Page 15 of Jasper

He left the room and came back carrying spoons, two bowls, and two bottles of water. “I hope you’re hungry because I made enough soup to feed an army.”

“Starved.” She took the bowls and the big soup ladle she’d missed and dished them out heaping bowls of red deliciousness. The aroma was enough to make her stomach growl.

“It’s just Campbell’s, but I figured it was the easiest thing to try to heat up in the fireplace.”

“I wondered why you bought soup.” She handed him his and took the spoon he offered her.

Jasper took a seat beside her on the mattress. He was careful not to get too close. He didn’t want to spook her. She barely trusted him as it was. No need to make her remember her serial killer suspicions. He wanted close to the fire more than anything. He was frozen. He set the bowl down and held out his hands in front of the flames, relishing the heat. Damn, but it was cold outside.

He’d gotten to used to New York winters. They weren’t as severe as Vermont, and they sure as hell weren’t as cold as North Dakota. He hoped the power guys got here early in the morning. Over half the groceries were stored on the screened-in porch. They might still end up replacing a good chunk of it if the temperatures got above freezing.

“I brought in enough wood to keep the fire going tonight so we won’t freeze.”

“I would never have been able to do this.” Sloane gave up on the spoon and started to sip straight from the bowl. “I’m not an outdoors kinda girl. Jarrod used to tease me all the time because when we went camping, I screamed until someone took me to a hotel. Bugs, creepy crawlies, bugs…” She shuddered, and Jasper grinned. God, this girl. She was something else.

He tossed his own spoon down and took a healthy drink from the bowl. It was much easier this way, and it warmed both his hands.

“You never told me what you did.” Sloane glanced at him then went back to her soup.

“Private security.” No point in lying to her. He doubted Jarrod would when he called. “I’m taking a bit of a sabbatical.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “I just needed some time off.”

She nodded. “When I hear private security, I think of all the bodyguards surrounding famous people.”

“That’s part of it. But we don’t just handle celebrities. We do security for the masses as well as private investigations. We handle cases of domestic violence, kidnappings, and we also do the mundane photos of one spouse cheating on the other. It can be a little boring sometimes. Well, most times.” He grimaced at how boring his own job assignments had been over the last year.

“If it’s so boring, why do you need a sabbatical?” Her lashes swept down then back up so when she looked at him, her eyes were framed and the light from the fire reflected in them. God, she was beautiful. But she looked eighteen, and he wasn’t a male cougar.

“Not all the cases are boring. I had a client I failed twice, and I just need time to get myself together and figure out how I failed so badly.”

A flicker of worry crossed her face, but it was there and gone so quickly, he could have imagined it. But he didn’t think so. Why would his inability to keep a client safe affect Sloane?

“What about you? What are you doing up here?”

“Hiding.” She set her empty bowl down.

“From what?”

“Life in general?” It sounded more like a question than a statement. Now, he was curious. Why would she need to hide all the way in the middle of nowhere?

“That doesn’t really say anything.”

She shrugged. “I’m not up to sharing.”

“That’s cool.” He downed the rest of his soup and put his bowl aside as well. He leaned over and tossed another log on the fire. It blazed up, and a wave of heat billowed out. Sloane might have moaned a little when the heat hit her in the face. “Still cold?”

“Frozen solid.”

He picked up the two blankets and wrapped them around her. “Get a little closer to the fire.”

“Thanks,” she murmured and scooted in the direction of the flames. “Florida never gets cold. Maybe a freak snowstorm every ten years or so, but even then, it’s like a smattering of snow that’s gone in a couple of hours.”

“Bet that shuts the city down.”

She laughed. “Like we got a hundred inches.”

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