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I realized I still laughed, and I pushed away from Jasper’s hold to wipe tears from my eyes. “Fuck—I can’t even process right now. You…did you let that psycho in?”
“I didn’t want him taking off before the police got here, and once I saw their lights, yeah. I opened the door and put a fist into his nose before he could blink.”
More laughter rolled from me as the adrenaline crash of the century owned my muscles. “My God. I’m losing it.”
Jasper smoothed my hair from my forehead, his soft smile bringing a trickle of calm through my fucked up nerves and the intense release of emotions.
“Mason?” Another voice I recognized called through the house.
“In here, detective!” Jasper hollered back.
JJ.
The high that had been cranking through me suddenly vanished, leaving me weak and shaky. I sank once more into Jasper and held onto him for dear life.
* * *
The news broadcasted Joseph appearing in court the morning after showing up at Jasper’s front door, but he looked like a wrinkled mess rather than runway ready like I’d always seen him. Blond curls a disaster and dark smudges beneath his eyes with a hint of purple thanks to Jasper’s fist, he’d stared at the judge with an arrogance of someone twice his age.
During the arraignment, he’d pled not guilty to drugging for sexual intercourse and aggravated rape among lesser charges.
His last name and father’s money didn’t keep the judge from denying him bail.
Jasper and I hadn’t gotten much sleep thanks to having the cops all up in our space for hours on end. We’d learned the warrant had been issued for his arrest, but Detective Jenner hadn’t been able to locate the little fucker until Jasper’s 911 call.
After watching Joseph’s face crumple at not being allowed freedom until his day in court? I slept like a baby and continued to do so knowing he had no access to me, Jasper, or a phone for the foreseeable future.
Five weeks after Joseph’s arrest, my lover and I collapsed onto our bed after a long day of lugging boxes from my apartment to his house. I’d officially moved in with my boyfriend—my partner. The man who looked after me in every way.
A new chore chart hung on the refrigerator, and although I no longer needed the help in keeping my brain organized due to less emotional stress in my life, I enjoyed the structure. Pleasure filled me whenever I put a mark of completion in a box that Jasper had lovingly created for me, my favorites being sharing with him something personal about my day at work and edifying myself with a positive word.
Somedays, I felt self-sufficient but allowed him to pamper me by picking out my clothes and helping me dress. I adored standing in front of him, studying how his brow furrowed slightly while he knotted my tie. The brush of his knuckles on my skin, the soft pat to my chest once he finished, sent need tingling through me. Gentle kisses always followed, murmurs of his love to see me through our hours apart.
And my favorite moments awaited me in the evenings when Jasper reversed the process, stripping me down to my skin and worshiping my body with fingertips, tongue, and lips. He left me sated and claimed he found fulfillment in pleasuring me every single time.
I came to recognize that “savior” wasn’t an exact fit for what Jasper had been for me but more a helpmate to encourage me in my personal growth. Meeting with Zeke on a weekly basis, sometimes without Jasper, shifted my mind toward emotional healing, and most days, I was a different man than my lover had first met.
New and improved—Jasper-approved.
I would choose him all over again to be the one who rescued me behind the hotel. There was no other voice I would have call out to send Joseph running. No other hands on my body to stop my bleeding. No other comforting touch I felt clear through to my soul. We had bonded in that back alley, and regardless of all the shit that had led us to that fateful night, I would gladly relive each and every moment since it had landed me at his side.
A rock the same as always, Jasper stood at my left, his warm palm pressed against my sweatier one. We’d combined our households a few days earlier and had dressed up for a dinner party.
Silas’s assistant opened his and Troy’s condo door. “Come on in, Mason. Jasper.” She greeted us both with a smile. “Help yourselves to the bar and appetizers. Dinner will be served in about an hour.”
We’d been invited as a welcome for his newest team, and it was the first time that I walked into a public setting free from the façade I’d worn for too long. After retrieving glasses of champagne from the kitchen bar, I greeted a couple of my co-workers, introducing Jasper as my partner. It felt good, and I was sure my face glowed.
“I’m so damn proud of you, baby,” Jasper whispered as Silas and Troy approached us. “Even more, I’m blessed to be the one on your arm.”
Of course, my eyes stung, but I managed to swallow back the tears in front of my boss.
“Mason.” Tumbler in hand, a dapper-looking Silas greeted me with an authentic smile he didn’t reveal too often.
“Silas.” I released Jasper’s hand to grasp Silas’s, impressed and intimidated as always by the powerful aura he emanated. Still, I managed to be myself around him.
Troy stood beside him in a pink…blouse? that intensified his ethereal glow. Willowy and graceful, the gorgeous man could have starred as an elf in any movie set in Middle Earth. Jasper stared at the silky material with a yearning look as Troy greeted us.
Something tickled the back of my mind, jostling my memory from when I’d unpacked my clothing into Jasper’s closet. I’d accidentally knocked over a stack of his shoe boxes. One lid had popped open, revealing a bit of similar material to Troy’s shirt rather than the loafers I’d expected. I’d remembered Jasper’s bottom drawer filled with panties at that moment and again wondered over why he hid that part of himself from me.
