Journey 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book Two' (14 page)

I took a step toward him and stopped
when the look came again. “Jasper,” I tried to find the right words
so he would believe I was me talking and not the hormones. “I love
you more than anything. Being with you has made me the happiest
woman alive. To be able to give you something you have wanted so
badly will make me even happier. I want to watch you play with our
babies like you play with Tyler and Trent. I want to watch you
teach them what you know.” I took a few more steps toward
him.

He took one careful step inside and
closed the door.

“I want us to have a family together,”
I whispered, meaning every word.

“I don’t know what will happen. I won’t
shift, I’m sure of that. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t.”

He closed his eyes as I walked up to
him and put my hands on his face.

“I don’t think I can fight this,” he
whispered.

“Don’t.”

He opened his eyes and I sucked in a
breath. Any little piece of the human Jasper had been keeping in
control had lost the battle. His eyes were wild. Even though he was
still in human form, Jasper had turned into a tiger. His nostrils
flared as he caught my scent. He looked hungry.

I thought I saw a small change in his
eyes as he touched my shoulder and brought his face down to nuzzle
my neck.

The heat I had been feeling the past
couple of days was nothing compared to the scorching waves I felt
at his touch.

He reached down and wrapped his arms
around my waist. With no effort at all, he carried me and set me on
the edge of the bed. He knelt on the ground and kissed the inside
of my thighs and I caught my breath as his tongue slipped inside of
me.

He started to growl when I grabbed
handfuls of his thick curls, but it quickly turned into more of a
groan and I knew that somewhere in there Jasper was still fighting
to keep the animal in him under control.

He rolled me so that I was bent over
the bed. His lips and teeth nibbled and nipped their way up my
back. I moaned as his hands found my breasts.

With no warning he thrust into me,
making me gasp. He pulled back until he was almost completely out
and thrust in again.

Everything in me was screaming. Every
move he made caused me to gasp and groan. As he pushed in I found
myself pushing back against him, wanting every little bit of him
that I could get. Every thrust brought me closer and closer to a
point where I was sure I was going to explode. My entire body was
on fire and I screamed as every nerve in my body seemed to
spontaneously combust.

Jasper wrapped his arms around my waist
and pulled me back harder and faster, my explosion carrying on
until I thought I wouldn’t be able to bear it.

He bent over my back and bit my neck as
he jerked inside of me. I felt him relax and he gentled his hold on
me before getting up.

I rolled onto my back and looked at
him, wondering which Jasper I would see. The battle raging in his
eyes was frightening to watch.

I was about to get up when I felt the
heat start deep inside of me once more.

Jasper’s head snapped back as the tiger
won and he climbed on top of me, spread my legs with his knees and
filled me again.

Where my body was screaming yes, a part
of me was also wondering what I had got myself into. Jasper had
never been overly rough. He had teased and held me down, even
nipped, but had never simply gone ahead with no regard to me like
he was now.

He thrust deep into me and I tensed,
more than a bit uncomfortable. He stopped and I looked up at him.
He stared at me, a frown on his face. He shook his head and
groaned, hid his face in my chest and continued a bit more
softly.

When he was done he stood and looked at
me. His eyes focused on mine, and I wanted to cry at how pained
they looked. He took a deep breath, shook his head again and
started to walk toward the door. He had his hand on the doorknob
when my body betrayed me again and filled with heat.

Jasper growled in frustration and
punched the door, shaking it in its frame. I simply lay where I was
and waited for him to come back.

“It’s ok, Jasper,” I whispered to him
as he climbed on me again. “I love you.” I hoped that wherever he
was in there, he had heard me.

The night and day flew by. Every time
we would get done my hormones would call him back to me. When I
thought I could take no more, he kept on coming and proved me
wrong.

It was starting to get dark again and
we lay in bed, side by side, both of us trying to catch our
breath.

I jumped when his hand touched mine,
not wanting to go again.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

I looked over at him. It was the first
thing he had said to me since letting me know he wouldn’t be able
to stop this. There was nothing wild left in his eyes.

“Why are you sorry,” I whispered
back.

He looked at the ceiling and swallowed
hard. “I scared you.” He swallowed again. “And I hurt
you.”

I opened my mouth to tell him he hadn’t
but closed it again, not trusting my voice to not give my lie away
and knowing that he had felt it anyway.

“That.” He took a deep breath. “That
wasn’t me. What I mean is, the entire time it was happening, I was
trying to keep gentle. The look on your face when I lost control,
when I simply took you. And then to do that to you again and again.
The entire time I was screaming at myself to stop, but I
couldn’t.”

I rolled so that my head was on his arm
and I was facing him. “Don’t be sorry. I had an idea of what it
might be like. Mel gave me a few details about it.”

He still stared at the ceiling and a
lump formed in my throat at the sight of a tear slipping down the
side of his face and soaking into a beautiful curl. He swallowed
again and his voice shook as he continued.

“When you told me you wanted to have a
family with me, you made me the happiest man in any world. I wanted
to tell you that. To tell you how the thought of you carrying our
children made me feel overwhelmingly blessed.”

His voice got thicker and he swallowed
a few more times.

“I wanted to show you how much you
meant to me. To show you how much I loved you. And all I could
manage was to turn into a stupid beast with one thing on his
mind.”

He wiped his free arm across his
eyes.

“Jasper, look at me,” I whispered. I
put a hand on his face and turned his head when he didn’t. He
closed his eyes at the touch then opened them again.

“I knew that wasn’t you, Jasper. I also
knew you were fighting it. I could tell when you would almost win
because the way you touched me would change.”

His eyes widened a little. He finally
turned so that he was facing me and I snuggled into him. His arms
tightened around me as he kissed my hair. “I feel horrible. After a
declaration like yours, I should have been making you feel like the
most loved woman alive. I should have been showing you how you had
made me feel.”

I turned my face up and kissed him
softly. “Show me now,” I whispered.

He looked shocked. “There is no way I
am doing anything of the sort! Hayden, you have to
be...uncomfortable. You can’t possibly want any more of
that!”

“No. You’re right. I don’t want any
more of that. What I want now is you.”

He still looked unsure.

“Jasper.” My voice caught in my throat
and it was my turn to swallow hard. I realized exactly how much he
had scared me and that I didn’t want this night to end that way.
“After all of that, I need you. The Jasper I love. The one who
loves me.”

Understanding flooded his eyes. He took
over again, but this time he was so gentle, so loving and when we
were done he kissed me tenderly.

“I love you,” he whispered. “And after
everything I just put you through, I do believe you love me
more.”

I smiled against his chest and hugged
him tighter. “How about we call it a tie this time.”

He gave me a squeeze in return and we
fell asleep, exhausted.

*****

When I woke up the next day I could
barely move. Everything was sore. Jasper’s arms were still around
me and I pulled the blankets over us.

“It’s freezing in here!”

Jasper chuckled and kissed the back of
my neck. I winced as his lips touched one of the places he had bit
me. He tensed, slightly pulling away from me. He softly put his
hand on my hip, touching a sore spot, making me flinch again. He
jumped out of bed with a growl.

I turned to look at him, my eyes
wide.

He stood stiff as a board, staring at
me. He looked like he was being tortured.

“Jasper. What’s wrong?”

He seemed to jerk out of his trance. He
dressed quickly, only bothering to pull on his pants. I watched him
stride over to the door and open it. He turned and looked at me
again. He looked about to say something then changed his mind, hung
his head, and shifted as he bolted out the door.

I stared after him, shivering in my
blanket, expecting him to come back. When I couldn’t keep my teeth
from rattling together I got up, closed the door, and made a
fire.

I lay on the floor by the fireplace in
my blanket and cried. What had just happened?

The fact that I had barely slept in
four days caught up to me and I cried myself to sleep.

I woke up to the sound of someone
adding wood to the fire.

“Jasper?” I was scared to open my eyes
and see him like he had been that morning.

“Sorry, honey. It’s just me.” Mel sat
beside me. “Are you alright?” she asked.

“I don’t know!” I started to cry
again.

She put an arm around me and I tensed
at the weight on some bruised areas. Her arm slipped off. “Sorry.”
She waited until I had got some sort of control on myself. “Can I
see?”

I nodded and stood up, leaving my
blanket on the floor. Her eyes widened. I looked down at myself and
had the same reaction. I had bruises everywhere. The inside of my
thighs were completely blue. Where there wasn’t a bruise I had bite
marks and scratches. Some of these had bled a little.

“How in the world did I not feel that?”
I turned so she could look at my back. “It’s worse, isn’t
it?”

“Yeah.” She handed me my blanket. “Is
this paste ready?”

I nodded.

“You know,” she stated, “this isn’t so
bad. The way Jasper was acting, I was sure I would get here and
find you dead.”

“How is he?”

“He’s a mess; he’s not even talking.
When he came barging into the cave we thought for sure someone had
taken you. He seemed to try to explain, but he just broke down.”
She paused as she put some of the mush on the bite mark on my neck.
“That’s when I thought the worst had happened; that when he had
gotten home he hadn’t been able to stop himself and shifted. It’s
the only thing I could think of where he would act like that. If he
had been the one to hurt you.”

Mel moved the blanket lower so she
could get at some of the other bites.

“He did shift. I mean, he stayed human.
His body did anyway. But he wasn’t Jasper,” I whispered.

“I can see that.”

I flinched as she covered either a bite
or a scratch on the back of my hip.

“He hated himself afterwards.” Fresh
tears started to fall.

“So he just stopped this
morning?”

“No. Last night. But it was dark and I
don’t think he realized exactly what had happened until he saw me
this morning.” I explained to her what had happened when we had
woken up.

Her mouth pursed into a little o shape.
“I think I know what happened.”

“What?”

“He kissed you and you
flinched?”

I nodded.

“And when he touched you a second time,
you flinched.”

“Yeah.” It was barely a whisper as I
realized what she had said. “He thinks it was because he touched me
that I flinched! He thinks I’m scared of him now.”

“I think that’s right.”

“But it’s not! He kissed that bite on
my neck! And then he touched a really sore spot.”

She finished covering my wounds.
“There. Just let it dry before you get dressed.” We sat by the fire
in silence.

“Do you think you could go get him for
me?”

She nodded.

“Mel?”

She paused by the door.

“Thank you.”

Mel smiled. “I’m just glad you’re
alive.”

I watched her close the door and took a
deep breath, went to our room and got some clean clothes. I washed
my face and tied my hair up. I checked myself in the mirror and let
my hair down again. The worst bite was the one on my neck and I
didn’t want Jasper to see it as soon as he walked in. I checked
myself again and nodded. It was as good as it was going to
get.