Hot, hard muscles... the sensation traveled from her fingertips, up along her arm, and all the way down her spine.
She was touching a man. Her heart was throbbing violently, like a ping-pong ball. She felt thrilled, horrified, frightened, perplexed...
It was going to happen to her all over again... just like five years ago!
Since she couldn't fight him off, the only thing she could do was catch hold of his lip between her teeth... and bite down on it, hard.
With a sharp grunt of pain, Jasper released her, and drew back to see her bruised, swollen lips speckled with spit and foam. Her large, dark eyes shimmered with tears.
She was broken and forlorn, but she was also such a beautiful woman.
He wanted nothing more than to keep her safe forever.
Eyes wide with panicked fright, Willow scrambled backwards, trying to get away from him.
But his strong hands were on her shoulders, restraining her and keeping her from wriggling away from him. Escape was a futile notion.
After a moment more of thrashing about, Willow glared up at him and shrieked, "You let go of me, Jasper Hughes! Creeping into my room in the dead of the night, laying your hands on me without permission... don't you know this is against the law?!"
Why did he keep coming on to her like this? Forcing himself onto her, even though she didn't want it... Jasper reached up with one hand and touched his lip. His thumb glistened wetly with fresh blood. Well, this was just great! She'd actually bitten through his lip!
This wench was quite the bitch-in the literal sense of the word—what with her fondness for biting people...
His expression grew cold. With that new hint of crimson upon his features, he now exuded a sinister sort of appeal.
His thin lips curled into a slight frown. "You seem to be mistaken," he said softly, "This is my room. Here you are, in my bedroom, on my bed... what else was I to make of this situation?"
"Besides..." He glanced at her, out of the corner of his eye. "You're the one who made the first move, stroking and nuzzling against my leg."
Willow's eyes flew wide with shock at hearing this. Then she remembered her delusions from earlier, and finally realized what had actually been going on:
Instead of her daughter Hailey, she'd been hugging and caressing Jasper's leg!
That would explain why something had felt amiss.
She opened her teary eyes even wider, because she was lost and confused, embarrassed and misfortunate. She reached up to remove his hands from her shoulders, so that she could get away.noveldrama
Willow flashed Jasper a big, goofy
grin, hoping to catch him off-guard
and disarm him. "Ahah... oopsie! I was having a dream, didn't know that was your leg, you see? Grandma Cindy put me in this room-but she didn't mention it was your room! I'll just remove myself now, if it's all the same with you! Yes, I'll get out of your hair without delay..."
However, Jasper saw right through her ploy. Did she really think she'd get away that easily? Fat chance.
With one forceful yank, he pulled her right back to him, clutching her in his arm like a yarn doll. His gruff voice sounded from overhead: "And where do you think you're going? You've given me a hard time, so now going to ride this out to its
u're
conclusion. Those are the rules, I'm
sure you're well aware."
Willow's face was now squashed right up against his body, so that she could clearly feel the magnificent
contours of his abs against her cheek. She flushed red, all the way to her ears.
"Don't you need to worry about
keeping a certain class of
company?" she ventured, as at desperate gambit. "I'm an uncouth peasant, an ignorant girl... I'm out of my depth in your fast-paced world! You are a lion; I'm but a flea! I'm nothing to you... could you not leave me be?"
Jasper cocked a refined eyebrow at her peculiar metaphors. In this moment, he was the one feeling out of his depth and unable to keep up.
The noble daughters of influential houses were all the same, every move and gesture carefully designed
to adhere to some generic brand of cultured elegance, every word spoken from the same script they all seemed to share.
In comparison, this girl was a surprise around every corner. So much more refreshing.
Intrigued, Jasper indulged her. "So what does that make you, exactly? An uncouth flea on an ignorant peasant girl?"
Just as Willow was about to unveil the next stage of this dialogue, someone knocked briefly on the door, then walked right in on them.
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