Page 69 of Until Forever

Climbing into his lap, I lay my head on his shoulders. Jasper cranes his neck to look at me while bringing a hand to the AirPods in his ears.

“Yeah, sounds good. Take care of that and send me the new contracts. Great, that’s a plan. All right, talk to you later.” He ends his call, removes his earpieces, sets them on the desk, and wraps his arms around me.

Jasper rubs my back and lays his head against mine. “Hey. What’s going on?” he asks, concerned. “Look at me. What happened?” He hooks a finger under my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze. “You okay?”

I sigh. “I got into a fight with my dad.”

His shoulders slump. “Is this about what I told you he said to JJ?”

I shake my head. “We never even got to that, but it was a similar subject.”

“He still doesn’t like me, huh?”

“He doesn’t know you, Jasper. He never tried, even when we were kids.”

“Yeah.” He nods. “But can you blame him?”

I frown and sit up. “What?”

He tightens his arms around me. “Come on. I was a troubled kid. If I had a daughter, I wouldn’t have wanted her with me either.” He laughs. “All the dirty little things I did to you,” he teases.

I click my tongue, fighting a smile. “Oh, shut up. I highly doubt he knows all thedirty littlethings we did.” I slap his chest, but he doesn’t flinch.

“He knew. Trust me. He’s a father. It’s his job to know.” Jasper sits back with his head on the chair and stares at me through his lashes.

“Well, you’re not troubled now.” I drop my gaze to the tattoo peeking out from the sleeve around his biceps.

“Eh.” He shrugs and runs a finger along the patch of skin sticking out between my shirt and the waistband of my jeans. “Debatable.”

I frown with a half-smile and try to decipher what he means. Then his wayward grin turns wicked.

“I still do dirty little things to you.” Jasper reaches out, swiping his thumb over my nipple through my top.

I suck my teeth. “You perv.”

We erupt into a fit of laughter which ends with him tickling me and me fighting to get free. It fails because now he’s holding me flush to his chest, my body twisted in his lap.

“I’m just saying that I understand that he doesn’t get it. It doesn’t stop me from wanting to love JJ, to love you. But I can imagine where he’s coming from.”

I wet my lips, another smile tentatively tugging at the corners of my mouth. “Aren’t you all grown up?” I stroke his cheek.

“Eh,” he intones.

“Debatable,” we say together.

He kisses me, his hands roaming over my thighs, heating me from the inside. I throw my arms around his neck and reposition myself so that I’m straddling him. Jasper sits back, his head on the back of the chair again.

“Let’s go somewhere,” he says.

“Where?”

He doesn’t answer me. Instead, he scoots me off of his lap and hops to his feet. Grabbing my hand, he snatches his keys and phone from the desk and pulls me toward the door.

“Don’t you have to finish working?” I ask on the way out.

He locks up the house and guides me off the porch. “I own my business, remember? I can do what I want.” He winks.

I follow him to the driveway without another word, stopping short when he removes the covering off his bike. Jasper hands me the helmet, and I clutch it to my chest as he hops on, throws it into neutral, and slowly walks the bike out onto the road.

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