Page 73 of Witch Undecided
I headed up the stairs to summon Jasper.
Jasper materializedby the window as soon as I called. He obviously hadn’t gone far, but he was pissed. It was evident in the sharp gleam in his eyes and the tense way he held himself.
For the first time in forever, the urge to hold him swept over me. “Hey.”
He was still ethereal. Whatever he’d done had taken up most of his reserves. I’d seen him as selfish and uncaring for so long because that’s all he’d projected and because…Well, it had been easier to see him as a monster. But his actions told a different story.
Jasper wasn’t a monster.
Jasper was alone.
He was an anomaly like me…Like me.
I approached him, fingers going to the amulet at my neck, heart pounding against my ribs so hard surely he could hear it?
A ripple of confusion ran over his features as I bridged the distance between us.
“Cora?”
I tipped my head to rake his face with my gaze, lingering on his mouth. “Thank you for saving our asses today.”
He slow-blinked, his mouth twisting in a wry smile. “It’s what I do.”
“I know.” I reached up to touch his jaw, but my fingers passed through him.
He closed his eyes as if in pain. As if the absence of my touch was a barb.
My throat ached with the emotions I’d been suppressing for too long. “I want to touch you, Jasper.”
His eyes popped open and locked with mine.
“I want to kiss you.” My voice trembled and I touched the amulet. “Take what you need, so I can take what I need.”
The hard look in his eyes melted to something questing and almost vulnerable. The amulet lit up, sensing my acquiescence, and then the delicious tugging in my chest told me he was feeding, taking what he needed to replenish, to become—
His hand hugged my throat.
Yes.
I allowed my eyelids to flutter closed, head to tip back, as his mouth hovered over mine.
I wanted his kiss. Needed it to show him what he meant to me because I wasn’t ready to use the words. I couldn’t use the words, not without taking our connection to the next level and risking compromising the seal. Because Jasper had the potential to be my kryptonite, and the unsaid things were all I had to protect me from losing myself to him.
His mouth brushed mine, a feather touch. “What do you want, Cora?”
“A kiss.” My words were a whisper.
His grip on my throat tightened a fraction, and my eyes opened a crack to be snared by the tumult of emotions in his emerald gaze. Hunger and betrayal and…sadness.
“Jasper…”
“You want a kiss. You want to be saved. You want your friends, your mates to be saved. You want, you want, you want.” His grip tightened even more. “I want too, Cora. I want respect. I wantnotto be treated like a fucking pet on a leash. You want me? Then take off that damn amulet; otherwise this thing between us, the thingyoupretend isn’t there, is over.” He released me and stepped away, fully corporeal now. “I wonder how your friends would fare with no Jasper to save their asses.”
Ice replaced the heat in my veins. “What?”
“I’m done bailing your friends out, Cora. Until you take that amulet off, you’re on your own.”
He vanished, and for the first time since he’d bonded to me, the connection I’d taken for granted felt cold and empty.
“Well, I guess I deserved that.”
