Page 45 of Hidden With You

Jasper chuckled, then made a show of pulling out the chair beside Zelda and stretching his legs out. “As little as possible.”

Carter’s eyes narrowed. “Bullshit. You’re a glorified security guard. I work for a living, boy. I have power. I have resources you couldn’t possibly imagine. I know who you are. I know you’re here because someone is threatening our little girl.”

“I am not your little girl,” Zelda snapped.

“We’re canceling our trip,” Carter said. “I need to hop over to France, but I’ll be back soon. And your mother will stay here. Right by your side.”

Beside him, Zelda’s mother started to open her mouth. Carter reached over and patted her hand. “You’re staying,” he said. “And I won’t be gone long.”

“Oh Christ,” Zelda said. “Seriously?”

“Of course. Do you think we’d stay away when you’re in danger?”

Zelda twisted up to look at him. From the look on her face, she definitely thought that.

“Listen to your father, sweetie pie,” her mother said. “Security is his business. You’re safer this way.”

“Why on earth will I be safer?”

Her mother’s mouth opened, and she gaped for a moment, like a fish drawing for air. But she didn’t say anything. Apparently, Zelda had gone off script.

“And why do you even care?” Zelda continued. “Or do you figure that whoever is after me is going to manage to take me out? And if you’re already here it’s going to make it easier for you to do the paperwork to transfer the title to you?”

Without warning, her mother’s arm lashed out, and she slapped Zelda hard across the face.

Zelda lurched back her eyes wide. “You have been a spoiled little brat your entire life. How dare you say something like that to me.”

Zelda stared. Then she shoved her chair back, stood, and ran off the pool deck. Jasper shot her parents the kind of look that in a better world would have the power to render them both to dust. Then he turned and hurried after her.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked when he found her at the side of the cottage, sitting on a little bench by a flower garden. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and his heart broke a little. She shouldn’t be crying about what either of those people thought. They weren’t worth the time of day.

She shook her head “No talking.”

He sat beside her and put his hand on her knee. “It’s okay. I’ll just sit with you. It’s fine. It’s all going to be fine.”

“It’s never been fine.” She looked at him, her eyes wide and deep. “Would you kiss me? Would you kiss me until it all goes away?”

The heart that he’d been managing to hold together with tape and glue shattered in his chest. “Oh, baby,” he said, pulling her close. “I’ll give you whatever you need.”