would probably melt down to a pile of bones with little more than a kiss.

Plus, he had sworn to take care of the baby and me. Even in my wildest dreams, Jasper felt duty-bound and promised to be involved in the baby’s life, but I never imagined he would be excited about the situation. But he’d immediately offered to let me live with him. Underneath it all, he was a good man – another thing I never imagined possible – and I wanted to be the person to bring that side of him to the forefront.

An article naming Jasper the most eligible bad boy bachelor in the city had circulated around the Internet a few months before, and I wanted to be the woman to change that perception of him. I wanted people to see who Jasper truly was.

I threw the covers on the floor and lounged in bed entirely naked, resting on my elbow, in an attempt to lure Jasper back to bed, and it nearly worked. He ran his eyes over my body hungrily, biting his lower lip and groaning, but managed to leave the room. However, a few minutes later he came back in, already tugging his shirt over his head.

“Bear will be here in fifteen minutes to watch the apartment while you pack,” he said, spreading my legs and unzipping his jeans. “So, we have some time.”

I was still laying on my side when Jasper lifted my top leg and pushed himself inside of me. He trailed kisses down my calf and rubbed at my sensitive nub while he slid in and out of me. The position allowed me to lay down and close my eyes, giving my entire body over to the sensation of him inside of me. We came at the same time, my fists digging into the sheet hard enough that it tore.

“Lucky for you, I already have sheets at my house,” he said, kissing me on the cheek just as a knock sounded on the front door. “That will be Bear. Pack up, and I’ll be back for you in a few hours.”

The idea of packing felt impossible – my body was spent and lazy – but I nodded and watched him slip through my bedroom door. I heard him talking to Bear just before the front door shut, and he locked it behind him with the key I’d given him.

I showered, running my hands over my body in the same way Jasper had the night before. Remembering his touch was enough to make me wet, and I couldn’t wait to spend another night with him. Then, I remembered we would be spending every night together, and a grin I couldn’t hide pulled on my lips. It was still plastered on my face as I packed up the last box and looked around my empty room.

The space looked larger with everything gone, and I realized how little I would miss it. While I’d enjoyed living with Kayla, I was ready for the next step in my life. And with or without Jasper, I would have had to get a larger place when the baby arrived anyway. For the first time in a long time, I didn’t have any doubts about my decision. It was going to be great.

Jasper told me he’d be back in a few hours, but I was ready to leave. When he wasn’t riding his motorcycle, Bear drove a large truck, and I could see it parked out front of the apartment. The bed was definitely big enough for my few boxes, and it would be nice to surprise Jasper when he got home by already being there.

So, I bounded out of my room to ask Bear to drive me to Jasper’s. Except, when I got to the front door, where he was meant to be posted, no one was there. I’d heard Jasper instruct him not to leave the apartment for even a minute without informing me first, so I was debating whether or not I should tell Jasper about Bear’s absence when I turned around and noticed the blood on the carpet.

My eyes followed the bloody path from the front of the door all the way through the apartment and around the corner. My heart was hammering, and my brain was screaming at me to run, but my body refused to listen. I followed the blood trail to the kitchen, where a scream died in my throat.

Bear’s body had been flayed open, though it seemed as if that had been done purely for dramatic effect because a single bullet hole scarred the center of his forehead. I stared at his body for a few seconds in utter shock and horror before I realized what that meant. Someone had killed Bear and dragged him through my house, and they were probably still inside.

Just as I moved to grab a steak knife from the block on the counter, a large hand clamped over my mouth. An arm wrapped around me, and I recognized the Jagged Jackals emblem tattooed on the man’s forearm.

“Angel spoke so highly of your robe after his last visit,” an unfamiliar voice growled out in my ear. “He’ll be glad to see you wearing it again.”

I kicked back at the man, but he was too strong. He led me to the door where another Jagged Jackals member – this one sporting a bald head and a missing front tooth – helped lead me to a waiting car in the alley behind the apartment building. They threw me in the back seat, and I lunged for the other door, but the handle was useless, and the door stayed closed.

The two men climbed in after me and sat on either side of me, squishing me between their massive shoulders.

“Please don’t hurt me,” I begged, tears rolling down my cheeks. “I’m pregnant.”

The bald man raised an eyebrow at the other man – a young guy, no older than twenty-five, with a thick crop of blond hair – and I suspected I should have kept the baby a secret.

Oh well, it was too late now. I’d likely be dead within the hour.