Becoming Three (6 page)

Jasper jerked, feeling burned. Sarah narrowed her gaze up at him and rubbed the small of his back at the same time. Her fingers traced the indent of his spine; Jace still held his hand too, and the sensation swamped through Jasper like two people working over his dick at the same time, dragging him to arousal. One soft, with long, elegant fingers, the other bigger and rough.
Jasper stumbled, breaking contact with both of them.
What in the hell is wrong with me?
Sarah immediately grabbed him around the waist again. “Are you sure you're all right?”
His voice strangled, Jasper nodded. “Haven't eaten all day; that's all.”
Has to be everything I saw today getting to me. Has to
. All the same, Jasper took Sarah's hand in his and prayed these disturbing images of Jace would go away soon.

As Jace watched Sarah and Jasper together, guilt ate a hole in his belly, and he wondered if his curt attitude toward Jasper had taken a severe toll on the shy young man. “Take care of—” Jace started, but right then, the station doors groaned as they were pushed open from the outside. Cade appeared, and his scarred face looked even grimmer than usual. Carson followed right behind.

“How'd it go?” Jace directed his question to Cade before the man even made it across the bull pen. After taking the body down from the tree, Cade and Carson had done general interviews of everyone who worked Caleb's ranch, as well as the family members of the employees who rent the mountain cabins. Max and another deputy had the job of transporting the body and other evidence collected to Bozeman.

“Nobody saw or heard anything unusual.” Cade threw a couple of notebooks with flyaway pages onto his desk. “Of course.”
“Damn it.” Jace just resisted the urge to punch something. He already had one set of scraped-up knuckles and didn't want another.
I don't need Sarah to see me lose my shit. Jasper either, for that matter
. “It's a huge stretch of land, though. We had to expect that.”
“I know,” Cade answered. “Shit, I live up there and don't have a damn thing useful to contribute. Doesn't make it any less frustrating that nobody else did either.”
Jace and Cade shared a commiserative look.
Sarah touched Jace's arm and mouthed,
We'll get out of your hair.
“Good night.” Jace watched Sarah and Jasper leave, torn between searing jealousy at the closeness she so obviously shared with Jasper and wanting to walk right out with them too. His arms started to lift of their own accord, and he battled the desire to embrace both Sarah and Jasper and steer them away from this ugliness to a place of safety…at his side.
Old demons that Jace thought properly buried reared inside him right where he stood, flashing raw images of his lust-filled body rolling around in bed, on the floor, in the shower, against a wall…anywhere and everywhere. In his mind, Jace alternated between igniting Sarah's moans of pleasure and making Jasper gasp as he filled the man's ass with a hard cock and plunged in deep. Cries of release filled Jace's ears, male and female, shrieking and low. Then Jace saw a picture that sliced frigid fear right down his spine.
Jace saw himself between Sarah and Jasper in his bed, and they both held him as dreamy smiles lifted their lips. More than that, Jace saw himself; he looked into his own eyes and saw that he was happy and at peace.
Finally.
A phone trilled through the office, and the sound of it slammed Jace right out of his fantasy.
Out of his nightmare of impossibility.
Cade snapped his fingers at Jace, and Jace moved to his side. With Cade's phone on speaker, Duke's deep voice filled the empty bull pen. “We have our warrant. I'm sending it right now.” The fax machine at Sarah's desk chirped to life. “Take Jace and go search Ginger Carlton's house. I want that done before the family goes through her stuff. I'm going to talk to them right now.” A long pause filled the station with heavy silence. Then Duke said, “I know you're all tired, but ask Carson to stay at the station. I don't want to flip over to the nine-one-one redirect tonight. Juan will be there as soon as he can to keep Carson company. Keep me informed.”
“Will do, boss.” Cade ended the call and slipped his cell phone back on his belt. “Carson, are you doing all right?”
The dark-haired, blue-eyed newbie nodded from his desk. “I can handle it.”
“Ginger has a house?” Jace said to Cade. “Jasper remembers an apartment.”
Cade raised a brow. “Guess she moved up in the world.”
“Guess so.” Jace moved across the bull pen and grabbed the warrant out of the fax machine. “Let's go get to know our victim.”
Cade nodded. Both men rubbed their faces and left for the task ahead in silence.

Chapter Five

Jasper stiffened for a moment and then relaxed as Sarah settled in behind him. With his hands braced on either side of Sarah's bedroom window, Jasper stared out into the darkness, his mind still racing with the events of the day. His muscles barely held his body upright, but he could not turn off his brain and crawl into Sarah's bed. He had already talked to

Caleb and been ordered to take tomorrow off; the boss had assured Jasper this was not coddling and he had told Ren the same thing. Every time Jasper closed his eyes, he saw Ginger, or more accurately, he saw a picture of the girl he once knew, and then it slowly, disturbingly, morphed into that damaged carcass nailed to the tree. A shiver shook through him, as had happened off and on since discovering the body.

“Are you sure you don't need anything else?” Sarah asked, her lips moving against his upper back. “I can fix you a sandwich or get you a beer. Whatever you want.”

 

“Your shower was plenty. Thank you.”

Jasper's clothes were in Sarah's washing machine right now; he stood nude in front of the open window, letting the night air dry the final remnants of moisture from his skin. He had been

uncomfortable with the offer of a pair of Jace's sweats until his own stuff was clean and dry. Sarah's window faced her backyard, giving her neighbors no chance of seeing him naked.

“You've been through a lot today.” Sarah held Jasper around the middle, and her body felt amazingly comforting and soft against his back, yet solid too. “It's okay to be bothered by it all.”
Jasper had only shared with Sarah that he and Ren had discovered a body and that Jasper recognized her. He felt certain Sarah would know Ginger's name and all the particulars the next time she talked to Jace or when she went to work, but Jasper didn't want to speak about things he wasn't sure he should. Wasn't sure he
could
talk about it yet without revealing the weakness he knew lurked inside him.
“Jasper?”
“I should be harder than I am.” Jasper's voice scratched on those words. A warm evening breeze carried through the open window, but Jasper only felt the chill. “Seeing what I did shouldn't still be stickin' to me this much.”
Sarah slipped around Jasper's side and perched herself on the windowsill in front of him. She'd only fastened the buttons of her pink shirt between her breasts and the plackets spread at the bottom to reveal black panties. She rubbed his abdomen up to his chest, and Jasper's arms vibrated with strain to keep from touching her. He wanted to crush Sarah to him but feared she would recoil from the need coursing through him right now.
She looked up and offered a small smile. “You're a sensitive person, Jas. There's nothing bad about that.”
Sensitive
. Code word for pussy. Nobody wanted to fuck a wuss. “Jace didn't react like I did.” Jasper banged his open hands against the wall and pushed back a step so he could breathe. “Jace was solid every second he was out there. Even when he was right up close to the body, and when he touched her too. I thought I was gonna throw up the second I saw her. But he was steady as a rock the whole time.”
“It's Jace's job to know how to react and how to handle a crime scene. That doesn't make him tougher than you.” Reaching out, Sarah grabbed hold of Jasper's hand and pulled him close again. “You help animals give birth out at the ranch; you help castrate the calves, among a host of other very difficult tasks. Jace wouldn't be able to do your job any more capably than you'd be able to do his.”
“It ain't—
isn't
—the same.”
“No, you're right, it's not.” She twined her fingers in his, but this time her touch did not act as a balm. “I've also seen you get on the back of one of Caleb's bucking bulls and try your hand at a ride. There aren't a lot of guys who would do that, not even some of the cowboys you work with, from what I've heard. But you've been around the animals, you feel comfortable with them, and you're confident enough in your abilities to get on them and help with their training. That is a big deal and brave in the eyes of others, yet it feels very natural to you.”
Jasper snorted. “Gettin' on a bull ain't the same thing as dealin' with dead bodies and helpin' solve crimes, so don't try to, you know, pacify me, or whatever the damn hell the word is.” Jasper's mind spun with all the conversations he'd overheard today, many of which had Jace right in the center of them. “Jace is somethin' special. He's tough. When he interviewed me, he knew how to talk to me to get me to give the answers he wanted, all commandin' and clever in that room, even though I don't think he even likes me. He's smart, and he's confident, and he's in control in big-time situations, things that are life-and-death. That's a lot more important, and somethin' to admire, than being a ranch hand. I saw him today in a way I never did before, and I see why you like him so much and why so many people admire him. He's amazin'.”
Sarah tilted her head. “Do you simply admire Jace?” she asked, her voice a little high. “Or did watching him today spark an attraction to him?”
Shit
. “What?” Jasper's heart kicked up to triple time, and he tugged his sweating hand out of Sarah's hold. Stumbling backward, he kept moving until his ass hit her dresser. “No. No. Of course not.”
“Hey, don't walk away from me.” Sarah jumped up and strode to Jasper, her dark hair waving in tandem with the curtains behind her. “Don't hide from this talk. I thought we weren't going to be the kind of couple who never talk about anything important.” She crossed her arms under her breasts and looked right at him. “I saw the way you reacted down at the station when Jace touched your hand. It went through you deeper than just a handshake. Your whole body jerked when he touched you. Shoot, I had my hand on your back and
felt
it. And the way you just said what you said about him…seemed like it was about someone who has captured your interest more than professionally.”
“No.” Sweat trickled down Jasper's freshly clean back. “You-you're wrong. Are you accusin' me of being gay? I ain't gay.”
“I didn't ask if you were gay, I asked if you're attracted to Jace. It's not the same thing.” She took his hand loosely in hers, a thin thread that kept them tied together that might as well have been a rope. “Hey,” she said, her tone gentling, “nothing you say to me is going to freak me out; I thought we already understood that about each other. Now tell me: are you attracted to him?”
Panic ripped through Jasper, buzzing the surface of his skin. “No. Stop askin' me that. No.” He dug his hands into his hair and squeezed. “No.” Sarah, so full of life, passion, and intelligence, stayed right with Jasper, and she pushed through his fear, as she always did. He heaved in a shaky breath. “I don't think so.”
She stepped in so close, her vitality swirled around Jasper and permeated his pores like a topical drug. “Okay. Let me ask you a different question. Have you ever been attracted to a man?
Ever
?”
New heat burned through Jasper, raising his core temperature enough to turn his trickle of sweat into a flood.
Planting her hands on the dresser on either side of him, Sarah caged him in. “Have you ever wanted a man?”
Goddamn it
. Jasper had known this ballsy woman lived inside Sarah well before he finally felt good enough about himself to make his move. He knew; people had told him to watch out for this mouthy chick, and he still craved her anyway.
“Tell. Me.”
“Fine!” Jasper almost roared the word in Sarah's face. “Yes, all right? I have. When Caleb gave me a second chance…when he tracked me down and told me I was worth somethin', that he wasn't gonna let me get in trouble and ruin my life, and that he was bringin' me back to the ranch and keepin' an eye out to make sure I kept my nose straight… After all that, I think I got a crush on him. I thought about him some, in a sexual way. I could see myself kissin' him and holdin' him. But it was just because I was so grateful to him, and I mixed it up in my head. There. See? It was nothin'.”
“Maybe it wasn't nothing,” Sarah said. Her natural, clean scent attacked Jasper, reviving his earlier raw desire, no matter the words coming out of her mouth. “Maybe you really
were
sexually attracted to Caleb.”
Jasper's nostrils flared. He grabbed Sarah's shoulders and hauled her right up against the front of his body. “Then how come I'm hard right now because I'm standin' so close to you?” He yanked her head back and sealed his lips to hers with a rough, taking kiss. She clung to him and gave her mouth to him in an open display, moaning as she accepted the thrust of his tongue. Jasper pulled back and licked, and he found her dark gaze shining bright against the moonlight. “I know you can feel me pushin' into your belly.” He dragged her hand down and forced her to stroke up the length of his cock. “That ain't pokin' straight out right this second for anyone but you.”
Sarah whimpered and threw herself into Jasper, kissing him with a feral nature that sluiced rocket fuel through his blood and throbbed a steady beat straight to his penis. She reversed their hold against his prick and shoved his hand between her legs, ripping the crotch of her panties out of the way. “Feel that?” She pushed Jasper's fingers through the slick folds of her sex and made a made a purring, needy noise when he slipped the tip of one inside. “No matter what you tell me”—she worked herself off on his probing finger—“I'm always going to get wet for you.”
Desire slammed through Jasper, making him shake right where he stood. His need for this woman grew more potent every second he was in her presence. “You get me so damn hot, so damn fast.” He slid his finger deeper into the tight tunnel of her pussy, and his dick pounded with blood, greedy to get into the snug, slippery channel. Watching her face, Jasper eased another finger inside and rubbed over her sweet spot.
Sarah bit her lip and grabbed onto his arm, crushing his wrist with the strength in her hold. “I want you,” she said. Breathless sexiness infused her voice, and her creamy skin deepened to a rosy color as she rocked her hips into his invasion. “I've dreamed about having you inside me again all day.”
Jasper growled and pulled out. Sarah cried, “No,” and tried to shove his hand back between her legs.
He flashed a fast grin. “Don't worry. I ain't leavin'.” He dipped down and wrapped his arms under her ass, lifted her and turned them, and pinned her to the wall. She tucked her legs around his waist and grabbed hold of his shoulders.
Chuckling, Jasper said, “I got you. Let go of me”—he raked her up and down with an open stare—“and show me your tits.”
The bad-girl smile—one Jasper now recognized as a very real part of Sarah—appeared. She let go of him and braced her shoulders against the wall. Her hands traveled up her stomach, pushing more of her shirt aside to show enticing bits of skin. “You want me to open this?” She fiddled with the two black buttons holding her shirt closed and held one hand over her covered breasts. “But you'll see everything.” Blinking those big brown eyes of hers, she chewed on the edge of her lip. “I'm not wearing a bra.” She moved her fingers over her chest, pulling enticingly at the fabric and revealing her pointed nipples.
“I know.” Jasper closed his eyes and teased his stomach muscles over her exposed pussy lips. He breathed deeply and luxuriated in the rich scent of her juices releasing into the night air. Opening his eyes, Jasper nailed Sarah to the wall with more than his body. “Every time you sway your sweet ass when you walk, and every damn time you move your arms, I get a show of exactly what you're
not
wearin' under that scrap of clothes.”
“You mean like when I do something like this?” Sarah spread her arms out wide on either side of her body and arched her back away from the wall. The fabric strained against her breasts, highlighting the dark color of her tight nipples. “Or like this?” She raised her arms over her head, linked her fingers, and the motion revealed the underside of her breasts.
“Yeah.” Jasper's erection raged, and his mouth watered like hell too. “Just like that. And you damn well know it.” Swooping down, he opened his mouth over her breast and sucked her inside, clothes and all. He nuzzled and curled his lips around his teeth, frantic to torment the hard pebble of her nipple.
“Here…here.” Sarah pulled at the buttons and yanked her shirt open, breaking Jasper's mouth away from her chest. “No more teasing. Just suck me.” Straining equally against his mouth and belly, Sarah became a quivering line that aroused all of Jasper's senses. He flicked his tongue over her puckered nipple and tugged the distended dark tip between his teeth.
“Oh God, yes…” Sarah twisted and turned as if she could not remain still. “Do that again. I can feel it in my pussy.”
Jasper curled his fingers into Sarah's buttocks and squeezed soft, bare skin; her panties had long ago shifted into the crack of her ass. He kneaded her backside, worried her breast with his lips and teeth, and alternated sucking the whole of her tit into his mouth and running his tongue over as much flesh as she would give him. Jasper didn't know how Sarah did it, but she tasted so fucking good, he never wanted to take his mouth off her skin.
“Jas…” Sarah buried her fingers in Jasper's hair and pulled, stinging his scalp as she lifted his face up to hers. “I need you.” She ground her turned-out sex down his stomach and scraped herself over his pubic hair. “Fuck me.” She struggled against his groin and tried to get him inside her on her own. “Take me now.”
“Hell yeah.” He shifted her hips in one move, lined her up with his cock, and plowed into her begging cunt in one full stroke, trapping her against the wall. She jerked and moaned, and Jasper did too as her pussy closed in around his member in a tight fist and pulled him deeper inside. Needing more, Jasper forced Sarah up higher onto the wall with his second hard thrust, clutching her ass and supporting her weight with his forearms under her thighs.
Tilting her hips down for every drive up of his cock, Sarah wrapped her arms around Jasper's shoulders and held him tight, whispering, “Yes yes yes,” against his ear with each deep pounding. Jasper knew he bruised her delicate skin with his hold and fucking, but every time she squeezed him and gave him that throaty “yes” for more, he took her permission to an even more aggressive extreme.
He let go of her thigh and jerked her head back, meeting the blur of her lusty gaze for only a second before closing in and ravishing her mouth with his kiss. Animal lust consumed Jasper, making him think of the beautiful violence in the stallions and mares he watched in mating season at the ranch. He ate at her mouth with savagery and penetrated her milking tight sex with ferocious spearing from his cock, crushing her into the wall with every deep thrust. Sarah clung to him and locked her thighs in a vise on his hips. She sank her short fingernails into his back in a gripping hold that surged down his spine and coiled in his belly and balls, throwing his fucking into overdrive.
Releasing Sarah's hair, Jasper slipped his hands to the hills of her ass once again and held her in place for the relentless sawing of his cock. He drove her head into the wall with the force of his kiss and sank his tongue into her mouth with every bit as much force as he knifed his rigid length into her pussy. Sweaty flesh smacked against perspiring skin, excess slick moisture smeared Sarah's cunt and thighs, and all of it sent Jasper's basest desires out of control.
“Too good.” He gritted his teeth and fought back orgasm, but could not stop pumping his hips into Sarah's welcoming core. “Gonna come.”
“Don't slow down.” Sarah scratched Jasper's back. Her hot breath fanned his face and lips, stirring a shiver through him. “Oh mmn…” She circled her cunt into his crotch. “I want it. Want you.” Need colored the mahogany depths of her eyes, and they saw inside him right now in a way nobody ever had.