Page 88 of Witch Untold
I satat the dressing table brushing out my hair. Wren had passed out in his new room after a huge helping of shepherd’s pie. He looked so tiny in the double bed, a lump beneath the duvet, his soft snores punctuated by sighs. He’d sleep through till morning now.
The guys had left for patrol and wouldn’t be back for a couple of hours, leaving me alone with too much time to think.
Jasper still wasn’t back, even though I’d called out to him several times. Stupid, because he’d have checked in by now if he could.
The blood witch’s offer was getting more and more tempting, but maybe there was another way. If only I could get a hold of Conah and tell him what the witch had said, maybe he’d be able to find another way to pull Jasper from the abyss, one that didn’t involve being tortured and shagged by a blood witch. But his phone went straight to voicemail. I set down the hairbrush.
Okay, so he was busy on Dominus business. This wasn’t his problem. It was mine.
Jasper was mine.
He’d been gone a night and a day. But he’d been gone longer before. I’d give him another day. If he wasn’t back by then—
My nape prickled. “Jasper?” I swiveled in my seat to face him as he materialized by the bed. “Jasper!” I bridged the distance between us and threw my arms around his neck. “You’re back!”
He was tense and stiff for a long beat and then his body relaxed against me, arms coming up to hug me back. He exhaled and buried his nose in the crook of my neck.
I pulled back to look at his face. He was paler than usual, but his eyes gleamed with vigor.
I reached up to touch his cheek. “You were gone for a night and a day.”
He blinked down at me. “The last thing I remember is being in the bathroom with you.”
“Jasper, I think I know what’s happening to you.”
I filled him in on what the blood witch had said, about the abyss and the bond between us. “Are you losing your hold on me?”
His gaze flicked across my face as if searching for an answer. “No. No, I don’t think so.”
I gripped his shoulders. “You can’t let me go. Ever. I can’t lose you. Do you understand? You need to stay with me.”
He locked gazes with me, and for a moment it was as if he didn’t know me, as if he was a stranger studying me with an almost clinical precision.
Gooseflesh pricked my skin. “Jasper?”
His hand slid up my spine and came to rest at my nape, his cool fingers bringing heat to the surface of my skin. More heat bloomed beneath my diaphragm, the signature of my power.
Jasper moaned softly and dropped his forehead to mine. “That feels good.”
He was recharging. “Take whatever you need.”
His grasp on my nape tightened a fraction. “Whatever I need?” His tone was husky and thick with desire.
My stomach flipped. “You know we can’t…” He caressed my neck with his thumb, sending tingles across my chest. “Jasper…” He licked the column of my neck, ending with a flick at my lobe.
Oh, fuck.
His hand slid under the hem of my bathrobe to cup my bare ass and haul me up against his arousal. “I need you, Cora. Open yourself to me.”
Oh, God, yes, I wanted to open for him, but the seal…I had to consider the seal.
He kissed my neck, traveling up to my jaw, slow and sensual, until I was panting, desperate for his mouth on mine.
But Jasper wanted to play. He slipped his free hand into the neck of my robe and claimed my breast, thumb flicking across my straining nipple. I arched my back, needing his mouth on me.
“Please.”
“Tell me what you want, Cora.”
