Page 8 of Unbound
For a moment, the truck cab was silent. Then, the passenger-side door swung open.
“What are you—”
Before I could react, Jasper leaned in, unbuckled my seat belt, and hauled me over his shoulder once more.
“Let me down!” I said.
Jasper closed the truck and locked it, foiling my plan of jumping back inside. With his hands placed firmly on my ass, he slowly lowered me, sliding me down his body inch by delicious inch. I couldn’t hold back the gasp of pleasure at being pressed against him.
“I think you like me taking control.” His expression, set as always, gave nothing away, but I saw a spark in his eyes.
He wasn’t wrong. Pinching my lips together, I ignored the flush in my cheeks and looked down at my feet, clad in the dusty boots he’d retrieved from my room that morning.
“You start shooting at one.” His massive bicep rippled—I swear it actually did—as he opened the glass door to the diner. “You need to eat something.”
I might have argued, just as payback for bodily carting me out of Daly’s office, but the enticing scent of bacon and fries wafted from the open door, making my stomach growl. With a sidelong glance at the new dictator in my life, I stomped into the diner, sliding into the first empty booth I saw.
Jasper took the seat across from me, and I couldn’t keep back a huff of laughter as he worked to fit his massive frame into the small space. Once settled, he looked around the place carefully, and I knew that, as always, he was logging details, assessing risks, memorizing faces.
“Thank you for letting me stay last night.” I knew if I’d been on my own, I wouldn’t have slept at all. Warmed by Jasper’s heat, though, I hadn’t even rolled over until morning.
“Wasn’t exactly a hardship for me.” He smirked, and I flushed, remembering. When I had woken up, something very large and very hard had been pressed against my back, telling me just how okay Jasper was with me sleeping in his bed.
That I’d missed out on the pleasure that hardness had promised me was just another reason to be pissed at Daly.
“So, you’re saying you want to do it again?” Dipping my head, I took a long gulp of cola, the syrupy sweetness coating my throat.
Across from me, Jasper sat so still he could have been one of the artifacts we dug up, frozen in place for the rest of time. My pulse increased just enough to make me take a deep breath as I waited.
It would have been nice if he showed emotion—any emotion. I figured he had a distinct advantage in this…whatever the hell it was between us, because I was the opposite, my feelings bubbling right on out of me like a fountain.
“I’m saying you intrigue me.” He spoke carefully. I took a moment to assess, to scan all the tender feelings that I often had a hard time converting into action—Nolan being a prime example. It was a massive surprise to discover that Jasper’s words had set a flock of butterflies fluttering around inside of me.
“I intrigue you?”
Wordlessly, Jasper nodded. He took a bite of his food, chewed it slowly, and then surveyed me. “You just need to understand more.”
I scoffed. “I have a doctorate,” I reminded him. “I’m good at understanding. Try me.”
“You know why I don’t have girlfriends?” he asked. I shook my head. “It’s because most women can’t give me what I want. They can’t deal with what I want. What you saw last night? That was just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a lot more to it.”
I chewed my lip for a moment while Jasper took another bite. “Things like what?”
“Hmm?” Jasper swiped at his mouth with his napkin.
“What can’t other girls deal with?”
Jasper eyed me for a moment and then looked back down at his plate. “That’s kind of personal.”
“I think we left that at the door last night.” The time for “private details” had passed, as far as I was concerned. We’d gotten to know each other inside and out—at this point, Jasper could tell me whatever he wanted, and I probably wouldn’t bat an eyelash.
“I’d like to watch,” Jasper said. His voice was flat, but in it I heard a thread of something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Not nerves, exactly, but I understood that how I responded to this was important to him.
“Watch what?”
“You.” His green eyes zeroed in on mine, and for a minute I felt like he was looking right through me. “You, with another man.”
Okay, so much for not batting an eyelash. I recoiled, blinked, and stared at Jasper. Part of me expected him to laugh and say “just kidding” or something like that, but he just scrutinized me. Somehow, I suspected I wasn’t the first woman to give him that reaction.
