TwiSlash Unveiled SLASH Contest
Pairing: Edward & Jasper
POV: 3rd person
Rating: ALL stories submitted for this contest are rated M.
Disclaimer:
The story revolves around a specific time in history. The depictions may not be historically accurate, but this is fiction, keep that in mind while reading.
The lyrics of the song 'Set The Fire To The Third Bar' by Snow Patrol belong to their owner.
Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight.
TwiSlash Unveiled, this contest, and the authors of the stories submitted do not intend any copyright infringement.
Anonymity Disclaimer:
This story is the work of its author and not TwiSlash Unveiled.
It has been submitted under the TU pen name for the TwiSlash Unveiled SLASH contest only.
It remains the work of the author.
-ooOOoo-
The Secret History
The end of February, 1770, Boston
The streets weren't safe. Edward looked out the window of his house and ran his fingers through his already messy reddish hair.
"Jason," he said and the butler, an elderly gentleman with a neatly pressed uniform and gray hair, looked up at him from his seat in a chair next to the fireplace.
"Yes, Master?" The man put the piece of paper in his hands on the table next to the chair and looked at Edward expectantly.
"Have my wife and children gone to bed yet?" Edward asked him without turning his head.
"I believe the twins were put to bed about two hours ago, Jane seems to be having a cold and Alec was restless for her. The Mistress is reading in her room," Jason said and looked for further instructions or questions.
"I'll go see her before I go out, I need to tend to some things. I'm slightly hesitant to go outside...with the things as they are... Could you make sure, if I'm not back before they wake up in the morning, that none of them go outside? And let no one in either, not before I'm back." The tone he was using was strict, he could hear his father in himself and part of him was proud, mostly he was just disgusted.
Edward never wanted to become this man.
"Yes, of course, Master. I shall take care of it. I assume, that if you aren't back by midnight, you're going to stay at your friend's house for safety reasons?" the old man said, his eyes betraying that he knew where Edward always went on these nights. The best thing about Jason was that he never judged.
"Yes. Thank you. Please, help yourself if you feel cold," Edward said, nodding towards the crystal pitcher on his large desk which, much like Jason, had once belonged to his father.
"Certainly, can I call the driver or..?" Jason let his words trail off.
"No, I'll walk. I'll be careful. There are patrols around so I should be safe."
Edward excused himself from his study and walked to the other end of the second floor of his house. He knocked lightly on Bella's door.
"Come in." Her frail tone, one that was so different from her inner strength, was soft somehow.
Edward opened the door and smiled at his wife. She was sitting on her bed, in almost a childlike pose in her nightgown and her lovely brown hair cascading over her shoulders. Isabella was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
Without saying anything, Edward went to toss a few more logs to the fireplace. It was a servant's job but he didn't mind. He had never minded these little things.
"You're going out?" she asked, her tone wasn't blaming or offended. She knew by now, this was how he kept happy. How he stayed content and how he could be the best husband to her and the best father to their children.
"Yes...I feel like it won't be safe soon... The feeling on the streets is getting...restless...violent..." Edward sighed and walked to her bed, the one they didn't share. He sat on the edge.
"I don't want you or anyone else in the house going outside until I get home. I suppose it's safer for me to stay out until morning, might be late so..." he said and Bella just nodded.
There was a hint of sadness in her eyes. He hated this as much as she did, probably more. He was betraying her and their marriage every evening he did this but he couldn't help it either. She knew it. They had never spoken of what it meant, what her husband really was. As long as their little mostly arranged marriage was working...
"You know I love you, don't you?" he whispered to her hair as he leaned to kiss her temple.
"Yes, Edward. And I love you too," Bella said, her tone even softer but the strength was there now too. Her love for him was unwavering.
They had been married for three years now. Their children, the twins, were almost two years old and they had decided to stop at two, especially with the political situation being as tricky and dangerous as it was.
Bella's father had been of Italian heritage, a rich merchant who wanted to marry his only child to some influential family, in this case the Cullens. As Edward was the only son, it was his job to marry this girl he had known since they were in their early teens. Edward's family tree consisted of doctors and mayors, politicians of every kind.
Knowing that he was going to have to marry Bella, his friend, he had taken up to learning everything about her father's business. So now he was twenty-three and running the company. His father-in-law had passed a year ago due to some sort of disease he got when on a long business trip in Africa.
Bella was a year younger than he was and they were a perfect match. They had the same sense of humor, same slightly adventurous and rebellious spirit and now they had a family together. When he apologized that he wasn't better for her, she got offended and told him to look around. What didn't she have? A loving husband, two wonderful children, a nice house in the middle of a lovely city...she couldn't ask for more, could she?
Edward knew all of this was true. Bella had been raised by a single father as her mother had died in childbirth. Isabella wasn't a sexual being. All she wanted was cuddles and closeness, but sex...it wasn't something she craved like Edward did. Of course they had had sex in the past, for the purpose of having the children and once Bella had laughed about them lucking out for having two at one time. It was awkward to admit but true.
"Jane is having some temperature," Bella interrupted his thoughts.
"Yes, Jason told me. Alec is fine so far?" he asked, looking at his wife worriedly. His children meant everything to him.
"He's as healthy as he always is. If Jane isn't any better tomorrow, I'd like you to send for the doctor," Bella said and Edward nodded. Anything for his family, she knew that.
"I'd better get going before it gets too dangerous out there. I'll probably see you in the morning," he smiled and kissed her cheek affectionately.
"We'll be here." Bella's smile was warm and loving and the little twinge in his heart was there again but he couldn't help that anymore. It would always hurt to do it, to walk away to steal moments of intimacy with someone else. He felt like a failure and couldn't help it at all.
-ooOOoo-
Thirty minutes later he stood there, outside the nondescript house. Glancing around he walked to the front door and knocked. A little hatch on the door opened and someone looked out.
"She's expecting me."
Those words were spoken by Edward maybe twice every month. Every time they sounded strangled, hurt his insides and tasted bitter on his tongue.
The hatch snapped closed, the door opened and he sneaked in to the dark-walled hall, paying no attention to the bouncer.
When Edward walked to the main hall a ravishing redhead raised her head from behind the little front desk.
"Well well...look what the cat dragged in..." she said in a purring, teasing way and some of the girls around the room giggled at her and then him. They all knew he never picked any of them.
"Victoria..." Edward said, nodding his head a bit and she just waved her hand.
"Come." That was all they ever said here, downstairs.
He followed her to her private office on the second floor and when she closed the door behind them, he plopped down on a large leather armchair. Without any questions, Victoria, the madame of this little brothel, whorehouse, what ever you wanted to call it, poured them both two fingers of whiskey from a glass pitcher on the side table.
When he had his glass in his hand, he drank about half of it and just closed his eyes for a moment. Here he could drop the acts. Inside these walls he was free to be the man he really was.
"So..." he said and waited for Victoria to speak.
"What are you looking for tonight? Seth is still here... I have a few new ones too," she said and smiled a bit.
The best thing about Victoria was that she wasn't mean. She was actually compassionate under the surface of a hard businesswoman. Not only did she care for her...employees...but she cared for the clients. Even though she had some questionable means of keeping some of the people she had working for her here, she still honored their contracts, what ever they were based on.
"No...not Seth... I do like him but...not tonight," Edward sighed and opened his eyes to look at her.
Seth was a native boy. Maybe eighteen now. Small of stature, long silken hair and eager to please. He was lovely in every possible way and quite smart too. He chose to work for Victoria now. Edward liked Seth but he needed something else tonight.
"All right... then...someone older? More like...yourself maybe?" Victoria asked and Edward thought for a while. Was that what he wanted? Someone like him?
"Sure. What do you have that might interest me?" he finally said, dealing with this as the business exchange it was.
"I have someone new...very new... Tall, lanky...tanned and blonde. Most amazing eyes and he's gorgeous... Just... With him I can't guarantee anything. But it's business." Victoria looked doubtful, that alone made Edward curious as Victoria never doubted anything.
"How did you get your claws on him, Vicky?" he asked with an amused twinkle in his eyes, maybe for the first time in a week or so.
"He's...in need of a place to hide. His political beliefs are...inflammatory... I used my connections to get him out of jail. I know him from back home," the redhead explained and Edward nodded.
"All right then," he said and got up.
Without another word Victoria walked to the door and then along the corridor between rooms. She opened a locked door at the end and Edward went inside.
Curiously he looked around. It wasn't as fancy as some of the other rooms were, but it had a large four-poster and the colors of the room were rich golds, reds and blues. The windowsill held a form of a man.
Edward walked to sit into an armchair in front of the fireplace, looking at the man curiously. His curls were blonde, messy and his posture was tense and angry somehow.
"Don't worry. I won't touch you unless you're willing," Edward said and turned his eyes towards the fire.
The man snorted, "As if I would be..."
The silence between them was deafening for a moment. The fire in the fireplace was crackling and there were some distant sounds from elsewhere in the house. Sounds Edward didn't want to think about.
"How long will she keep you here? Until things calm down around the city?" he asked and looked at the man whose face suddenly snapped to look at him.
"She told you that?" He seemed surprised and his eyes were very bright blue. He was stunning, the most beautiful man Edward had ever seen. The thought of him not being willing was already making his chest and stomach constrict with something...disappointment?
"Yes, we're friends...to the degree to which either of us has those... I know how she gets some of her...people...to stay."
The man looked at him thoughtfully and nodded after a while.
"Two weeks at the least. Month the most. Even if I don't make her money. She's...strict with her contracts. This one isn't about money," the blond told Edward.
"So now you're wondering why I am here if she doesn't expect you to fuck for money for her?" Edward stated, more than asked, and made the blond laugh in a way that sounded shocked.
"What? I can't state things as they are?" Edward asked, getting up. He walked to pour himself another drink. "Do you want one?" he asked and the man nodded.
He poured them both a glass of scotch, this was good stuff so Victoria probably liked him personally, and then walked over to hand it to the man.
"I'm Edward." he said as the man took the glass from him. Their fingers brushed and a jolt of heat slithered up his arm and he gasped softly. It felt sinful.
Retreating back to his chair he looked at the blond who looked back, seeming shocked.
"I..I'm Jasper," he said then, stuttering a bit.
Edward nodded, not knowing what to say, as 'nice to meet you' was hardly suitable.
"I knew of these places," Jasper said suddenly, "but I never thought someone who looked like you would..." he gestured at himself and the room with his glass.
"Would come to a brothel? Or would come to one looking for male company?" Edward raised a brow and looked amused. He wasn't ashamed here, not within these walls.
"The latter... I mean you look...so..." Jasper was struggling for words now, still on the windowsill but now he was sitting on it like a chair, his feet hanging nearly on the floor and his back to the window.
"Normal? Respectable? Wealthy? I'm a wealthy merchant, Jasper. I have a wife who I love dearly and two little children. Yet I'm here because I can't be satisfied without a male's touch every now and then," he said truthfully, chucking back the rest of the scotch.
"I can't help it. I stopped trying to quench that thirst within me a few years ago when I realized I could never function without giving in to this...thing...every now and then. This is the way I do it, not by risking it out there, trying to find willing men from taverns or having a lover instead of a mistress..." He sighed a bit, looking very tired suddenly.
The silence hung between them again. Edward got to his feet and took off his shoes and his coat, leaving him in his pants, socks and a white shirt. He had already placed his hat on the table beside the door when he had walked in. Then he walked to the bed and sat down, making himself comfortable with a sigh. Sitting all day behind his desk going through figures and books full of inventory information was a strain to his back.
"Have you always known?" The quiet question took him by surprise.
"Since I was about...thirteen..." Edward said and closed his eyes, sighing contently when his back began to relax gradually.
Another silence.
Then, so quietly that he almost missed it, Jasper asked, "D-did you feel it...just now?"
Edward, being the gentleman he was, couldn't turn his head to make Jasper face his eyes. They were treading on thin ice here. People hardly ever spoke of these things, these...sins...
"Yes," he breathed, "I still can."
"Is it...like that with everyone? Every...man?" Jasper asked breathlessly and now Edward had to look at him to answer.
"No." He couldn't say more, that sort of fire, licking his arm from his fingertips to the rest of his body from one single touch only...no.
"Oh..."
Edward closed his eyes again, to give the blonde man some room.
"Here, inside Victoria's walls I don't have to hide," he said in an almost dreaming tone. "Here I don't have to be a husband or a father, or master to servants or run a company. I don't have to think about whether or not I'll get to heaven in the end for being impure, committing this sin over and over again just to survive, just to not go insane under the pressure of being who everyone expects me to be. Here I am free..."
Jasper was looking at the gorgeous man sitting on the large bed, speaking so passionately with his eyes closed.
"My family is religious, not very political but religious to the core. My father's side comes from England and I grew up listening to the stories from the 'old country'. I remember, as a boy, hearing the whispers...like how men turned to each other in the English Civil War or when there were no women available otherwise... I heard my grandmother speak of cardinal sins...of how a certain kind of men would go to hell..." Jasper spoke quietly, moving from his spot on the windowsill to the other side of the bed, to sit with his back against the end of the bed, facing Edward but still not too close.
"So I tried... To be normal. I wanted stay away from the certain path of becoming a preacher like my father and grandfather had been and ran away when I was sixteen. I went where I knew I could make money, to the closest harbor. I sailed for years, realizing that it wasn't just in the war when men..." Jasper's eyes were downcast, he shook his head a bit, his curls bouncing around his head.
"I learned that being the youngest and prettiest," he cringed at the word, and Edward could tell it had been used against him, "on a boat with twenty older men...not a good thing for a boy."
"Months and months I suffered in silence...and then, after I got stronger from the work I had to do during the day around the ship, I began to fight back." The pain was evident in his voice now and Edward was compelled to just listen, to let Jasper speak and get it out.
"After the first year I was taller, stronger and faster than most of the others. Only rarely did someone try to mess with me, and they learned quickly that they shouldn't. I had gone to the seas to belong and make money. Now suddenly I made money but I was the outcast again.
"What I had also learned was that my cravings were something that got me hurt, over and over again. Not because they were mine, but because others had them too and...and I looked like I do and..." Jasper's voice broke and his shoulders shook a few times.
"Jasper? It was not your fault," Edward said with conviction in his voice. "What happened to you was not your fault because you didn't want anything like that. Even if you technically wanted something, it doesn't mean you are to blame, not because of your looks, your youth or anything else."
He wanted to touch the blonde man who was breaking apart in front of his eyes. To comfort him, to make him see there was nothing wrong with him; no, it was the savages who had attacked him time after time who were wrong.
"Tell me, how did you become Victoria's political prisoner?" Edward asked to take the other man's mind off the subject. "Seems like quite a stretch from sailing the seas to being locked up in a jail because your opinions..." he smiled and let the smile through to the tone of his voice.
Jasper wiped the tears from his cheeks and smiled weakly.
"After I got...stronger, I began to like the seas. I worked on those ships, two of them, for years. I was twenty-one when I decided to come to Boston and see what was here for me. I rented a room, randomly met Victoria who I knew from back home. She could tell I was...like you...immediately. I wasn't attracted to her or any of her girls which, by the way, they actively tried to change," Jasper grinned a bit, the light returning to his blue eyes.
"Oh, I got that a lot too in the beginning..." Edward chuckled and the corners of his green eyes scrunched a bit.
"I met this guy in here, someone involved in the politics and at first I wasn't interested but then, mostly out of boredom, I began to listen to him. He's a loyalist, but I didn't really care, I suppose, which side he was on. I have no side in this, I'm supporting the cause of a friend. And eventually I apparently did it a bit too well...again I have to blame my looks. I mean I am sort of hard to miss," Jasper explained.
"Ahh...I've tried to stay out of the whole deal. I have a feeling something will happen, something big, that will change things for the worse. I don't like violence but I can feel it...in the air somehow..." Edward sighed and closed his eyes again.
"You have your family to worry about..." Jasper quietly asked "how did you end up where you are? I mean if you're...like me?"
Edward's features became more relaxed and he smiled a bit.
"My family, the Cullens, are well known here. My grandfather was on the city council and my father was a well known surgeon. I was supposed to be something grand myself. But when I was twelve, a family of two, a father and his daughter, a year younger than myself, moved next door to my family." Edward's smile was warm and dreamy, almost distant somehow.
"I met Isabella, the daughter, for the first time after a few weeks of catching just a glimpse of her when she was getting in or out of a carriage in front of their house. When she and her father, a wealthy merchant, came to dinner one night, I saw her for the first time and I believe I tried not to stare. She was and still is the most beautiful girl I've ever seen..."
"During the next few years our fathers befriended each other just like Bella and myself did. My sister, Alice, was too young to play with her, so it was I who played with Bella in the gardens of our houses. We became great friends very quickly. When other boys began to notice her, I was jealous, of course. She was my friend, not theirs. The funny thing was that I did love her but I didn't...want her like they did." He chuckled a bit under his breath.
"When we were fourteen and fifteen, our fathers announced that we would be getting married as soon as Bella was old enough, maybe in four or five years. They wanted to strengthen our families and that was that." Edward said and glanced at Jasper who looked at him in sort of awe.
"That's...well, I suppose smart but also sad in a way" the blond said and smiled just a bit.
"I don't know...by then I knew I was different. I also knew that Bella loved me but that growing up with someone religious and...old-fashioned like her father had made her very...practical. She knew she wanted to get married to a good man, have a few children and a good future but she was never interested in boys...not...physically," Edward cringed at the word even now, without realizing it, "so we spoke of this all. What it would mean to us. We didn't have a choice in it, I suppose I could have ran away. She could have done that too and gone to a monastery or something...become a nun...but those weren't the options we wanted. So I shared the idea that I could be the father of her children and her husband...but how I couldn't be..." Edward frowned and pinched the bridge of his nose before fidgeting a bit. It was still so difficult to admit to this, to not being the man he should have been.
"And she accepted that?" Jasper asked quietly, his eyes curious but sympathetic.
"After a few days of thinking about it she did. Then we spoke again, about how it would work, when we'd get there, after all at that point it was years in the future. Nothing could have prepared us for what we were in for but...it was still something we could handle, eventually.
"I mean, both of our fathers died before we had been married for two and a half years. We needed to become independent very fast. After all, she didn't have a mother, and mine...she's not well, she got...old before her time or so the doctors say. So my sister lives with her and takes care of her and we seldom see either of them. Luckily I knew enough to learn my father-in-law's trade. We're doing well now but...this...coming here every once in a while...it still kills me."
Again, Jasper could do was to look at the man on the bed with him. Edward was...stunning. He had a strong jaw and his face that was nearly too perfect was marred with a nose that had been broken at some point. The bridge of it wasn't completely straight and in some way it made Edward handsome, when without it he might have looked too pretty. Inwardly Jasper scowled at that word. He hated it with his whole being.
"Edward?" he asked in a bit of a hesitant way, not looking at the other man.
"Yes?" Jasper could feel the green eyes on himself, like a caress of some kind.
"I haven't...with anyone...in years...not even in here..." Jasper frowned at the way his words came out, the sentence in pieces and his voice strained and scared and somehow vulnerable.
"It's okay...you don't have to tonight either. I...understand," Edward assured with a gentle tone, again wanting to just touch the other man in a comforting way.
"But...what if I...want to?" The last words were so quiet, Edward thought he didn't hear them right. When he looked at Jasper, the look in the blonde man's eyes told him that he had in fact, heard correctly.
"Then..." Edward said, suddenly feeling nervous for some reason and running his fingers through his hair, "then I suppose...you should...just..."
Jasper extended a hand, placing it palm up on the bed, in the space between them and smiled just a bit, hesitantly, like he wasn't sure about this but wanted to try still. Wanted to feel...something.
The decision was easy once he got to it. Edward leaned forward a bit, getting to a sitting position, and placed his hand on top of Jasper's, immediately gasping at the sensation.
"Fire..." his tone was awestruck and Jasper nodded at the word.
Both of them were tempted to pull their hands away because of the sheer intensity of the feeling but neither of them did. Instead, they both lifted their gazes to meet the other's eyes and it was suddenly all there; need, hesitance, intensity, fear.
Without moving his hand away from Jasper's, Edward used his other hand to support his weight and shift himself to the middle of the bed.
"I won't hurt you, I promise that." Edward's words sounded so true, so tender that they made Jasper take in a shaky breath and close his eyes briefly before he nodded.
"Somehow...I trust you..." There was something resembling awe in his tone and in his bright blue eyes.
Jasper shifted too, at first to kick off his shoes and then to kneel in the middle of the bed next to Edward's sitting form. He slid his fingers between Edward's, gasping at the flames that flickered in the non-existent space between their palms.
"Jasper...you don't need to do anything you don't want to, just know that," Edward said quietly. For a moment Jasper wondered how someone could be so selfless, so understanding and kind towards a stranger in this sort of situation. After all, Edward was here for a reason, yet he wouldn't do anything Jasper didn't want, wouldn't ask for a thing either.
The blonde man nodded and then smiled, "Can I though? Do anything I want to?" he asked and looked into the green depths of Edward's eyes. And what eyes did he have, with long lashes that framed them so beautifully...
"Yes, I think I can let you do anything you want to..." Edward breathed, suddenly quite conscious about their close proximity and the way the heat radiated from Jasper's body.
"Good..." Jasper murmured as he leaned forward to just bring his nose close to Edward's ear, breathing in the scent of the man with auburn hair and malachite eyes.
The gesture was so innocent and so intimate that it made Edward inhale sharply and his nose was filled with Jasper's scent. Images flashed in his mind, like so often when he smelled something new. This was the scent of freshly baked bread, the maples in the late fall with their colors rich and deep, the scent of the murky but beautiful river behind the house his cousins lived in, the scent of everything else he enjoyed in life.
He couldn't help himself, he pressed his open mouth on the spot on Jasper's neck where it connected to his shoulder. Slowly, so as to not startle the other any further, he let his tongue caress the spot lined by his lips.
There was a moan, he was not sure from which of them. The hand in his own was removed, and for a split second he was alarmed, but then the hand found its way to his waist. He licked the spot again to elicit another moan; this time he was sure it was from Jasper.
Edward moved his hand to rest on Jasper's thigh, making him tense a bit but when the hand didn't move he relaxed again. Some emotion resembling possessiveness invaded Edward's mind. He wanted to growl, to press Jasper against the mattress and take him, make him Edward's own for just that one night; for this brief moment in time he wanted to possess this gorgeous man.
But he wouldn't do any of that. Instead he muffled the growl before it could form by pulling his mouth back a bit and then biting the shoulder firmly.
Jasper felt the bite and to his surprise it was something that turned him on. He realized that his hands were now moving of their own accord, to tug off the shirt Edward was wearing. It amazed him, to want someone he had just met like this. But the fire was there, the feeling of being completely safe with this stranger with the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen, it was all there.
They undressed each other without saying a word, stealing glances and touches. Everything was slow, gentle and even though the fire was there at all times, it was burning low and steady now that they had gotten used to it.
The fire was burning out; Jasper got out of the bed to add a few logs to keep it going. From the bed Edward watched him, his long limbs and strong muscles. He admired how his skin was tanned and how the muscles rippled under it when Jasper crouched before the fireplace. The flames created shadows on his body and made his honey curls shine in oranges and reds.
When Jasper walked back towards the bed, Edward appreciated the muscles on his front and the way the shadows played on him while the edges of his form were lit from behind. For some reason, modesty maybe, he didn't lower his gaze below the muscles of Jasper's flat stomach.
"You look at me like...like I was something you wanted to touch and taste and get lost in..." Jasper said quietly as he got back to the bed and sat, suddenly feeling self conscious again.
Edward grasped for his hand and pulled him closer in a determined but gentle way.
"Who says that's not exactly what I want to do?" His tone was husky, his eyes turning darker green and Jasper smiled.
"Then do it?" Jasper whispered and for the first time they leaned towards each other at the same time, their lips meeting in the middle and the flames turning up like someone had tossed something highly flammable in to a little bonfire.
In half a minute they were suddenly a tangled mess of limbs, kissing and panting into one another's mouths. Edward placed his hand over Jasper's shoulder and pulled back a bit to breathe.
"We have all the time in the world," he pointed out, "so let me lead?" The question was just that, a question, instead of a command. There was not an ounce of dominance in his tone or body language.
Jasper nodded, his teeth worrying his lower lip and making Edward smile. He wrapped an arm around Jasper's waist and pulled the taller man closer to himself. It was like magic. Or some sort of strange religious experience unknown to man before this moment.
"I didn't know...that it could feel like this..." Edward said quietly, letting his hand rest on Jasper's hip.
"Me neither...I feel so...safe..." Jasper's expression was so puzzled that, again, Edward smiled at him.
Without saying anything more, he leaned in to kiss Jasper soundly, his hand wrapping around both of their erections and making them gasp at the contact.
His hand moved slowly, keeping them pressed together while sliding along their lengths, while his mouth was attached to Jasper's. They swallowed each other's gasps and moans, and Jasper's hand was tangled up in Edward's hair, keeping him close.
After a moment that felt like an eternity and only a minute at the same time, he pulled his hand away and pushed Jasper to his back before returning his hand to stroke Jasper again.
"May I...whatever I want?" Edward asked and after a moment of panic and uncertainty in Jasper's eyes the trust was back and he nodded, letting out a breath he had held in without noticing.
Slowly and languidly Edward kissed Jasper again, before leaning down and placing open mouthed kisses, nips and licks everywhere on his neck and chest. The attention made Jasper's back arch, especially when he felt the gentle but firm bites on his nipples and the hand still stroking him slowly.
When Edward moved lower on the bed, Jasper had to consciously remind himself to relax, to trust this man who hadn't hurt him and wouldn't hurt him. How Jasper knew that was beyond him, he just knew it.
When Edward reached for a pillow and guided it under Jasper's hips, the uncertainty was there again but then Jasper closed his eyes and moaned out loud when he felt the lips near his hipbone. Edward moved in between his legs and suddenly he felt warm lips around the tip of his penis. He gasped out of surprise, that someone would do that to him and his eyes flew open. He looked down to see Edward looking at him and then the lips slid down his length, making him slide deeper in to Edward's mouth.
He wasn't quite sure what Edward was doing, but what ever it was, he had never felt anything quite like it before.
Slowly Edward moved his tongue and lips in a way he knew Jasper would enjoy. His hand was working on the base of Jasper's thick length and he moved his other hand to roll his balls. The simple action made Jasper buck his hips and then arch his back off the bed, moaning loudly.
Edward smiled inwardly, this was how Jasper should know sex. He hoped this, what he was doing, would cover even some of the terrifying memories in Jasper's mind. They could never be replaced, but to hide them with something good and pure...he hoped that would work.
He released Jasper from his mouth and then looked at the confused blue eyes that peered at him.
"Don't be startled now, I won't hurt you." Edward whispered and then licked his way from the head of Jasper's shaft to the base of it and then even lower, paying attention to the heavy testicles he had just rolled in his hand.
The gasp of surprise from Jasper when he didn't stop there was something he expected, just like the way Jasper's body tensed when he tried to figure out what Edward was doing. Edward moved his hands and held Jasper's legs from behind his knees, pushing them up to have better access to where he was heading.
Jasper was mortified for a moment when he realized where Edward was going with his mouth moving lower and lower. The feeling of the tongue circling his entrance and teasing him made him gasp again, the shock of the pleasure of such a simple touch exceeded anything he had ever felt before. He couldn't help but to relax and get lost in the licking and probing of Edward's tongue in the most intimate part of his body.
Soon he was holding his own knees up and Edward was stroking him again, slowly up and down his length and letting his thumb brush over the sensitive head every now and then.
The sensations were driving Jasper over the edge, he could feel it, building somewhere deep in the pit of his stomach and he moaned a strangled "Stop..."
Edward lifted his head to look at Jasper and the eyes that had turned to deep ink blue now looked at him with a pleading expression.
"I...I want to feel you..." Jasper whispered, a blush raising on his cheeks and spreading all the way to his chest.
To spare Jasper from any further embarrassment Edward just smiled gently and nodded. He licked his palm a few times before moving his hand to his own shaft, stroking himself slowly, letting his head fall back.
Jasper leaned towards the bedside table. There was a very plain little glass bottle on top of it. He had actually blushed when he had first noticed it there when Victoria had told him he'd be spending his time in this room from now on.
Right now he was glad about the little bottle and opened it to pour some of the oil inside on his palm. He offered the vial to Edward who was looking at him with a beautiful crooked smile on his lips.
Edward took the bottle and poured some oil in his palm too, spreading the oil on himself and on Jasper's entrance, feeling very little resistance when his fingertip entered Jasper's heat. The vial was long forgotten, placed back on the bedside table by Edward in no time. His fingers worked on both his own erection and Jasper's opening to loosen the muscles there for him.
Jasper's eyes were fixed on what Edward was doing while his fingers were sliding up and down his own length, easing him to Edward's fingers until he had to gasp.
"Please..."
The single word from Jasper's lips made Edward's chest tighten and his stomach flutter with anticipation. No rejection, no disappointment. He smiled as he situated himself closer and pressed the head of his erection against Jasper.
His eyes were locked with Jasper's when he gently pushed in just a bit, then a bit more. When he pulled back and then pushed back in, Jasper smiled just a little before nodding. Edward kept moving, concentrating on the little movements to stay in control, taking in every expression on Jasper's face so he could stop if he was hurting the man underneath him, the man who was giving himself to Edward willingly.
Jasper closed his eyes when Edward was finally buried inside him, letting out another breath and smiled. When he opened his eyes, he saw Edward, his eyes closed in concentration.
"Please...I'm ready, you aren't hurting me." Jasper said and Edward sighed, maybe in relief of both the fact that he wasn't hurting Jasper and the permission to move finally.
Edward placed his hands on both sides of Jasper's body, supporting his weight as he began to move his hips back and forth. The feeling of being inside Jasper's tight heat was almost too much to bear, but he kept reminding himself of the fact that this was about both of them. Even in the encounters he had under Victoria's roof he was seldom truly selfish and wanted the man who he was with to at least be comfortable with him, if they weren't able to fully enjoy themselves.
Jasper, however, was enjoying himself.
"Touch yourself," Edward said huskily and Jasper did as he was told, pumping his own length in rhythm with Edward's thrusts.
Soon they both were lost in the movements and sensations. The sounds and how perfectly they fit together, two strangers who happened to be in the same place at the same time.
Edward held back as long as he could; he opened his eyes to see Jasper's eyes closed, his back arching as his thumb brushed over his slick head with every frantic stroke and suddenly Edward felt how the muscles around him constricted.
The way Jasper came, his head pressed to the pillows, his back arching and crying silently with his mouth open, sent Edward over the edge and he released deep inside Jasper's body. The spasms that seemed to go on forever, for Jasper milked Edward until he was unable to move from where he had collapsed on Jasper's chest.
Minutes later Edward returned to the moment, feeling the long fingers stroking his hair slowly. He pulled out of the warmth of Jasper, a movement that seemed like blasphemy.
He listened for a while and heard the familiar sound from the adjacent bathroom. Someone, one of the girls working as maids inside the house, was pouring water into one of the larger bath tubs. He was too satisfied to move yet. He knew they were making a mess but didn't care at all.
"Thank you..." Jasper whispered after a while and Edward smiled against his chest, knowing Jasper would be able to feel it.
There were no more words that would suit the situation, make a difference, so they stayed silent until there was a knock from the other side of the bathroom door. After it they got up slowly, Jasper clearly a bit sore but still smiling slightly, and walked to the bathroom to get cleaned up in the warm water. They enjoyed the way they fit together, if even for this one night.
Later, when they got back to the room, the sheets had been changed and they slid under the covers. Jasper's head was on Edward's chest when they closed their eyes to catch some sleep before the morning would eventually separate them.
We'd share each other like an island
Until exhausted, close our eyelids
And dreaming, pick up from
The last place we left off
Your soft skin is weeping
A joy you can't keep in
-ooOOoo-
A/N: Please read and review.