A thousand questions flew through my head. I wanted to know everything about this man. Just then I heard a loud grumbly noise coming from the vicinity of Jasper's stomach. So I ask the obvious question.
"Are we hungry?" I say with a laugh as I jump out of bed.
"Well what do you expect, a sex crazed pixie has been ravishing my body for the last hour. I'm weak with hunger" He says falling over on the bed with a big goofy grin on his face.
I giggle. He doesn't know how close to the truth he is. I give the naughty little pixie in my brain a mental high five and grab Jasper's tee shirt off the floor and put it on. It covers my ass so I don't bother with anything else. Realizing I'm starving too I head downstairs to the kitchen.
"Feed me women!" Jasper yells down the stairs after me.
"Get your hot ass down here man and I will." I yell back at him, laughing.
I rummage through the fridge and pull out some left over pork lo mein and some sesame chicken. I pop the food in the microwave for a couple minutes. I get back into the fridge and grab a couple bottles of water. Hearing Jasper walk into the room and I turn and toss him one of the bottles, which he rather impressively catches. I take a moment to admire how extraordinary he looks in his low riding jeans. Pixie gives me a mental pat on the back for taking his shirt, so he wouldn't be tempted to put it on. When he snickers I realize I've probably been ogling him a bit too long. I take a swig of water.
"Nice catch there mister." I complement him.
"Hi, nice to meet you I'm Jasper Whitlock" he says extending his hand. " I play professional football. I'm with the Dallas Cowboys."
"OK smart ass." I turn away and pull plates and silverware out of the dish washer. He snickers again. "What?" I ask as I set two places on either side of the bar.
"Nothing." He tries to sound innocent. So not working. I raise an eyebrow at him. "It's just you seem to be obsessed with my ass. Hot ass, smart ass." I smack him playfully." Not that I'm complaining. What guy wouldn't want a gorgeous,sexy woman obsessed with his ass."
"I am not obsessed with your ass." I yell throwing a hand towel at him. It misses and flies over his shoulder and lands on the floor he turns and bends over to pick it up giving me a great view of his perfect ass. Ok, so maybe I am a bit obsessed with his ass. Who could blame me. I hear that damn chuckle of his and I know I'm busted. Luckily just then the microwave dings saving me.
I carry the hot food over to the bar and we both fill our plates and sit on the bar stools eat in silence for a bit. Then something he said comes back to me. Not taking my eyes off my plate I ask.
"Do you really think I'm gorgeous and sexy?" I can't keep the disbelief out of my voice. I mean sure guys have told me I'm cute even pretty sometimes but never gorgeous and certainly never sexy. Women like Rose are gorgeous and sexy, not me.
"Are you kidding me?" He laughs at me. I lower head even further, now I'm looking at my lap. I can feel the stupid tears stinging the backs of my eyes. "Aly look at me."
I just can't do it. I can't look into his eyes and see him laughing at me. I hear his chair move and then he's turning my stool around so I'm facing him. He wraps me in his arms and holds me close for a moment. Then he leans back and tips my chin up with his fingers. He's no longer laughing and has a very serious expression on his face.
"Sweetheart I was not laughing at you, I was laughing at the question. You are by far the most gorgeous and sexy woman I have ever met in my entire life." I searched his eyes for the truth. "Women how is that you don't know how devastatingly beautiful you are?"
His lips meet mine and his kiss proves the honestly of his words. At that moment I truly felt gorgeous and sexy and even devastatingly beautiful. I couldn't help but smile against his lips. It didn't matter how anyone else saw me. All that mattered is how Jasper saw me and I suddenly realized how I saw myself. I threw my arms around him and hugged him. He pulled back a bit and looked a bit confused at my sudden change of mood. Well he might as well know now that I'm a little bit crazy. What with the voices in my head and the hot and cold running emotions.
"Thank you." I say pressing my hand against his scruffy cheek.
"What for?" He presses a kiss into my palm.
"For showing me myself through your eyes." I smile at him and then spin around and continue eating.
After a few seconds Jasper returns to his seat and picks up his fork and eats too. We eat in silence again for a bit. I can see the wheels in Jasper's brain turning and I know he want's to talk more about my little mini melt down just now. He open's his mouth to speak.
"Why were you discharged?" I ask cutting him off.
"What?" He asks momentarily confused by my redirection.
"You said earlier you were discharged. Why?"
"Because of this." He answered raising his right arm revealing a faint thin scar. "Oh know compared to some of the others it seems like nothing, but it ended my military career."
I didn't say anything hoping that he would continue. He did.
"It was a silly little thing really. We were on a intel patrol in a very remote area of the Sudan. We were ambushed by a small group of rebels in a village that was supposed to already be cleared. They were untrained and mostly unarmed. We were able to subdue them fairly quickly and we were clearing the huts when I heard a scuffling noise. I went in to investigate and a body flew at me out of darkness. I saw the glint of metal and new he had a knife. I threw my arm up to defend myself and the knife went into my wrist here" He pointed to the faint scar on the inside of his wrist. " and came out here." He turned his arm and he had almost the same exact scar on the other side. I let out a small gasp.
" You mean?" I take his hand in mine and turn it back and forth examining the small scars. " the knife went all the way through." I was tracing the line of the scars with my finger tips.
"It went in at an angle. That's why the one in the front is slightly lower than the one in the back. It was actually a very small thin knife, but the angle it went in at managed the sever some pretty important tendons in my wrist. We were in the middle of the jungle a long way from a hospital so all I could do was pull the knife out wrap a bandage around it and trek back out of the jungle with the prisoners" Jasper picked up his fork and took a couple of bites of lo mein. "By the time I finally did make it to the hospital I had developed a pretty nasty infection. There was some talk about me loosing my hand, but the Doc's were amazing they were not only able to save my hand and sew everything back together, but after some PT I regained about 98% of the use of my hand back."
"Wow! That's actually amazing that they were able to do that." I said. " But wait if you got the use of your hand back why were you discharged?"
"I got about 98% back. In the SEALs it's 100% or not at all. Plus I had developed a twitch in my finger." He explained. He lifted his hand and bent his finger, but I didn't see anything. I was about to say so. "Just watch."
I watched very carefully. I was beginning to think he was messing with me when his finger did twitch. It was barely noticeable. How could that possibly matter.
"Jasper that is hardly noticeable. How could that get you discharged?" I asked getting angry at the United States Navy on his behalf.
"The Navy frowns upon a SEAL with a twitchy trigger finger." He lifted his hand again, this time he mimed holding a gun. "Plus the grip on my right hand is not 100%. They offered me a position riding a desk or a honorable discharge. So I took the discharge. I would have died stuck behind a desk."
"So how did you end up in the military anyway?" I asked trying to change the subject." Rose told me according to Emmett you would have gone pretty high in the NFL draft the year after he did. "
"The short answer is family tradition." Jasper sighed. "Every male Whitlock has served in one branch or another going all the way to my great-great-great-great granddaddy who was a Major in the Army during the Civil War. I was named after him."
As we finished our late night meal Jasper told me how even though his dad had always encouraged his football dreams he always knew that deep down his dad had been let down that it was going to be his son that broke a family tradition that went back hundreds of years. All of his male cousins and some of the females had served. Some just one tour others have made the military a career. Even two of his sisters had served.
While he was talking and finishing up the chicken on his plate, I noticed he was having a really hard time chewing and realized the pills he took earlier must had worn off and he was probably in considerable pain. His lip was quite swollen and he had dark bruises under both eyes from the broken nose. The tape that Alyanna used on his nose earlier had long since fallen off. I got up and got some Alieve and when he noticed what I had he opened his mouth to protest I popped the little blue pills right in. He took a swig of water and swallowed them. He pulled me into his arms.
"I know your a big strong man and probably didn't need anything, but I just couldn't stand seeing you in pain." I say gently kissing his swollen lips. "Come on tough guy. Let's go sit outside and you can finish telling me how you ended up in the Navy." He smiles and gets up to follow.
I take his hand and lead him out the french doors. I have a small patio over looking the lake. I stretch Jasper's tee down as far as I can and take a seat on the porch swing my brother hung for me just last week. I had dreamed of having someone to snuggle up with on it. Jasper eases down next to me and puts his arm around me. I tuck my feet under my rear and do exactly what I had dreamed of and snuggle against his side with my head on his shoulder. From our vantage point we could see the party still going pretty strong at my brother's place.
"So you didn't want to let your dad down. Is that why you joined up?" I ask Jasper to get back to the story.
"I didn't want to let him down that's true, but if it had been just that I probably would still have followed my football dreams and gone into the draft after graduation. But about half way through my Senior year dad got really sick and when the doctors told us there was nothing they could do, that it was just a matter of time, I knew what I had to do." He was staring out into the darkness, but I could tell that he was back in another time and place again." I knew my dad was proud of all that I had accomplished with my football career so far, but I could not let him go to his grave thinking his only son had broken the family tradition. So I told my coaches that I would finish out the season, but not to let any teams waste time scouting me because I would be joining the Navy as soon as I graduated. Everyone tried to talk me out of it even my dad, but I could tell deep down he was relieved."
Jasper smiled at some long ago memory. His fingers were absentmindedly stroking my arm. I waited patiently for him to continue though I had a thousand questions to ask. I noticed a group of people running down the dock at my brothers place and suddenly Em's booming laugh echoed across the water.
"He reminds me of my dad you know. I think that's why I've tried so hard to fit in." Jasper said laughing.
"Who? Emmett?" I ask.
"Yeah, Dad was a big bear of a man, but deep down was a big teddy bear. Em's like that. He's feared by every Offense in the league, but with Rose and you and even today with all the kids he's a big softy. He's really gonna be a great daddy." Jasper said still smiling. I nodded in agreement.
"He held on through boot." Jasper said going back his original story."As soon as I got leave I rushed home. I walked into daddy's hospital room with my dress blues on it was January and it was actually snowing in Dallas. Daddy looked up at me his eyes beaming with pride and in that moment everything I had given up was more than worth it. He smiled at me around the ventilator. Momma was there holding his hand and my sisters were all sitting around his bed. His eyes moved over each of my sisters and then focused on momma. There were tears streaming down her face. I could hear my sisters crying as well, but I couldn't take my eyes off of momma and daddy. The love that shined in their eyes was breathtaking. They had know each other since they were five years old, been a couple since they were 10 years old, and they were married for thirty years."
His voice was shaking and there were tears in his eyes. I wrapped my arms around him an hugged him the best I could at this awkward angle. I now had tears streaming down my face as well and Jasper wiped at them with his thumb. He took a deep breath letting it out slowly.
"Daddy closed his eyes and he was gone. Momma said he had held on cause he knew I was on my way home. I was allowed to stay long enough for the funeral and then I had to report. I knew I wanted to be a SEAL so I went back and spoke to my NC. I had been top of everything at boot so he encouraged me all the way. After almost two years of intense training I got my first deployment as a SEAL. You pretty much now the rest." He said motioning to his chest.
I nod my head and we are silent for a few moments as I absorb everything that he revealed to me.
"How many do you have? Sisters I mean." I ask Jasper trying to lighten the mood a bit. He seems to beam when he mentions his mom and sisters.
"If you can believe it I have six. All older. So I was not only the only boy, but I was the baby of the family. Which pretty much amounts to me being spoiled rotten." Jasper laughs and is grinning again. "They are all gonna love you.
"Do you really think so? What about your mom?"I ask a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of older sisters I'm going to have to win over.
"Momma? Are you kidding me she already loves you." I raise my eyebrow at him."Like I said I told her all about you this morning and she said and I quote, Any girl that can get my boy to chase after her must be something special. Jasper Jackson Whitlock you go find your little girl and you bring her home to meet your momma."
"What did she mean by, any girl that can get my boy to chase after her?" I tease Jasper
"Well, back home I have a bit of a reputation." I couldn't see, but I'm pretty sure he was blushing.
"Oh, I see. Let me see if I can guess. You've had girls throwing themselves at you your whole life. All you have to do is bat those pretty eyes at a girl and she's putty in your hands. Am I close?" I tease.
"Um, yeah well something like that." He mutters.
"Where exactly is home?" I ask pulling my feet out from under me. I turn slightly so I can see his face while we talk and I stretch my legs across his lap.
"A very small town called Jasper, about four hours from here." I look up at him to see if he's kidding.
"Really?"
"Yes the town is named after my great-great-great-great granddaddy and so am I, though Jackson was my daddies name. We raise beef cattle, well momma does with the help of my two youngest sisters." His tone is very proud. "The rest of us are what you would call silent partners."
"So you grew up on a ranch, I would imagine you had lots of pets growing up."
"Oh we have had just about every pet you could possibly imagine. We had the usual dogs and cats and such. Then there were all the farm animals and then there were the odd creatures we managed to talk mom into." Jasper laughed again. I so love to sound of his laugh.
"What kind of odd creatures?" I ask him excitedly.
"Well there are the emu's. Momma was gonna sell them for their meat, but the darn things were just so cute she couldn't do it so there is a herd of wild emu's running the north forty. We also have a yak, a lama, and couple of those goat's that faint when they get scared." Jasper pauses a moment." Oh and we must not forget the peacocks there are three of those, the four lemurs, and last but certainly not least big Stan."
"Who is big Stan?" I ask in awe.
"He is my sister Sara's brown bear." Jasper grins at my shocked expression.
"Wow! Our mom wouldn't even let us have a goldfish. Your sister really has a bear?" I ask, still shocked.
"Yep, she found him when he was just a tiny cub. Sara was on her way home from college and she found him on the side of the road. His momma had been hit by a truck. It was one of the dirt roads leading up to the cut off for the ranch. You can't drive very fast up those roads, so who ever hit her did it on purpose. She was already dead. It was a miracle they didn't kill Stan too. She used a sub sandwich to coax him into the back of her truck and he's been a Whitlock ever sense." Jasper starts rubbing my leg. " So beautiful you ready to head back to bed? I actually have practice in the morning and need to get some sleep. I mean if it's alright if I stay." Jasper says sounding a bit unsure.
Is he kidding me. If it's alright he stay's. I never want to let him out of my sight again. I'm afraid he will disappear from my life just as quickly as he appeared. I get up from the swing.
"Sure you can stay, but I have one more question. How did you end up here?" His naughty grin is back."Ok, I know how you ended up here. What I mean is here in Dallas and with the Cowboys. As the starting Quarterback no less."
"That is actually a pretty interesting story and I promise I will tell it to you, but right now Darlin' I thinking we should try something a little more hands on." Jasper grabs my hips and pulls me against his arousal. "Now you've been a bad girl. Sitting here in my tee shirt with no panties on."
Jasper lifts his tee shirt a bit and smacks my bare ass. I reach down and quickly unbutton his jeans and push them down just enough to release his hard cock. He picks me up and as I wrap my legs around his hips he slides into me and we fall against the door frame. I manage to turn the knob and get the door open and Jasper somehow manages to get us upstairs to the bed and as I feel my body building to another mind blowing orgasm I thank God, Buddha, Allah, Zeus, and whatever other Gods there were out there for bringing me Jasper.