Chapter One
I braced myself for an impact that never came. Even though he’d been the one to shove me to the ground, Jasper somehow still caught me in midair and rolled, cushioning my fall and covering me with his body. My lungs were on fire as I instinctively held my breath, waiting for what came next.
Adrenaline pumped through me, and after what felt like ten minutes but was probably only one, I pressed my hands against his chest, needing to see what the hell had just happened.
“Damn it, Cari. Stay down!” No matter how much pressure I applied, those massive arms remained, a cage around my face. It would likely have been smart to stay there, to let him do his job, but I’d never liked small spaces, and pressed beneath him as I was, it was hard to catch a breath.
“Please.” I huffed and pushed again. “Can’t…breathe.”
Irritation glittered in his eyes, and as I blinked up at him, I realized that this wasn’t a man I’d met yet. The Jasper I’d spent the day—and night—with was stern, with a facade that would crack if you wedged yourself in there just right. The person acting as a shield for my body as the last of the glass tinkled down around us?
If I hadn’t just seen that he would do whatever it took to keep me safe, I might have been afraid. Whoever had just shattered this glass, I didn’t want to be in their shoes.
Anger was fire in my veins, evaporating the fear. I shouldn’t need a bodyguard. I shouldn’t be scared in my own damn room when all I’d done was my job.
“Let me out.” After a moment’s hesitation, during which I would have bet my soul that he was assessing the remaining threat, he rolled enough for me to get free. I crawled to my feet, wincing as I became aware of a thousand tiny cuts, bee stings that would probably hurt like hell tomorrow.
Right now, I didn’t care about these little cuts. Right now, I’d been pushed from mildly concerned about the vandalism to furious that I was being targeted.
I was a good person. Hell, most of the time I couldn’t even stand up for myself. What had I done to deserve this?
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He cast a sidelong glance at me, most of his attention fixed on the icy shards of glass jutting out of the window frame like the teeth in a jack-o-lantern.
“Standing up for myself.” Careful not to step on any glass, I snagged my dress from the floor. I cursed when I saw the straps that had been sliced clean through with his knife, but I tugged the remains of the garment over my head anyway.
My legs shaky, I wobbled on the high heels that I still wore.
I gasped once I’d smoothed the fabric back over my body, holding it to my chest with my hands. He’d pulled his pants up and moved, quiet as a big cat, and was standing a mere whisper away, still angling himself between me and the broken window. “If you think you’re going out there, think again.”
“Excuse me?” I could feel the vertebrae in my spine snapping into place as I straightened, incredulous. “It was Daly. You know it was Daly. He’s a chauvinistic redneck pig who’ll keep pushing until someone pushes back. I shouldn’t have to be scared. I shouldn’t need to have you.”
“And what are you planning to do?” He stepped back the tiniest bit, and his gaze swept over me, reminding me that I was in a skimpy, torn dress, high heels, and that I was missing panties. This, I’m sure, was his point. “Slay him with your vicious rhetoric?”
He had a point, but I couldn’t just stay here—couldn’t just take this. I’d worked damn hard to get where I was—the schooling, the doctorate, the show. Now, with fear a jagged blade sawing at my success, I felt as though it could all be snatched away.
I wasn’t going to have it. Gathering all the little bits of bravery that I could manage, I raised my chin into the air. “You can’t stop me.”
“I can.” He arched an eyebrow. “And I’ll enjoy it.”
I guessed his intention moments before he moved, and my eyes widened. I choked out a breath as he lifted me straight off my feet, hoisting me up and over his shoulder.
“Jasper!” He was not going to carry me out of here caveman-style…except that, with his arms acting as steel bands around me, I found that I had little say in the matter. I cursed as his boots ground the shards of glass into a powder, white sand that glinted up at me as I hung upside down.
“Stay quiet.”
I was about to tell him exactly what I thought of that, but the words caught in my throat when I realized that at some point he’d pulled out his gun. The black metal gleamed in the low light that filtered in from a streetlamp outside, and the bitter taste of fear, undiluted, spread over my tongue.
If that gun was out, then he thought there was real danger. I couldn’t hold back the slight shudder that vibrated through me, and instead of fighting Jasper, I found myself digging my fingers into his muscle. I pressed my face against his shoulder, eyes squeezed tight as he slowly, quietly opened the door to my room. Backing out, blocking me with his body, he craned his neck, grunted with satisfaction, and swung fast into the hall, his massive frame curled in, enclosing me in its shell.
I remained curled into a ball, having finally realized that what I saw as standing up for myself was really just making his job more difficult. I heard the sound of a lock opening and the thud of a door swinging open, and then I was being set down. My eyes flew open as my feet touched the ground.
“Whose room is this?” I watched, wide-eyed, as Jasper closed the door with the heel of his boot, then tucked his gun into the waistband of his pants. When he looked at me again, that stranger was still visible in the lines of his face. He was cold, hard—ready to do whatever it took to get the job done.
“Mine.” Methodically, he checked every inch of the room, which was identical to mine. Finally, he nodded with satisfaction, turning to leave. “I’ll be back soon.”
“Wait!” My muscles locked as that very real fear turned them to ice. He looked back over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow. “I’m not staying here alone!”
That pale green of his eyes softened, deepened, and I expected… I don’t know what, exactly. That he’d say he would stay?
“I doubt that whoever did this is hanging around, not with the noise the breaking window made.” I relaxed a bit, but his next words stiffened me back up. “But I have to go make sure everything is clear. You know that.”
Yes, I knew that. At least, my brain did. My emotions? They were a big, giant mess, but they agreed on one thing: staying here alone was not an option.
“I want to come.” I tugged the severed straps of my dress behind my neck and tied them in a hasty knot. Not pretty, but it would hold it up. “Please.”
“No.” Jasper pulled the gun back out of his waistband, and I knew I’d been dismissed. “You’re staying here, where it’s safe.”
“No.” I didn’t want to admit the truth, not even to myself, but I had no choice. “I don’t want to be alone.”
When Jasper looked at me, I saw a bit more of that softness he’d already shown me. To my horror, I felt the back of my nose start to tickle, wetness gathering in my eyes.
I didn’t think that someone was out to kill me or anything, not really. To scare me? Absolutely. What sliced at my soul was that someone hated me this much.
It didn’t set right, especially with my emotions still flying from the super-intense intimacy with Jasper, and the fact that being left alone was my biggest fear.
“Cari.” His hands went to his belt, which was still unbuckled. I tilted my head, puzzled—surely he wasn’t going to try to have sex with me right now?
He pulled the length of leather from his pants and closed the space between us. I understood what he was about to do seconds before he grabbed my wrists, pulling my hands behind my back.
“Get your hands off me!” I hissed as he used his body to herd me against the slender support beam that stood in the middle of the room. My hands were trapped behind my back where he’d twisted them, and I thrashed as he wrapped the belt around my upper arms and torso then around to the back of the column. “Jasper. You’re not seriously doing this.”
“My priority, above all else, is making sure that you stay safe.” Buckling the belt and pulling it tight, he leaned back to look me in the eye. My teeth started chattering when I realized that he was really, actually planning to leave me here. “I promise that you will be safe here. I just need ten minutes, okay? Ten minutes during which I know where you are.”
I shook my head, a chill settling over my body. It was completely irrational, and I knew it, but it didn’t stop the feeling. “I hate you.”
He didn’t even flinch. Instead, he slid a finger between the belt and my skin, testing its tightness. “You can hate me all you want, as long as you’re safe.”
I bucked against the restraint as he slid his gun from his waistband again. “Jasper. Please.”
He paused at the door, looking quickly back over his shoulder. It was infuriating to find no regret in those eyes, no sense that he was doing anything wrong. “Ten minutes. I promise.”
And then he was gone.
I stopped trying to free myself the second he was out the door. This was Jasper, after all—if he wanted me to stay put, he would have bound me up well enough that I wouldn’t be able to get free, no matter what.
The anger helped to cover the fear, so I clung to that.
What kind of person abandoned another when they knew they were scared? Seriously?
It didn’t matter what kind of connection was between us—he was never touching me again.
The minutes ticked by—literally, because I could see the alarm clock on the bedside table. I tried closing my eyes, willing the time to go faster, but kept peeking, so instead I focused on various things around the room. The pale green wallpaper with the faded pattern, the worn carpet beneath the soles of my shoes. The stack of jeans and T-shirts that Jasper had unpacked, and beside it a well-worn paperback and a glossy magazine.
Both of the latter surprised me—first, he seemed more the type to go hit things than to kick back and read. Also, the book was a copy of Foundation by Isaac Asimov, and the magazine was something called SciFi Now.
My big, hulking bodyguard was a geek.
At the nine-minute mark Jasper pushed back into the room, gun again tucked into his pants, eyes finding me immediately.
“Whoever threw the rock is long gone.” He wasn’t surprised, and the set of his body told me that I wasn’t in any danger anymore, either, at least not right this moment. “The police are knocking on doors to talk to people, but I don’t think they’re going to turn anything up.”
“You knew that before you tied me to a fucking pole,” I spat out, wriggling against my bonds again now that I had an audience. “It would have been safe for me to go with you. You didn’t have to leave me here alone.”
“I suspected,” he corrected me, approaching slowly. “I didn’t know. And because I didn’t know, I made the best choice to keep you safe.”
“You left me here alone!” To my absolute dismay, my voice cracked. I wasn’t a big crier—I preferred to get out my frustrations physically, which was why I’d taken up Krav Maga.
Ever since I’d met Jasper Benjamin, I’d been a mess. All the more reason to hate him. Even if that book and that magazine had given me a tiny peek into the man behind the muscles, making him more of a real person and less of someone representing my lack of safety.
“Cari.” Jasper closed the rest of the space between us. Tracing a finger over my cheek, he cupped my chin in his hand when I tried to turn my head away.
I stayed silent, but he nudged my face up until I was looking into his eyes.
“I’m sorry that this wasn’t what you wanted, but I’m here for a reason. I’m here to keep you safe.” He huffed out a breath of frustration when he saw that I wasn’t softening. “Do you really think I’d leave you here alone if you were really in danger?”
“I don’t know!” I shouted suddenly, jerking my face away from his grasp. “That’s the thing, isn’t it? I’ve only known you for a day. I don’t know you at all!”
“Cari—”
“For all I knew, you were never coming back!”
“Cari—”
“I didn’t know, don’t you see? And that was what scared me!”
“Cari!” Dipping his head, he stopped when his face was just a whisper away. My breath caught in my throat when I smelled sweat and a hint of the musk from sex.
I was angrier than I’d ever been, but my body had already memorized the scent of him—it knew I was safe.
“I’m sorry I had to leave you when you were scared,” he said, running a hand though his hair.
“That sounds like a sorry-not-sorry to me.” I glared. “You’re sorry you left me when I was scared, but you’d do it again?”
“Absolutely.” His calmness was infuriating. “That’s my job.”
“Well, your job is done.” My tone was laced with bitterness. “Now let me go.”
“It’s a very stupid man who releases a woman ready to kill him.” Amusement warmed his tone. “I think I’ll just wait until you’ve cooled down some.”
“You can’t be serious.” I wriggled against the belt that was holding me to the pole. “You’d better hope you’re far, far away when you do let me free. Remember Lorena Bobbitt? I don’t mind being called a copycat.”
This time the amusement pushed all the way through, and he laughed—he actually laughed. I was tied to a pole, I was still wearing my stupid high heels, and I was so mad that castrating him was a sweet option compared to some of the things I had I mind…and he was laughing.
I was done. I was done with this day, done with the vandalism and the fear and needing a bodyguard.
“Please let me go.” My voice was soft. “I want to go to bed.”
He said nothing, but I again saw that hint of something softer. Moving to the side of the pole, he reached for the buckle, pausing when his fingers brushed the metal. “You do know me.”
“What? I know almost nothing about you.” Craning my head to look at him, I narrowed my eyes. “I know you’re bossy. I know you fold your T-shirts like you work at the Gap, and I know you probably play with your lightsaber in your spare time.”
“Most men play with their lightsabers in their spare time,” he said solemnly as I hissed. His fingers trailed from the belt, across the leather, and to my shoulder. Despite my anger, the feather-light sensation made me shiver. “But those things…those are more than most people know.”
This took the wind from my sails. “That’s sad.”
One side of those wicked lips lifted in a half smile, and he shrugged. “That’s just how it is. In this line of work, it’s best not to have…those kinds of attachments. It’s hard for the other person to watch me walk away, knowing I’ll be in a dangerous situation. So it’s just…better.”
“It’s still sad,” I informed him, but my anger was mostly gone. I understood why he’d told me this.
He could keep me safe, but when dealing with my emotional fallout, he would be clumsy.
Not sure what to say, I dipped my head and brushed a kiss over the fingers that were resting on my collarbone. The pressure on my skin increased for a moment as he pressed down, and then he lifted them to my lips.
I kissed them again, letting my head fall back as I enjoyed the sensation of his rough fingertips brushing over the soft, swollen skin of my mouth. He circled to again stand in front of me, and my entire body tensed when I saw the clench in his jaw, the tightness in that ridiculously long frame.
He’d shared a part of himself with me, and he wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
I only knew one way to thank him.
Parting my lips, I nipped at his fingers, and I wasn’t gentle. He hissed, tapping my mouth in warning, and I did it again.
He lowered his head slowly, giving me time to refuse, but I welcomed his kiss.
His lips brushed mine softly, but there was still nothing gentle about it. The intensity between us rose instantly, and I tried to lift my arms, to thread my hands through his hair or to run them over the defined muscles of his back and hips, but I was still pinned in place.
He chuckled darkly against my mouth, pulling back to look into my eyes. I don’t know what he saw there—anger, empathy, frustration—but he seemed to know just what I wanted right now.
I gasped when he pressed his full body against me. He was semi-hard, his growing erection heavy against my hip, and I rocked against it, triumphant when he lengthened and thickened under my touch.
Still he didn’t speak, and he didn’t untie me, either. Fisting his hand in the front of my damaged dress, he tugged once, hard. The knot I’d tied in the torn straps unraveled with ease, the thin fabric sliding instantly to the floor.
Hips flush with mine, he leaned his chest back, staring his fill at my naked breasts, the peaks so hard they hurt.
“Still mad?” His tone held no trace of mockery; he was asking because he wanted to know. As he spoke, he slowly stroked his hands to my breasts. His touch teasing, he pulled lightly at my nipples, sending rushes of liquid heat to my center.
“Furious.” I gasped when he increased the pressure to short, hard drags of his rough fingers on the most sensitive part of my breasts, and I rocked against the restraint, trying to push myself into his touch.
“Guess I shouldn’t let you go yet, then,” he said, arching an eyebrow as he assessed my reaction. He was probably searching for signs that I wanted out, that I wasn’t okay with this level of kink.
Instead, my pulse picked up speed, thundering through my veins, suffusing my skin with heat.
Sex while I was bound? At his mercy?
It wasn’t something I’d ever fantasized about before, but wetness slicked the space between my legs, crying yes, please.
“Probably not a good idea,” I agreed, still wiggling against my restraints. His hands cupped my breasts, squeezed, and I pushed into him, wanting more.
“I like you this way,” he taunted, pulling back and yanking his shirt over his head. I’d seen that chest earlier, had run my fingers over the hard planes of muscle, but it still took my breath away. The man was hard, hard everywhere, and I wanted to run my tongue everywhere that my stare landed. “Difficult to be so stubborn when you have to do what I want you to, isn’t it?”
“Do your worst.” I deliberately made my tone mocking, savoring the resultant rush when his eyes darkened. “I won’t break.”
“Maybe I should gag you as well as tie you up.” With sure fingers, he undid the button of his jeans and then the zipper. This time, rather than just pushing them down around his hips, he slid them all the way off, kicking out once they’d pooled at his feet.
I drank my fill of the view. He was hard, he was big, and those descriptors applied to every part of his body. Wide shoulders framed action-hero arms, and rope after rope of abdominal muscle led to lean hips and a tight ass. His thighs were huge, the muscles flexing as he moved, and nestled in between was the cock that I already knew fit so tightly inside of me.
I was wet. I wanted it inside of me again.
Running his tongue over his front teeth, he fisted a hand around his shaft and started to pump. I moaned as I watched the head swell, a drop of his excitement glistening on the tip.
“I could come just like this, you know.” I watched, transfixed, as his fist swallowed his length again and again. “Staring at you there, naked and bound by my belt. Helpless to do anything but take what I give you.”
“Do it,” I urged, not sure where the sass was coming from. “I’d love to see you come all over yourself like a teenager who just saw his first pair of boobs.”
“Liar.” Grinning, he loosened his hold on himself, and I barely held back a moan of disappointment. Crossing to a duffel bag that had been tossed onto the bed, he dug in a side pocket until he pulled out a condom. “You don’t want me to come until I’m so far inside of you that you’re going to feel me tomorrow.”
“Lots of talk, but not much action.” I couldn’t help but pull at my restraints, even though the last thing I wanted was to get free. “Maybe you should free my hands so I can do the job myself.”
“Sorry, babe, but that’s not what’s on the table.” I watched greedily as he tore into the foil packet and removed the ring of latex. With sure fingers, he pinched the tip then rolled it down his engorged shaft.
That done, he returned to me. “You didn’t like what I told you to do earlier. Let’s see if you like it better now.”
Pressing his lean hardness against me, he rolled his body, all the angles and planes that made him a man stroking and teasing over the softness that made me a woman. I shook my head, the plaster of the pole catching at the strands of my hair and tugging, the slight sting just serving to heighten my arousal.
“I think you do like it,” he said, taking his cock in hand again and notching it between my legs. “Want to know how I can tell?”
I couldn’t answer; my attention was focused on the hardness sliding between my thighs. I pressed them together, his length stroking through my folds, back and forth, teasing me and driving me higher.
It wasn’t enough.
“Your skin is flushed. Those pretty pink nipples on your gorgeous tits are hard and begging for my mouth. And I can feel the wetness in that pretty pussy of yours. You’re soaking my cock, and you’re just going to get wetter.”
“Damn it, Jasper,” I gasped, my breath coming in pants. “Fuck me. Please, God, fuck me.”
“Hell yes, I’m going to fuck you.” His hands found my hips, hitching me up as his mouth found my own. He kissed me deep, stroking and exploring and claiming, as he continued to work his cock through the slickness of my lower lips, teasing but never giving me what I wanted, what I craved.
“Get ready, baby.” Breaking the kiss so quickly I gasped, he pressed his lips to the curve of my neck and sank his teeth in. I bucked against him as my legs wrapped around his hips, grinding my center against his erection.
The swollen head pushed between my lower lips, pressing against my clit so hard that my body clenched and I cried out. He rocked his hips, and in one hard thrust, he was seated inside of me, his cock pushing through my slick, swollen inner channel until his hips tapped against my own.
“Oh my God.” I squirmed, the full length inside just a little too big, a little too much, even though he’d already been inside of me. He didn’t give, holding the position mercilessly as he braced his weight on hands pressed against the sides of the pole.
“You’re not the first woman I’ve been with.” Irritation snaked through me, whip fast—who said that when they were balls-deep inside of someone? He smirked and nipped at my lower lip. “But you’re the one who knows me.”
I melted, softening—how could I not? Then I shrieked because he pulled all the way back and slammed all the way in, claiming me in the most basic of ways.
My fingers scrabbled against the pole; I wanted to dig them into his shoulders, leaving bites from my nails that he’d feel the next day. I couldn’t do anything but hold on as his hands grasped my hips, his thrusts unyielding as he took me, hard.
The upper half of my body was held immobile by the belt; my breasts jiggled over the top of the leather band. Sweat slicked my skin, scenting the air with salt as Jasper worked his way in and out, my flesh clenching so tightly around him that when he pulled most of the way out it felt as though I’d lost something.
“Why can’t I get enough of you?” He panted this into my neck as the rocking of his hips grew faster, his thrusts shorter. He groaned when I pushed my hips back, begging for more. “I don’t like seeing you in danger.”
I didn’t answer—he didn’t expect me to. I focused on the pleasure that was rising, coiling tighter inside of me every time his rigid length dragged over my clit on his way inside and out.
“Jasper. Please. Please!” One of my shoes slipped off, flying across the room. I tilted my pelvis up, letting him push deeper, and the change of angle was all it took.
I cried out when the pressure inside of me exploded. My legs locked around his waist, holding him in place as the waves took me over. Harsh noises came from his throat as my slick inner walls pulled at him, coaxing out his own pleasure.
Dipping his head, he pressed his forehead to mine, fingers clenching the meat of my hips. Filling me up, he looked directly into my eyes as he pulsed inside of me, his face going slack as we went over the edge together.
We stayed like that for a long moment, bodies loose from release. My arms started to tingle, pins and needles piercing the flesh as my body urged me to move from that position.
I couldn’t. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to move again. All I could do was kick the other shoe off.
Jasper, being Jasper, took charge of the situation. Holding me in place with his hips, cock still inside of me, he reached around behind the pole and undid the belt. Tossing it to the floor, he wrapped his arms around me, carrying me to the bed.
Nudging the duffel bag off of it with one knee, he held me close as he pulled the covers back with one hand. Gently, he laid me back on cool sheets, then dipped his head to press a kiss to the red stripe that the belt had left.
The moment his cock left me, I wanted it back. Still, the view was nice as I used all my remaining strength to roll myself to the side, staring unabashedly at that high, tight ass as he tugged off the condom and tossed it into the garbage.
When he turned back to the bed, he rested one knee on it as he looked me up and down, his stare trailing slowly, letting him take in the details. A smile of satisfaction curved his lips as he parted my legs with one hand, swiping a finger through my wetness.
“I like seeing you like this,” he said as he held up his damp fingers for me to see. “Your skin marked from my touch, your pussy wet from my cock.”
“Mmm.” All I could do was murmur a sleepy assent. I was exhausted.
Lowering himself to the mattress, he stretched out beside me. “The motel will get you your own room, if you want. But I can keep you safe better if you stay here with me.”
I smiled at that, eyes closed. He could keep me safe better, of course. That was why he wanted me to stay.
He was lying, or at least only telling me part of the truth. We both wanted me to stay because even though we’d only met each other that morning, it just felt right.