Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

" Y ou didn't tell me he was married," Sophia gasped. She was driving her Bug with Jasmine in the passenger's seat on Sunday. They were on their way to Cottonville to question the backwoods Pit breeders. There were four on Jasmine's list.

"Yes, I did," Jasmine insisted. "He told me on our first date. It was one of the only things we talked about that night."

"I recall you telling me that you didn't talk much ," Sophia said while waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

Jazz rolled her eyes. "You need to pay attention to more than just the dirty things I tell you about, Soph. It's like your brain literally doesn't process anything else."

"Because the dirty stuff is the best part!"

Jasmine snorted.

"So the pirate thinks that you're good for his brother."

Jasmine shrugged. "That's basically what he implied. He said that the two weeks we were together was the happiest he's ever seen Jumper."

"Okay, so my question is, what happened then? How do you go from being the happiest you've ever been to walking away from the source of that happiness?"

Jasmine shook her head. She didn't have an answer to that any more than Pirate did. "It has to have something to do with us sleeping together. We were laughing and fine up until I found out that he never planned to sleep next to me, even after we have sex."

"I mean, that's not exactly world ending," Sophia hedged. "Married couples used to not sleep next to each other. It was common to have two twins instead of a single, larger bed."

"We could have made it work. I mean, I wouldn't have been happy about sleeping apart, but we could have worked something out. Instead, he just walks out like it was a done decision and there was no compromising."

Sophia glanced at her out of the corner of her eye. "You really going to fight for him after he walked out like that?"

This was not the first time Sophia had asked her that question. Her answer remained the same. "Yes, but only if he fights equally as hard. I need to know he's not going to walk out on me again after a setback. I need to know that he wants this relationship as much as I do."

"And if he doesn't?"

Jasmine was silent for a long time. The radio played through several songs before she answered. "I waited for him for two years. He was worth fighting for, but I'm not going to wait around forever for him. As long as I know he's trying , I'll still be here for him."

"You've got more heart and patience than I'll ever have," Sophia said admirably. "It's one of the things I love most about you, Jazz. I just don't want to see you hurt."

Jasmine didn't want to be hurt. "He's worth fighting for," she repeated.

They struck out at the first two addresses Sophia drove them to. The first was an abandoned building with no evidence anyone had been there in a long time. The second neither of them was risking getting out of the car to ask questions when an old man stepped onto the front porch with a shotgun.

At the third address, Jasmine was surprised to find a family who lived off of the grid and treated their animals with respect. When they learned she was a vet, they asked her to look at one of their hunting dogs—a coonhound—who hadn't been eating well of late. Jasmine found an infected tooth and pulled it. She gave the family some antibiotics she had in her go-bag and didn't charge them. They ended up giving Sophia a bunch of pies, all homemade. The couple of hours they spent at the residence was nice and unexpected but, unfortunately, they were unable to point Jasmine in the direction of someone who would shoot and dump their dog's body.

At the fourth residence, a gruff old lady who called her dogs "brood bitches" or "studs", pointed Jasmine and Sophia to the McCrery brothers' farm just outside the Mount Grove county line. The woman did not breed Pits, only beagles and hounds, so she was automatically off the hook, even though Jasmine spotted a revolver on her hip as they were leaving.

About twenty minutes before they would have hit the Mount Grove town center, Sophia pulled off at the address the gruff lady named Sue had given them for the McCrery brothers. Apparently they were known for breeding "fightin' dogs". As soon as Jasmine had heard that, her blood had run cold. Both dogs had had signs of having been in fights. The first Pit, the female, had even had a piece of her ear missing.

Despite being a small farm, the dirt road to the main property showed evidence of a lot of traffic. As they rounded the corner, a barn came into view. It was rundown and looked like it had barely survived the previous winter. The house off to the right was nicer. Freshly painted with new boards. A shiny yellow truck with giant tires and two large exhaust pipes mounted in the bed was parked in front of it.

Sophia parked her Beetle beside it. "You got a bad feeling about this one?"

Jasmine nodded.

"Yup, me too. We still going?"

Jasmine nodded. She had to know what happened to those dogs. If these McCrery brothers had anything to do with it, she would find the evidence to bring to Carlos. They would learn that they couldn't just go around shooting their dogs.

Sophia took a deep breath. "I'm leaving the car unlocked with the keys in the ignition. First sign of trouble, we bolt. You got it, Jazz? I'm not going to see you killed over this."

Jasmine had no plans of getting killed. "Let's go."

They walked up the porch stairs. No one had come to the door already, so Jasmine knocked on the outside door. There was no bell or knocker. Clearly, the brothers didn't get many visitors.

After about five minutes of waiting, they gave up at the house. No one had come to the door and they hadn't heard anything from the house to indicate someone was home.

"What now?" Jasmine asked, disappointed.

Sophia looked at the rundown barn. "Let's head over there."

"You do realize that we're walking right into every horror movie script ever written?" she asked but followed anyway.

"Don't worry, I'm safe." Sophia pulled on Jasmine's hair. "They always go after the blondes first."

Jasmine rolled her eyes but was unable to keep the smile off her face.

The closer they got to the barn, the worse the air smelled. It was an acrid mixture of manure, urine, and blood. By the time they reached the tipping entry door, both of them had a hand over their mouth and nose.

A bad feeling creeping up her spine, Jasmine looked through the filmy window and wished she hadn't. Fuck. Not wanting to but unable not to, Jasmine opened the dilapidated door.

Sophia immediately turned her face away, gagging.

Three dead dog bodies littered the barn floor. Flies swarmed around them and maggots feasted on their corpses. It was difficult with the decomposition to tell breeds, but at least two had the bone structures of Pitbulls. Jasmine wasn't getting close enough to see how they'd died.

She crouched down in the entryway. "Poor babies. What did they do to you?"

"Take your pictures and let's get out of here," Sophia hurriedly encouraged.

Sad she could do nothing for the dogs, Jasmine pulled her phone out of her back pocket. She tried to zoom in on each dog and then took several wider shots to show the entire gory scene. Putting her phone away, Jasmine said a quick prayer to the canine gods that these poor babies were finally at peace.

"I'll make sure they suffer for this," she vowed to them.

Standing, Jasmine wiped off her jeans. She turned and was about to tell Sophia they could leave now when she heard the smallest of whimpers.

Sophia, whose back was still to the barn, must have heard it too because her head snapped around, before quickly turning back. "What was that?" she demanded in a whisper.

Jasmine waited in silence, trying to hear it again. Then it came again. Two high pitched, short whimpers. "Fuck!" Jasmine poked her head into the barn. Something was alive in there.

When she made to go inside, Sophia caught her arm. "Are you insane? What if it's a wild animal?"

Jasmine shook her head. "That came from a puppy," she insisted.

"You think it came from a puppy." Sophia grimaced as her eyes landed on the dead dogs. "I don't do dead things."

"I know." Jasmine pulled her arm free of her bestie's grip. "Go get the car. We're going to need to leave in a hurry."

"You're taking it with us?" Sophia gasped, her eyes wide.

"If I can." She lifted her chin in the direction of the car. "Go."

Sophia let out a string of curses and ran across the lot towards the car.

Jasmine steeled herself before she took a step into the barn. The smell was even worse inside without the fresh breeze to dilute it. Her eyes started to water. She made her way around the three corpses, taking note of the obvious gunshots now that she was standing over them.

The whimper had come from the back corner. Most of the barn was cleared out, but the structure looked like stalls had once been there. The floor was concrete covered in dirt and moldy hay—and stained with bloody pawprints.

Jasmine had to swallow back bile as she journeyed further inside the barn. It was likely her imagination but she swore she heard the echoes of the dogs' pain. Her heart was pounding heavily in her chest.

There were three stalls left at the end of the barn. The first was empty. The second… Fuck. Jasmine had to force herself to breathe through her nose so she didn't vomit.

A dead dog lay in the stall. This one hadn't been shot. The chain around her collar and the empty bowls indicated a different, more excruciating death. At her enlarged teats were six puppies. Mom had not been dead long, a few days at most. While flies and maggots were on her body too, it wasn't as much as the ones out in the main barn area. Two of the puppies were obviously dead, their mouths still attached to their mom's dry nipples. Another puppy was further away as if it had been trying to blindly find another source of food. The last three were in a pile, pressed against their dead mother's belly.

Tears streamed down her cheeks. Bracing herself for finding none alive, Jasmine entered the stall. She wished she had gloves but wasn't willing to head out to the car to get them first. Once she left this barn, she never wanted to come back.

Jasmine reached for the pup that was the furthest from its mother's body. A sob of relief escaped her as she felt its warmth. At least one of the six was alive. Needing her hands free to check on the other puppies, she left that one where it was and reached for the pile.

The whimpering intensified as she touched the one on top, then the other two started. Jasmine closed her eyes in thanks. Four. Four of the six puppies were alive. She picked up the three in the pile and placed them near the other one. Just to be certain, she checked that Mom was dead as well as the other two pups.

Jasmine said a silent prayer for the three dead.

The puppies were newborns, not walking or having opened their eyes yet. They were at least younger than two weeks. Beyond that, Jasmine would need to examine them to know more. Just as she was reaching for the four surviving puppies, she heard a loud car horn from outside. Her head whipped around. Sophia!

Quickly grabbing up the puppies and cradling them to her chest, Jasmine rushed out of the stall. She was nearly to the barn door when the back doors near the stall where she'd just been slid open.

"…place reeks!"

"Did you hear somethin'?"

"Just a passin' car. Let's get this over with."

"Think the bitch whelped yet?"

"Even if she did, I ain't takin' 'em with us. We got enough fighters."

As a splashing noise came to her ears, the smell of gasoline came to her nose. Jasmine's eyes widened. Whoever was back there was going to burn down the barn!

Jasmine risked a peek at the back of the barn. She saw two men in cowboy hats and jeans with red canisters. They seemed as distracted as they were going to get. Keeping a tight hold on the puppies, Jasmine ran to the barn door she'd come in through.

She was not a runner—but, to save these pups, she became one. Just as she burst from the horror barn, Sophia's red Beetle came skidding to a halt next to her. Jasmine threw the door open and leapt inside. She heard shouting from behind her, but it was covered up by her own. "Go! Go! Go!"

Sophia hit the gas. The car's wheels kicked up dirt as they nearly fishtailed doing a speedy U-turn. As the Beetle sped out of the driveway, Jasmine spotted one of the men with a cowboy hat run towards the gaudy yellow oversized truck. Then he stopped, shouted, and kicked the side of the truck with his boot.

Breathing heavily, Jasmine turned to Sophia. "What did you do?" she demanded.

"I flattened the tires and keyed ‘dog murderer' into the side of his truck." Sophia checked her rearview. "I saw them coming up behind the barn. Are you okay?"

Jasmine nodded. "I was on my way out. They had gasoline, Soph! They are going to burn down the barn!" Whimpering from her arms made her realize she was clutching the puppies a little too tightly to her chest. "Shit, sorry, babies."

"You were right about the puppies," Sophia said as she made a lefthand turn onto the main road without even checking for oncoming traffic. She was aiming for Mount Grove. Good. Jasmine needed to look over the puppies as soon as possible.

A cop car passed them on the left. It immediately did a U-turn, flashing its lights and turning on its siren.

"Fuck," Sophia grimaced. "My dad's going to kill me if I get another speeding ticket."

A quick look over her shoulder out the back window told Jasmine who was pulling them over. "We got bigger problems than your dad. That's Carlos." Jasmine immediately looked around for something she could hide the puppies in.

Sophia pulled her Bug over. As soon as Carlos parked his cruiser, he stormed out and stomped up to Sophia's driver window. Not having much else of a choice, Jasmine shoved the four puppies under her t-shirt and then laid her arms over the lumps. They curled right against the warmth of her body. She could feel their noses and tongues searching for food she didn't have to give them.

Sophia lowered her window and smile flirtatiously at Carlos. "Afternoon, Deputy."

"What the hell are you two doing out here?" Carlos demanded. Then his eyes landed on Jasmine's lumpy shirt. "What the fuck is that?"

"What?" Jasmine asked as innocently as possible.

Sophia tried to shift her body to block Jasmine's from his view. "What are you doing outside your jurisdiction?"

Carlos was clearly still trying to see into the car, but he answered Sophia's question anyway. "Ballistics came back on that bullet. Belongs to Doug McCrery. I'm on my way out to talk to—" Carlos stopped talking abruptly. "Goddammit! You two were just at the McCrery Farm, weren't you?"

"What makes you say that?" Sophia asked, much more innocently than Jasmine had been able to.

"Jasmine Sharpe, are those puppies under your shirt?"

Jazz winced at Carlos's stern tone. Sheepishly, she nodded her head.

Carlos let out a long sigh. "What the hell?! I told you two to wait until the ballistics came back. Is this where you've been all day? I stopped by the clinic and your apartments but neither of you have been around."

"We've been…investigating," Jasmine admitted, her voice low. "It led us to the McCrery Farm. Carlos, it was so horrible! There are dead dogs in their barn. I need to get these pups back to the clinic. They're in really bad shape."

"Did anyone see you?"

Jasmine and Sophia exchanged a look before Jasmine said, "They saw us leaving. They were dousing the barn in gasoline, but I got pictures!"

Carlos put up a hand. "Both of you, get out of here. Without speeding ," he hissed at Sophia. "Let me deal with the McCrerys. I'll meet you at the clinic, and not a word to anyone."

Sophia put the Bug into drive before he'd had a chance to step away.

Jumper was hanging out at Abby and Bulldog's new house. The club members with children lived in a pentagon of houses with a communal backyard. Steel and Jenna's house came with the land when the club had purchased it six years ago. It had been rundown, but the new officers and prospects worked hard to fix it up to Jenna's standards. At the time, Jenna and Steel's two youngest Jordan and Melanie were also living in the house with their parents. Jordan was now a junior in college and Melanie had just graduated high school. She would be attending university in the fall.

Lucky and Harper had built their house after Lucky's home had burned down. Scotty was going into his junior year of high school in the fall. His seventeenth birthday was fast approaching, and the club was all preparing for the summer birthday bash. They also had their newborn son, Conner. Lucky's oldest, Sissy, was twenty-three and working for the county's tourism board. She had her own apartment about thirty minutes from Mount Grove.

Bear and Tessa had built their house around the same time Angel had built hers. While Bear planned on more cubs , they only had their six-month-old daughter at the moment. Angel and Bree lived in a house specially modified for wheelchair users.

Bulldog had claimed the final plot in the pentagon when Abby had come bursting back into his life and he'd claimed not only her two children but also six-year-old Lila and thirteen-year-old Cassie, both survivors of the cult Abby had been held hostage in. While his mom Louisa was around almost daily, she still lived in town with her other son, and Bulldog's brother, Carlos.

Jumper came by Bulldog's house often as a favor to Bulldog and Abby. While Cassie and Lila were adjusting very well to the outside world, both were still traumatized in their own way. Jumper brought Aerial around to spend time with the girls. He did the same with Bree too.

Scotty had his own service dog, Spot, a golden retriever who was only around two years old. Lila and Scotty were together a lot, so Lila spent time with Spot by default. However, Aerial was older and had more training and Spot had his service harness off more than he had it on.

Bulldog was sitting on the couch near Jumper with his daughter, Georgie. Jumper found it admirable how quickly Bulldog had stepped into the role of father for four children that weren't biologically his. It was like a switch had just been triggered in the man's head and he claimed them. While Cassie still referred to her adopted parents by their names, Lila and Caleb, who had recently started talking, called them ‘Mommy' and ‘Daddy'. Georgie and Caleb would never know that they were the products of rape.

Cassie was sitting in the corner of the room with her tablet reading and Aerial sprawled out over her lap. The teen had one hand on her book and the other absently petting Aerial's head. This was why Jumper had stopped by.

When Bulldog had first moved his jigsaw family into his new house, Cassie had started displaying signs of agoraphobia. It took Herculean effort to get her to walk outside and next door to Bree's house. With the help of a specialist in Philadelphia via video call, Cassie was doing better. She'd come outside for Harper and Lucky's wedding, though she had left early, and she could now walk down the path to the clubhouse without having a panic attack. However, like Jumper, she had her bad days.

Today had been one of them. When she'd woken up that morning, Cassie's anxiety had been high and she'd been unable to calm herself down enough to go out into the communal backyard with Lila to play. Bulldog had called Jumper to see if Aerial was available.

A basketball game was playing on the muted television across from the couch with the subtitles on. Neither Bulldog nor Jumper were really paying attention to it. They'd only turned it on as a ruse to be near Cassie without crowding her.

Jumper's phone rang, disturbing the peaceful quiet that had fallen over the room. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and frowned. He turned the screen so Bulldog could see who was calling.

Bulldog's eyebrows drew down. Carlos had been stepping away from the VDMC of late. He didn't agree with how Bulldog and Steel had handled the situation with the community—or how they had planned to handle it before Scar had gone rogue. Prior to Abby coming back into Bulldog's life, Carlos would hang out at the clubhouse like he was a patched member. The distance between the brothers was driving their mom, Louisa, mad, but she'd openly stated many times that her sons were grown men who could handle their own problems and she was too busy loving on her new grandbabies to take a wooden spoon to their behinds.

"Carlos, what?—"

"Do you have any idea what your girlfriend has been up to?!"

Sophia and Jasmine had their hands full—literally. Each of them had a puppy tucked into the crook of their elbows with their hands clutching a bottle twisted back towards their bodies so the puppy could reach the nipple. Before doing any other examination, Jasmine needed to get nutrition into the puppies. She quickly mixed together broth and honey, warmed it, poured the mixture into four bottles, and the two besties started nursing the puppies.

From a visual inspection only, she could see bare patches in their fur. As soon as they were done with their first bottles, Jasmine needed to get the puppies washed. There was a good chance they had fleas or fly eggs on them. Sophia already planned on taking her Bug to the car wash when she was done helping Jasmine. Jazz also needed to take a shower and probably throw out her clothes.

Her phone was on the counter by the lab equipment. She kept looking at it, waiting for a call from Carlos, but so far it had been silent.

"They just look like gray blobs to me. Are they Pitbulls?" Sophia asked.

Jasmine nodded. "Yeah. Can you check the gender of your two?"

Sophia twisted her arms awkwardly. "I see two ding-a-lings."

Jasmine chuckled. "I've got girls."

"What are you planning on doing with them?"

Jasmine didn't have an answer for her. Her apartment building didn't allow pets. If she couldn't get her landlord to come and fix her closet door after five years, she doubted she'd be able to get him to budge on his pet policy. Even if it was just for a little bit.

"Keep them here, I guess. I can sleep in my office."

"You're going to harbor stolen puppies in your vet clinic and sleep here?" Sophia asked skeptically. "No offense, Jazz, but isn't this the first place someone would look for starving, near-dead puppies? You are the only vet clinic in town."

Jasmine winced at the apt description of the puppies in their arms. They wouldn't have lasted the night. The image of their poor mama and siblings came to mind.

They definitely wouldn't have , Jasmine reminded herself, the smell of gasoline trapped in her nose. Those bastards would have burned these puppies alive and not even cared.

Once the four were finished eating, Sophia and Jasmine stripped down to their bras and panties to wash the puppies in the dog bathtub. It was a high-rimmed tub that had a long-hosed sprayer and opened on the side for the dogs to get in and out of. Unfortunately, the puppies were too small and too young to go in on their own, so Sophia and Jazz had to join them. They used puppy shampoo with a drop of flea prevention.

After their bath, each puppy took another bottle—this time heated milk and honey—before piling up in a dog bed Jasmine had pulled from the shop area at the front of the clinic.

Sophia headed out. She needed to shower and wash the interior of her car. Jasmine used the dog bath to wash herself off, grateful she had a change of clothes in her office. She was standing in her office in just her jeans and bra, drying her hair with a towel, when there was a pounding on the front doors. Figuring it was Carlos, Jasmine wrapped the towel over her chest and headed for the doors.

Jasmine froze. It wasn't Carlos.

Jumper was so furious, he was prepared to break the clinic's doors down if Jasmine didn't hurry the fuck up and— Why the fuck was she answering the door without a shirt on?

As soon as she flipped the lock, Jumper shoved his way inside. He locked the doors behind him again. Using his body to block hers from anyone looking into the clinic from the outside, he marched her backwards into the back exam room. She voiced protests, but Jumper didn't care. He was not going to have some teenage boy gawk at her half-dressed body as he passed by on his skateboard.

In the back room, Jumper's eyes immediately landed on the dog bed in the corner with the puppy pile. A part of him thought the sight adorable, but it was also a blatant reminder of the stunt Jasmine and Sophia had pulled that day.

"What the fuck were you thinking?" he demanded. He still had his hands gripped tightly on her upper arms. "You could have been killed!"

Jasmine pushed herself away from him. The towel dropped from around her top as she did.

Both of them froze.

Jasmine was breathing heavily, making her breasts covered in a dark blue bra rise and fall. Her pale skin still had a sheen on it from her shower. Her jeans were zipped but not buttoned. His eyes were locked on a mole to the right of her belly button.

His own heart was racing at the sight of her half naked form. He liked fired up Jasmine. Her eyes blazed like storming seas. And fuck if that pink nail polish on her toes wasn't the cutest thing.

Jumper wasn't sure which one of them moved first. There was no thought, no command. There was only primal desire. They both grabbed onto the other and forced their bodies as close together as they could get. Their lips collided like magnets, their teeth clashing. Jasmine scrambled with his shirt, pulling it from where it was tucked into his pants and then up and over his head. His hands fumbled with the clasp of her bra. Both completely bare from the waist up, they crashed back together.

It wasn't until he had her pressed up against the wall with her legs wrapped around his waist that he even realized his cock wasn't hard.

Fuck .

Desire burned through him, but his body wasn't cooperating. His blood was on fire for her—why wasn't he hard? He should have been able to pound nails with how turned on he was. Yet his cock remained flaccid.

Jumper stiffened when she reached for the button on his pants. It took her several seconds to realize he had stopped kissing her back.

"What?" she gasped out the demand.

Shit. Jumper did not want her to know about this. Frantically, he shook his head to indicate that nothing was wrong. If he could distract her, she'd never know. He'd finger and eat her to an orgasm or two and then lie and say he'd come in his pants. That was far less embarrassing than not being able to come at all.

However, Jasmine stopped him with a hand between their mouths when he moved in to kiss her again. Her eyes were narrowed in suspicion. Fuck. She wiggled her hips, but Jumper held tight to his hold on her. There was no real fight in her desire to leave.

Suddenly she stopped wiggling. He watched as her blonde head tipped to the side as if she was listening to something. Jumper was thinking maybe a puppy had escaped when her eyes traveled downward to where their groins were pressed very tightly together.

Jumper felt his cheeks flame, and he closed his eyes so he couldn't see her amusement or pity. He wasn't sure which would have been worse.

A hand landed on his beard, trying to get his attention, but Jumper wouldn't look at her. He wasn't even sure why he still was holding onto her with such vehemence. His mind told him to run but his body was frozen where it was.

Gentle lips landed on his neck. She traced her way up, planting a trail of kisses as she went. She teased the lobe of his ear with her teeth. Despite his eyes already being closed, they nearly rolled back in his head. Jumper moaned, turning his head into her touch. Jasmine's lips moved to his temple. His face automatically turned to give her access.

She kissed nearly every inch of his skin. Jumper's grip on her thighs tightened, pressing her further back into the wall as his hips rocked between hers. He loved how, when her lips were on his right cheek, her fingernails were scratching the beard of his left cheek. Her lips touched his eyelids, his nose, his chin…everywhere except his lips. His body was starting to shake with desire. He wanted her lips on his .

So he took them.

The next time Jasmine raised her head slightly to change her angle or destination, he turned his head to take her lips with his own.

She always tasted so sweet, like she'd just eaten a strawberry. It was probably just his imagination, but damn did he love strawberries.

Jumper's hips tipped up into her core. And nearly froze—he was hard ! Not wanting to draw attention to it or make the same mistake twice where she'd want to stop and talk about it, Jumper took advantage of his body's sudden cooperation.

He shifted her body so he could get to her jeans. As he lowered down her zipper, Jasmine's hands went to the button and zipper of his own. Both of them pushed jeans and underwear off the other's hips at the same time. Since Jasmine was against the wall with her legs around his waist, he had to drop her feet to the floor for just a second to detangle her jeans. He was very grateful she wasn't wearing any shoes. One less thing he had to fight with to get to her center. Jumper's own jeans and boxer shorts pooled at his boots. He left them there, not caring in the slightest.

With a little hop, Jasmine's legs were once more around him. His cock pressed right up to her inner heat, feeling the wetness of her arousal in the thin hair of her pubes. He notched his cock between the lips of her sex, rubbing himself up and down against her clit.

Jasmine gasped out, but he swallowed it with a rough kiss. Fucking strawberries. His hips continued to rock. He could feel her trembling at the stimulation. Knowing she was secure between his body and the wall, Jumper moved his hands to her breasts.

Like the rest of her, Jasmine's breasts were plump and full. He hadn't gotten the chance before to really look at them, but he had noticed she had large areolas. Jumper planned to spend a lot of time getting well acquainted with her breasts—later.

He rolled the tight peaks between his fingers, tugging slightly. Jasmine's body quivered beneath his. He could feel her fingernails digging into the skin on his back. She was close, he could sense it. He increased the speed of his thrusts, making sure to angle his hips so the head of his cock rolled over her engorged clit.

Jasmine stiffened and then cried out into his mouth as the orgasm racked her body.

Her entire mind went blank . There was nothing but pure bliss swirling around in her brain.

Jasmine was very aware of his hard weight pressing her back against the wall. She loved that he had the ability to lift her. She'd never been with a man before with such utter raw strength that he could so easily maneuver her plus-sized body. It was such a turn on. She'd never believed wall sex was even a possibility for her before this exact moment.

His lips left her, allowing her to take in much needed oxygen. He ducked his head to suck on her neck as she breathed. Her head was starting to clear from the euphoria of the best orgasm of her life. She'd never come from foreplay before. Then again, she'd never been with a guy who was interested in making her come during foreplay before.

Jumper drew the skin of her neck between his teeth, and she shivered. He'd leave a mark for sure. She couldn't bring herself to care at that moment.

It took her brain a minute to realize he was speaking. Something about a condom. Fuck. Um, yeah. They needed a condom. Then her sluggish brain reminded her that she was on birth control. She took the Pill every morning with her breakfast coffee like clockwork.

Not that she needed the Pill for birth control, per se. She was on it to control her periods, which could be erratic. One month in college, she'd bled for two weeks straight then hadn't had a period again for nearly four months. Her doctor had suggested going on the Pill even though Jasmine hadn't been sexually active at that time.

Jumper was saying something about needing to get his wallet, which was in his pants, which were around his ankles. He'd have to let her go to get it.

Jasmine's arms tightened around him. She did not want him to let her go. "Pill," she managed to gasp out. "I'm on the Pill."

Jumper's hands left her breasts to cup her face. He brought his head up and hers down so they could look at the other. Fuck, he was so handsome. His eyes made her think of coffee grounds.

"Are you sure?"

She made sure he was paying attention when she said, "I trust you." Jumper wouldn't risk her sexual health and take her unprotected if he wasn't clean. She knew that down to the marrow of her bones.

Keeping eye contact was not something Jasmine was used to when having sex. Generally, guys liked to take her from behind, not allowing her the opportunity to have eye contact. It was one of the reasons she'd stopping having casual sex in her early twenties. She always felt like the guy she was with was picturing someone else while he was fucking her because he rarely looked at her .

Jumper was looking. Jumper was seeing. There was no way he was imagining he was with someone else while staring so intently at her.

He dropped one hand to notch the head of his cock at her wet opening. Jasmine let out a gasp.

Even with the euphoria of her orgasm, Jasmine hadn't forgotten what she'd noticed earlier. Jumper had not been hard when he'd first pressed her up against the wall. He'd tried to hide it too. It had been shame on his face rather than arousal.

Pushing what she now knew aside, Jasmine angled her hips towards him. He moved his other hand to her side to help balance her.

Jasmine had never had raw sex before. She'd also never been with a man as large as Jumper before. Sophia had been joking for months that Jasmine's hoo-ha was going to start housing cobwebs if she didn't get some action soon. Despite her two-year crush on Jumper, Jasmine had been on dates since meeting him. However, those dates never ended in sex. She hadn't had the desire to have half-assed sex with some stranger she knew she wasn't going to be seeing again. It had been almost three years since she'd been with a man.

As Jumper pushed inside, they both let out a long groan. She was tight, and he was big. He stretched her in a way she'd never been before. It felt…amazing.

"God, you're so tight." He dropped his head back down to her neck.

"Been," she gasped, "a long time."

"Me too," he admitted.

A shiver ran down her spine at his words. Before she'd felt the evidence of his confession, Jasmine had been wondering for the past two years about the women Jumper had been with. It was no secret around town that the club had women they employed as housekeepers and cooks who openly slept with the club members. She'd seen the women around town and at Demon's . It had always been a sore spot for her when she looked at them, wondering which of the women Jumper had slept with and how often.

While men and women tended to judge how long between sexual experiences qualified as a ‘long time' differently, Jasmine knew Jumper meant it literally.

He pumped his hips slowly at first, causing her to shudder. Her nails raked down the hard muscles of his back. Realizing what she'd done, Jasmine gasped and released her hold on him, but he quickly shook his head and told her to do it again. Did Jumper like the bite of pain?

Not wanting to hurt him but wanting to give him pleasure, Jasmine dragged her nails down his back, a bit gentler than she had only seconds before. Jumper's muscles quaked beneath her touch. He slid his cock out of her until only the head remained, and then he thrust all the way inside her. His balls slapped against her ass. Then he did it again.

Christ, it was like he was trying to fuck her through the wall. Jasmine heard herself crying out as he picked up his speed.

Jasmine's vision blurred. Her inner walls convulsing around his hard shaft. Her nails bit into him and she absently wondered if she'd drawn blood.

As she came down from her orgasm, he kissed her. Gently, lovingly. Jasmine kissed him back. He continued to pump inside her, slower this time. Jasmine felt herself clench around him, causing secondary flutters like aftershocks.

He lowered his forehead to her shoulder, his body still trembling. Jasmine wrapped her arms around his head, digging her fingers into his thick reddish-brown hair.

Then he said the words that both broke her heart and mended her spirit. "I'm falling in love with you, Jasmine Sharpe. Please don't give up on me."