Crossover 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book One' (12 page)

We got to Tara and Ben’s house in
Sageden after dark. All I could see of the town were the light
colored shapes of the houses.

Jasper shifted back into a human and
held a hand up to me to help me off of Dodge.

“Do I look as tired as I feel?” I
smiled at him.

“You look exhausted.” He pulled me
against him then grinned and swept me into his arms.

I laughed at him. “I’m not so tired
that I can’t walk!”

Jasper’s arms jerked a bit and he
sucked in a breath. “Ow! Tiny! Leave off, now! I’m just taking her
inside! Just get on my shoulder and you can come too!”

I laughed and set her on his
shoulder.

I lay my head against his chest and
closed my eyes, enjoying the feel of his muscles moving against me
as he carried me to a room. He set me down and opened the
door.

“
Go to bed, I’ll just go
unsaddle Dodge so he can go find a spot for the night.”

“Where will he go?”

He shrugged. “I’m not sure. There is a
herd around here, but they are about a day’s ride away. He’ll
probably bed down with Goop and Peena in the back.”

“Ok. Come get me if he wants me,
though.”

Jasper nodded and left.

I walked into the room and sighed. “A
bed!” I pulled of my riding boots and sat on the bed.

There was a knock on the
door.

“Come in,” I answered.

Tara peeked her head in. “Oh, good.
You’re alone. I brought you a nightgown. You must be tired of
sleeping in your jeans.” She smiled at me. “Also, here’s a big bowl
of hot water and some soap.”

I laughed. “I’ll admit that after a
week, I was starting to wonder if they made soap here.”

“Get some sleep. I’ll see you in the
morning.”

“Goodnight, Tara.”

I waited until she had closed the door
then shed off the rest of my clothes. I stood in front of a mirror
and wiped myself clean with the soap and a sponge. After drying
myself, I pulled on the nightgown.

“Geez, Tara. I might as well be naked!”
The nightgown was a sheer cream color with a low neck line and a
high hem line.

I pulled a brush through the tangles in
my hair and cringed.

“There,” I said to myself. “Human
again.”

Tiny chattered something at me from on
the bed. I grabbed a towel and made a nest for her on one of the
chairs.

“Here you go.” She seemed happy with
the arrangements and promptly curled herself into a
ball.

I pulled the covers back and lay down.
It was like laying down on a cloud.

There was another knock on the
door.

“It’s me. Can I come in?”

I laughed. “Why are you knocking,
Jasper?”

He came in and shrugged.

I noticed he had washed as
well.

“Do you want me to make a bed on the
floor?”

I snorted trying to keep the laughter
in. “You’re kidding, right?”

Again, the only answer I got was a
shrug.

“Jasper, we have been sleeping beside
each other for over a week now. Why in the world would you want to
sleep on the floor when there’s a bed available?”

“There wasn’t much choice before. I was
just making sure.”

“There’s not much choice now either.
Come to bed. It’s like sleeping on a thousand little cotton
ball.”

He laughed. “That sounds wonderful.”
His voice was a little muffled as he pulled his shirt over his
head.

He made his way to the other side of
the bed, pulled back the covers, and stopped. He
groaned.

“I had better sleep on the
floor.”

I blushed, more than a little pleased
with his reaction. “Don’t be stupid, now. Get into bed and pull the
covers up. Then we can both pretend we’re sleeping in five layers
of baggy clothing.”

“Both of us?”

“You have no idea how beautiful you
are, do you?” I asked, my heart racing a little as I looked him
over.

He laughed. “You must be tired. You’re
starting to hallucinate.” He took one deep breath, let it out, then
slipped into bed and pulled the covers up.

I was suddenly very aware of the fact
that he was in bed with me, half naked and that I was wearing
almost nothing at all.

I turned onto my side with my back
toward him. “Goodnight, Jasper.”

“Goodnight.”

I lay there and listened to his steady
breathing, trying to fall asleep. I had spent the last week
sleeping with his arms wrapped around me and found that I was
missing the security. Those arms were my blanket of protection, my
guarantee that he wouldn’t let anything happen to me.

“Hayden.”

I jumped.

“I need to hold you.” Jasper stayed on
his back.

“That’s good.” I scooted so that my
back was against his side. “I don’t think I can sleep if you aren’t
holding me.”

I sighed and relaxed as he turned, his
legs fitting snugly against the back of mine. He put his arm around
me and my hand found his automatically, our fingers lacing
together. I felt the tension leave his body.

“That’s better,” he whispered.
“Goodnight, Shlova .”

I felt him smile in my hair as we fell
asleep holding each other.

The following morning I woke up feeling
like I had been sleeping for days. The first thing I noticed was
that Jasper was gone. I pushed down the panicky feeling.

“It’s ok. Everything is just fine,” I
told myself. I’d had two dreams during the night. I needed to tell
Jasper about them.

I sat up and saw a platter with fruit,
bread, and cheese. My stomach growled. I noticed a note tucked
under the big plate.

My love,

I thought I had better let
you sleep. There is a bath and soaps in the next room. I will be
back shortly.

Jasper

I finished eating what I could of the
food and then headed into the next room after I had pulled on my
jeans and tank top. I didn’t want to run into Zane or Ben wearing
nothing but the see through nightie.

The bath was deep and already full of
hot water. I stripped and slid into the tub. The water smelled like
flowers. When I was clean I lay with water up to my chin, enjoying
the normalness of it.

A knock on the door broke up my
daydreaming.

“Who is it?”

“It’s me. How does your bath feel?” My
heart jumped at the sound of Jasper’s voice.

“Terrific. Actually, I think I’m done,
but I can’t see a towel in here.”

He laughed. “Sorry. That’s my fault. I
have it here. Do you want me to leave it just outside the
door?”

Always the gentleman. I sighed. Here we
should have been holed up in a cave somewhere and he still refused
to peek. “Sure.”

“Ok. I’ll be in our room.”

My heart skipped again. Our
room.

I stepped out of the tub and cracked
the door open just enough to grab the towel. I dried my hair off
then wrapped it around me, snuggling it up under my
arms.

I looked at my clothes on the floor and
threw them into the tub. I washed and rinsed them the best I could,
wrung them out and headed to our room.

Jasper was laying on his stomach, head
in his arms, his eyes completely covered.

I had to laugh.

“What’s funny?” he mumbled into the
pillow.

“You, you’re gonna end up giving me a
complex.” I hung my clothes up on the back of a chair.

“What do you mean?” Still in his
arms.

“Well, here I’m supposed to be
irresistible to you and all you should want is to be…you know...” I
blushed. “And yet you won’t even attempt to sneak a peek when I’m
anywhere near indecent. I might start thinking there’s something
wrong with me.”

“Of course there’s nothing wrong with
you! That’s the problem.” All of this was being said into his arms.
“I’m afraid that should I see you in your indecent state, as you
put it, I might not be able to control myself.”

“Oh.” I sucked in a breath. “Well,
that’s good to know.”

There was a brush and some folded
clothes on the end of the bed. I took the brush and went to sit on
the chair in front of the mirror. Behind me, I could see him laying
on the bed.

“So what did you do while I was
sleeping?”

He looked like he was about to lift his
head, then changed his mind. “Not much really. I got cleaned up and
had some lunch. Then Zane caught me up on the last six months that
I missed at the castle.”

“Why were you away from the castle for
so long?”

This time he did look up. “I like
patrolling, it keeps me away from the busy centers. That, and I was
looking for you.”

Our eyes met in the mirror.

“How did you know I was coming?” I
reminded myself to breath.

It took him a second to answer. “It was
just a feeling I had. That’s the best way to explain
it.”

We both jumped at the knock on the
door.

“Everyone decent?” It was
Tara.

“You can come in.”

She let herself in. “ I was just
checking to see if the clothes I found for you fit?” She stopped
short when she saw us, still staring at each other in the mirror.
“You know what? I think I’ll come back later.”

It was almost like she hadn’t been
there.

I took a deep breath. “Why is it that
you don’t want to ‘lose control’?”.

Jasper got up and came to stand behind
me. He took the brush from me, setting it on the desk.

“I am afraid that might not be what you
want.”

My eyes widened.

“Also, I am nervous that if we did do
anything of the sort, we would end up like everyone else I know who
has been fated. There is too much at stake to lose sight of what we
are supposed to be doing at the moment.”

Spoken like a true soldier, I thought,
a little annoyed.

He was running his fingers through my
hair, each touch sending shocks along my skin. I closed my eyes and
a small groan made its way up my throat. His hands made their way
down my neck. My head slumped forward as he started to massage my
shoulders. Each rub was making the heat between my legs move higher
into my belly.

“Good god,” I muttered. I stood and
walked around the chair so that we were facing each other. I pulled
out his shirt tails and heard him suck in a breath as I ran my
hands up his chest.

“Never doubt how I feel about you,” I
whispered. I pushed on him lightly with my hands, guiding him
backwards to the bed. He stopped when his legs touched the frame.
He had changed after his bath. This shirt had buttons.

I started at the bottom and worked my
way up, taking my time. He stood frozen as I stripped the shirt off
his shoulders and let it fall to the ground. I took a quick look at
the cut on his side and made sure it was healing well before I
stood on my tip toes and kissed along his neck and collar bone. He
had shaved.

“What about...” I cut him off with a
gentle kiss to the lips.

“We aren’t your typical fated beings,
now are we, or we would have done this a long time ago.” I could
hear his heart drumming in his chest.

My towel picked that moment to loosen
and fall around my ankles. Jasper glanced down and
groaned.

He wrapped his arms around me and lay
me on the bed. His lips were everywhere. I felt like I was on fire.
He stopped for a quick look at my face, his eyes burning with
desire. If he was looking for any reason to doubt this was what I
wanted he didn’t find any. He groaned in surrender as I reached
down and undid the ties on his pants. Jasper pulled himself up and
kissed me tenderly. I grabbed handfuls of his curls as his lips
moved down to pay attention to my breast. He kissed each one softly
and gently sucked each nipple. My head was spinning.

“You are so beautiful,” he whispered
and brought his mouth back down on mine.

I moaned and arched under him, wanting
him to take me. I could feel him, hard against my leg.

His mouth still on mine, he gently ran
his hands over my belly. His fingers tickled the insides of my
thighs and I shivered. I caught my breath as he slid his fingers in
me and stroked me on the inside. My eyes glazed over with pleasure
and he smiled.

“Mmmm.” I seemed incapable of coherent
speech for a moment. I grabbed fistfuls of sheets and felt the heat
wave wash over me. I bucked under him and groaned.

His mouth claimed mine again, his body
repositioned on top of mine.

I could feel the tip of him sitting
questioningly between my legs.

“Now, Jasper. Please.”

I wrapped my legs around his waist and
moaned as he slid into me. We took our time, learning each other’s
bodies, smiling every time we made each other moan or
gasp.