Crossover 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book One' (37 page)

“Shay, baby, wake up.” Shawn pulled her
to his chest. “Please. I can’t lose you.” His voice caught in his
throat.

Shay’s voice was almost impossible to
hear. “Shawn?”

Shawn looked down at her and wiped the
tears from his face. “Thank the moons,” he whispered as he bent
down to kiss her.

“What happened?”

“We’re not sure, Love. But you can’t
stay over there.”

“But you hurt here…”

“Nothing could hurt worse than not
having you,” he whispered. He looked at me.

I took Jasper’s stone and stood
up.

“Hang on. Take this one for a sec.” He
handed me his. “Can you walk away?”

I walked toward the hill a ways and
stopped.

He nodded and I went back to
them.

Shawn put his stone back in his
pocket.

“How are you feeling, Shay?”

She looked at me and smiled.
“Better.”

I gave her a hug. “Good.” I glanced
back up the hill and saw Jasper standing at the top of
it.

Shay saw what I was looking at and gave
me a squeeze. “You better get back to him.”

I smiled at her. “You take care of
yourself.” I swung up onto Dodge and we started to walk
away.

“Hey, Hayden!”

I turned at Shawn’s call.

“Catch!”

My eyes widened as Shawn threw his
cross stone toward me. “But…”

“If I don’t have it, I won’t be
tempted.” He looked down at Shay. “And she won’t be able to try and
convince me to come back.”

“Take care!”

I gave them a final wave after I put it
in my pocket even though I knew they couldn’t see me.

We trotted up the hill and Jasper
smiled when we reappeared. I handed him both stones.

“That was a strange feeling, knowing
that you were there, but not being able to see the path.” He put
the stones in his pocket. He hopped on behind me and wrapped his
arms around me.

“So what do we do now?” I
asked.

“Let’s go home.”

“What about the queen’s guards?” I
leaned back against him.

“We’ll deal with them if and when they
decide to show up again.” He kissed the top of my head. “How does
that sound?”

“That sounds perfect.”

By the time we got back to the
waterfall, everyone was packed up and ready to go.

“Do we have a plan, brother?” asked
Luke.

Jasper hopped off and handed me my
swords. “Let’s go home.”

He shifted and led the way.

Chapter 9

The first snow fall came during the
night.

I woke up to find I was alone in bed. I
stretched, put my clothes and boots on. I found Jasper outside,
staring across the clearing. I quickly bent down and gathered snow
into a ball, then threw it at him. It connected with his shoulder.
He spun around and saw me trying to get another snowball made
before he could react.

A playful growl escaped his throat. I
screamed and ran. He laughed as he easily caught up to me and I
spun around, throwing my snowball in his direction. It missed
horribly. I squealed again as he tackled me and fell on top of me
in the snow.

Jasper looked down at me, laughing, his
cheeks red. His blue eyes were bright against the light grey clouds
behind him.

“Thought you would have the upper hand,
did you?” He reached out on either side of me as far as he could
and grinned.

“You wouldn’t dare!” I tried to wiggle
out from under him.

“All is fair in war, my love.” He
swooped his arms in and buried me.

I managed to push him off and stood up
laughing, shaking out my tunic to get the snow out of
it.

He sat in the snow, watching me dance
around, still laughing.

I walked up to him and held out my
hand. “Peace?”

He chuckled as he took it. “For
now.”

I pulled him up. “Let’s go inside. I’m
freezing!”

Once inside, Jasper put a few more logs
on the fire to warm up the house. We stripped out of our wet
clothes and sat in front of the fire place wrapped in a
blanket.

I leaned back against him, enjoying his
warmth on my bare skin.

“Do you miss being on the Queen’s
guard?” I asked.

“No,” he answered. “Not at all,
actually.”

I looked back at him to make sure he
wasn’t lying.

He continued to explain. “The feeling I
have now when I wake up in the morning is a bit like relief.
Knowing that I don’t have to kill anyone. That I don’t have to
fight Luke and Mel, or that I won’t ever have to come face to face
with Tyler or Trent and have to hurt them.” He wrapped his arms
around me a little tighter.

“And then there’s the fact that I wake
up beside you every morning. Knowing that if I walk out the door
you don’t have to worry whether or not I’ll be coming home that
night.”

I shuddered at the thought.

“Are you still cold?”

“No. It was just the thought of not
having you.”

He moved the hair away from my neck and
kissed me lightly.

“What were you thinking about so hard
before I hit you with the snowball?

He shifted his body so that I was
cradled in his arm and he could look at me.

“I was thinking how beautiful it looked
with the fresh snow. About how perfect this clearing is for our
cabin.” He traced my lips with his fingers, moving them along my
jaw and down my neck. I shivered a completely different kind of
shiver.

His voice was husky as he continued. “I
was thinking about our little house. How you were inside and that
you are mine. I don’t think I will ever get used to the fact that I
have to remember to breathe when you look in my eyes. Or how I have
to fight the urge to tear your clothes off every time you touch me,
no matter how innocently.”

His fingers moved to my collar bone
then down my side, to my hip, and back up again.

“I was thinking about how I adore our
life together.”

He shifted again so that he could lay
me down. His voice was just a whisper as his lips traced the same
path his fingers had. “I was thinking I wouldn’t trade my life for
anything.”

I shivered again, a moan escaping my
lips. I ran my fingers through his hair.

He pulled himself up onto his elbows so
he could look into my eyes without crushing me with his
weight.

“I was thinking about how I much I love
you. And about how I plan on spending every day reminding you of
that fact.”

My whole body was burning, his fingers
and lips sending shocks along my skin.

He repositioned himself again. He took
his time, leaving not one inch of my body untouched,
unkissed.

I gasped for breath when he finally
took me, his heat stretching me, filling me.

Jasper gazed down at me, his eyes on
fire with the feelings he had just explained.

I pulled him down to me, my lips
screaming for his.

He groaned. “God, Hayden, I love
you.”

I moaned as he settled himself deeper
in me. My body arched itself against his, wanting more.

He had one hand over my shoulder
bearing most of his weight, the other down on my hip so I couldn’t
move. He moved slowly, making my body ache for him. I thought I
would explode. The burning got hotter and hotter. Just when I
thought I could take no more, he stopped.

My body rebelled and tried to move, to
make him move again. I felt him smile against my neck. His lips
moved down to my collar bone, his lips and tongue moving just as
slowly as the rest of him. He traced a line between my breasts and
kissed under each one tenderly.

His face stopped on my chest as his
hips started their sweet torture anew. The heat started to build up
again, feeling ten times hotter than before. Just when I thought I
was going to get some release, Jasper stopped again. His breathing
was heavy, and though we were barely moving, both of us were
covered in sweat.

“Jasper,” I gasped.
“Please!”

His tongue played with the contour of
my breast and moved up to find my nipple. He sucked on it gently.
He moved on to the other one, taking his time.

He kissed his way back up to my lips
and gently parted them with his tongue.

My fingers laced themselves in his
hair. My tongue found his and the kiss became harder,
hungrier.

He started to move again, never taking
his hand off of my hip. I tried uselessly to move, to take in more
of him.

His rhythm started to speed up, the
fires in me raging. I was sure the pressure was going to kill me.
He caught his breath and let go of my hip. My body bucked under him
and I wrapped my legs around his waist. The explosion came and
raked through my whole body and I bit his shoulder trying to
maintain some sort of self-control.

He grunted as he got his release. I
brought my lips back to his and kissed him tenderly.

My body gave one last convulsion as he
got off of me. He lay beside me and pulled me to him, his arms
wrapped around me, the blanket around us once again.

I yawned and he laughed.

“By the way,” I said as I started to
fall asleep. I rolled over so I could bury my face in his chest. “I
still love you more.”

*****

“It’s been two months since we’ve been
back and there’s been no sign of any guards. Do you feel like going
to town?” Jasper had just brought in an armful of wood.

I looked up from mending a rip in a
pair of his pants. “Ow!”

He smiled but tried not to laugh.
“Poked yourself again?”

“There has got to be a spell for this.
Out of everything I’ve had to learn to do since I moved here, this
is the worst.”

He dropped the wood by the fireplace
and came to kneel in front of me. He took my finger and brought it
to his lips. “I told you I didn’t mind doing it.”

I smiled and moved my hand up to brush
the hair out of his eyes. “You do enough around here. And yes. We’d
better go to town. You need a haircut.” I ran my hand down the side
of his face, feeling the stubble along his jaw.

“I wonder when stubble stops being
referred to as stubble and becomes a beard.” I was pretty sure his
had reached beard status.

“Do you want me to shave?”

I shook my head. “I like you
scruffy.”

The corners of his mouth twitched. “So
why do I need a haircut, then?”

“Because when your hair starts to get
this long I get jealous,” I laughed. “I know girls back home who
would kill for hair like yours.” I ran my hands through his curls
and he closed his eyes. One thick strand fell back into his face,
the end of it hitting the bridge of his nose. I smiled and pulled
it straight.

“You know, if you had straight hair,
your bangs would almost be down to your chin.”

I let go and watched it bounce
back.

He opened his eyes. “What if I don’t
want to cut it? What if I like when you play with it when it’s this
long?” He leaned forward and kissed me softly.

“Hmm.” I placed my fingers by his
temples and ran them straight back before grabbing fistfuls of
curls. “I’ll admit it’s kind of handy.”

He gave me a lopsided grin. “Is that
so?”

I turned on my chair and pulled him
toward me so that he was kneeling between my legs. “Well, maybe I
can let you keep it a while longer,” I murmured.

Jasper chuckled. “How nice of you.” He
leaned forward and kissed me softly. “Now. Even though we agree I
don’t need a haircut, do we still want to go to town?”

I smiled. “How do you do
that?”

He pretended to frown.
“What?”

“I could tell you I was positive I was
a woman, and you could just look into my eyes, give me a kiss, and
convince me that I wasn’t.”

“Well, let’s see.” He wrapped his arms
around my waist. His mouth found mine.

His hands moved under my shirt and up
my back before lifting it up enough for him to put his head under
it. He kissed along my stomach and made his way up to my breast,
paid ample attention to both of them, then came back out and
grinned.

“Nope. I’m not going to argue.” He
kissed me softly. “Definitely a woman.”

I laughed. “Alright, then.”

He stood and pulled me up. “But you’re
right. I need a haircut. If we’re going, we better head out now.
With the snow we had yesterday, I don’t know how that trail is
going to be.”

I put my mending away and went to the
bedroom to get some warmer clothes on and to pack a bag for a few
days.

I pulled on an extra tunic and took my
dagger from Jasper when he handed it to me before putting his on
his belt.