Page 47 of Tracked By Sasquatch

Jasper stopped her by wrapping his arms around her waist and walking her backward toward the bed, naked.

“No take-backs with us, ever. We say what we mean, even if it pisses the other one off.”

The part of her that her mother, the bullies in school, and the men in her life, especially Thom, had told her she wasn’t good enough, were mute. She was enough in Jasper’s eyes, and from now on, that would be the voice in her head she would hear. He’d done nothing but prove that to her and not just in the microscopic time they’d been sleeping together.

It was in the little things he did around the clubhouse when she was there. He always made sure red berry fruit leather was stocked, even though she was the only one who ate it.

She’d mentioned once in passing how much she loved the smell of fresh baked cookies and desserts, but the synthetic sweet, scented candles and air fresheners gave her a headache.

Shortly after that, she’d noticed the ones in the clubhouse and RBMC offices slowly switching over to a more forest scent. She assumed it was one of the ol’ ladies changing it up, until she saw Jasper changing them out one day.

Even though her brother and Hook listened and knew her favorite foods, scents, authors, none had bothered to act on it.

She’d been visiting Lucas on a Valentine’s Day weekend some four years back, before the shitshow, and had a touch too much to drink. Before Lucas had shuttled her off to a room to sleep it off, she’d announced to the club as a whole that it was no surprise she was there drinking while they were getting their dicks sucked because she didn’t have a Valentine. Had never once so much as gotten a Valentine’s Day card. Even in elementary when most kids brought one for everybody. She’d had no chalky ass candy hearts either. Not a single BE MINE was hers. She’d slurred most of it but had mumbled the last in her inebriated state induced pity party as Lucas had led her away to a room.

The next day, a big red glitter card was waiting for her on the bedside table, along with a baggie of only BE MINE candy hearts. It was signed a secret admirer, but it wasn’t her brother’s handwriting. She’d just assumed it had been Hook.

However, she was starting to think she’d been wrong. “Do you remember that Valentine’s Day I got drunk at the club and spilled my guts about Valentine’s cards and candy hearts?” Jasper nodded, she felt it above her head as she lounged on his chest, his hand lazily stroking her bare back.

“It was you.” It wasn’t even a question. She knew it without a doubt now.

He chuckled. “Cost me fifty bucks in candy hearts to find enough BE MINE ones to fill that bag. You said you never got a single BE MINE, so I gave a hundred. And for the record, you were right, I ate the others and they are dusty as fuck.”

“Ate the others, as in all of the others?”

“Yeah. It was like eating sand that had been compressed into a shape.”

“Why not just throw them out once you tasted them?”

“Because I ain’t no quitter, Sweetness.”

There it was that was it.

The moment she realized the lengths he’d gone through to make her smile without taking credit, she knew her heart belonged to him.

Any man who would choke down forty-nine dollars of KISS ME and XOXO chalky candy hearts just to give her one hundred BE MINE was worth taking a chance on.

“No, you’re not,” she agreed with a chuckle.

“You’re a keeper.” She spoke more to herself than him, but he heard her anyway.

“Damn right I am.”

Jasper tilted her face up toward his and fused their mouths together. It wasn’t like the desperate kisses of earlier, this was a slow claiming kiss of connection and love. It reminded her of their first kiss.

She realized that he’d poured himself into that one too, even if she’d held back.

Devin wasn’t holding back now. She wanted her kiss to say what she admitted to herself but couldn’t voice yet. He needed to know everything before she shared that information. That way, he could still step back without guilt if it was too much for him. Jasper had his own issues; he didn’t need to be tethered by hers simply because she said she loved him.

He was a good man, one who would stay rather than listen to his heart if he needed to.

Ending the kiss, she stared into his eyes for a while and just existed in the space between them. When he tucked her hair behind her ear, he looked like he was going to kiss her again and she needed to speak before that. They’d get lost in each other and she’d chicken out.

“It’s time I tell you everything.” She shifted off him to create distance, but he didn’t let her. It felt as if he knew his presence would lend her strength, but that she couldn’t stare into his intense gaze, so he settled her back on his chest, not breaking their connection, but giving her space all the same.

It was exactly what she needed, and the truth came spilling out but not in the order or detail she’d expected.

“My mother shamed my body for as long as I can remember. She hid it from Lucas, he never knew. She was the reason I started self-harming. At first, it was shallow, barely scarring. Then…” She swallowed hard, bracing herself. “She auctioned off my virginity to Lucas’s friend.”